What You Should Know in the Final Weeks of the NASCAR Offseason
With the Daytona 500 now less than three weeks away, we felt it might be a good time to give NASCAR fans a bit of a primer on what to expect as they get back into the swing of things for the upcoming 2015 season.
Admittedly, 2014—especially with the way it played out in the closing races of the Chase—gave the sport and fans one of the most thrilling finishes we’ve seen in many seasons.
Can 2015 come close—let alone surpass—the excitement and drama that we saw last season?
Only time will tell, but it’s almost a certainty that how the season plays out will begin with at least some of the ways it starts out.
Let’s look at 10 things NASCAR fans should be aware of heading into 2015:
2nd Year of the New Chase for the Sprint Cup Format
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Many fans, let alone drivers, had their doubts when the new-fangled Chase for the Sprint Cup was unveiled a year ago—with an increase from 12 to 16 drivers, as well as three elimination rounds for a final round of four drivers battling it out for the championship.
But the way the Chase played out—not to mention all its excitement and drama—NASCAR ultimately wound up not only hitting a home run with the new format, it also came up with a grand slam.
Now that we have a year of the new format under our belt, the No. 1 question heading into 2015 is whether year two of the new Chase can equal or even surpass all that happened in last year’s Chase.
2015 Will Be Jeff Gordon’s Final Season
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One of the biggest stories during the offseason was the announcement nearly two weeks ago that Jeff Gordon would step down as driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet after the 2015 season.
It will be a year of remembrance and honoring for Gordon. But he would forego all of the goodbyes for one last Sprint Cup championship—which would be the fifth of his career.
Gordon would then be able to realize the dream that most athletes have when they get into a sport: to leave on top, as a champion.
Gordon did just about all he could do in 2014 to win the championship, but he missed making the final round of four drivers by a mere one point after the fall race in Phoenix—and no thanks to Brad Keselowski for cutting down Gordon’s tire at Texas the week before.
Gordon may want to go out as a champ, but given this will be his last season, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Don’t be surprised if Gordon looks to extract some revenge upon some of those who have done him wrong over the years.
(Including Bad Brad, as if anyone needs a reminder.)
2015 Will Be Chase Elliott’s Final Season in Xfinity Series
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Even though Chase Elliott is now the heir apparent to replace Gordon for the 2016 Sprint Cup season, he has some unfinished business.
Elliott, who became the youngest national series champion in NASCAR history last year when he won the 2014 (and final) Nationwide Series championship, now seeks to become the first champion of the new, rebranded Xfinity Series.
And if you want to extrapolate that even further, consider this: If Elliott does win the 2015 NXS title, could he potentially win not only 2016 Rookie of the Year honors but also become the last winner of a Sprint Cup championship that same season?
Remember, Sprint’s final year as NASCAR title rights/entitlement sponsor is also 2016.
And if he is able to pull that 2016 Cup championship off, consider this: He could also become the first champion under the new entitlement sponsor, whatever that will ultimately be, in 2017!
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Needs a Quick Start with New Crew Chief Greg Ives
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. had his best season in a decade in 2014. Not only did he win four races, including the season-opening Daytona 500, but he also was a championship contender throughout most of the remainder of the season until he was eliminated in the third elimination round, essentially falling one round short of going for the big prize.
In falling short, Earnhardt failed to give crew chief Steve Letarte the present he had hoped: Letarte’s first Cup championship before leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the 2014 season to become an analyst for NASCAR on NBC in 2015.
Now Earnhardt has a new crew chief, Greg Ives. In many ways cut from the same mold of Letarte as a leader, Ives took Chase Elliott to the Nationwide Series championship last season.
Can Ives be the final piece of the puzzle to finally get Earnhardt that long-awaited and long-desired first Sprint Cup championship of his career in 2015?
Drop of 100 Horsepower in Sprint Cup Motors in 2015
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To make the racing even more competitive and closer, NASCAR has implemented several new rules for the 2015 season.
The rule of most note is a significant reduction in horsepower for Sprint Cup car motors, dropping from 850 horses to 750 hp for 2015.
There are other changes to things such as the aero packages on cars, as well, but the loss of approximately one-eighth of the power you had under the hood from last season to this season will be a fairly significant loss for drivers.
At the same time, we may ultimately wind up seeing the tightest racing we’ve ever seen in the Cup series, which is a win-win for everyone.
