The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season will be remembered for a lot of reasons. Denny Hamlin’s latest heartbreaking loss of a championship, Kyle Larson becoming a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, and the massive improvement of drivers, some in new equipment and some in the same equipment, from their performances on track in 2024.

To compile the list of 2025’s most improved NASCAR Cup Series drivers, we took the list of 31 drivers, who competed full-time in the series in 2024 and 2025, and ranked out their improvement in nearly every major statistical category, including points ranking, wins, top-fives, top-10s, poles, average start and finish, DNFs, lead lap finishes, and earned Playoff Points.

The drivers with the best average improvement ranking among all of the statistical categories are reflected as the most improved drivers for the season.

Honorable Mentions:

Josh Berry and Austin Dillon each ranked inside the top-six of the most improved drivers during the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Both drivers won a race this past season, as Berry picked up his first career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Dillon picked up his second consecutive win at Richmond Raceway. For Dillon, unlike his 2024 win at Richmond, this year’s win counted for Playoff eligibility, which boosted his final points position ranking and allowed him to improve in that metric by 17 spots, the most improvement of anyone on the list.

With his win, Berry was able to climb 11 spots from 27th to 16th in the championship standings from 2024 to 2025, which placed him in a tie for second behind Dillon.

Berry and Dillon each churned out better numbers in just about every statistical category in 2025 than they did in 2024.

Biggest Surprise: Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek

After a tough 2024 campaign, there was a consensus that the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season would go one of two ways for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and its two drivers, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek. They would either be in for another year of trying to find themselves, or the rough season a year ago would embolden the group to leap forward in 2025.

The latter proved true, as Nemechek ranked third among the most improved drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, while Jones ranked fifth.

The high-water mark for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s duo was an incredible showing in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, where Jones came home with a third-place finish, and Nemechek crossed the line right behind him in fourth. A double top-five effort for the LMC drivers.

In 2024, Nemechek and Jones combined for just one top-five finish. This past season, they collected six top-five runs. Jones’ improvement from one top-five in 2024 to four in 2025 led to him ranking as the second-most improved in the category, and he trailed only Chase Briscoe, who had 12 more top-fives than he had a season ago.

While Jones had more top-five finishes, Nemechek had slightly better overall consistency as he snatched eight top-10 finishes, which doubled his total from the 2024 season. As a result, Nemechek tied Josh Berry for the third-largest gain in top-10 finishes year-over-year at +4.

When all was said and done, Nemechek had an average improvement rank of 6.50 across all statistical categories, while Jones was also impressive with an average improvement rank of 7.92.

Overall, it really was a good bounce-back year for Jones and Nemechek, and the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season has hopefully laid a proper foundation for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB to continue building upon.

Runner-Up: Ryan Preece

After a subpar stint with Stewart-Haas Racing, Ryan Preece found himself in the newly created third car, the No. 60 Ford Mustang Dark Horse, for RFK Racing heading into the 2025 season. There had to be immense pressure, as this was likely Preece’s last shot to showcase the talent that landed him full-time NASCAR Cup Series opportunities to begin with.

He didn’t disappoint.

While he didn’t score his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, Preece did just about everything but win, and he nearly worked his way into the Playoffs purely on his points scored.

The Connecticut native tied his career-best with a third-place run at Las Vegas, and he was actually initially scored as the runner-up finisher in the spring race at Talladega before he was disqualified in post-race inspection.

Preece scored two more top-five finishes (3) than he did in 2024 (1), and he had the second-most level of improvement year-over-year in top-10 finishes as he amassed 14 top-10s in 2025, nine more than he had during his 2024 run in the No. 41 Ford.

Preece also had the biggest improvement in average start and the second-best improvement in average finish of any full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2024 to 2025.

The final statistical breakdown for Preece showed career-best marks in top-fives (3), top-10s (14), poles (1), average start (19.4), average finish (15.7), DNFs (2), lead lap finishes (29), and points ranking (18th).

It was a truly good season for the 35-year-old racer, and had it not been for an otherworldly performance for the most improved driver in the series, the honor would have easily gone to Preece in 2025.

Most Improved Driver: Chase Briscoe

Unquestionably, the most improved driver during the NASCAR Cup Series season was Chase Briscoe, who landed the opportunity of a lifetime as the successor to 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr.

As Briscoe slid into the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, he hit some early stumbling blocks as he acclimated himself to the caliber of car that JGR fields, but by midseason, hardly anyone on the circuit was better than Briscoe, and his No. 19 team led by crew chief James Small.

Once they scored a strategy-fueled win at Pocono Raceway in June, Briscoe and the No. 19 team came to life. Briscoe would secure a dominant win, where he led 309 of 367 laps, in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Briscoe would then secure a Championship 4 berth with a thrilling win at Talladega Superspeedway in October.

Briscoe’s average improvement rank in all of the statistical categories from 2024 to 2025 was an astonishing 2.50, and Briscoe led the way in improvement in top-five finishes (+12), top-10 finishes (+10), poles (+7), average finish (6.1 positions better), and overall point total (made the Championship 4).

It was a truly incredible year for Briscoe, as he ended the season with career-high totals in wins (3), top-fives (15), top-10s (19), poles (7), laps led (884), average start (9.9), average finish (12.7), lead lap finishes (32), and championship ranking (3rd). While it was just not quite enough to secure Briscoe the Bill France Cup, Briscoe’s resurgent season did secure him the most improved driver label for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

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