Power Ranking the Racing Teams in NASCAR Ahead of the 2015 Season
The team construct in NASCAR is a strange beast. It better resembles horse racing than any other sport. Some owners have more resources, can buy better stock and, come race day, have the cards stacked in their favor.
In some ways it’s viciously capitalistic, which is why only seven of the 12 teams in 2014 won a race and two teams accounted for 66 percent of all races won. Neither of those two won the Sprint Cup.
Looking ahead to the 2015 season, there are three big teams that will more than likely account for close to all of the 36 available wins. Thanks to the improved Chase format where points reset after each round, the big teams aren’t handed the title. They still have to earn it.
There are 12 teams that NASCAR.com deems worthy of a few megapixels, so those will be the ones we give the majority of our horsepower. BYOTS: bring your own tapered spacers.
As we look ahead to 2015, let’s don our fire retardant suits and rank the best teams of the new year.
No. 12: Germain Racing
1 of 12
Team: Casey Mears
Best finish in 2014: Fourth in the Coke Zero 400
Outlook
Germain Racing, like a few teams on this list, has just one driver. That puts it at a tremendous disadvantage when going against the three- and four-driver teams.
The last time we saw Mears he was finishing 20th in the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead.
He doesn’t exactly have a storied career, notching just one win eight years ago for Hendrick Motorsports. That year, 2007, he finished 15th in the standings.
In 2014, he had two top-five finishes.
No. 11: Tommy Baldwin Racing
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Team: Alex Bowman
Best Finish in 2014: Michael Annett, 15th in NASCAR Showdown; Sorenson, 14th at GEICO 500
Outlook
It’s hard to endorse Tommy Baldwin Racing and its two drivers when their best finishes came at the Showdown and a restrictor-plate race. This is mainly because two of its drivers from last year are, in effect, gone.
The vast majority of their finishes were in the 20s and 30s. Sorenson, to his credit, led seven laps on the season while Annett only managed five.
The deep end in the NASCAR swimming pool is shark-infested, and there’s little TBR and its two drivers can do about it.
Now TBR adds Alex Bowman, a rookie, from BK Racing to replace last year’s rookie, Annett. Optimism won’t be the operative word in the TBR garage in 2015. He’ll handle the No. 7 car while the No. 36 may only be run part time in 2015, according to Dave Moody of GodfatherMotorsports.com (h/t Chris Estrada of MotorSportsTalk).
No. 10: Furniture Row Racing
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Team: Martin Truex Jr.
Best Finish in 2014: Fourth at Hollywood Casino 400
Outlook
Like Germain Racing, Furniture Row has just one driver in Martin Truex Jr.
But unlike Mears, Truex managed to find himself closer in most of the races. He had five top-five finishes and 13 inside the top 15. Sadly for Truex he led just two laps the entire season.
He finished 24th in the Sprint Cup standings in 2014 and clearly has some talent. He needs more support to jump into the next tier of drivers. He also needs a year devoid of distraction.
In 2014 his girlfriend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and now after treatment she appears to be fine. Truex started 2014 on the front row at Daytona, but the weight of the off-the-track issues slowed his season, his worst in 11 years.
“When you’re searching and you’re not running well and nothing is going your way, that’s what racing is,” Truex told Nick Groke of The Denver Post. “You have to imagine all the buttons you can push to change a race car. There are so many different things. And if one part of the car is screwed up, nothing works.”
As the lone member of his team, he has his work cut out for him; but there’s no reason he can’t win a race and get into the Chase if the cards fall right.
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No. 9: JTG Daugherty Racing
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Team: AJ Allmendinger
Best Finish in 2014: First at Cheez-It 355
Outlook
AJ Allmendinger knows road courses, and he showed it at Watkins-Glen in 2014. Even at Sonoma he led 35 laps. At Watkins-Glen he led 29 laps and won the race.
And if you have become numb to the big boys winning, just listen to team owner and former basketball great Brad Daugherty. He told Gerry Fraley of The Dallas Morning News:
"As a pro basketball player or a college player, I always knew we get to win every week. In this business, we don’t get to win every week. To have this opportunity is a pinnacle moment for our team. We’re little-bitty guys. We got the big guys today. We got a chance to kick the big guys in the knees, and we kicked them square in the chin.
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Here’s a list of drivers Allmendinger finished ahead of in the 2014 season: Clint Bowyer, Kasey Kahne, Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray.
Of all the one-driver teams, JTG Daugherty has the best driver and is better than some of the teams with several drivers.
