Nascar News

GRADING the First Quarter of the 2023 NASCAR Season

The NASCAR season is already a quarter of the way through 2023 and there are plenty of drivers who have met, surpassed, or failed to meet expectations. Today we look back at how all of these drivers have performed in the opening 9 races of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. This is how we will be grading the first quarter of the 2023 NASCAR season.

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49 comments

The Iceberg April 18, 2023 at 7:31 pm

What grades would you give NASCAR drivers so far in 2023?

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Renee Marzovilla April 19, 2023 at 2:52 am

I would have to give Noah gragson an F, the way Corey LaJoie has been running in spire motorsports I also would’ve gave Corey LaJoie an A+, I would’ve gave Kyle Busch an A, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr an A+

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Existing in a space April 19, 2023 at 5:13 am

Cody Ware : Started a D+, currently high school drop out mega F double minus.
JJ Yeley : C-, Got Rick Wares highest start of 3rd, still an underpowered car. He can do better and he’s not Cody.
Matt Crafton : B+, Not bad for a one off race in Cody’s shitbox was doing well in the first half for that car. I’d love to see what he could do with a mid pack cup car on the regular.

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Timothy Hargrave April 19, 2023 at 12:25 pm

Gotta give Willie B an A for sure. 2 wins, 1 pole and is 2nd in laps led to KL. And the 5 and 24 have led about 200 more than any other driver. You got Ryan Blaney graded right with WB? Dude has not competed for a single win yet. Led all of 22 Laps, 15th average finish, 1 top 5. Blaney seems to get a pass and continues to get hyped up without cause. I don’t get it.

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Stephen Cassat April 19, 2023 at 2:04 pm

Alex Bowman’s got an A- from me. He’s so far gotten 4 poles and all of his finishes have been either top 10’s or 5’s. Consistency is really working in his favor.

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George Killer April 19, 2023 at 3:03 pm

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. gets an A+ from me. He’s been phenomenal.

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Shadow Lancer Racing April 18, 2023 at 8:41 pm

Buescher deserves a little bit higher. He and Keslowski are very close on pace but are held back on results. Also with Gragson and Jones, I’d be inclined to think that it may be a Legacy problem. Similar to RFK last year, there’s growing pains with Johnson (Albeit, he is a great mentor for younger talents. Look at what he did with the HMS guys from 2018-20) as co-owner except unlike Keslowski he doesn’t have as much if not any experience with owning a team.

Still early days though, a lot can change.

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Existing in a space April 19, 2023 at 5:28 am

RFK has had a car lead laps every race this year except Bristol dirt and I can’t even count that cause they outright said they didn’t want to sink more resources into a one off race.

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Nolan Fischer April 18, 2023 at 8:48 pm

10:22
Corey LaJoie getting an A+ in a Spire car goes to show how underrated he is.

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ChaseBriscoefan#14 April 18, 2023 at 10:15 pm

@Slowturtle 11 fan SHR #4?

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Slowturtle 11 fan April 18, 2023 at 10:18 pm

Hmmmmmm maybe

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Slowturtle 11 fan April 18, 2023 at 10:20 pm

I think in 2024 we will have:
Zane smith in the 4
Multible drivers in the 10 or maybe just shut it down since no sponsorship
Chase briscoe in the 14
Ryan preece in the 41

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Existing in a space April 19, 2023 at 5:26 am

​@ChaseBriscoefan#14 That would be pretty wild seeing him in the #4

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Hunter NixonFishing April 18, 2023 at 8:48 pm

Harvick deserves an A -. He should have 2 wins right now. Phoenix definitely and I would argue this past weekend as well. The 4 team is bringing speed every week.

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Asare Isaac April 19, 2023 at 3:14 am

Is that an A-? I think an A is just fine. None of those cases were on him.

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Hunter NixonFishing April 19, 2023 at 3:18 am

@Asare Isaac I never said that and I’m probably the biggest Kevin Harvick fan in the world. I can’t give him an A + since he doesn’t have a win

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Asare Isaac April 19, 2023 at 3:30 am

@Hunter NixonFishing I didn’t say you said anything. I’m just asking if it is an A- or something because there seems to be a minus by the A.

I wouldn’t give him an A+ either. Just saying that I can’t give him a minus for actually getting in position to win races before being screwed over by strategy

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Joshua Sweeney April 18, 2023 at 8:54 pm

I know it doesn’t really count but i think Josh Berry gets an A/A+

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Timechanger ! April 19, 2023 at 12:26 am

If we got rid of all the races accept his 2nd and 18th finish then sure.

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Joshua Pittman April 19, 2023 at 2:58 am

B. He was pretty meh

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Seen48 April 19, 2023 at 6:34 am

Totally. He had zero seat time ever in this car so yeah I think he did awesome!

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Vincent Odom April 19, 2023 at 8:24 am

​@Timechanger ! He finished 10th at Phoenix as well. Also remember Richmond he was spun by Blaney and still was about to keep his calm and play the strategy right for 2nd. He was running top 15 at Bristol as well until something happened to him late. I’d say he didn’t a decent job. He has more top 10s than some of the Cup regulars in way less starts or experience.

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JackLikesTrackhouse April 18, 2023 at 8:55 pm

Jones doesn’t deserve an F. His start to the season has been really mid, but I think it’s an LMC problem and not a Jones/Gragson problem. They’re both really good drivers and I think the reset with Johnson as owner is what’s slowed them down.

