Everyone may have dodged an unstoppable bullet in the title fight, with David Gravel taking himself out of contention for the championship by missing a handful of races to run six NASCAR Truck Series races.
If it wasn‘t for a slow start in his debut season with Jason Johnson Racing last year, Gravel may have made it a three-way battle for the 2019 championship.
In a big “What if?” Gravel would have actually won the title last year if the season had started in June.
He‘ll still be an undeniable threat to win every race, keeping JJR in the hunt for the team championship as another driver will fill in for him when he‘s out of the car.
Parker Price-Miller fulfilled those duties when Gravel ran an ARCA Menards Series event at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Feb. 8.
The team lost two crew members at the end of 2019, but gained former World of Outlaws driver Clyde Knipp as a car chief and retains two-time Knoxville Nationals winning crew chief Philip Dietz.
Gravel and Dietz led the team to a season career-high of 12 wins — including the Knoxville Nationals victory — and 21 quick time awards in 2019. If the two are able to keep their momentum going this year, they could easily repeat those stats.
Dietz will have his hands full this year, though, leading the JJR No. 41 team and now owning his own Dietz Motorsports sprint car team. He‘ll have Price-Miller in his car for 35 to 45 races.
For the past four years, Gravel kept residency at third place in the championship points. He‘ll likely vacate that ranking this year by missing races, and there‘s a host of drivers poised to fill his spot.
Several may even throw their hat into the championship battle.
Like Gravel, Daryn Pittman spent 2019 learning a new team. However, Pittman and Roth Motorsports hit the ground running by sweeping the DIRTcar Nationals. Pittman won his third Big Gator in seven years and gave Roth its first.
He and the team then went on an almost eight-month winless streak. That resulted in Pittman relinquishing his duty as acting crew chief so he can solely focus on driving the car and giving the crew chief position to his 23-year-old crew member Brent Ventura.
Shortly after the changes, Pittman returned to victory lane at Grays Harbor Raceway and then at Silver Dollar Speedway for the Gold Cup. Even with those wins, though, he was unsure if they were enough to warrant his return for the 2020.
A few weeks later those questions were answered with it being announced Pittman and his entire team would return for another season.
Consistency will be key for Pittman and Roth Motorsports if they want to compete against Sweet and Schatz for the title.
Logan Schuchart and Shark Racing have the potential to elevate their team to a top-three team if they can turn their top-15 runs into top-10s and top-fives. The Pennsylvania driver made broad improvements in 2019.
He won eight races — doubling his career wins — and finished a career-high fifth in points — only six points behind Pittman.
If they can repeat that performance this year, they‘ll find themselves solidly in the top-five in points again. But if they can clean up some of their mid-pack performances, Schuchart should find himself bumping elbows with Sweet and Schatz at the top of the standings.
Young guns Carson Macedo and Sheldon Haudenschild could be on the path to breakout seasons this year as well.
Macedo won the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year title last year in his first full-time season with Kyle Larson Racing.
He was the only driver contending for the title, but in the last 30 years of the sport, he had a rookie season only comparable to Sweet‘s rookie season in 2014.
Macedo and Sweet are currently the only two rookie contenders in the last 30 years to have won more than two races in their first full-time season. Sweet won five races and finished sixth in points in his first season. Macedo won four races and also finished sixth.
Now, in his second year with KLR, Macedo will have several eyes watching his sophomore season.
Haudenschild‘s potential was showcased during his 2018 sophomore year, winning five races after a winless rookie season.
He and his Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing team got off to a slow start in 2019, missing five features in the first 25 races. However, the team eventually broke their slump by winning at Cedar Lake Speedway and continued to grow from there.
A month later, Haudenschild put on a historic performance at the Ironman 55 by leading the majority of the race and winning by more than 10 seconds.
In the last 20 races of the season, he earned 15 top-10 finishes.
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