No. 8: Richard Petty Motorsports
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Team: Aric Almirola and Sam Hornish Jr.
Best Finish in 2014: Almirola, first at Coke Zero 400
Outlook
Sam Hornish Jr. makes his full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut for the No. 9 Twisted Tea Ford Fusion, bringing a few years of Xfinity Series experience and a wealth of IndyCar wins to the Petty garage.
Hornish is a three-time IndyCar Series champion, which will hopefully rub off on Almirola, a driver who snuck into the Chase by “winning” the Coke Zero 400. He happened to be the lead car during a red-flag delay. Officials cancelled the race and Almirola was declared the winner.
Take them as you will. Almirola failed to advance beyond the Challenger round in the Chase, but he did manage to snag two top-10 finishes after his “win.”
This team’s glass is a quarter full, but it can always boast that it was one of only seven teams to win a race in 2014.
No. 7: Michael Waltrip Racing
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Team: Brian Vickers, Clint Bowyer, Michael Waltrip
Best Finish in 2014: Vickers, second at Coke Zero 400; Bowyer, third at Federated Auto Parts 400 and GEICO 500
Outlook
Not good.
Brian Vickers will miss the early part of the season due to surgery to repair a hole in his heart. It’s his second such procedure.
“I have faced obstacles before and it has made victory that much sweeter and I know that will be the case again,” he told ESPN.com. “I will need plenty of time, rest and rehab, but this temporary setback will not stop me from pursuing my dream of becoming a NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.”
The attitude is great and certainly everybody at MWR wants Vickers healthy above all else. Losing a driver of his talent is crushing, and that means Clint Bowyer will have to pick up the slack.
Bowyer came close in 2014 to winning some races, but could never close it out. A late wreck or lack of engine killed any chances he had of winning.
While Vickers heals up, the hopes of MWR rest solely on Bowyer’s shoulders.
No. 6: Roush-Fenway Racing
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Team: Greg Biffle, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Trevor Bayne, Elliott Sadler
Best Finish in 2014: Biffle, second at Aaron’s 499; Stenhouse, second at Food City 500
Outlook
Roush-Fenway won two races in 2014, and sadly it lost those two wins when Carl Edwards shipped to Joe Gibbs Racing for the start of the 2015 season.
The loss of Edwards hurts and that puts all the pressure on Biffle, who finished 14th in the Chase, to lead this team and represent it in the postseason.
"In a year of struggles, The Biff showed some of his brightest glimmers in some fairly unlikely places. Most known for its performance on intermediate-sized tracks, the No. 16 team led at least a lap at all four restrictor-plate races last season and posted a sweep of top-10 finishes at both road courses, cementing Biffle’s status as an underrated road racer.
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To ease the pressure on Biffle, Stenhouse needs to step up his game. He had six top-10 finishes, but largely suffered in the middle of the pack in every race.
“I think there’s no reason we can’t win a race in 2015,” Stenhouse told AthlonSports.com. “I really want to get that marked off our list.”
No. 5: Chip Gnassi Racing
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Team: Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray
Best Finish in 2014: Larson, second at Hollywood Casino 400 and Slyvania 300; McMurray, third at Bank of American 500
Outlook
Kyle Larson, NASCAR’s 2014 Rookie of the Year, has many people thinking that he’ll be the next big thing in this sport. With the retirement of Jeff Gordon and the aging of some of the game’s brightest stars, who can argue?.
Buying Larson stock right now would be like buying Apple in 1984. After reading Bleacher Report’s R. Cory Smith’s take, that sounds like a great deal:
"Rather than trying to fly under the radar after missing the Chase last year, Larson was one of the most consistent drivers during the final 10 races. His six top-10 finishes in NASCAR's postseason were impressive after posting just 10 during the entire regular season.
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As for McMurray, he earned seven top-fives and won two poles, but failed to win a race. He also gets his third crew chief in as many years, Matt McCall.
“It’s also a bit of a challenge for people in my position, where you haven’t worked with your crew chief,” McMurray said on MotorSportsTalk. “You need to learn each other, emotions, your goods and bads. We won’t have that until the Sprint Unlimited and the 150s. It would be nice to have the time before hand.”
They’re not the best two-man team, but they’re warm and getting hotter.
