NASCAR's 10 Biggest Offseason Changes so Far
Anyone else's head spinning?
It's been a busy offseason in NASCAR, and the hot stove—to steal a baseball reference—continues to burn bright and fast.
We've already seen high-profile drivers switch teams, crew chiefs get shuffled around like dominoes and more than one new/old driver find a full-time Sprint Cup Series gig.
For many NASCAR fans, the 80 or so days remaining until the green flag waves at Daytona International Speedway are dark ones, but with this much action, the storylines heading into the 2015 season should write themselves.
Here, we take a look at the 10 biggest changes in NASCAR thus far this offseason—and many of them are huge.
Greg Ives Takes the Reins with the 88
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Greg Ives doesn’t have an easy task in front of him, taking over the reins as crew chief for NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., in the upcoming season.
Junior won four races in 2014, matching his win total from the previous nine years. He began the season with an emotional second career victory in the Daytona 500, but he failed to produce results once the Chase began.
Ives steps in for Steve Letarte, who departed for a gig at NBC Sports after serving as pit boss for the No. 88 team since the 2011 season.
A transitional period is to be expected, but Ives brings with him a couple of characteristics that should make the move relatively painless for everyone involved. He’s familiar with both his driver and team at Hendrick Motorsports, leading Junior to comment, per Nate Ryan of USA Today, that he was "not only the most talented candidate but the most seamless transition.”
Ives served as race engineer for Jimmie Johnson during his string of five consecutive championships between 2006-2010, so he knows a bit about Hendrick. More recently, he guided Chase Elliott to the Nationwide Series title, helping the 18-year-old Junior protege become the youngest champion in the history of NASCAR’s three touring series.
That championship pedigree, coupled with his close, personal relationship with Junior, is why he was brought into this role, and he’s already expecting big things from the season ahead.
Carl Edwards Joins Joe Gibbs Racing
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Carl Edwards really can’t say he had a bad season. It just didn’t end as well as it started.
He won a pair of races—Bristol and Sonoma—advancing to the Chase in what turned out to be the last season of his 11-year run with Roush Fenway Racing.
Edwards announced in July that he would be departing Roush Fenway at season’s end, shortly after deciding to reunite with former teammate Matt Kenseth as a member of Joe Gibbs Racing’s new four-car team in the upcoming season.
The move makes a lot of sense for Edwards, who really struggled over the second half of the year after getting off to a promising start.
After winning his second race of the season in June at Sonoma—his first win on a road course—the No. 99 car never finished above fifth and was bumped after the Eliminator Round of the Chase.
At JGR, Edwards will get a new car, trading in the No. 99 Ford for the No. 19 Toyota, and an experienced crew chief in Darian Grubb, who guided Denny Hamlin the past three seasons and won a Sprint Cup title with Tony Stewart in 2011.
Danica Patrick Gets a New Signal-Caller, but Will It Last?
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OK, technically, this happened right before the offseason, but the story lingers on and remains both significant and interesting.
Danica Patrick quietly put together the best of her three—second full-time—seasons as a driver in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
The No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet secured three top-10 finishes and 14 top-20s, and Patrick came in with her two best results, a seventh-place finish at Kansas and a sixth at Atlanta in August. More importantly, perhaps, is that those two results came away from restrictor-plate tracks, where she's tended to do better.
Not bad, right?
Definitely something to build on as she approaches her third season as a full-time Sprint Cup driver.
Patrick’s momentum, however, seemed to be stunted with the decision to move Daniel Knost off the 41 team and into the same role with her as pit boss.
Stewart-Haas Racing explained the decision as an attempt to get a head start on 2015, hoping that Knost, who was a rookie crew chief thrust into the role when SHR decided to field a four-car team, would develop a long-term rapport with Patrick.
The move was obviously intended to jump some charge back into Kurt Busch’s team, but it left Patrick floundering, with finishes of 36th, 22nd and 18th to close out her year and zap any lingering good vibes ahead of her crucial third season.
Whether or not this move remains permanent—Knost was originally supposed to be an interim member of Danica’s team—remains to be seen, but the early results weren't promising.
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Kurt Busch Looks for More Consistency in 2015
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Kurt Busch is a well-traveled driver who has seen and done just about everything you can think of in NASCAR.
Outlaw joined Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2014 season, marking a huge investment by the team in the man who lifted the 2004 Sprint Cup.
That seemed to pay some immediate dividends, but those dividends tapered off badly as the season chugged along.
Busch qualified for the Chase with a win at Martinsville very early in the season, but he didn’t do much else from that point, ending the year with 10 finishes of 30th or worse.
Yikes.
SHR announced toward the end of the season that Busch would be trading crew chiefs with Patrick for the final three races in an attempt to shake things up for the team's big-ticket item. We already covered why that decision didn’t work too well for Danica, but Outlaw seemed somewhat rejuvenated by Tony Gibson’s presence and Knost’s departure.
He ran well in the final three races of the Chase, securing a pair of top-10 finishes and finishing just outside the top 10, in 11th, for the third.
Maybe all he needed was a veteran in the pit box?
Adam Stevens, This Is Your Shot
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Kyle Busch has been significantly more successful driving the No. 54 car in the Nationwide (now XFinity) Series over the past couple of seasons, and he’s hoping a big change will translate to success with the No. 18 car in this year's Sprint Cup season.
Dave Rogers is out as crew chief, part of a larger shakeup at Joe Gibbs Racing, and he will be replaced by Adam Stevens, brought up to the big leagues after much success at the helm of Busch’s second-tier team.
