Kevin Harvick, Pos. Driver's Car No. 1 4 2nd Stewart-Haas Racing Team Penske Joey Logano Stewart-Haas Racing 3 Aric Almirola 10 Team Penske's Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski each have one driver on board who did not compete in the season opener.
Logano, BKeslerowkis and Almirola all drove for Richard Childress Racing in the first race of the season at Daytona International Speedway. All three drivers were involved in accidents during practice and qualifying that prevented them from racing. They were replaced by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Blaney and Keselowski.
Joey Logano - born January 5th, 1983 - is a American race car driver who currently drives the #2 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing. He has won five races including the 2017 Chase for the Sprint Cup. He previously drove for Rick Hendrick's team from 2004 to 2006 when he was hired by Joe Gibbs to drive their #18 Toyota. Before that, he raced in the Camping World Truck Series for his family's team, Logano Motorsports, from 2000 to 2003 when it became defunct after a fatal crash at Michigan International Speedway. The team had one top-five finish and nine top-10s in its final season before Joey went to Joe Gibbs Racing.
Harvick's No. 8 team leads the NASCAR Cup Series pit crews.
Driver | Total | ’17 |
---|---|---|
Kevin Harvick | 621 | 0 |
Joey Logano | 487 | 5 |
Martin Truex Jr. | 288 | 150 |
Brad Keselowski | 269 | 89 |
Blaney, Ryan Ryan Blaney is in his fourth full season as the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang for team owner Roger Penske. The Oxford, North Carolina, native started out in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, where he has two victories and eight top-five finishes to go with them. He moved up to the Sprint Cup Series in 2014 after three seasons driving trucks for Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
Ryan Blaney is a race fan who grew up watching the NASCAR Cup Series on his local track, Dover International Speedway. His favorite drivers are Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon and the cars they drive for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, respectively. Ryan has also been known to cheer for other teams when they have good races; he just hates it when people call him a "fanatic."
He made his debut at the young age of 16 in the NCWTS at Rockingham Speedway. At first, he only drove during practice and qualifying but soon was invited to join the race itself where he finished 18th. He has not stopped racing since then and today drives both the NCWTS and the Sprint Cup Series.
Brad Keselowski, who currently drives Penske's No. 2 car, will compete in 11 races this year with Miller Lite as his primary sponsor, down from 24 last year. Kevin Harvick intends to compete in 16 races with Busch beer as the primary sponsor, but neither Keselowski nor Harvick intends to run cars with beer logos splattered on the hoods at the Daytona 500.
In addition to these two prominent drivers, several other drivers have had various sponsors over the years. These include Jeremy Mayfield (who drove for Furniture Row from 2000-01), Mark Martin (who drove for GoDaddy from 2002-03), and Ryan Newman (who drove for Dodge in 2004).
There have been several attempts to bring beer into the sport in a significant way, most notably by Richard Childress in 1998 when he brought out a number of wild cards for himself and others to drive in the then-new Nextel Cup Series. However, none of those drivers remained with the team after the first season.
Another attempt was made by Mike Curb Jr. in 2001 when he hired Ken Schrader to drive in eight races for him with Coors Light as a sponsor. However, Schrader did not remain with Curb for long after the first season ended and no other drivers were signed for 2002.
There have also been several minor sponsorships for drivers during their time in the sport, such as Jack Beckman's sponsorship of Tony Stewart in 1999 and 2000 when Stewart drove for Robert Yates.