No. 4: Stewart-Haas Racing
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Team: Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, Danica Patrick
Best Finish in 2014: Harvick, 2014 Sprint Cup Champion, winner of five races; Busch, first STP 500
Outlook
SHR had one of the more dominant drivers in 2014 in Harvick. He proved to be one of the best front-runners in the entire sport. He led more than 100 laps in seven different races and more than 200 laps four times, winning three of those.
When he was on he was, quite literally, unbeatable.
As for the other drivers, Stewart will rebound after a tumultuous year where he struggled behind the wheel while recovering from a broken leg. That was further compounded when he struck and killed Kevin Ward Jr. on a dirt track in Upstate New York.
Busch is tied up in one of the more bizarre domestic disputes you’ll ever read about, and Patrick is all window dressing with little substance.
Still, with Harvick looking to repeat and Stewart trying not to go up in smoke, the team as a whole may be one of the bigger surprises in 2015. SHR could conceivably win double-digit races in 2015, but only if Stewart and Busch pick up the slack.
Who knows? Maybe Patrick sneaks through at Daytona for a win. Restrictor plates make for crazy outcomes.
No. 3: Joe Gibbs Racing
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Team: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards
Best Finishes in 2014: Hamlin, third in the Chase, winner of Aaron’s 499; Busch winner Auto Club 400; Edwards winner of Food City 500 and Toyota/Save Mart 350
Outlook
Watch out for JGR.
As a team in 2015 it won only two races. That was with a winless Matt Kenseth and an erratic Kyle Busch. Adding Carl Edwards means JGR is trying to go punch-for-punch with Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing.
If you throw in Edwards’ two wins from 2014, SHR, HMS and JGR accounted for 28 of 36 possible wins on the circuit.
If Kenseth comes back half as good as he was in 2013, a year when he won seven races, JGR will be a force.
Even without Kenseth winning, JGR qualified all three of its drivers for the Chase with Hamlin finishing third, Kenseth finishing seventh and Kyle Busch finishing 10th. Edwards, then with Roush-Fenway, finished ninth. That’s four drivers in the Chase’s top 10 from 2014.
HMS can’t say that. SHW can’t say that.
Joe Gibbs is getting after it in 2015.
No. 2: Team Penske
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Team: Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano
Best Finish in 2015: Keselowski, six wins; Logano, five wins
Outlook
Less is more, and Team Penske takes a minimalist approach to its pit stalls. Two drivers alone accounted for nearly a third of all wins in 2014. There’s no need to add more drivers when you can put all your chips on these two studs.
Both faltered late in the Chase, yet still finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Keselowski, 30, one of the more polarizing drivers on the circuit, still feels like a newcomer, like he’s eating at the children’s table. He told Sporting News:
"I feel like that is how our sport works. With the lack of turnover in our sport in the last decade, even though I may be a champion, I am still a ninth-grader. I am still the freshman in high school. No high school football player on the varsity likes to get beat up by the freshman. That’s where I’m at. ... I’m still the freshman.
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That makes him dangerous.
Even Logano has that edge, being so young, baby-faced and, above all, a winner. Until Gordon and Johnson drive their Chevy’s into the western sky, Logano and Keselowski will always be perceived as junior varsity, even though Keselowski was the 2012 Sprint Cup champion, even though nobody won more races than these two in 2014.
They are the dynamic duo of NASCAR, Batman and Robin.
No. 1: Hendrick Motorsports
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Team: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne
Best Finish of 2014: Gordon, four wins; Johnson, four wins; Earnhardt, four wins; Kahne one win
Outlook
The sun shines bright on Hendrick Motorsports. With 13 wins spread over four drivers in 2014, it has the most dominant and feared team.
It must feel good being a Hendrick driver, knowing that every week is essentially your week to lose. Gordon, who sits at 92 career wins, enters his last full-time season. Hendrick told The Charlotte Observer:
"I think experience is playing a big role. He has shown that he hasn’t lost anything. I think, if anything, you see so many of these guys that are really fast make mistakes. They get loose, get into the wall, speed, they’ll do things that cost them an opportunity to win a race. But when the chips are down and it’s time to get the flag, man, I put my money on him every time.
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Johnson, winner of six championships, underperformed in 2014, despite winning four races.
Earnhardt won four including the Daytona 500, but lost his crew chief Steve Letarte to the National Broadcasting Company.
Then there’s Kahne, someone who still managed 11 top-10 finishes in what can only be considered a disappointing season for him.
Four drivers, all hungry with the best resources and technology the sport offers. Do the math and that equation adds up to No. 1, the best team in all of NASCAR.
All racing stats were provided by ESPN.com.
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