The 2024 NASCAR season brought many new faces from new places, including a few drivers who have staying power for years to come. While all three national series champions (Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Ty Majeski) are in their 30s, several young drivers made an emphatic impression, especially in the second half of the year.
Most of these drivers are now in full-time rides. AJ Allmendinger, Shane van Gisbergen and Riley Herbst have also moved up to Cup, which has left the door open for young talents to take back the mantle from the remaining veterans in the lower divisions.
Expect much of this talent to make their mark across the 2025 season. While NASCAR doesn’t have a draft like stick-and-ball sports, there is no reason why we can’t do a mock draft of our own and tell you who to look out for in the coming years. There is a significant amount of change from last year’s list.
10. Chandler Smith
It has been a turbulent 12 months for Chandler Smith. While his on-track performance was solid and consistent, he fell short of making the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship 4 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The 2024 season was Smith’s second stint with Toyota Racing Development, and he left Toyota for the second time at season’s end. Rumors were swirling in the final races that Smith’s full-time NASCAR career would be over, but he wound up on his feet as a second driver for Front Row Motorsports’ NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
With FRM on the upswing in Cup, combined with Smith’s youth (2025 is his age-23 season), it could prove to be a good long-term home where he can reset as a driver. His pathway to Cup, while longer due to his return to Trucks, seems more feasible than it did one year ago.
9. Layne Riggs
Smith’s teammate at FRM, Layne Riggs, is another prospect to watch. The No. 38 team hit its stride when the Truck playoffs began, the one downside being Riggs was not among the 10 playoff drivers competing for the championship. He scored two wins in the playoffs, part of a streak of five top fives in a row and seven top 10s in the season’s final nine races.
It’s fair to say that Riggs had bumps in the road while he got acclimated to the full range of track types on the schedule, but his second-half performance was much more of what was expected of him going into 2024.
The continuity of Riggs’ team and his familiarity with the different tracks will only benefit him in 2025. He will now be visiting most tracks for a second time and thus is more likely to improve further. He will have a great chance of making the playoffs, winning once or twice in the regular season, and is a sneaky pick to surprise a lot of people.
8. Corey Day
Not only is Corey Day a fresh prospect, he is also someone who could move quickly through the ranks if he makes the right impressions. The Clovis, Calif., native, handpicked by Kyle Larson for his raw talent, raced in Larson’s High Limit Sprint Car Series in 2024. He won eight times in the 54-race season, scoring 19 top fives and 34 top 10s.
Over the offseason, Day signed a developmental contract with Hendrick Motorsports and will compete in 30 races across the Xfinity Series, Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series.
The talent is there for the 19-year-old, but he will need to use 2025 as a chance to harness his skills. He got into a fracas with Andy Jankowiak during and after the ARCA race at Kansas Speedway last year, and he will need the proper coaching and mentorship to prevent future situations like that from happening again.
The sky is the limit for Day at the moment, and he could easily race himself into a full-time ride in 2026 if he is a smart competitor on the track.
7. Rajah Caruth
Steady improvement was the goal and result for Rajah Caruth in 2024, punctuated by his Truck win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Caruth, like Riggs, raced at his best in the second half of the season, almost making the Championship 4. He was never below seventh in the standings at any point; it is that consistency which will make him successful. Combine that with the upward trajectory that Spire Motorsports as a whole is on, and it’s fair to say that Caruth should have championship aspirations in his sophomore year.
Teams like drivers that keep their equipment clean, and Caruth did exactly that. He only had one DNF and completed 97.9% of all laps run by the Truck Series last year, finishing off the lead lap only twice. That is the exact foundation needed to potentially break out and take the fight to Corey Heim.
6. Carson Kvapil
The racing gene runs deep in the Kvapil family, with the eldest son of Travis Kvapil being the next in line. While he has limited experience on bigger tracks, Carson Kvapil was a standout in the zMAX CARS Tour. He was champion in 2022 and 2023. He went to victory lane 12 times and scored a top 10 in 40 of his 47 career starts, a rate of 85.1%. The talent is clearly there, which means his next task will be to gain experience.
That experience is what he will be getting in 2025. He will be driving the No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in a full-time Xfinity bid, so he will be vying for both the championship and Rookie of the Year. While it is unrealistic to expect any driver to win the title as a rookie, he can make a strong case for ROTY if he wins a couple races and shows major growth on bigger tracks.
If Kvapil’s performance at Dover Motor Speedway last year was any indication of his prowess, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has found his latest hotshot talent. All he needs is laps.
