Sprint Cup Rookies Assessed

After several seasons where the esteemed Rookie of the Year award has been contested by a meagre field of part-timers and start-and-park entries, the 2014 crop is the strongest in years, with the reigning Nationwide Series champion, the younger brother of an established NASCAR star and two former Penske Racing development drivers among the eight contenders looking to pick up the title. James Newbold investigates.

Austin Dillon – Richard Childress Racing

Austin Dillon qualified on pole for the 500 with the
iconic number 3. (Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Perhaps inevitably, the spotlight will be very much focused on Austin Dillon as the famed no. 3 returns to Cup for the first time since the tragic death of Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 2001. Dillon may be the grandson of team-owner Richard Childress, but that’s not to say he isn’t here on merit. Austin won the Truck Series in 2011 the year after winning Rookie of the Year, a feat he repeated in 2013, winning a close fight with Sam Hornish Jr. to seal the second-tier Nationwide Series title after finishing top rookie the previous season.  He also showed his immaculate car control by winning the Truck race at Eldora Speedway, the first NASCAR-sanctioned event on dirt in forty years last July.

Dillon made his Sprint Cup debut as long ago as Kansas in 2011, and featured semi-regularly last season at RCR, Phoenix Racing and at Stewart-Haas Racing in the absence of Tony Stewart, albeit without running for series points, leaving him eligible for a full-on assault at the rookie crown this year.  Oh, and he’ll be starting the Daytona 500 from pole.

Whatever he does this season, whether it’s a repeat of his spectacular final-lap crash at Talladega last year or his misjudged swallow dive following victory at Nashville in 2011, Dillon is sure to attract plenty of attention in 2014.

Kyle Larson – Chip Ganassi Racing.

Best known for this crash at Daytona last year, Larson (32)
will look to rectify that fact this year. Bowman (99) is one of
his ROTY rivals. (Credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

The man most likely to challenge Dillon is his successor as the Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, Kyle Larson, who steps up to Sprint Cup in the no. 42 vacated by IndyCar-bound Juan Pablo Montoya. Chip Ganassi has high hopes for Larson, who was a revelation in his first season in the Nationwide Series last year, despite a horrifying accident at Daytona from which he was lucky to escape unscathed. He finished second four times, chasing down established Cup stars Kyle Busch, Regan Smith, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski on each occasion, and took a win in the Trucks at Rockingham. Interestingly, Larson was Dillon’s closest rival on the Eldora dirt, and the two will most likely trade paint again before the season’s conclusion.

Justin Allgaier – HScott Motorsports

Allgaier (51) battles Cup champions Brad
Keselowski (2) and Kurt Busch (78) at Talladega.
(Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images)

Justin Allgaier, or the ‘Little Gator’ as he is affectionately known in the paddock, makes a long overdue Sprint Cup debut after five seasons as a consistent front-runner in the Nationwide Series.  First groomed for stardom by Roger Penske, the 27 year-old from Illinois makes the step-up full-time after an exploratory four races at the end of last season with the newly renamed HScott Motorsports, which takes over James Finch’s Phoenix Racing entry and has Tony Stewart’s former crew chief Steve Addington on board.  One of the more experienced of this year's rookie crop, Allgaier could be the dark horse for ROTY.

Michael Annett - Tommy Baldwin Racing

Michael Annett. (Credit: Jerry
Markland/Getty Images)

27 year-old Iowa native Michael Annett will draw on the tutelage of the legendary Richard Petty, known in NASCAR circles as 'The King' for his record 7 championships and 200 wins, as he makes his NASCAR Sprint Cup debut in 2014. 

A consistent top 10 finisher in his first few seasons at Nationwide level, Annett made a big step forward in 2012 to finish fifth in the standings for Richard Petty Motorsports, but was unable to build on that in a 2013 season blighted by the injuries he sustained in the 'big one' at Daytona.  

Now with Tommy Baldwin’s small team, Annett would like nothing more than to spring a surprise on his more established rivals for the Rookie of the Year prize. 


Cole Whitt & Parker Kligerman – Swan Racing

He may not be Days of Thunder star Cole Trickle, but like his Hollywood namesake, 22 year-old Californian Cole Whitt is seriously quick. A champion in the USAC Midgets series in 2008, Whitt was picked up by Red Bull and given two Sprint Cup starts before the energy drinks manufacturer curtailed their involvement in NASCAR in 2011. Dale Earnhardt Jr. liked what he saw and gave Whitt a shot in his JR Motorsports Nationwide team for 2012, where he outperformed team-mate Danica Patrick and finished second to Dillon in the rookie standings. A lack of funding meant Whitt couldn’t continue in Nationwide in 2013, but he closed out the year in Swan Racing’s no. 30 entry when David Stremme was dropped on the eve of the Chase and stays on in the team’s no. 26 for a shot at Rookie of the Year in 2014. 

Swan Racing have a youthful lineup of Cole Whitt (22) and
Parker Kligerman (23). (Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Fellow rookie Parker Kligerman will drive the no. 30 after a successful season in Nationwide yielded ninth in points with Kyle Busch Motorsport. Like Allgaier, a former Penske scholar, 23-year old Kligerman emerged as a surprise Truck Series championship contender in 2012 and won at Talladega following a mid-season switch to Red Horse Racing, before moving to drive the no. 77 for KBM in Nationwide, peaking with a third at Road America and going on to finish only two points shy of top rookie Larson in the standings.  2013 also marked Kligerman’s Sprint Cup debut, running a promising 18^th at Texas for Swan ahead of a full-season campaign for this year.

Running an all-rookie lineup means there isn't a great deal expected of Swan Racing in 2014, but Brandon Davis’s young team - only formed in 2011 - will be sure to give it their all, and in Whitt and Kligerman, have two stars of the future who will only improve as the year goes on.  

Alex Bowman & Ryan Truex – BK Racing

The youngest of the rookie crop, 20-year old Arizonan Alex Bowman joins BK Racing in the no. 23 (formerly 93) Camry after only a single full-season at sub-Cup level.  Driving for RAB Racing, Bowman took third in the Daytona season opener and scored a further five top 10s, including a fifth at Kentucky en route to 11^th in the standings.

Ryan Truex will join big brother Martin on the Sprint Cup
grid in 2014. (Credit: Robert Laberge/ Getty Images)

Bowman is joined by 21-year old Ryan Truex, the younger brother of Furniture Row Racing’s Martin, an established name on the Sprint Cup circuit and Nationwide Series champion in both 2004 and 2005. Truex the younger has raced only sporadically in recent years, but recorded impressive results when given a chance in Joe Gibbs’ Nationwide cars and signed a multi-year development contract with Richard Petty Motorsports ahead of a three-race foray into the Sprint Cup with Phoenix Racing last year. 

Like Swan Racing, BK Racing will find the going tough with two rookies, particularly considering their inexperience relative to their ROTY rivals, but will hope their prodigious talent can get them in the mix.