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          2023 NASCAR superlatives: Best race, rivalry, paint scheme

          • Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior WriterDec 27, 2023, 09:11 AM ET
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            • Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
            • 2-time Sports Emmy winner
            • 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year
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          After spending NASCAR's 75th anniversary season with our eyeballs firmly focused on the rearview mirror, we have chosen to spend these final days leading into the sport's 76th year gazing not decades into the past, but rather glancing over the last 12 months.

          Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the 2023 stock car calendar kicked off with an exhibition race from Hollywood, because during this same time when moviemakers have become so obsessed with the idea of crisscrossing multiverse timelines, NASCAR spent an entire season doing the same. A celebration of the sport's past punctuated by what felt like a definitive changing of the starting grid guard. New venues mixed in with racetracks awakened after we had long ago left them for dead.

          In the end, what earned the distinctions as the best or worst of this DeLorean time machine of a year? Grab a leather helmet, a hover board and read ahead as we present our 2023 NASCAR Year in Review.

          Race of the Year: Kansas Spring Race

          I can already hear the complaints from people wanting a sexier selection. But what else could you possibly want than a record number of lead changes for a 400 mile intermediate event (37), a seemingly endless series of fantastic restarts, an overtime finish and somewhat controversial battle between two future Hall of Famers in Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, all finished off with chef's kiss pit road throw down between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson? To quote the great NASCAR philosopher Maximus, "Are you not entertained?"

          Honorable Mention: Chicago Street Course, which rallied for a great show after a rainfall worthy of another Noah. Not Gragson, the one with the ark.

          Event of the Year: All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway

          The race itself wasn't great, thank the super old asphalt and super butt-whipping doled out by Larson. However, in my nearly three decades of covering auto racing, I've never been to an event where everyone was in such a phenomenal mood. I will never forget being on the hospitality building rooftop overlooking Turn 4 the morning before the race and watching 10-time North Wilkesboro winner Darrell Waltrip, a man who has never been speechless, just stand there with his legendary jaw hanging open, saying over and over to no one, "I can't believe this."

          Honorable Mention: Chicago Street Course. After months of public worry from commuters to art museums, NASCAR's first true street course was also a feel-good event. Mostly. Did we mention the rain? Also, I suppose we should feel bad about two honorable mentions, but hey, it is the second city.

          Undertaker Out Of the Coffin Resurrection Award: North Wilkesboro Speedway

          In case you were wondering why Waltrip was in such disbelief, he wasn't alone. Anyone who thought NASCAR would ever return, they were the ones who were alone. Any of us who were around when North Wilkesboro speedway was closed in 1996, whenever asked if we believed it might reopen one day, we were likely to quote Clark Griswold from the holiday movie we've all just watched 20 times over the few weeks: "It I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised that I am right now." For the full story of the racetrack's revival, read our story from May.

          Honorable Mention: RFK Racing

          While we are in this mood of honesty, let me tell you now that two years ago when Brad Keselowski left team Penske to take over at once proud Roush Fenway Racing, rebranded as a Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, I thought the shoo-in Hall of Famer had signed away his career and savings account on a lost cause. But this season RFK put both of its Fords in the Playoffs and visited Victory Lane three times. Speaking of...

          Breakthrough of the Year: Chris Buescher

          The Pride of Prosper, Texas finally prospered as promised after making his Cup Series debut nine seasons ago. His fog-shrouded first win in 2016 seemed destined for the one-and-done file as he plowed his way through seasons at Front Row Motorsport and Roush. But this year he won three times, the most for a Roush driver since Matt Kenseth in 2012.

          Disappointment of the Year: Chase Elliott

          Anything short of a deep postseason run is a bummer for the 2020 Cup champ. So imagine his feelings about a winless season in which he missed six races because of a snowboarding injury (that started a bit of a controversy that we covered in this column) and a one-race NASCAR suspension for a run-in with Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600, ultimately failing to qualify for the 16-team playoff field. As his father "Awesome Bill" likes to say, it was a bad deal of a situation.

          The Driver Still Matters Award: Kyle Busch at RCR

          Rowdy Busch is a generational kind of talent. Everyone in the garage has believed that for a long time. But over that same long time, I have witnessed a lot of talented racers move from sure things to struggling teams, believing they could save the day via will and wheel (See: My comments about Keselowski).

          So, when Busch joined Richard Childress Racing -- they of all those wins and Cups with Dale Earnhardt, but also they who have not won a title since 1994 and they who have not seriously contended for a Cup since 2013 and they who had become a place racers left for greener pastures (see: Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick) -- it had an uneasy familiar feeling about it. Then Busch won three times, his highest season total since 2019 while matching and topping his 2022 top 10 and top five totals (17 and 10) at Joe Gibbs Racing. Oh, and since I mentioned Harvick...

          Best Paint Scheme: Kevin Harvick's 2001 No. 29 throwback, North Wilkesboro

          When the Artist Formally Known as Happy announced that 2023 would be his final season, he promised a year of reflection and, in his words, "a chance to undo some things I could have handled better." After going through the hell of Earnhardt's death together and remaining partners for more than a decade after that, Harvick's departure from RCR was far from cordial. So, it warmed a lot of NASCAR hearts to see Childress and Harvick teaming up again with NASCAR's cooperation to run their 2001 post-Earnhardt livery at the place and in a race The Intimidator loved so much.

