Newsmakers of NASCAR 2022 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tyler Reddick

Reddick entered the Cup Series in 2020 as the two-time defending Xfinity Series champion but could not find victory lane until his 90th start. In the week following that breakthrough win, Reddick made a surprising announcement that he would be leaving Richard Childress Racing to join 23XI Racing at the conclusion of his RCR contract in 2024. The announcement was a surprise to RR who released a statement saying that the news "could not have come at a worse time". Reddick and RCR later reached an agreement to expedite Reddick's departure until after the 2022 season, following Kurt Busch announcing he was stepping away from full-time racing for 23XI.

Reddick got his second career win four weeks later at Indianapolis and added a third at Texas in September. The Texas win came one week after he was eliminated from the playoffs in the Round of 16.

Answer: Christopher Bell

Bell earned career Cup wins #2-4 in 2022. Entering the Round of 12 elimination race at the Charlotte Roval, Bell was 11th in the standings and 45 points below the cut line. As a win was the only possibility of advancing, the #20 team used a conservative race strategy and only led 2 laps all day - the final two to secure the win and advancement.

A similar situation presented itself for the Round of 8 elimination race at Martinsville. Bell entered 7th on the points grid and 28 points below the cut line. Bell led 150 of 500 laps and took the win to secure his spot in the Championship 4.

Another walkoff win in the finale was not in the cards though. Bell finished 10th at Phoenix and third among the Championship 4 drivers.

Answer: Erik Jones

This was Jones' second season competing for the King but the first under the "Petty GMS" banner after Petty merged his team with GMS Racing in the previous offseason. Jones impressed at many races during the regular season but wasn't able to secure a spot in the playoffs. That didn't faze the team though. Jones inherited the lead in the first playoff race at Darlington with 25 laps to go when Kyle Busch's engine expired and never looked back.

The win was the first for the #43 since Aric Almirola's rain-shortened win at Daytona in 2013.

The last time the #43 had scored a complete-distance race win was with John Andretti behind the wheel at Martinsville in 1999.

Answer: Austin Cindric

Cindric was in contention at the finish of the 2021 Daytona 500 as well but was caught up in a fiery last lap crash with teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. Cindric's first career win was his only win in 2022. He clinched the Rookie of the Year honor by being the only rookie driver to qualify for the playoffs.

Answer: Kurt Busch

Busch's crash at Pocono seemed innocuous from a distance but created concussion-like symptoms that ultimately sidelined him for the remainder of the season. The crash was the first in a series of accidents that revealed safety issues in the rear of the new NextGen car. Drivers said they felt much more of the impacts of collisions in the rear of the car than they had previously felt.

Busch entered the season in a new second entry from 23XI Racing. Busch had been hired by the team to for a veteran presence that would help the organization and teammate Bubba Wallace improve each week. Busch had a tentative playoff spot secured after winning the spring Kansas race.

Answer: Ross Chastain

Prior to the 2022 season, Trackhouse Racing purchased the assets of Chip Ganassi Racing, and brought Chastain along from CGR to drive their new second entry alongside Daniel Suarez. The results came immediately. Chastain rattled off three top-3 finishes leading up to his first Cup Series win at Circuit of the Americas - where he outdueled road course ace AJ Allmendinger on a dramatic final lap. Chastain's unapologetically aggressive driving style made him some rivals throughout the year, the most notable being Denny Hamlin.

Needing one point to advance to the Championship 4 in the elimination race at Martinsville, Chastain tried the unprecedented move of riding the outside wall through the final turn of the final lap. Chastain gained four places to qualify for the championship race at Phoenix.

Answer: Kyle Busch

When M&M Mars announced that they would be ending their NASCAR sponsorship program before the 2022 season, Kyle Busch's future with Joe Gibbs Racing was not in question. New sponsorship did not materialize as the season progressed and Busch began preliminary discussions with other teams for 2023.

In October he announced a new contract with Richard Childress Racing to drive the #8 car. Busch won 2 Cup championships and 56 races with JGR and Toyota, and his Kyle Busch Motorsports team in the Truck Series supported many prospective drivers who have won at the top level as well.

Answer: Joey Logano

Logano got his first win of the year at Darlington after a late race bump-and-run of William Byron handed Logano the lead with two laps to go. After pointing his way through the first two rounds of the playoffs, Logano clinched a Championship 4 position with a win in Las Vegas in October.

At the finale in Phoenix, Logano dominated. He led 188 of 312 laps and won his second Cup championship (2018). It was the "22 in 22".

Answer: Ty Gibbs

Gibbs exploded on the NASCAR scene by winning his Xfinity Series debut in 2021 on the Daytona road course. In his first full-time Xfinity season he won 7 of 33 races en route to an Xfinity championship and competed in each of the final 15 races of the Cup season filling in for the injured Kurt Busch at 23XI Racing.

The departure of Kyle Busch from Joe Gibbs Racing presented Ty an opportunity to move up full-time racing in 2023 for his grandfather's team.

Answer: Brad Keselowski

Keselowski had been driving the flagship #2 car for Roger Penske since 2011 prior to joining Roush Fenway Racing as a co-owner in 2022. The newly-named RFK team was able to snap their organization's five-year winless streak with Chris Buescher at the Bristol night race, but Keselowski went winless for the first time since his first full-time campaign in 2010. Keselowski became the first full-time Cup owner-driver since Tony Stewart retired in 2016.