2021 NASCAR Cup Series (The Stock Car Split)

The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series was the 73rd and final season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 50th and final season for the modern era Cup Series. The season started at Daytona International Speedway with the Busch Clash, where it was run on the track's road course layout instead of the oval. That race was followed by the Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races, and the 63rd running of the Daytona 500. The regular season also ended at Daytona with the 2021 Coke Zero Sugar 400 on August 28, where Kyle Larson won the Regular Season Championship. The NASCAR playoffs were scheduled to end with the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on November 7.
This was the first season since 2000 without seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson. This was also the first season without Clint Bowyer and Reed Sorenson since 2004, the former of which joined the NASCAR on Fox booth as a color commentator. This was also the first season for 23XI Racing, co-owned by Joe Gibbs Racing Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan, and Trackhouse Racing Team, co-owned by former NASCAR and current sports car racing driver Justin Marks and musician Pitbull. It was also the last season for Chip Ganassi Racing, as Trackhouse purchased the entirety of CGR's NASCAR team for 2022, StarCom Racing, as they ceased operations after 2021, and Team Penske crew chief Todd Gordon, who announced his retirement from crew chiefing following the 2021 season. It was also scheduled to be the last season for the Cup Series Generation 6 car, which was to be replaced with the scrapped Next Gen car starting in 2022; by extension, it was also slated to be the final season for the Car of Tomorrow chassis, as the Next Gen car would have had a completely-new chassis design.
During the season, NASCAR faced competition with competing sanctioning body ASCC, which was founded in December 2020. The Professional Driver's Association (PDA), originally formed prior to the first NASCAR race at Talladega in 1969, was reformed by most drivers prior to the Cook Out Southern 500, and a driver walkout was organized.
On September 16, 2021, NASCAR ceased operations and sold its assets to ASCC. The season was cut short with the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway on September 11 (which became known as The Richmond Mutiny), with no champion declared; Kyle Larson had led the points standings at the time of NASCAR's collapse.
==Teams and drivers==
=== Chartered teams ===
=== Non-chartered teams ===
==== Complete schedule ====
==== Limited schedule ====
=== Notes ===
== Schedule ==
The 2021 Cup Series schedule was supposed to be released in the spring of 2020, but its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
No.	Race name 	Venue 	Date 	TV
 	Busch Clash 	Daytona International Speedway (Road Course), Daytona Beach, Florida	February 9 	FS1
 	Bluegreen Vacations Duels	Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida 	February 11 	FS1
1 	Daytona 500 	Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida 	February 14–15	Fox
=== Schedule changes ===
=== Schedule changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic ===
* Owing to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, only 8 of the 36 points races were held with practice and qualifying; the remaining events were held as one-day shows. The races that featured practice and qualifying were limited to new venues/configurations and high-profile events and included: the Daytona 500, the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol, the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at COTA, the Coca-Cola 600, the Ally 400 at Nashville, the Jockey Made in America 250 at Road America, and the Verizon 200 at the Indianapolis road course; the Season Finale 500 at Phoenix was also set to feature practice and qualifying.
* On December 8, 2020, it was announced that Auto Club Speedway would not host a race in 2021 due to state COVID regulations in California. With the season-opening races for all three series at Daytona being two weeks before, NASCAR made the Daytona Road Course the second race of the season and bumped the Homestead-Miami Speedway race back by one week to where Auto Club had been.
== Season summary ==
=== Race reports ===
Round 1: Daytona 500
Round 2: O'Reilly Auto Parts 255
Round 3: Dixie Vodka 400
=== NASCAR Cup Series playoffs ===
Round 27: Cook Out Southern 500
Round 28: Federated Auto Parts 400
== Results and standings ==
Category:The Stock Car Split