“Silly Season” is nothing new in NASCAR, while not traded like football and baseball players, drivers, crew chiefs, and crew members change teams or move to another series like a minor leaguer moving up to the next level.
But in 2024, two major events took place that set a whole series of moves among the NASCAR teams…
Martin Truex Jr announced that he was retiring from full time driving; leaving open the Joe Gibbs Racing number 19 car
and Stewart-Haas Racing announced that they would cease operations at the end of the season; putting four drivers out of a job and hundreds of crew and employees out of a job.
Fortunately for those drivers, other teams were looking to expand their teams and needed another driver for the 2025 season.
Below is a recap of the NASCAR Silly Season with the 2025 season just a month away.
With the closure of Stewart-Haas Racing; Josh Berry, Noah Gragson, Chase Briscoe, and Ryan Preece were all out of a job.
Chase Briscoe will be taking over the driving duties in the JGR number 19 car.
Josh Berry moves to the Wood Brothers to take over the driving duties of the number 21 car.
Expanding to a three car team, RFK Racing has signed Ryan Preece to drive the number 60 car next season.
SHR co-owner Gene Haas is launching a new team on his own called the Haas Factory Team and will field one Cup Series and two Xfinity Series cars with Cole Custer returning to the Cup Series to drive the number 41 car (a car he left two years ago for Stewart-Haas Racing). Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed will be the two drivers in the Xfinity Series with Creed driving the 00 vacated by Cole Custer and Mayer will drive the 41 car.
Michael McDowell leaves Front Row Motorsports and the number 34 car and move to Spire Motorsports to drive the number 71 car.
Expanding to a three car team, Todd Gilliland remains at FRM moving from the number 38 car to the number 34 car.
Expanding the team, Noah Gragson is moving over to Front Row Motorsports to drive the third car.
Halfway through the Xfinity Series season, AM Racing and Hailie Deegan parted ways.
Part-time Craftsman Truck Series driver Connor Zilisch is moving up to a full-time ride in the Xfinity Series in the number 88 car for JR Motorsports.
AJ Allmendinger will remain with Kaulig Racing but is returning to the Cup Series after two years in the Xfinity Series.
Craftsman Truck Series driver Daniel Dye is moving up to the Xfinity Series and will drive the Kaulig Racing number 10 car.
Truck Series driver Chistian Eckes is also moving up to the Xfinity Series where he will join Daniel Dye at Kaulig racing to drive the number 16 car being vacated by AJ Allmendinger.
Daniel Hemric is leaving Kaulig Racing and the number 31 car for a full time ride in the Craftsman Truck Series for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing. He will be taking over the driving duties of the number 19 truck which was vacated when Christian Eckes moved to Kaulig Racing.
McAnally-Hilgemann Racing has signed part-time driver Connor Mosack to a full time ride to drive the number 81 truck in the Craftsman Truck Series next season.
Ty Dillon is making a return to the Cup Series to drive the number 10 Kaulig Racing car.
After a year in the Xfinity Series getting acclimated to NASCAR, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen is moving up to the Cup Series and will be driving the number 88 car for Trackhouse Racing. Van Gisbergen joins Daniel Suarez and Ross “the Melon Man” Chastain at Trackhouse.
After four years of driving the number nine car for JR Motorsports, Brandon Jones is going back to Joe Gibbs Racing.
Truck Series driver Taylor Gray moves up to the Xfinity Series to drive the number 54 car for Joe Gibbs Racing.
In other JGR team 54 news, car owner Joe Gibbs has transferred ownership of the car to grandson Ty Gibbs.
Part-time Truck Series driver William Sawalich is moving up to the Xfinity Series to drive the number 18 car for Joe Gibbs Racing.
In the Cup Series, crew chief for the number eleven car driven by Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart is moving up in the organization to take over as competition director. Chris Gayle will be moving over form the 54 car to take over as crew chief for the eleven car.
Parker Kligerman announced that he is retiring from full time driving with a probability of returning to broadcasting. Craftsman Truck Series driver Nick Sanchez will take over the full time driving duties of the Big Machine Racing number 48 car.
After losing his ride with the Wood Brothers, Harrison Burton is returning to the Xfinity Series to drive for AM Racing.
Junior fans don’t expect to see Dale Earnhardt Jr behind the wheel next season. He announced last season at Bristol Motor Speedway that there were no plans to run a race in 2025; but noted that at the moment, there were no requests from any of his sponsors.
Late in the season, Justin Haley and Corey LaJoie switched rides. Haley went to Spire Motorsports and the number seven car where he has been signed to a multi-year contract. LaJoie drove the Rick Ware Racing to finish out the season.
Part-time driver Dawson Sutton will be driving full time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2025 in the Rackley W.A.R. number 25 truck.
Part-time driver Ryan Ellis moves to full time, driving for DGM Racing.
After running a handful of races last year in the Craftsman Truck and Xfinity Series, actor and racer Frankie Muniz has signed on to run fill time in the Craftsman Truck Series next season for Reaume Brothers Racing.
Xfinity Series driver Riley Herbst is moving up to the Cup Series to drive the number 35 car as 23XI Racing expands to a three car team. Herbst will join Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick at the Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin run team.
After the departure of Anthony Alfredo at Our Motorsports, Kris Wright will be taking over the driving duties of the five car.
Tricon Garage has signed ARCA Menards Series driver Toni Breidinger to a full time ride to drive the number five truck in the Craftsman Truck Series.
Gio Ruggiero has been signed to drive the Tricon number 17 truck after Taylor Gray’s move to the Xfinity Series.