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.
 * On October 7, 2020, Trackhouse Racing Team announced its entry into the Cup Series, fielding a single entry for Daniel Suárez in 2021. Co-owned by Justin Marks, the team will field Studebakers.

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.
 * On September 15, 2020, Daniel Suárez announced that he would not be back in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 in 2021. On October 7, 2020, Suárez joined Trackhouse Racing Team full-time for the 2021 season.
 * On October 6, 2020, Hendrick Motorsports announced that Alex Bowman will move from the No. 25 to the No. 48 team in 2021.
 * On October 8, 2020, Team Penske announced that Austin Cindric will drive in select Cup Series races while competing full-time in the Busch Series in 2021. He will then transition to the Team Penske No. 77 team in 2022 as driver Sam Hornish, Jr. will retire from full-time driving.
 * On October 8, 2020, Clint Bowyer announced he will retire from full-time driving at the end of the 2020 season and work as a NASCAR on Fox commentator starting in 2021. His replacement in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 14 has yet to be announced.

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.
 * On October 6, 2020, Hendrick Motorsports announced that No. 25 crew chief Greg Ives will join Alex Bowman in moving to the No. 48 team in 2021. The future of crew chief Cliff Daniels is to be announced at a later date.

Manufacturers

 * DeLorean, Volkswagen, Saturn, Saab, Daewoo, Subaru, and Holden have all announced plans to enter into NASCAR, fielding the DMC-12 and DMC-13, the Jetta GLI, the Aura, the 9-3, the Espero, the Legacy, and the Monaro, respectively. Team Red Bull will return to NASCAR to field two DMC-12s, while Rusty Wallace Racing will field the DMC-13, Phoenix Racing and the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned team will field the Jetta GLI, Bobby Allison Racing will field the Aura, Spire Motorsports will field the 9-3, Rossi Racing will field the Espero, Hillman Racing will field the Legacy, and Rudd Performance Motorsports will field the Monaro. Other teams fielding these models are to be determined.
 * On October 5, 2020, Go FAS Racing announced it would switch to Pontiac and enter into a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing.

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 the 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 76 races. 2021 will have the most races in a single Cup Series season, beating the previous record of 62 races in 1964.
 * Kentucky, Brands Hatch, and Delaware were removed from the schedule. 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 Menards Series, while Brands Hatch and Delaware were both removed due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, though there are plans to reincorporate them into the schedule once the pandemic is over and travel restrictions are lifted.
 * Atlanta Motor Speedway will be reconfigured back to its pre-1997 layout. CEO Tim Johnson 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. Texas Motor Speedway will also be reconfigured as well; it will become a short track that is slightly wider than Bristol; this is similar to the planned reconfiguration of Auto Club Speedway into a short track for 2022 and beyond.
 * 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, but it would also allow Sonoma to be run when the hills are green instead of brown.
 * It has already been announced that the Busch Clash will be moved from the Sunday before the Daytona 500 to the Tuesday before (on February 9), in an effort to condense Speedweeks down to one week. The race will also be moved from the oval to the infield road course for the first time.
 * 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. The winner of all five races receives a $250,000 prize.
 * The Cup Series will also race on dirt for the first time since 1970 as the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway will see the concrete half-mile covered in dirt, and other dirt tracks such as Eldora, Davenport, Mansfield, and Las Vegas' dirt course will be added.