In all sports, people are always looking for the next big thing, and that rings true in NASCAR as well. Teams, media and fans alike are often wondering which young driver in the lower levels will rise up to one day be a NASCAR Cup Series champion.
The staff of Frontstretch was wondering that as well, so 21 writers on staff voted on who the top-10 prospects are right now. The only criteria was a driver couldn’t currently be full time in Cup. A first-place vote garnered 10 points for a driver. A second-place vote garnered nine points, all the way down to a 10th-place vote that netted one point.
Below is where we landed. Check out Nos. 10-6 using the link below.
5. Carson Kvapil
Points: 108
Out of the top prospects in this sport, very few have as bright of a future ahead of them as Carson Kvapil does. In the age of needing financial backing to progress in racing, Kvapil did things the old fashioned way: no guarantees, no sponsor checks, just one of the best late model resumes seen in the past decade and wins when they mattered most.
Atop that list of short track racing accomplishments is three consecutive zMAX CARS Tour championships, one in a Super Late Model (2021) before back-to-back in Late Model Stock car competition (2022 and 2023). From 2022-24, Kvapil scored 12
CARS Tour wins, along with a win in the Valley Star Credit Union 300 at Martinsville
Speedway, widely known as the Super Bowl of LMSC racing.
In 25 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts so far, Kvapil has shown flashes of brilliance,
including a near win at Dover Motor Speedway last summer and a runner-up to Kyle Larson at Bristol this spring. To the surprise of no one, the Mooresville, N.C., driver has been among the best on short tracks this year, but his intermediate performances are improving and he’s shown a ton of speed on road courses so far.
Kvapil has had his share of bad luck this season, but with the talent and racecraft behind the wheel of the JR Motorsports No. 1, plenty of race wins are on the horizon. -Chase Folsom
4. Layne Riggs
Points: 112
Layne Riggs is quickly settling into the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as a week-to-week contender for wins.
Although he has already broken through for back-to-back wins last season at Milwaukee Mile and Bristol Motor Speedway before winning this year at Pocono Raceway, Riggs’ career looks similar to Carson Hocevar’s when he was in Trucks. While both of them didn’t race for the same team (Riggs drives for Front Row Motorsports while Hocevar ran with Niece Motorsports), Riggs and Hocevar seemed to ruffle feathers all in the name of competitive racing for wins.
Much different from the start of his rookie season, Riggs’ No. 34 Ford F-150 seems to be in contention for wins more often than not this year. And he’s not just doing so at short tracks, where he cut his teeth at in the CARS Tour and NASCAR Advanced Auto Parts Weekly Series, where he is the 2022 national champion. He fought for wins at Homestead-Miami Speedway against Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, Michigan International Speedway before hitting the wall and cutting a tire and Nashville Superspeedway, where he was in a dogfight for the lead with Corey Heim and Rajah Caruth in the closing laps.
Riggs sits fourth in Truck points, but the numbers don’t quite tell the full story with him. He’s passing the eye test with flying colors in year two, and if he performs well once he gets some Cup Series starts, watch out. -Wyatt Watson
3. Jesse Love
Points: 133
Jesse Love has been racing in a NASCAR-owned series for a number of years. He won the ARCA Menards Series West championship before he even had his driver’s license!
A California native, Love cut his teeth racing in ARCA West, winning the 2020 and 2021 titles driving for Bill McAnally. In ’21, he also ran part time in the ARCA Menards Series, scoring his first career win with Venturini Motorsports at Salem Speedway.
VMS was the organization that took him to the next level. He ran part time in 2022, amassing one win, eight top fives, 12 top 10s, four poles, 360 laps led and an average finishing position of 5.4.
If those statistics sound impressive, then his 2023 ones will sound incredible. Ten wins — literally half the season Love spent in victory lane — 17 top fives, 18 top 10s, seven poles and almost 1,500 laps led. He clinched the championship in the penultimate race of the season at Salem.
While Love’s ARCA success came while racing for Toyota, his graduation to the next level took him to Chevrolet. He spent 2024 as an Xfinity Series rookie, driving for Richard Childress Racing.
Love captured his first Xfinity trophy that same at Talladega Superspeedway, a racetrack he also won at in ARCA. He was fast all year, too, winning the pole a series-high five times. Love wound up eighth in points.
The 20-year-old began 2025 with a win at Daytona International Speedway. He also took the checkered flag first at Rockingham Speedway before his No. 2 Chevy was disqualified.
Love’s success has earned him three Cup starts so far this year. Love has thrived in all racing levels, and his prospect status will continue to rise. After all, he has three championship rings, and he is still only 20 years old. -Mark Kristl
2. Connor Zilisch
Points: 193
There are not too many young drivers who would be able to win a Cup Series race as a rookie, but Connor Zilisch is one of them. After all, he did that last year at Watkins Glen International in the Xfinity Series. It was his series debut, and he led half the race en route to the victory. He followed that up with a win at Circuit of the Americas earlier this year.