          Worst Paint Scheme: Ryan Preece, Atlanta Motor Speedway

          When NASCAR finally gave in to the requests of teams and sponsors to move car numbers forward towards the front wheels, the idea was to create more space for corporate logos and creativity. But for many designers and marketers that door panel DMZ remains mystifying.

          This year that space has been filled with everything from images of globby cheese to the faces of law partners whose haunting images accidentally looked like a visit from the Ghost of Lawsuits Past. But the most confusing sticker slappage was found on the Ford of Harvick's teammate Ryan Preece at Atlanta Motor Speedway in July.

          Sony invited NASCAR consumers to check out its latest technological wizardry by way of a giant QR code, riding shotgun on the doors and hood of the No. 41 Mustang. All I could picture was over-served race fans in the Atlanta chicken bone section trying to scan that code as Preece blasted down the frontstretch at 190 mph or sitting in their recliners at home shakily holding their smartphones toward their TV. I can't even successfully scan a restaurant menu code that's sitting perfectly still when I'm perfectly sober.

          Best Rivalry: Earth vs Ross Chastain

          As discussed in our Waffle House-hosted fall Chastain profile, the NASCAR garage has always seemed to feature one guy versus all of the other guys. And as he explained in that conversation, playing that role doesn't exactly keep the Melon Man up at night with worry. After a slow start, the Chastain haters were out in full force to declare his '22 near-title run a fluke. Then he won twice, made the postseason field again and finished ninth in the standings. It is increasingly evident that perhaps folks should stop doubting this guy and his abilities. Just ask Noah Gragson's nose.

          Pour One Out: California Speedway

          After one of the most hyped debuts of any racetrack in NASCAR's modern era, the California Speedway was shuttered after 26 years and it's slow, painful demolition has become a source of nostalgia for NASCAR fans' social media timelines. The stated plan is to reinvent the place and eventually reopen it, but the details of those plans remain as shrouded as that foggy Chris Buescher 2016 Pocono win.

          The Ben Franklin Lightning Rod Award: Denny Hamlin

          When Hambone announced he would be hosting a podcast for Dale Earnhardt Jr's media company titled "Actions Detrimental" we should have all seen this stir-the-pot season coming from 1.5 miles away. On the track, Hamlin found himself involved in multiple feuds. Off the track, he continued to call out NASCAR brass on everything from how races are officiated to the sport's ever-changing business model. Just in case he needed proof that those executives listen to his pod, he received a hefty fine for confessing on that show that he had purposely wrecked a competitor at Phoenix (Chastain, naturally). All of this while he continued to run up front as a driver and also as a team co-owner with Michael Jordan. Hey, someone should write a column about all this. Oh wait, I did!

          Tantrum of the Year: Josh Wiliams, Atlanta

          Williams is not a cup series driver. Not yet anyway. But the fit he pitched in Atlanta Motor Speedway in March, protesting a ruling from race control by parking his car on the front stretch and walking home. The move from the mullet-wearing Floridian was so unreasonably entertaining that it has earned a spot here among the big leaguers. Heck, he even landed a sponsor because of it. From whom? The manufacturer of a parking guidance system.

          Crossover Move: Garage 56

          It did not matter that NASCAR's foray into the 24 hours of Le Mans was just a glorified exhibition run. As soon as the rumble of that stock car engine rattled the French countryside, it was totally worth it. You can hear it at the 0:31 mark of this video from my man Leigh Diffey of NBC Sports.

          Hot Topic That Became Non-Hot: Waivers

          A sizable portion of the season was spent debating whether or not drivers should receive waivers, allowing them to qualify for the postseason, despite missing races for extracurricular activities. But when Chase Elliott, hurt snowboarding, and Alex Bowman, hurt track racing, both failed to qualify for the playoff, even with help, that conversation went away faster than my hearing the first time I went to Bristol Motor Speedway.

          Honorable Mention: Team Charters. Am I the only one whose eyes glaze over like I'm being forced to watch a financial PowerPoint presentation whenever someone tries to engage me in a riveting conversation about NASCAR team owners and their charters?

          The Best Worst News That Didn't Happen: Ryan Blaney's Nashville crash

          The 2023 NASCAR cup series champion almost had his season -- and perhaps his life -- ended way too early when his Ford found a section of exposed concrete wall at Nashville Superspeedway. How in the hell in 2023 is there any section of any speedway retaining wall that isn't covered with a SAFER barrier? If we have learned nothing over the last two decades, it is that race cars will find even the tiniest section of concrete if it isn't covered with the lifesaving "soft walls."

          The Settle In Because He's Here to Stay Award: William Byron

          In reality, you could apply this to nearly every driver we have mentioned here. From Blaney to Elliott to Redick and beyond, the long-predicted NASCAR youth movement has finally arrived. All one needs to do is scan the list of winners over the last two seasons. It's young. But no one embodies this shift change in the paddock more than Byron.

          Driving for legendary owner Rick Hendrick and wheeling the most legendary of Mr. H's cars, the number 24 Chevy, and winning six times, more than any other driver in the series this year. At 26 years old, he's just getting started. And he's not alone. We can't wait. Daytona will be here before we know it. And as 2023 taught us, not to mention the last 75 years, we have no idea what NASCAR has coming around the corner.