5 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records That Could Be Broken in 2015
Records can be a tricky business in NASCAR.
With different eras and times in the sport, it's hard to get everyone to agree on who did what, when, where and how.
It's even more difficult to get people to agree on who did what best.
Digressions aside, NASCAR's 2015 season is just a couple of weeks away, and that means new, fresh challenges to history.
Could we see the first woman to win a Sprint Cup race?
How about the most wins by a first-time champion?
In motorsports, you quickly learn that everything is equally possible and impossible.
These are the five Sprint Cup records that could be broken in 2015.
First Female Driver to Win Sprint Cup Race
1 of 5
Danica Patrick has 82 career starts in the Sprint Cup Series over three seasons—two as a full-time driver—and only four top-10s to show for it.
Very middle-of-the-road stuff, so it’s only logical to say that she will win her first race as a NASCAR driver in the season ahead, right?
Maybe not, but it would make for a heck of a story.
Patrick, when and if she does win, would become the first female driver in NASCAR history to take the trip to Victory Lane. She’s already the first woman to capture the pole at the Daytona 500 and lead a lap in the Great American Race, achieving both in 2013 before finishing eighth.
She quietly put together her best season on the Sprint Cup circuit in 2014, with her two best race results, sixth at Atlanta and seventh at Kansas. That went along with three top-10s, 14 top-20s and an average finishing position of 22, up from 24 in the previous season and 28 in her rookie campaign.
The trend is definitely going in the right direction for Danica, but a lot will depend on how she jells with new full-time crew chief Daniel Knost.
Knost was shuffled over to the No. 10 for the final three races of last season after the rookie failed to find much success leading Kurt Busch’s team.
Danica finished 36th, 22nd and 18th in her three races with him at the helm, showing improvement with each successive outing and hopefully giving her team something to build on as she pursues history once again in 2015.
Most Wins by a First-Time Champion
2 of 5
Joey Logano was good last season.
In fact, he was really good. So good, that if the Chase format had remained unchanged from previous seasons—instead of shifting to the drama-inducing elimination format with points resets after each stage—Logano, not Kevin Harvick, would’ve been the man lifting the Sprint Cup.
Ifs and buts will only get you so far, but the point is that Logano and his team showed they have what it takes to not only contend but win NASCAR’s top prize.
Logano had his best season as a pro in 2014. He won five races, had 16 top-fives and 22 top-10s. His five victories, had he won the championship, would’ve been enough to tie him with Jimmie Johnson for most wins by a first-time champion.
Johnson won five races in 2006 on his way to five straight Sprint Cups.
Now, of course, NASCAR records are a little tricky. There are different eras and such that one must wade through. It’s not exactly an easy job.
Jeff Gordon won seven races en route to his first championship in 1995, and David Pearson won a remarkable 16 races in 1966, but again, times and places change, and we’re focusing just on the Chase era.
Logano will contend again next season, and dare I say it, should enter 2015 as one of the favorites to lift the Sprint Cup. Could he find his way to Victory Lane five-or-more times?
It’s definitely within the realm of possibility. Five wins and a title would tie him with Johnson, six would give him the Chase record and seven or more would put Gordon in his cross-hairs.
A tall task, indeed, but one that’s within reach for a driver on the rise like Logano.
Remember, even the greats started somewhere.
First Winless Sprint Cup Champion
3 of 5
No driver has ever gone winless and lifted the Sprint Cup.
That’s not meant to be patronizing, but it seems to make all the sense in the world, right?
To be crowned a champion, the best driver in the sport for a given year, you should at least have the decency to, you know, win a race or two?
That’s actually the origin story of the Chase.
Sort of.
In 2003, Matt Kenseth won the then-Winston Cup Series despite only winning one race—the third of the season in Las Vegas—while Ryan Newman won eight times. Newman’s problem was that he didn’t finish several races due to crashes, and Kenseth was extremely consistent, finishing with 25 top-10s.
History lesson out of the way, the Chase format was supposed to reward winning and not just consistency. That’s been flipped around on its head to a certain extent with the new format.
Heading to Homestead for the Chase-ending race in November, Newman remained in contention despite not winning at all, Denny Hamlin had won just one time and guys like Brad Keselowski, five wins, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., four wins, were already eliminated.
Newman, call it karma, had a legitimate shot going into Homestead of winning the Sprint Cup without ever visiting Victory Lane that season. He ended up finishing second to Harvick, who won the title, and you’d have to think sighs of relief were common among NASCAR brass.
There’s a lot of good but also some bad about the new Chase format.
Extra drama is a good thing.
A winless champion?
Not so much, but that’s something that could happen in 2015.
And, if it does, it will be an unwelcome record.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Quickest Win by a Driver
4 of 5
Let’s heap a ton of unwanted pressure and praise onto Chase Elliott, anointing him the savior of the sport before he ever completes his first lap in a Sprint Cup race, shall we?
Elliott, who won the Nationwide Series Championship with a race to spare last season, becoming the youngest champion in the history of NASCAR’s three touring series at just 18 years old, will have a full-time Sprint Cup gig in 2016.
Gordon, the legendary four-time champion, will retire at season’s end, opening up a spot for Elliott to replace him in the No. 24 car. That’s already a huge amount of pressure for the 19-year-old prodigy to stare down—replacing an iconic driver in an iconic car—but we can always add some more.
Elliott will race a limited schedule on the Sprint Cup Series in the season ahead, when and where we don’t yet know, but he has the gusto to make a play for one of NASCAR’s most challenging records.
Trevor Bayne and Jamie McMurray are currently tied for the fewest starts before a Sprint Cup victory.
Bayne captured the Daytona 500 in 2011, his second career start, tying McMurray, who had won at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in 2002.
Could Elliott possibly tie or even break that record?
That’s a ton to ask of a driver who will still be a teenager when the season ends. But Elliott always operates with the cool calmness of a seasoned veteran on the track. He’ll have Hendrick at his back and a hell of a supporter in Junior, so why not him?
Youngest Sprint Cup Champion
5 of 5
In the modern era, Gordon holds the record for youngest champion in the Sprint Cup Series.
He achieved the feat in 1995 at just 24 years, three months and eight days old.
Looking for any driver with a realistic shot of topping that mark this season?
How about Kyle Larson?
Larson, the runaway 2014 Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year, won’t even turn 23 until July 31, and he made a statement in his first season at the helm of a full-time ride on NASCAR’s top-tier series.
The 22-year-old Californian didn’t win any races—it was all that was missing—but he did have close second-place finishes at California, New Hampshire and Kansas. Any one of those wins would’ve been enough to get him into the Chase, and they’ll serve as good learning experiences when he returns this season with a full year of seasoning under his belt.
You get the sense that he’s just one win away from being a force, with eight top-five finishes and 17 top-10s in his rookie campaign.
Larson is the real deal, and you can bank on him finding his way into the 2015 Chase.
Once he gets there, the pursuit of history begins.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
