In a Season of Highs, Some Underperformed

By: Tom Luttermoser         Image: Brad Keselowski Twitter

The 2022 Season was a spectacular season, even a career high for some drivers in each National Series. For others, 2022 saw a massive drop off in performance or just not a season we expected from some others. So I have compiled a list of a few of the most underwhelming drivers in each of NASCAR's top 3 series.

Camping World Truck Series:

Matt Crafton: Matt Crafton is the only Multi-time champion left in the series and also, the oldest driver on track. Crafton is a 3x Series Champ in '13, '14 & '19. The man has 15 Series victories on top of 312 Top-10s, but Matt hasn't seen victory lane since Kansas in 2020. 2022 saw him reach the playoffs simply off points, with 12 Top-10s his and a best finish of 5th twice his season wasn't horrible.... but he was never a threat to win, or advance past the first round of the Playoffs. 

​Hailie Deegan: Hailie came into the 2022 season looking to build on her fairly unimpressive Full-time truck season where she scored 1 Top-10 and finished 17th in the points. In 2022 she was expected to improve, but didn't she finished 21st in the standings, but did get 2 Top-10s. There were no glimmers of brilliance, no hopes for victory, nothing for the Deegan faithful to get excited about... Until her Xfinity debut. 

Xfinity Series:

Sheldon Creed: Creed is a Truck Series champion, he won 3 or more races in both of his full time seasons in truck. When it was announced that he would move over to Xfinity, and with RCR on top of that! Woo. The expectations were pretty high, at least a playoff spot. Let's be honest, he had season of consistency, but never scored a win and didn't score a Top-5 until the 18th race of the season at New Hampshire. A few more of those earlier in the season and he could have easily made the playoffs as it came down to the wire at Darlington. He finished 14th in the standings.

Brett Moffitt: Brett started the Xfinity season in what should have been full-time with Our Motorsports in their #02 Chevrolet scoring 2 Top-10s in the first 6 races in what is surely a Top-20 car scoring a total of 5. After the Indy Road Course though, he lost his ride due to funding. He made only 1 more start after that for SS-Greenlight Racing where he finished 10th. 

Cup Series: 

Martin Truex Jr: The man we all expect at least 2 or more wins per season from, 2017 Cup champion and 31 time Cup winner failed to win a single race in his first season in the Next Gen car. Truex missed the Playoffs in a nail-biting down to the wire battle with Ryan Blaney at Daytona so it's not like he wasn't consistent. Unfortunately the driver of the 19 Toyota's best finish was 4th on 2 occasions in '22 at Richmond and New Hampshire. With 13 finishes outside the Top-20 and coming 17th in the standings, this was the worst season the New Jersey native has had since coming to Joe Gibbs Racing, the second ever time missing the playoffs and his worst overall since 2014 in his first year with Furniture Row. 

Brad Keselowski: Bad Brad took an ownership stake in Roush Fenway Racing starting this year, and people had a lot of optimism for what he brought to the table in terms of knowledge and what the team could accomplish with him in a leadership roll. I think we all expected, if not a win, then at least a good performance out of Brad. He won hid Duel race at Daytona, led a bunch of laps at The 500 and then BAM... massive, season killing L-1 penalty at Atlanta. Brad only scoring 2 Top-10s in the first half of the season. Brad and the 6 team would improve however scoring 4 more Top-10s in the second half, 1 Top-5 and finishing 6th at Martinsville before being DQ'd for the car not meeting weight requirements. 2022 was the first season Brad missed the Playoffs and his worst season since his 2010 Rookie Season.