Busch and Rogers struggled to find consistency this year after an early season win at California and had a notable spat during August’s night race at Bristol.
With his driver complaining of front suspension problems, Rogers fired back at Busch on the radio, saying, per Bob Pockrass of Sporting News: "Park it behind the truck and take your whiny little ass to the bus."
The two men discussed the incident post-race, and JGR owner Joe Gibbs expressed confidence that the two men would be able to move forward.
Guess not, though for his part, Kyle says he would've been fine continuing with Rogers.
Stevens' familiarity and success with Busch make him a logical fit for this new role. The pair have teamed up for 19 combined wins the past two seasons in the Nationwide Series, and that should ensure a smooth transition to the big leagues for Stevens.
Kasey Kahne Shakes Things Up
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Kasey Kahne qualified for the Chase this year, taking a literal last-second victory at Atlanta in the penultimate race of the regular season to secure his passage through. That victory saved what was an otherwise subpar season for the veteran driver, leading to some speculation about his long-term future as part of Hendrick Motorsports.
Kahne’s contract was set to expire at the end of next season, and many expected his spot could go to Elliott, who appears almost ready for prime time and was nipping on his heels.
Hendrick ended all the talk in late November, signing Kahne to a somewhat surprising three-year extension that will keep him in the No. 5 Chevrolet until the end of the 2018 season.
Where does that leave Elliott?
Who knows.
Kahne will also have a new crew chief.
Kenny Francis is out after eight years, and Keith Rodden will step into his shoes, joining Hendrick after heading Jamie McMurray’s crew last season. Rodden is familiar with Kahne, having once served as his lead engineer, and the two shouldn’t have much problem developing chemistry.
The hope, at least insofar as the driver and his team are concerned, is that a fresh face at the helm will lead to more consistency in the year ahead, especially after that new contract investment.
Jamie McMurray Tries Something New
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Jamie McMurray didn’t win any points races in 2014 and failed to advance to the Chase, but his one victory at least netted him a substantial payday. The No. 1 car captured the checkered flag in May’s Sprint Cup All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, bringing in a cool million bucks for the driver and his team.
But don’t let the lack of victories paint the wrong picture.
McMurray had a very solid season, particularly during the Chase. He ran near the front in nearly all of the money races, finishing with four top-five finishes and seven overall for the year.
But if he wants to emulate or even build on that success, he'll have to do it with a new face on his pit box.
Rodden, who is one of the more underrated crew chiefs in NASCAR, jumped ship to Hendrick Motorsports in the offseason, where he’ll hope to light a fire under Kahne.
Chip Ganassi Racing promptly responded to the move by snagging Matt McCall from Ryan Newman’s team—he was chief engineer for the No. 31 car this last season—making it two pit bosses in two seasons for McMurray.
Trevor Bayne Takes the Plunge
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Trevor Bayne knows a little something about winning big races.
You may even have heard about it.
He won a little something called the Daytona 500 back in 2011, visiting Victory Lane at NASCAR’s premier race at the tender age of 20 and in just his second career Sprint Cup Series start.
How’s that for a hello, how do you do?
Becoming the youngest driver in NASCAR history to win the Daytona 500? Must’ve been some feeling.
He was part of Wood Brothers Racing back then and raced a part-time Sprint Cup schedule for the team in the ensuing three years, but now he has a full-time gig at Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne will pilot the No. 6 car in the season ahead, taking the plunge after a couple of solid years racing that car in the Nationwide Series.
Sam Hornish Jr. Finds a Full-Time Gig
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Marcos Ambrose is out, leaving NASCAR to return home and race in his native Australia, and Sam Hornish Jr. finds himself once again a full-time Sprint Cup Series driver as a result. The 35-year-old will race the No. 9 car of Richard Petty Motorsports, beginning a long-term deal in 2015 that will mark his return to NASCAR’s top level of competition after a very limited schedule the past few seasons.
Hornish Jr. is probably best known for his exploits as a driver in the Verizon IndyCar Series, where he captured the 2006 Indianapolis 500 and IndyCar titles in 2001, 2002 and 2006.
He raced a part-time schedule a season ago for Joe Gibbs Racing, appearing in one Sprint Cup race (filling in for Denny Hamlin), the same number as the previous season, and eight Nationwide races, spelling Kyle Busch in the No. 54 car.
But don’t let his two starts in two years fool you.
Hornish Jr. was a regular part of Team Penske from 2008-2010, missing only two starts in that stretch.
In his career, he has three top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
Denny Hamlin Makes a Big Change
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Sometimes, you just need a fresh voice.
Denny Hamlin, per Jeff Gluck of USA Today, indicated that he was ready for a change and happy about the recent deck reshuffling at Joe Gibbs Racing, necessitated by an expanding team and desire for improved results—and that means a new pit boss.
Grubb, who had guided Hamlin’s team since 2012, is now the crew chief for Edwards, the newest addition to JGR, and that leaves Hamlin with Rogers, the sometimes fiery hand who guided Kyle Busch for the past few seasons.
Maybe the move will put a charge into the No. 11 team.
Hamlin jelled immediately with Grubb when he took over in 2012. The pair won five races that year, but the last two seasons have been anything but glorious, combining for two trips to Victory Lane. Hamlin won early in 2014 at Talladega, securing his place in the Chase, but he didn’t do better than a pair of third-place finishes the rest of the way.
It’s quite possible that all he’s missing is a fresh perspective during race week, and particularly when on the track, and JGR is hoping that Rogers will provide him with just that and more.
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