Getty Harrison Burton will be eligible for Rookie of the Year.
The stage is set for a massive battle between young drivers. NASCAR has announced the list of competitors eligible for Rookie of the Year honors in the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Camping World Truck Series.
The sanctioning body announced the news on February 9 and revealed that there will be 11 total drivers competing for Rookie of the Year across the three national series. Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland, and Austin Cindric will face off in the Cup Series while Sheldon Creed, Jesse Iwuji, and Austin Hill will battle in the Xfinity Series.
The Truck Series will have the largest field of Rookie of the Year-eligible drivers. The list features Jack Wood (GMS Racing), Dean Thompson (Niece Motorsports), Lawless Alan (Niece Motorsports), Corey Heim (Kyle Busch Motorsports), and Blaine Perkins (CR7 Motorsports).
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The battle between Truck Series drivers will create some intrigue considering that four will run full-time while Heim will only make 15 starts. This could potentially put him at a disadvantage, but he will drive for Kyle Busch Motorsports. The powerhouse team is capable of winning every single week, so Heim could potentially stack up enough points on a limited schedule to win the award.
Ty Gibbs achieved something similar during the 2021 Xfinity Series season. He only made 18 starts for Joe Gibbs Racing, but he won four races and posted an average finish of 10.0 en route to winning Rookie of the Year over Josh Berry, Jordan Anderson, Sam Mayer, and Ryan Vargas.
Teammates Will Battle in the Xfinity Series
GettySheldon Creed will be eligible for Rookie of the Year.
Creed and Hill, who both reached the 2021 Truck Series playoffs, will no longer compete on separate teams. They will join forces at Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity Series while marking the organization’s return to a two-car setup.
They will still take part in an important battle during the 2022 season. Only one rookie will be eligible for Rookie of the Year, so the two teammates will compete with each other, as well as Iwuji, who formed his own team with co-owner Emmitt Smith.
Hill has the most experience in the Xfinity Series with 15 total starts spread across three years (2019-2021). He has posted four top-10 finishes and one top-five, a fifth-place finish at Kansas Speedway in 2020. For comparison, Iwuji has five career Xfinity Series starts while Creed has four with a top-10 finish at Phoenix in 2021.
2 Drivers Will Not Be Eligible for Rookie of the Year
The Rookie of the Year list features multiple names, but there were two that remained absent. Justin Haley will not compete for Rookie of the Year in the Cup Series while Matt DiBenedetto will remain ineligible in the Truck Series.
NASCAR has the ability to decide which drivers are or are not eligible for the award each year. In Haley’s case, he has 36 career Cup Series starts with one win at Daytona International Speedway. 31 of his starts took place in 2021 when he spent the majority of the season with Spire Motorsports.
DiBenedetto, on the other hand, has never competed in the Camping World Truck Series, but he has extensive experience across the other two national series. The California native has 69 starts in the Xfinity Series and 248 in the Cup Series.
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