2025 NASCAR Cup Series rookies: How have they fared?
- Sean McKean
- 12 hours ago
- 5 min read
Written by Sean McKean, Edited by Gabriel T.
The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are here, and 14 drivers have won their way into the playoffs whilst two spots remain. But away from this headline, a rookie or two has stolen the headlines for their excellence in any given race.
As is our yearly tradition since 2023, it’s time to delve into the prosperity (or in some cases, floundering) of this year’s rookie class.
Shane van Gisbergen
Since his race-winning debut in 2023, Kiwi Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen’s prospects for a full-time drive in the Cup Series felt like a guarantee, and sure enough, Trackhouse Racing gave him a full-time opportunity for 2025.
How has 2025 gone for “SVG?” Well, the numbers speak for themselves. He’s won four races this season – the most for a rookie driver in NASCAR history – and puts himself third on the all-time list for consecutive road course wins. These wins weren’t by a small margin either, having won Mexico City by 18 seconds and Watkins Glen by 11 seconds.
With all of this said, however, his pace on ovals leaves much to be desired. Although he has five top-20s on this track variant, semi-regular crashes and spins give Van Gisbergen television time in a way nobody wants. Granted, he is a rookie learning most of these tracks for the first time in an already difficult-to-drive car, but it’s reasonable to suggest that he needs much more time on ovals.
Riley Herbst
One shouldn’t be ashamed to forget 23XI’s Riley Herbst is on the track, because his results on paper are light years behind teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace.
In 2023 and 2024, Herbst made assorted Cup starts with Rick Ware Racing and Front Row Motorsports on the superspeedways amidst his Xfinity Series campaigns, scoring two top-tens in the 2023 Daytona 500 and 2023 YellaWood 500. Given this promise in such a short time, it was anticipated that he’d perform to the standard expected of him in a new 23XI Racing entry.
But sadly, this has not come to fruition. With only six top-20s throughout the season, he sits ahead of only Cody Ware in the points standings amongst full-time drivers. To say that this season for him has been disappointing would be an understatement.
Following the season finale at Daytona, Herbst remained at 35th place in the standings.
Part-time drivers
Katherine Legge
This year, IndyCar veteran Katherine Legge made her Cup Series debut with Live Fast Motorsports.
She began in Phoenix, wherein she spun twice and eventually took Daniel Suarez out of the race. Nonetheless, Legge made starts in Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma – finishing 19th in Chicago despite an ill-handling race car.
However, her best performance came at Indianapolis (unsurprising, to some). Although she qualified poorly, the Brit made her way into the top 20 on pace and even featured in the top three during pit cycles. Legge finished 17th.
Legge made one more start to date at Watkins Glen, where she finished 36th, one lap down.
Burt Myers
A familiar face in the world of local short track racing, North Carolina native Burt Myers made the leap to the “big leagues” in the Cup Series at Martinsville.
Racing for Team AmeriVet in the No. 50, Myers remained in the back of the field for the vast majority of the day. He drove a clean race – an impressive feat given his equipment’s capacity – and came home 36th, 12 laps down.
Connor Zilisch
Touted as one of the hottest prospects in the garage by many, it was only a matter of time until Trackhouse development driver Connor Zilisch would get the call to make select starts for the main team.
He started off at Circuit of the Americas. Although it took him a while to get adjusted – having qualified 14th and falling down the pack at race’s start – Zilisch began setting fastest laps as the run progressed. However, a spinning Daniel Suarez came directly in his path, and sent Zilisch into the wall and out of his Cup Series debut.
Zilisch has since made two more starts at Charlotte and the second Atlanta Race. In Charlotte, the longest race of the year, he rode in the back of the pack for the majority of the day, but with a timely third-stage caution, strategy worked in his favour to come home 23rd. In Atlanta, he managed to avoid the catastrophic second-stage crash, battled amongst the top-ten and came home 11th.
There is a notable asterisk in Zilisch’s Cup starts, however. He was slated to run the event at Watkins Glen in early-August, but after winning Saturday’s Xfinity race, he fell from his car in victory lane – resulting in a broken collarbone. This obviously put him out for the next day’s race, in which he originally qualified 25th.
Jesse Love
Fittingly after Zilisch is one of his closest friends, Jesse Love, who has made quite the splash at superspeedways in his short but explosive Xfinity tenure since 2024. Love has made five starts this season, splitting them between the Richard Childress No. 33 and the Beard Motorsports No. 62.
His debut came in a tough-to-pass Bristol day race, where he drove a quiet race to come home in 31st. His second and third starts in Texas and Kansas were much the same, coming home 31st and 29th respectively.
Love’s best result so far came in the Brickyard 400, wherein a timely caution with six laps remaining saw his strategy call work out, coming home 24th. However, a less than inspiring Richmond race two weeks later saw his worst result in the Cup thus far, coming home 33rd.
Hélio Castroneves
Although not a rookie in motorsports, Hélio Castroneves made his Cup Series debut in this year’s Daytona 500 for Trackhouse Racing.
In his Daytona Duel qualifier, Castroneves finished last of the open entries, meaning that he failed to qualify for the sport’s biggest race on sheer speed. However, with the brand new Open Entry Provisional – which allowed a 41st entry to any driver with “a great international presence” – the four-time Indianapolis 500 champion was shooed into the Daytona 500.
Come a rain-interrupted Sunday, he started in 41st but made his way through the pack to 20th by the end of stage one. But at the beginning of the second stage, Castroneves crashed out of the race in a stack-up ahead of him.
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