{"id":39685,"date":"2017-05-17T06:34:03","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T13:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=39685"},"modified":"2017-05-17T06:34:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T13:34:03","slug":"nascar-class-of-2017-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/nascar-class-of-2017-18\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Class of 2017-18"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"NASCAR
Image courtesy of racingnews<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Forty wins and 124 top-10s in 148 NASCAR starts during their 2016 and 2017 seasons, to date\u2026 Three series champions, two of whom are the youngest in their respective NASCAR touring series\u2026 The 2016 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Rookie of the Year and the 2015 Snowball Derby runner-up…\u00a0These are only\u00a0a few of the accomplishments already earned by the nine drivers in this year\u2019s NASCAR Next class, and they\u2019re just getting started.<\/p>\n

Now in its seventh year, the industry initiative spotlights the best and brightest young stars in racing. Alumni of the program include current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series stars Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Daniel Su\u00e1rez, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NASCAR Next program identifies emerging talent in our sport,\u201d said Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer. \u201cDrivers in this year\u2019s class have already achieved success on the track or shown potential, and this program will help them further develop their skills. We look forward to watching these young stars connect with our fans and continue their climb up the NASCAR ladder.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NASCAR Next selection process includes input from industry executives, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Drivers Council and media members. Drivers must be between the ages of 15-25, aspire to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and show potential \u2013 on and off the track \u2013 to reach that goal.<\/p>\n

The following drivers have been chosen for the 2017-18 NASCAR Next class:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harrison Burton (@HBurtonRacing) \u2013 <\/strong>In his second year competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, the 16-year-old from Huntersville, North Carolina, has earned wins at Bristol Motor Speedway and Virginia\u2019s South Boston Speedway. The son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and current NBCSN analyst Jeff Burton also took home the pole award at Bristol for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Chase Cabre (@CabreChase) \u2013<\/strong> In his rookie season driving for Rev Racing and the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, the 20-year-old Tampa, Florida, native captured his first two pole awards in the twin features at South Boston and earned his best career finish (fourth) at the Virginia short track.<\/p>\n

Hailie Deegan (@HailieDeegan) \u2013 <\/strong>The 15-year-old Temecula, California, native has made a name for herself in the Lucas Oil Off Road Series. Last year the daughter of FMX legend Brian Deegan became the first female to reach the podium in the series\u2019 history, was the 2016 Modified Kart champion in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series and was named the Lucas Oil Off Road Driver of the Year.<\/p>\n

Todd Gilliland (@ToddGilliland_) \u2013 <\/strong>The son of former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver David Gilliland has made quite a name for himself in the sport\u2019s history books. The 16-year-old from Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, already has 12 wins in 30 K&N Pro Series starts and became the youngest champion in NASCAR national or touring series history last year when he took home the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West championship.<\/p>\n

Riley Herbst (@rileyherbst) \u2013 <\/strong>The 18-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada, driver is coming off a successful rookie season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West. In 14 starts last year, he compiled seven top-five and 10 top-10 finishes.<\/p>\n

Cayden Lapcevich (@CaydenLapcevich) \u2013 <\/strong>Only the third Canadian-born driver to be chosen for the program, the 17-year-old from Grimsby, Ontario, won three times in 2016 en route to becoming the youngest NASCAR Pinty\u2019s Series champion, and briefly held the title as the youngest NASCAR champion before being dethroned by Gilliland. Lapcevich is the first driver in Pinty\u2019s Series history to earn both the Josten Rookie of the Year honor and the series title in the same year.<\/p>\n

Ty Majeski (@TyMajeski) \u2013 <\/strong>A Roush Fenway development driver and one of the country\u2019s top Super Late Model drivers, the 22-year-old Seymour, Wisconsin native kicked off his 2016 winning the Super Late Model championship at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at Florida\u2019s New Smyrna Speedway. He continued his NASCAR Whelen All-American Series season with a third-place finish in the national standings on the strength of 14 wins and 21 top-fives in 26 starts. He will make his NASCAR XFINITY Series debut at Iowa Speedway on June 24.<\/p>\n

Chase Purdy (@chasepurdy12) \u2013 <\/strong>The 2016 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Rookie of the Year made a splash last year when he took home both the rookie of the year and track championship at South Carolina\u2019s Greenville Pickens Speedway in NASCAR\u2019s weekly series. The 17-year-old from Meridian, Mississippi is chasing another rookie title this year, competing in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.<\/p>\n

Zane Smith (@zanesmith77) \u2013 <\/strong>Smith, 17, from Huntington Beach, California, broke onto the national scene in 2015 when he won the Super Late Model championship at New Smyrna\u2019s World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing. He capped the season with a runner-up finish to Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and NASCAR Next alumnus Chase Elliott in the Snowball Derby.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Since its inception in 2011, 36 of the 46 drivers who have been selected for the program have progressed to compete in one of NASCAR\u2019s three national series, while more than a quarter have gone on to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Twelve NASCAR Next drivers have won a NASCAR national series race. The last three Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Sunoco Rookies of the Year are NASCAR Next alumni, as are four of the top-five contenders for the award this year: Daniel Su\u00e1rez, Erik Jones, Corey LaJoie and Gray Gaulding. The last four Sunoco Rookies of the Year in both the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series are also alumni of the NASCAR Next program.<\/p>\n

For more information, visit next.NASCAR.com and make sure to follow the drivers on Twitter and on the track. Join the social conversation by using #NASCARNext.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The nine drivers in this year\u2019s NASCAR Next class have racked up an impressive complement of accomplishments, and they\u2019re just getting started.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":39687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029],"tags":[127,4486,41,1632],"class_list":["post-39685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-next","tag-news","tag-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/lead-4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-ak5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39688,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39685\/revisions\/39688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}