List of 2023 NASCAR national, regional and eSports champions
With NASCAR’s 75th-anniversary season drawn to a close, it’s time to recognize stock-car racing’s championship performances from all levels of the sport. Recap the hardware-winning seasons for multiple NASCAR, ARCA and touring series, plus the title awards in eNASCAR.
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CUP SERIES
2023 champion: Ryan Blaney
Season review: The Team Penske No. 12 Ford team and Ryan Blaney celebrated their first Cup Series championship together, finding momentum in the playoffs and outdistancing fellow Championship 4 contenders Christopher Bell, William Byron and Kyle Larson in the finale. The 29-year-old driver won three times in 2023, capturing the Coca-Cola 600 in May to break a 59-race winless skid. In the postseason, Blaney marched to wins at Talladega and Martinsville, then placed second to Ross Chastain in the season-ending event at Phoenix Raceway. The accomplishment marked the second consecutive Cup Series title for team owner Roger Penske, who celebrated Joey Logano’s second Cup crown a year earlier. (Recap)
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XFINITY SERIES
2023 champion: Cole Custer
Season review: The Xfinity Series title fight went down to the wire in the Phoenix finale, and Cole Custer emerged from a frantic overtime restart for his first NASCAR national series championship. Custer was a three-time winner in 2023, capturing six pole positions. Two of the 25-year-old driver’s victories came on road courses — at Portland and in the inaugural event on the Chicago street circuit — but his third in Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 00 Ford was a title-clincher in the season-ending tilt. Custer came out just ahead of championship hopefuls Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer and John Hunter Nemechek. (Recap)
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CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
2023 champion: Ben Rhodes
Season review: A return appearance in the Championship 4 field netted Ben Rhodes his second Truck Series title in the last three years, touching off a spirited celebration into the night at Phoenix Raceway. The 26-year-old driver won once in 2023 — prevailing at Charlotte Motor Speedway — and caught a consistent stride in the later portions of the playoffs. He placed fifth in the ThorSport Racing No. 99 Ford at Phoenix but avoided the pitfalls that short-circuited the title bids of Grant Enfinger, Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar. Rhodes is just the fifth driver to win multiple championships in the Craftsman Truck Series, joining four-time champ Ron Hornaday Jr., three-time honorees Matt Crafton and Jack Sprague, and fellow two-time champion Todd Bodine. (Recap)
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ARCA MENARDS SERIES
2023 champion: Jesse Love
Season review: Jesse Love’s ARCA Menards Series dominance culminated with the series title to round out the 2023 season. The 18-year-old from Menlo Park, California, finished Race 19 of 20 on the ARCA Menards Series schedule, having won 10 of 19 events. Of his 10 wins, He won four consecutive races starting at Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and Watkins Glen International — stretching into August. Love‘s ARCA Menards Series championship adds to his already impressive resume on the platform. He has five West Series wins and one East Series triumph in addition to a pair of West Series titles as he makes the jump to the Xfinity Series in 2024, driving the No. 2 for Richard Childress Racing. (Recap)
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ARCA MENARDS SERIES EAST
2023 champion: William Sawalich
Season review: With a victory at the Bristol Motor Speedway, William Sawalich grabbed his first ARCA Menards Series East Championship. Beating eventual ARCA Menards Series Champion Jesse Love in a 10-lap dash to the finish, it was William’s fifth win of the 2023 campaign. The 2023 ARCA Menards Series East Championship was brought home to Joe Gibbs Racing for the third consecutive year, all coming from the No. 18 Toyota. With another full East Series planned with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2024, Sawalich knows he can be the favorite to win every race he enters. (Recap)
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ARCA MENARDS SERIES WEST
2023 champion: Sean Hingorani
Season review: Sean Hingorani more than proved himself in a Venturini Motorsports car with a stellar debut season that saw him take the ARCA Menards Series West championship crown. The 2023 season saw a complete turnaround for the driver of the No. 15 after finishing 16th, three laps down in the opening race at Phoenix Raceway in March. Hingorani immediately responded by tallying his first two West Series victories at Irwindale Speedway and Kern County Raceway Park. He then cemented himself as a championship favorite during the summer with two more triumphs at Shasta Speedway and Evergreen Speedway. Now that he is a West Series champion, Hingorani wants to keep the momentum going and is eager to get a head start on 2024, regardless of whether that involves defending his title or branching out elsewhere. (Recap)
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WHELEN MODIFIED TOUR
2023 champion: Ron Silk
Season review: With a sixth-place finish in a Thursday night showdown at Martinsville Speedway, Ron Silk claimed the 2023 Whelen Modified Tour Championship, his first title in the tour since the 2011 season. After going the entire 2022 season without obtaining a victory, Silk kicked 2023 off with an impressive win at New Smyrna Speedway, holding off Justin Bonsingnore to do so, a battle that raged on for the entire 2023 season with each driver having five wins on the year. When the dust settled for the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 200, it was Silk raising the title in the air. (Recap)
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ADVANCE AUTO PARTS WEEKLY SERIES
2023 champion: Connor Hall
Season review: Connor Hall captured his first Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series title in a season that saw him win his opening 11 races at Langley Speedway in Virginia. The win is the first for a Langley Speedway-based driver in Division I competition. Hall‘s opening series of wins included 10 Weekly Series Late Model Stock events and the CARS Tour event on June 3. He would go on to tally 18 total wins — the most of any driver in weekly Division I competition — in 26 Weekly Series races across three race tracks: Langley (14 of the wins), Hickory Motor Speedway (three wins) and Southern National Motorsports Park (one win). (Recap)
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PINTY’S SERIES
2023 champion: Treyten Lapcevich
Season review: With his seventh victory in 2023, Treyten Lapcevich was crowned the Pinty’s Series Champion in dominating fashion at Delaware Speedway. With 166 laps led in the race, he amassed 1,149 total during this season, breaking the series record set by his team owner Scott Steckly in 2015 (1,090 laps). Starting off the year strong, Lapcevich won the opening two rounds at Sunset Speedway and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, never looked back and never lost the points lead through the 14-race schedule. (Recap)
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WHELEN EURO SERIES
2023 champion: Gianmarco Ercoli
Season review: The 2023 Whelen Euro Series can be encapsulated in one word — thrilling. In a season that saw six different winners, four different championship leaders and a unique competitive parity at all levels, Gianmarco Ercoli hoisted the championship trophy at the end. Three race wins, nine top-five and ten top-10 results were the building blocks of a championship season in the NWES for Ercoli. The Rome native, who won the EuroNASCAR 2 Championship in 2015, becomes the first driver to top both divisions. (Recap)
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MEXICO SERIES
2023 champion: Salvador de Alba Jr.
Season review: Although not winning the final race of the 2023 Mexico Series at the Hermanos Rodríguez race track, it was Salvador de Alba Jr. who came away victorious in the championship battle when they crossed the line in Mexico City with a third-place finish. The race and championship came down to a green-white-checkered finish after championship hopeful Rubén García Jr. was involved in an accident that left him out of the title picture and allowed Salvador to seize the opportunity. (Recap)
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eNASCAR COCA-COLA iRACING SERIES
2023 champion: Steven Wilson
Season review: In a championship spectacle that was hosted in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Steven Wilson was crowned 2023 eNASCAR Champion. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver had the race of a champion as he qualified second and finished second at the virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, only getting beat by non-championship contender Donovan Strauss. Wilson became the 11th different champion in 14 seasons of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, also pocketing a cool $100,000. Wilson’s only win on the 2023 campaign came at the newly added Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. He was the only driver to make the Championship 4 on points. (Recap)
