The 2025 season has begun in NASCAR, with the Clash at Bowman Gray behind us, and the Daytona 500 just one week away.

With a new season comes new expectations for the drivers returning the grid. 

And while all drivers head into the season hoping to win races, make the playoffs and compete for a championship, there are several drivers facing an additional amount of pressure for a variety of reasons.

Here’s my list of drivers who I see facing a bigger spotlight than the others in 2025:

1. Denny Hamlin (No. 11, Joe Gibbs Racing)
The choice for the driver under the most pressure was an easy one, and that is of course Denny Hamlin, who has several factors coming together at the same time to provide an intense spotlight on his 2025 campaign.

First off, there’s the usual pressure surrounding Denny’s quest to win his first Cup series championship. Despite 54 Cup wins (12th most wins all time), he has yet to seal the deal, and age would dictate his time left in the series is nearing its end. Even if he says he’s not worried about the Cup title, you know it’s looming in the back of his mind that his time to win one is running out.

Mt. PLEASANT, Mich. – Beard Motorsports will qualify for the 2025 Daytona 500 at Daytona with driver Anthony Alfredo returning behind the wheel of the Beard Motorsports Chevrolet. The sponsor will be Fortify Building Solutions. Alfredo ran three races for Beard Motorsports in 2024 (one at Daytona, two at Talladega), with a best finish of 6th place at the spring Talladega race. 

More information regarding Beard Motorsports’ plans for the 2025 NASCAR season will be announced at a later date.

Started by the late Mark Beard Sr., Beard Motorsports is owned and operated by the Beard family with Linda Beard at the helm, and her children, Amie Beard-Deja and Mark Beard Jr., overseeing the daily operations. The 2025 season is Beard Motorsports’ ninth participating in select events that make up the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and the season-opening Daytona 500 will mark the team’s seventh start in the “Great American Race” since making its debut in that event in 2017. 

“It’s an honor to be talking about our ninth season competing in the NASCAR Cup Series,” said Beard-Deja, executive vice president of Beard Motorsports. “This obviously started as a passion project for my dad and has become a labor of love for our family. We put in a lot of hard work and that is evident by the product we bring to the track every time we show up. It’s a credit to the team of people that we have assembled to prepare our racecars, and it all starts with our crew chief Darren Shaw, who has been busy preparing the car for the 2025 Daytona 500.

“We are thrilled to have Anthony Alfredo back behind the wheel of the No. 62 Chevrolet and are very honored to continue the relationship we have started with Fortify Building Solutions. To have that brand continue its support of Beard Motorsports means a lot.”

Amber Balcaen was the fastest of 70 drivers that participated in this week’s two-day ARCA pre-race practice at Daytona International Speedway. Balcaen turned her fast lap, 49.102 seconds/183.292 miles per hour, in a tight draft with her Nitro Motorsports teammate Thad Moffitt and fellow Toyota drivers out of the Venturini Motorsports stable.

The 62nd Annual Daytona ARCA 200 is scheduled for Saturday, February 15, at noon. The race will be televised live on FOX and will be carried live nationwide on select affiliates of the MRN Radio Network. Live timing and scoring data from all on-track activity, including practice on Thursday, February 13, and General Tire Pole Qualifying on Friday, February 14, is available at ARCARacing.com.

In other highlights from the two-day test:

— Eighteen-year-old Chase Pinsonnault made a strong debut in the ARCA Menards Series, timing in second fastest at 49.226 seconds/182.830 miles per hour. Pinsonnault, a third-generation racer, has driven in the ASA STARS National Tour for NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar; he will make his first career ARCA Menards Series start in the Daytona ARCA 200.

— Balcaen, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Pinsonnault, from Windsor, Ontario, gave Canadian drivers a sweep of the top two positions for the first time in the history of the pre-season practice runs at Daytona International Speedway.

On Sunday, we just watched the best short track race ever with the Next Gen car (with the possible exception of the chaotic spring Bristol race). Goodyear’s new, softer tire compound did the job it was supposed to do, which is good news looking ahead to the 2025 short track races.

But we’re not talking about the race. And we’re not talking about the brilliant drive that Ryan Blaney put together to race to the win late and claim a spot in the Final Four at Phoenix by claiming the checkered flag at the beloved paper-clip track.

Instead, we’re talking about shenanigans. Shenanigans of the sort that make the sport look downright foolish. The only thing worse than team orders is manufacturers' orders, and that’s what reared its ugly head in the extreme on Sunday.

If Burger King is all about “have it your way”, NASCAR has traditionally been the polar opposite in its approach. 

For the past 75 years, NASCAR’s leadership has resided with the France family (First Big Bill France, followed by Bill France Jr., Brian France and now Jim France). Since it launched, NASCAR has operated its stock car racing operation essentially as it wished.

Sure, drivers and teams and fans can complain about some decisions, but at the end of the day, NASCAR makes the rules, and there isn’t much anyone could do about it.

I mention this all as background for the earthquake news that broke on Wednesday morning that two NASCAR teams — 23XI Racing (co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin) and Front Row Motorsports — have filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and Jim France.

Signs of trouble began about four weeks back, when it was announced that all Cup teams other than 23XI and Front Row had signed a new charter agreement that would govern the team owners from 2025 through 2031. Many in the sport wondered what the two teams were thinking. What leverage did they have now that all the other teams had signed on to the new deal?

We got our answer Wednesday with this bombshell lawsuit, which puts NASCAR in very unfamiliar territory and opens them up to outside scrutiny. Especially of note is that the two teams’ legal representation is the formidable Jeffrey Kessler, who has had past success battling the NCAA regarding athlete compensation.