4 Biggest Silly Season Spots Still Burning in Our Minds

Hailie Deegan- Deegan is a contract Ford Performance development driver, so when David Gilliland racing changed over to TRICON Garage and TRD it was time to part ways. Hailie made her Xfinity Series debut this season at Las Vegas where she had a very impressive run finishing P13, so, that goes to tell me she is more than likely working on getting with a Ford Performance Xfinity team. Here in lies the problem, there aren't many in Xfinity... and even fewer are that competitive. The only Ford teams are SS Green Light (who she ran for at Vegas), Stewart-Haas and RSS Racing. So does she stay in Trucks with no real Ford team? Or Move Up?

Ty Gibbs- Ty is the most recent Xfinity Series champion and by far the hottest prospect to move to Cup since the likes of Reddick and Bell. In the ultimate downer, he lost his father that same night and that could have a huge mental and emotional effect on someone. So, do we see Ty move over to his grandfathers Cup team in the 18 like we all expect or do we see him stay in Xfinity 1 more year like Coach Gibbs said he wanted to do? He impressed out of the gate in the 45 car but fell sort of lack luster about half-way through his time in the second 23XI car that has proven it could be a winner. 

John H. Nemechek- Sticking with the Toyota drivers, next we visit John Hunter Nemechek. John Hunter was by far the title favorite in 2021 where he scored 5 wins, but was taken out of contention early in the race. He just couldn't duplicate the success in '22 scoring 2 wins and not even making it to Phoenix. John is the only Kyle Busch Motorsports driver who does not have full time plans in 2023.

Cole Custer- Cole Custer was by far the worst performing driver in a "Good Car" in 2022. Custer finished 25th in the points with only 3 Top-10s to his name. Worse than that, he had 7 DNFs this season. To give you an idea.. Kurt Busch who missed 16 races only finished 104 points behind Custer. It's no wonder team owner Tony Stewart has made it pretty public that he wants the 41 car filled by Ryan Preece in 2023. His father however is president of SHR and COO of the Haas F1 team. 

By: Tom Luttermoser     Photo Credits: JHN Twitter, NASCAR Xfinity Twitter, SHR Twitter