Carl Edwards’ Move to Joe Gibbs Racing
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There wasn’t a lot of free-agent movement after the 2014 season, with the exception of Carl Edwards moving from Roush Fenway Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing for 2015.
Edwards is reunited with former teammate Matt Kenseth, who left RFR after the 2012 season.
His first season there in 2013 was an unqualified success, winning a career single-season high and series-high seven wins—even though he came up short of winning what would have been his second career Cup championship.
Will the grass ultimately prove greener for Edwards with his new team? Will he have a first year with JGR as Kenseth did?
And will Edwards, who tied for the Sprint Cup championship in 2011, only to lose it by a one-point tiebreaker to Tony Stewart, who had five wins that season to just one for Edwards, finally win that elusive Cup crown in 2015?
2015 Daytona 500: Preview of Daytona Rising
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When the Daytona 500 airs on Fox Sports in less than three weeks, there’ll be a significant new look to 40 percent of Daytona International Speedway.
When the green flag drops on the Great American Race, 40 percent of DIS will have been transformed into what will eventually become the first true motorsports stadium in the world.
Known as Daytona Rising, the $400 million project is the largest capital expenditure and improvement project ever in the history of NASCAR’s race-track arm, International Speedway Corporation.
The entire project will be completed before the 2016 Daytona 500—but for those fans lucky enough to attend this year’s race, it’ll be a heck of a preview of what’s still to come.
Kevin Harvick Goes for 2nd Consecutive Chase Championship
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After 13 seasons, Kevin Harvick left Richard Childress Racing at the end of the 2013 season and joined Stewart-Haas Racing for the 2014 season.
The move was simple: Harvick wanted to win that elusive first Sprint Cup championship and felt he had a better chance of doing so at SHR than RCR.
To do what he did in 2014 at his new home, with essentially a start-up team to begin he season with, along with new crew chief Rodney Childers, Harvick stayed steady throughout the 10-race Chase and then won the season-ending finale to clinch that first championship.
Now, can Harvick make it two in a row in 2015? He has just about as good of a chance as anyone else. But with the experience of knowing what it took and what he needed to do to win the championship the first time around, perhaps Harvick and his team will be better prepared to make it two in a row this season.
Can Jimmie Johnson Bounce Back for Record-Tying 7th Cup Championship?
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A year ago as we headed into the 2014 Sprint Cup season, Jimmie Johnson was one of the biggest storylines.
Johnson was coming off his sixth career Sprint Cup championship in 2013 and seemed like he was a near-lock to win No. 7 in 2014, which would have tied him with NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. for most championships won by a single driver.
Unfortunately for Johnson and his fans, things didn’t exactly turn out that way. In fact, not only did Johnson fail to win that monumental championship, he didn’t even advance to the final four-driver championship round.
What’s more, Johnson and his other three teammates all failed to put even one Hendrick Motorsports driver in the final four-driver championship round.
Will Johnson win No. 7 in 2015? What about teammate Jeff Gordon’s hopes to win No. 5 in his final Sprint Cup season? Or how about Dale Earnhardt Jr. wanting to finish off what he started last season and win his first Cup crown in 2015?
And let’s not forget about fellow HMS teammate Kasey Kahne, who is also looking for his own first-ever Cup championship.
Can Tony Stewart Bounce Back After 2 Terrible Seasons?
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A year ago, Tony Stewart came back to race after missing the final 15 events of the 2013 season after suffering a fractured leg in a wreck during a sprint car race in August of that year.
When Stewart came back at the start of 2014, he was still not 100 percent healthy, but he gave it his best effort.
Then, just a few days over a year to the day of his sprint-car mishap at a dirt track in Iowa, Stewart was involved in another sprint-car race mishap with much more significant consequences: accidentally striking fellow driver Kevin Ward Jr. on the race track, leading to Ward’s tragic death.
Stewart voluntarily sat out the next three races mourning Ward. He eventually was cleared of any potential criminal charges that might have stemmed from the tragedy.
At the end of 2014, Stewart wound up with both his worst-ever Cup finish in a season (25th) and also failed to win at least one race in a season for the first time in his Cup career.
Will 2015 be better for Stewart? Hopefully. He’s in better physical shape than he was at this time a year ago.
One thing that could definitely give Stewart a big lift would be to win the 2015 season-opening Daytona 500 for the first time in his career. For the record, Smoke is 0-of-16 at the 500.
Follow me on Twitter @JerryBonkowski
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