When the 2013 season ended, there were plenty of questions about where some Nationwide Series drivers would land in 2014. And there was a lot of jostling as driver lineups and negotiations were finalized.

As the season-opening DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway draws near, the dust – for the most part – has settled. 

JR Motorsports – With title contender Regan Smith back and teaming with Chase Elliott along with co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr running a partial schedule, the team has one of the strongest lineups in years.

Roush Fenway Racing – Jack Roush has returned to his old ways of developing young talent that has made his organization a title threat. Trevor Bayne, Chris Buescher and Ryan Reed are ready to back up their owner’s confidence.

Joe Gibbs Racing – Full-time driver Elliott Sadler and his team are under a lot of pressure to improve. Elliott’s No. 20 and the No. 54 will compete full-time in 2014, with several drivers sharing seat time.

Team Penske – Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, who all posted wins in the No. 22 in 2013, will split time in the same race car during the upcoming season.

Richard Childress Racing – A strong lineup returns with Brian Scott, Ty Dillon and Brendan Gaughan all gearing up for full-time schedules.

When Richard Childress Racing announced late last year that reigning Nationwide Series champion Austin Dillon was moving full-time to the Sprint Cup Series in 2014, his departure guaranteed a new Nationwide champion for the 2014 season and opened a seat in the No. 3 Chevrolet.

Enter Austin’s younger brother Ty Dillon. The younger grandson of team owner Richard Childress moves up from the Camping World Truck Series where he was the runner-up to champion Matt Crafton in 2013. Dillon won the series’ Rookie of the Year honor.

Ty, two years younger than Austin, leads a young, talented group of rookie contenders, including Chase Elliott, Dylan Kwasniewski and Ryan Reed. Dillon hopes that some of his brother’s success in the No. 3 rubs off. In addition to his title in 2013, the older Dillon won the series’ Rookie of the Year award the previous year.

When the Nationwide contingent arrives in Daytona for Saturday’s race, Ty brings with him a limited resume in the series. In nine starts, the 21-year-old has one top-five finish (third at Indy in 2012) and four top-ten finishes.

In last year’s July Daytona race – his only Nationwide start at the 2.5-mile superspeedway – he finished on the lead lap in 27th-place. In two truck series starts at the track, Ty Dillon has finished ninth (2012) and sixth (2013) and led 56 of 100 laps in the 2013 truck series event.

The other three rookies have never competed in a national series event on the high banks of Daytona. Of the three, only Reed has competed in a Nationwide race. In 2013, he ran six races for Roush Fenway Racing with a best finish of ninth at Richmond International Raceway.

On Tuesday, Ty Dillon enjoyed a bucket-list type experience, flying with the US Air Force Thunderbird team in Daytona.

Saturday’s Nationwide Series Race at Daytona will be a homecoming of sorts for the Sprint Cup regulars entered in the season-opening event.

All eight Sprint Cup regulars entered in the race have one thing in common: They all competed in NASCAR’s number two series before heading to the premier series. Three of them even have Nationwide titles: Dale Earnhardt Jr (1998-99), Kyle Busch (2009) and Brad Keselowski (2010).

Collectively, the group – which also includes Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Danica Patrick, David Ragan and Josh Wise – has compiled 1,183 starts, 143 wins, 458 top-fives and 652 top-tens in the series.

Larson ran his first Nationwide season last year before moving up to Sprint Cup for 2014. Kenseth made 48 starts before competing for the first time in the Sprint Cup Series. Patrick ran full-time once (2012) before moving to the premier series last season. Ragan made seven starts in the Nationwide Series before starting his first full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series in 2007. Wise already had 72 starts before his first premier series start in 2011.

Carlos Contreras of Mexico City, Mexico, returns to Nationwide Series action after last competing in the series at Kentucky in 2007.

Dylan Kwasniewski is making his series début this Saturday at Daytona – the same track at which he led Nationwide Series testing back in January with a fast lap of 190.022-mph. Chase Elliott and Chad Boat are also making series débuts this weekend.

The Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300 begins Saturday, February 22nd at 1:15pm ET on ESPN