2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Kyle Busch, who enters the season as the defending champion.

The 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the 68th season of professional stock car racing in the United States. The season begins at Daytona International Speedway with the Sprint Unlimited, the Can-Am Duel and the Daytona 500. The season will end with the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kyle Busch enters as the defending champion.

The season also marks the second season of a new television contract. During the season, races will be broadcast in the United States on Fox, FS1, NBC, NBCSN, and USA Network (one race).

The season will mark the final year of the partnership between Sprint Corporation and NASCAR^[1] and the final season for three-time Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart.^[2]

Teams and drivers

Chartered teams

Complete schedule

Limited schedule

Changes

Teams

• Michael Waltrip Racing ceased its operations after 2015, shutting down the No. 15 and No. 55 teams.^[5] Waltrip made plans to run the Daytona 500 with sponsor Maxwell House. Waltrip will run the No. 83 for BK Racing in the Daytona 500 with DiBenedetto moving to the No. 93 in a third BK Racing car for the race.
• Wood Brothers Racing will return to full-time racing in 2016 for the first time since 2008.^[6] Ryan Blaney will remain as driver, marking the first time the team would full-time with one driver since 2006.^[6] The team ran 19 races in 2015.^[6]
• Front Row Motorsports will downsize to two full-time teams in 2016, shutting down the No. 35 team. The team will also receive technical support as part of an alliance with Roush Fenway Racing.^[7] The team would field the No. 35 car for David Gilliland in the Daytona 500.
• BK Racing will downsize to two full-time teams in 2016, shutting down the No. 26 team. The team would field the No. 26 car for Robert Richardson Jr. in the Daytona 500.
• Circle Sport and Leavine Family Racing merged to form Circle Sport – Leavine Family Racing. The team will run the full 36-race schedule with the No. 95 in a Chevrolet, forming a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.^[8] The No. 33 team will shut down. Ty Dillon will again run five races with crew chief Todd Parrott, including the Daytona 500 with Michael McDowell driving the other 31 with crew chief Dave Winston. The team would field a second car in the Daytona 500 for McDowell.
• Premium Motorsports hired Mike Hillman to head up its operations in 2016, bringing over Mark Hillman – who served as the No. 40's crew chief – and most of the staff from the No. 40 team, therefore shutting that team down on a full-time basis. Premium Motorsports will run only one full-time team with Cole Whitt in the No. 98 in 2016, shutting down the No. 62. Whitt drove for Front Row Motorsports in the now defunct No. 35 in 2015. Hillman still ran the No. 40 with Reed Sorenson in the Daytona 500 and may do a partial schedule.
• Premium Motorsports leased their charter to HScott Motorsports No. 46 for the 2016 season.

Drivers

• Chase Elliott moves up from the Xfinity Series to the Sprint Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports, replacing Jeff Gordon in the No. 24, who retired after the 2015 season.^[9]
• Clint Bowyer will replace Justin Allgaier in the HScott Motorsports No. 15 (renumbered from No. 51) for 2016, and then he will replace the retiring Tony Stewart in the No. 14 for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017. Bowyer ran the No. 15 for the now closed Michael Waltrip Racing team in 2015. ^[10]
• Brian Scott will replace Sam Hornish, Jr. in the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 44 (renumbered from No. 9). Scott ran for Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity Series in 2015.^[11]
• Chris Buescher moves up from the Xfinity Series to the Sprint Cup Series for Front Row Motorsports, replacing Brett Moffitt and other various drivers in the No. 34. Buster ran six races in the No. 34 in 2015 and won the 2015 Xfinity Series Championship with Roush-Fenway Racing in the No. 60. He is on loan from Roush-Fenway Racing, with Roush providing additional technical support for him in 2016.^[12]
• Landon Cassill will replace David Gilliland in the Front Row Motorsports No. 38. Cassill ran for Hillman Racing in the No. 40 in 2015.^[13]
• Jeffrey Earnhardt will run 30 races in the No. 32 for Go FAS Racing. Bobby Labonte will continue to run the four restrictor plate races and a TBA driver will drive the road courses. The team had multiple drivers in 2015.^[14]
• David Ragan will replace J. J. Yeley and Jeb Burton in the BK Racing No. 23. Ragan drove full-time for various teams – mostly in a substitute role due to injuries – in 2015, mostly for the now defunct Michael Waltrip Racing No. 55.
• Regan Smith will replace Alex Bowman in the Tommy Baldwin Racing No. 7. Smith ran for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series in 2015.
• On February 1, Tony Stewart was sent to the hospital after he injured his back in a non-racing accident in the desert.^[15] Stewart-Haas Racing announced on February 4 that Stewart will miss the beginning of the season.^[16][17] Nine days later, former Michael Waltrip Racing driver Brian Vickers was hired to take Stewart's place for the Daytona 500. The rest of the races are still TBA. ^[18]