5. Jesse Love
The 2024 Xfinity season was a tale of consistency for Jesse Love. After dominating ARCA in 2023, he earned a quick promotion to Xfinity, skipping Trucks in the process. The end result was five poles, a win at Talladega Superspeedway in the spring and only one DNF all season, which was from a cut tire at Iowa Speedway. He completed 97.9% of all laps the Xfinity Series ran in 2024.
Looking more broadly, Love’s year was similar to Caruth’s. He kept the car clean for the most part, stayed out of major controversy and put himself in prime position to compete for a championship in 2025. That is the exact foundation he needed to give himself, and it’s fair to say he can improve significantly in his sophomore campaign.
4. William Sawalich
The battles between William Sawalich and Connor Zilisch will be absolute cinema for the next decade and a half. While Zilisch has the edge at the moment, Sawalich is in just as good a spot for the long term. He won most ARCA races that Zilisch did not and earned a rapid ascension to Xfinity as a result, and in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment.
What works in Sawalich’s favor is his level of backing. He brings enough sponsorship with him to give himself time, which is what most young drivers don’t have enough of. He can struggle this year and still be a highly touted prospect due to his financial stability. I don’t expect him to be a championship contender in his first season, but it is important to see if he can improve as the year goes on. One to three wins should be in the cards, potentially against Zilisch.
3. Christian Eckes
While several young drivers were consistent and took steps forward in 2024, none did so more successfully than Christian Eckes. It took a couple years for Eckes to find his footing in Trucks, but he put his best foot forward with authority in 2024. He only finished outside the top 10 once, and his average finish of 5.4 beat that of Heim by nearly two positions. The result of his remarkable effort — despite falling short at Phoenix Raceway for the title — was a well deserved promotion to Xfinity.
What puts Eckes a small step behind Heim is his lack of track time in the higher divisions. Since the Xfinity cars handle vastly different than the trucks, it’s hard to predict how much of his extensive Truck experience can translate. He wouldn’t be the first driver to flame out while making this move up. However, while he does not have any Xfinity nor Cup starts heading into Daytona International Speedway, his new home at Kaulig Racing will put him in a car capable of going to the playoffs. He could do a lot for his future if he snags a couple wins on speed.
2. Corey Heim
Already the statistically best driver in the Truck Series following 2023, Heim solidified that claim beyond any doubt in 2024. He scored six wins, including four victories in 10 races, during the middle portion of the season. While he did not win the championship, the stench of his dust-up with Carson Hocevar during the 2023 finale is now a distant memory. Instead, people remember how he was always in the mix to win, and how he completed all but one lap all year if his Darlington Raceway DNF is not factored into the equation.
In addition to his runner-up points finish, he nabbed three top fives in Sam Hunt Racing’s No. 26 Xfinity car. While his cup of coffee in Cup was unremarkable, he gained valuable seat time, which will only benefit him moving forward. He is deserving of a promotion, and it is unfortunate that he is in Trucks for another year. A case can be made for him to jump straight to Cup full time, and he would be deserving of the ride if it were to happen.
A third consecutive dominant season in Trucks will have to be his consolation prize, but he’s knocking on the door, and it’s getting harder to justify him not moving up to Cup within the next couple of years.
1. Connor Zilisch
Heim maintained his unbelievable numbers from 2023, showed that he is ready for a Cup ride right now, yet he fell down one spot in the rankings from a year ago. How? The answer is Zilisch.
While the word generational is arguably thrown around too often in sports, it’s an apt description for Zilisch. In eight ARCA races last year, he only finished worse than second one time, which was an accident at Bristol Motor Speedway through no fault of his own. He won at Watkins Glen International in his Xfinity debut, and made most of his competitors look foolish while doing so. He was the second-youngest driver to ever win the Rolex 24, being 17 years and 191 days old on race day.
The 18-year-old standout will drive the No. 88 Xfinity car for JRM full time in 2025, going to many tracks for the first time. With all of that in mind, it’s unreasonable and unfair to expect any driver — even Zilisch — to contend for the championship in their first season. Larson never came close to the championship in 2013. Jimmie Johnson’s Xfinity career, especially his first season, was mediocre.
However, Zilisch is the only rookie in any series this year who could win the championship, perhaps convincingly, and it would not come as a surprise. He has won in just about every racecar he’s ever driven, and there is zero reason to expect any change with that trend in 2025. He has all the makings to be NASCAR’s next superstar, and his journey as a generational talent is just beginning.
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.