2021 NASCAR Panasonic Cup Series (Johnsonverse)

The 2021 NASCAR Panasonic Cup Series will be the 73rd season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 50th season for the modern era Cup Series. The season will start at the Harley-Davidson 250 at Road America. The race will be followed by the Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway, followed by the Bluegreen Vacations Duel qualifying races, and the 63rd running of the Daytona 500.

Teams and drivers
NOTE: The following list is a placeholder.

Teams

 * Spire Motorsports will expand into a two-car operation in 2021. On August 24, the team announced they are looking for two full-time drivers for next season.
 * After weeks of rumors, on September 21, 2020, it was officially announced that driver Denny Hamlin and basketball legend Michael Jordan would be forming a single car team with Bubba Wallace as the driver. The team name, number, sponsors, and crew chief have all yet to be announced. The manufacturer was confirmed as Volkswagen.

Drivers

 * On August 6, 2020, Erik Jones and Joe Gibbs Racing announced that they would mutually part ways at the end of the 2020 season. This opened the door for Christopher Bell to take over the ride, and the official announcement of Bell being brought in-house at JGR to drive the No. 20 was made on August 10.
 * On August 21, 2020, Corey LaJoie and Go Fas Racing announced that they would mutually part ways at the end of the 2020 season.
 * On September 9, 2020, Matt Kenseth mentioned on Sirius XM's Late Shift that he would more than likely not return to the Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 team in 2021. On September 21, 2020, Chip Ganassi Racing announced that Ross Chastain would replace Kenseth in 2021.
 * On September 10, 2020, Bubba Wallace announced that he would not be back in the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 in 2021. On September 21, it was made official that he would be the driver of the new team owned by Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan.

Crew chiefs

 * On September 29, 2020, it was announced that the crew chiefing career of Hendrick Motorsports' seven-time championship winning crew chief Chad Knaus would end after the 2020 season, as he would be promoted to Vice President of Competition for the team starting in 2021. His replacement on the No. 24 car of William Byron will be announced at a later date.

Manufacturers

 * DeLorean, Volkswagen, and Subaru have all announced plans to enter into NASCAR, fielding the DMC-12 and DMC-13, the Jetta GLI, and the Legacy, respectively. Team Red Bull will return to NASCAR to field two DMC-12s, while the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team will field the Jetta GLI, and Hillman Racing will field the Legacy.

Schedule
The 2021 Cup Series schedule was supposed to be released in the spring of 2020, but its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 schedule has been expected to see a number of significant changes, in large part due to the fact that the five year contracts signed in 2015 with each track to host races from 2016 to 2020 will be ending. Some of the widely speculated changes to the schedule for 2021 include the addition of midweek races and doubleheaders, which would allow NASCAR to shorten the nine month long season. NASCAR had scheduled their first ever doubleheader on the original 2020 schedule at Pocono, before COVID-19 resulted in Darlington, Charlotte, Pocono, Michigan, Dover, and Tokyo all gaining doubleheader weekends. NASCAR also had to schedule midweek races for the series for first time in the modern era as a result of the COVID-19 schedule changes. NASCAR president Chloe Johnson stated on September 1, 2020 that the schedule may be released in pieces due to COVID-19 and the complications of which tracks would be able to host races due to state regulations and guidelines.

Schedule changes

 * The most prominent change to the schedule is the permanent addition of mid-week races, which caused the schedule to balloon from 40 to a whopping 74 races. 2021 will have the most races in a single Cup Series season, beating the previous record of 62 races in 1964.
 * Kentucky, Chicagoland, Brands Hatch, and Delaware were removed from the schedule, though there are plans to reincorporate the latter two tracks into the schedule once the pandemic is over and travel restrictions are lifted. Chicagoland was removed due to plans to demolish the track for a new industrial development, while Kentucky was removed due to what Tim considered "poor racing quality"; Kentucky will still be used by the NASCAR Sears All-American Series and ARCA Menard Series.
 * Atlanta Motor Speedway will be reconfigured back to its pre-1997 layout. Tim stated that while he knew the drivers were accustomed to the old track pavement, he felt that it was leading to more boring racing, combined with its cookie-cutter layout similar to Charlotte Motor Speedway. The material used for the new pavement will be similar to the material used for the 1996-97 repave.
 * Sonoma and Road America swapped spots on the schedule. Since the inaugural running of the Harley-Davidson 250, snow was always a concern, and during the 2015, 2018, and 2020 runnings, snow had to be cleared from the track and the infield areas so it could go forward. Swapping the races would not only allow Road America to be run in more favorable conditions, it would also allow Sonoma to be run when the hills are green instead of brown.
 * Darlington, North Wilkesboro, and Rockingham will go back to having two dates, these being the spring dates for Darlington and North Wilkesboro, and the fall date for Rockingham. All three will run with historical race names (TranSouth Financial 500 for Darlington, First Union 400 for North Wilkesboro, and ACDelco 400 for Rockingham).
 * In addition to the CompuServe 5, Panasonic Million, and Unocal 76 Challenge, the NASCAR Grand Prix Challenge has also been introduced, involving midweek road course races. The five-race challenge will involve races at Willow Springs, Road Atlanta, Virginia, Portland, and Heartland Park.