Crew chiefs

• Brian Pattie will take over crew chief duties on the No. 16 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with Greg Biffle, replacing Matt Puccia. Pattie was the crew chief for the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 and No. 55 cars in 2015.^[19]
• Matt Puccia will take over crew chief duties on the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with Trevor Bayne, replacing Bob Osborne. Puccia was the crew chief on the No. 16, driven by Greg Biffle in 2015.
• Bob Osborne will take over crew chief duties on the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford with Chris Buescher, replacing Derek Finley. Osborne was the crew chief for Trevor Bayne in 2015.
• Chad Johnston will take over crew chief duties on the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with Kyle Larson, replacing Chris Heroy. Johnston was the crew chief for Tony Stewart in 2015.^[20]
• Mike Bugarewicz will take over crew chief duties on the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with Tony Stewart, replacing Chad Johnston. Bugarewicz was the race engineer on the No. 4, driven by Kevin Harvick, the previous two years.^[21]
• Billy Scott will take over crew chief duties on the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with Danica Patrick, replacing Daniel Knost. Scott was the crew chief for the Michael Waltrip Racing No. 15 and No. 55 cars in 2015.^[22]
• Randall Burnett will take over crew chief duties on the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet with A.J. Allmendinger, replacing Brian Burns. Burnett was the team engineer on the No. 42, driven by Kyle Larson, in 2015.^[23]
• Mike Wheeler will take over crew chief duties on the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Denny Hamlin, replacing Dave Rogers. Wheeler was the crew chief for the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015.^[24]
• Dave Rogers will take over crew chief duties on the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Carl Edwards, replacing Darian Grubb. Rogers was the crew chief on the No. 11, driven by Denny Hamlin, in 2015.^[24]
• Chris Heroy will take over crew chief duties on the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford with Brian Scott, replacing Kevin Manion. Heroy was the crew chief for Kyle Larson in 2015.^[25]
• Patrick Donahue will take over crew chief duties on the No. 23 BK Racing Toyota with David Ragan, replacing Joe Williams. Donahue was the crew chief for the third BK Racing car, the No. 26, in 2015.
• Wally Rogers will take over crew chief duties on the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford, replacing Clint Cram. Rogers was the crew chief for the part-time Leavine Family Racing No. 95 in 2015.

Manufacturers

• Furniture Row Racing will change its manufacturer to Toyota with a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing after being with Chevrolet since 2005.^[26]

Rule changes

• 2016 saw the introduction of a charter system. Thirty-six teams would hold a charter, which guarantees them a spot in the field for all 36 races. To be eligible for a charter, a team had to be running full-time since the 2013 season. Charter owners may transfer their Charter to another team, for one full season, once over the first five years of the agreement.^[27]
• Charter teams are held to a minimum performance standard. If a Charter team finishes in the bottom three of the owner standings among all 36 Charter teams for three consecutive years, NASCAR has a right to force the sale of the charter.^[28]
• NASCAR also reduced the size of the Cup field from 43 to 40 cars.^[27]
• Teams may sell their Charters on the open market before each season.^[28]
• Organizations now have a hard cap of four cars; there will be no fifth car for rookie drivers.^[28]
• Due to the charters and reduction of field size, the qualifying procedures have been revised. The final four spots for non-chartered teams are determined by qualifying results. If qualifying is rained out, practice speeds will be used. If practice and qualifying are rained out, owner points will be used. For the Daytona 500 only, the final four team are the highest non-charter finisher in each duel plus the two highest qualifiers that did not clinch a spot in the duel.^[29]
• Due to the field shortening from 43 to 40 cars, the point system was revised to 1 point for 40th place up to 40 points for 1st place. All other bonuses points, including the win bonus and laps lead bonus points are the same.^[29]
• 2016 also introduced the "Overtime Line" as a modification for the green–white–checker finish rule. After taking the green flag, if a caution appears before the leader has reached the overtime line, the restart will be waived off and another attempt will be made. There are an unlimited number of attempts for this, however once the leader reaches the line, the next flag will end the race.^[29]

Schedule

The final calendar – comprised of 36 races, as well as exhibition races, which are the Sprint Unlimited, Can-Am Duel qualifying duel races for the Daytona 500^[30] and the Sprint All-Star Race – was released on October 26, 2015. With the schedule announcement also came the announcement of NASCAR securing a five-year contract with each track to continue to host races over the next five seasons.^[31] Key changes from 2015 include:

• The Easter off-week is placed late-March between Fontana and Martinsville, instead of the mid-April break between Martinsville and Texas as in recent years.
• The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona will return to its usual Saturday night date.
• The spring race at Richmond will move from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon.
• Michigan and Bristol swap their August race dates.
• The third off-week has been moved to mid-August between Watkins Glen and Bristol, instead of the usual late-August break between Bristol and Darlington. This has been done so as to avoid a scheduling conflict with the 2016 Summer Olympics being hosted on NBC. The aforementioned Olympics conflict will force one race occurring during the games (Watkins Glen) to be moved to USA. (The other race occurring during the games, at Bristol, will still air on NBC.)
• The first race at Dover and the Memorial Day week swapped dates, so the last race before the All-Star Race is Dover instead of Kansas.
• In the Chase for the Championship, the three rounds preceding the final race, originally named the Challenger, Contender and Eliminator rounds, were simply renamed the Round of 16, the Round of 12 and the Round of 8 respectively.

Season summary

Race reports

Speedweeks 2016

Speedweeks 2016 started with the 2016 Sprint Unlimited. Denny Hamlin led the most laps and won his third career Sprint Unlimited, followed by Joey Logano, Paul Menard, Kyle Larson, and Casey Mears. The race saw several multicar crashes, including one that sent the race into overtime. During the overtime period, a clean restart occurred before another multicar crash caused the race to end under yellow.^[32]

Qualifying for the front row of the Daytona 500 took place the following day. Rookie Chase Elliott won the pole, becoming the youngest Daytona 500 pole winner ever at the age of 20 years, 2 months, and 17 days. Matt Kenseth joined Elliott on the front row by qualifying second.^[33]

Results and standings

Races

Media coverage

In the United States, Fox and NBC will continue to broadcast the season. The first 16 events will be broadcast on either Fox or Fox Sports 1,^[34] and the final 20 events will be shared between NBC and NBCSN.^[35] However, the Watkins Glen race will be aired on USA Network due to NBC focusing on the 2016 Summer Olympics.^[36]

See also

• 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series
• 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
• 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
• 2016 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West
• 2016 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
• 2016 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour
• 2016 NASCAR Pinty's Series
• 2016 NASCAR Mexico Series
• 2016 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series

References