Also, Zilisch proved he can drive a sports car that same year, as his Era Motorsports team won the LMP2 class in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. Zilisch’s group won the following race as well at Sebring International Raceway.
While IMSA cars are much different from Cup’s Next Gen cars, Zilisch’s experience on road courses could help him drive well there. That is why he’s one of the top Cup Series prospects, because his youth hasn’t deterred him from running up front at a non-oval.
On ovals, it’s been a bit more of a learning curve for the 18-year-old, but things are starting to look up. He won at Pocono Raceway this past weekend for his first non-road-course win, though the Tricky Triangle is somewhat of a hybrid between an oval and a road course. At the past two true oval racetracks — Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville Superspeedway — Zilisch placed second. Coincidentally, both races came after Larson won in his car at Texas Motor Speedway after Zilisch was injured in a crash at Talladega Superspeedway.
Zilisch has already made two Cup starts this season for Trackhouse Racing, and should he enter any more races at the premier level in the next two months, he could potentially break Joey Logano‘s record (19 years, 35 days) as being the youngest Cup winner ever. There is a chance Zilisch could move up to be with the team full time next year.
Whether that happens or he stays in Xfinity one more year before going Cup racing, the future is bright for the No. 88 JR Motorsports driver, whose stock is continually going up as he continues to learn. -Joy Tomlinson
1. Corey Heim
Points: 194
It came down to just one point for Corey Heim to top Zilisch in Frontstretch’s Prospect Rankings, and then it was a sizeable gap back to third, showing Heim and Zilisch are far and away the top prospects.
Currently embarking on his third full-time season in the Truck Series, no one
deserves to be ranked the number one prospect more than Heim. The NASCAR garage knew that Heim was going to be a championship-contending driver from the start after he made three starts in the 2021 Truck Series season, scoring a best finish of 11th at Martinsville Speedway driving for the now defunct Kyle Busch Motorsports Truck operation.
Heim has been lights out ever since, scoring two victories for KBM in the ‘22 season while only competing in 16 races that season. Upon arriving at TRICON Garage beginning in 2023, Heim’s full potential was unlocked, thanks in part to the raw speed his No. 11 Toyota Tundras have every week. With 15 career Truck wins, he’s already tied for 10th on the series’ all-time win list.
Through 14 races this season, Heim has amassed a series-high four wins and 12 stage wins, which has already broken the record for most stage wins in a single season. He’s also led a series-high 887 laps. In addition, Heim has been in position to win virtually every Truck race this season; unfortunately late-race incidents have prevented Heim from winning at least three to four more races. Five times this year, Heim has led the most laps and failed to win the race.
In addition to his Truck duties for TRICON, Heim is currently a development driver for 23XI Racing’s Cup Series team, running a handful of races for the organization. Having made the Championship 4 twice already in his still young Truck Series career, the 22-year-old has proven he has the skillset needed to succeed in the Cup Series already with several races under his belt. He was the highest finishing car from the 23XI stable at Kansas Speedway earlier this season in Cup, finishing 13th.
Furthermore, Heim has shown he can compete for solid finishes in any of NASCAR’s top three series, no matter what car or series he races in. He nearly scored Sam Hunt Racing’s first victory in Xfinity at EchoPark Speedway last year and has one-quarter of the top fives in that team’s history in just 20 starts.
It’s only a matter of time before Heim is offered a full-time ride in the Cup Series, and when that day comes, the sky is the limit. -Christopher Hansen
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
Chase began working with Frontstretch in the spring of 2023 as a news writer, while also helping fill in for other columns as needed. Chase is now the main writer and reporter for Frontstretch.com's CARS Tour coverage, a role which began late in 2023. Aside from racing, some of Chase's other hobbies include time in the outdoors hunting and fishing, and keeping up with all things Philadelphia sports related.
Wyatt Watson has followed motorsports closely since 2007. He joined Frontstretch as a journalist in February 2023 after serving in the United States Navy for five years as an Electronic Technician Navigation working on submarines. Wyatt is one of Frontstretch's primary IndyCar correspondents, providing exclusive video content on site. He hosts Frontstretch's Through the Gears podcast and occasionally The Pit Straight.You can find Wyatt's written work in columns such as Friday Faceoff and 2-Headed Monsteras well as exclusive IndyCar features. Wyatt also contributes to Frontstretch's social media team, posting unique and engaging content for Frontstretch.
Wyatt Watson can be found on X @WyattWRacing
Mark Kristl joined Frontstretch at the beginning of the 2019 NASCAR season. He is the site's ARCA Menards Series editor. Kristl is also an Eagle Scout and a proud University of Dayton alum.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