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Ryan Perez April 19, 2023 at 1:19 am

It really hurts being a Jones fan rn

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The Tech From Heaven April 19, 2023 at 5:55 am

Jimmie Petty racing is a dumpster fire lmao. They are basically RCR B stock arent they?

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KarlM April 18, 2023 at 8:55 pm

I think you need to give more credit for wins. Byron at a B+ with 2 wins while Harvick and Bowman with 0 wins both have an A. Sure consistency matters, but winning races and leading laps matters more.

Drivers should be rated on a uniform scale as well. Giving Ty Gibbs a higher grade than most of the field just because he has “adopted well” isn’t going to lead to consistent grading.

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BikeScout22 April 18, 2023 at 9:00 pm

Top 3 so far:

1) Ricky Stenhouse Jr: Daytona 500 winner and still running really good for JTG standards
2) Corey LaJoie: Outperforming his equipment regularly by a lot
3) Kevin Harvick: Championship contender in mid equipment

Top 3 Worst

1) Erik Jones: I expected him to be better than last season but he’s been AWFUL
2) Ty Dillon: His teammate has been way better every week.
3) Aric Almerola: Bad luck has been most of his issues so hopefully he can build momentum with his 6th at Martinsville

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DRMTF7 Studios April 19, 2023 at 10:43 am

In offense of Eric Jones, he has lost a big sponsor in FocusFactor. And has a lot of unsponsored races. That doesn’t help your confidence

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SJS34 April 18, 2023 at 9:25 pm

I think Reddick deserves an A he has been showing how good 23XI can be just like Kurt did if both cars have good drivers in them

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DEI FAN April 18, 2023 at 11:35 pm

Too early

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Stoopid_roofer April 18, 2023 at 9:54 pm

Like usual, I pretty much agree with you, with the exception of BK. His season was EMBARRASSING last year! Baaad! Lol! I think he deserves a bit more credit! MAJOR improvement from RFK this year!!!

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Slowturtle 11 fan April 18, 2023 at 10:04 pm

I agree but he did get that penalty early in the year I think he gave up after that

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Stoopid_roofer April 18, 2023 at 11:26 pm

@Slowturtle 11 fan agreed, I still think they got screwed on that one! And I don’t really blame RFK for that! That was pretty harsh!!! Right out the gate! SLAMMED with that one!… I think RFK will have a car go deep into the playoffs this year though!

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Bo Tabs. April 18, 2023 at 10:06 pm

Justin Haley just got his 100 points back. Back to 24 in the standings. Good stuff

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Duval In The Wall April 19, 2023 at 12:57 pm

Yeah that’s good news

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Narly Fifa April 18, 2023 at 10:14 pm

Gilliland is a damn good superspeedway driver nearly winning his duel and will be a threat to win this week A in my opinion

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Existing in a space April 19, 2023 at 5:30 am

I would love to see Todd win a race this year. Just to rub it into front row knowing he’s on a risky hot seat. He’s doing far better than I ever expected. He clearly works better under pressure.

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The Tech From Heaven April 19, 2023 at 5:57 am

@Existing in a space He would do great in the 10

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ChaseBriscoefan#14 April 18, 2023 at 10:17 pm

I was worried about Briscoe, but he is on a pretty good stretch of races

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Roger Plott Jr April 18, 2023 at 10:24 pm

I honestly think that Todd Gilliland should be considered as a driver for the 4 car next year.

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Run Rafa Run #THEBESTINTHEWORLD April 18, 2023 at 10:58 pm

Maybe but even Zane Smith and Harrison Burton might be ahead of him for consideration.

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Ian Uecker April 18, 2023 at 10:40 pm

For Gragson and Jones I think that Legacy is going through a complete resurgence just like RFK did last season. Just my thoughts.

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Martin Ford April 18, 2023 at 10:44 pm

I pretty much agreed with most of what you said. The only one I had vast different opinion on was Preece. I could see a C- or D+ but not an F. He’s been alot better then the 10 car and has shown pretty good speed at times, just clearly not the finishes

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Xavier Juno April 18, 2023 at 10:50 pm

Ya his pace is a lot better than his results

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Kadin Smith April 19, 2023 at 1:16 am

Not necessarily grade related, but I think Christopher Bell is becoming one of the most complete drivers in the cup series. 3 at both Daytona and Atlanta, hes won at a road course in the past and has competed at others, is great at flat tracks like Loundon, Pheonix and won at Martinsville and is good at the short tracks. He is a star.

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Wolfyon0617 April 19, 2023 at 1:43 am

I agree with almost all of these, the only exceptions are Haley and Burton

Haley, I would give a C+ because I think he is out performing his equipment by a solid margin, I imagine AJ gets more of the attention for his equipment and Haley is still doing better

Burton, F, he is honestly kind of an afterthought, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is replaced after this season

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Braedon Shelton April 19, 2023 at 3:57 am

I was hoping Preece and Allmendinger would have had better starts to the season. Hopefully they will pick it up.

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Cortex Lite April 19, 2023 at 9:50 am

Corey L is so hype. Hope to see him compete this Sunday in a more even field

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Big Hand April 19, 2023 at 3:17 pm

Yeah

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