Prominent NASCAR Team Has Announced Driver Change
LOUDON, NH – JULY 17: Cole Custer (#41 Stewart-Haas Racing HaasTooling.com Ford) in turn 4 during the NASCAR Cup Series Ambetter 301 race on July 17, 2022 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. (Photo by Malcolm Hope/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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One of the biggest teams in the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series is making a huge change to their driving teams for the 2023 seasons.
On Wednesday, Stewart-Haas Racing announced that 32-year-old Ryan Preece will take the wheel in their No. 41 Mustang full-time for the 2023 season. Preece will return to the Cup Series as a full-time driver after spending this past year driving part-time for Stewart-Haas.
In a corresponding move, Cole Custer, who has driven the No. 41 car for three straight years, will be moving down to the Xfinity Series. Custer is coming off back-to-back seasons ranked outside the top 20 on points and without a single top-seven finish.
Ryan Preece is now 32 and has 115 NASCAR Cup Series races under his belt, most of which came from 2019 to 2021 with JTG Daugherty Racing. He has nine top 10 finishes but is still seeking that elusive first win.
Cole Custer, meanwhile, looked to be one of the rising superstars in racing after making his Cup Series debut in 2020 following a brilliant run in the Xfinity Series. Custer won his first Cup Series race in the 2020 Quaker State 400 en route to winning Rookie of the Year honors and finishing 16th in the rankings.
If Custer can get back to dominating the Xfinity Series like he did from 2017 to 2019, he won’t be out of the Cup Series for long.
