What Does the Stewart-Haas Racing Soap Opera Have in Store for 2015?

When it comes to producing drama reminiscent of a daytime soap opera, no team in NASCAR can rival Stewart-Haas Racing. Between the on-track triumph and off-track tumult, the team remained in the spotlight throughout the 2014 season and this offseason.

Each member of the team is captivating. Kevin Harvick won the 2014 Sprint Cup championship, while Danica Patrick serves as one of the most polarizing figures in the sport.

The organization has also had controversy surrounding it. Tony Stewart is still coping with the death of Kevin Ward Jr., and Kurt Busch is involved in accusations of domestic violence with ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll.

What should NASCAR fans expect from the next season of As the SHR Turns?

For Harvick, it's all about simply replicating his success from a year ago. The last time he was on the track, Harvick was hoisting the Sprint Cup trophy following his first season with the team.

While repeating in the new Chase format won't be easy, Harvick has the drive and, most importantly, the resources to do so with SHR. Tom Jensen of Fox Sports also offered his take on what makes Harvick a contender again:

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Harvick has won virtually every big race in NASCAR: The Daytona 500, Brickyard 400, Coca-Cola 600, NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. He's won at Martinsville, the shortest oval on the circuit, and at Talladega, the longest. He also has two NASCAR Xfinity Series titles and now one in Sprint Cup. Put bluntly, Harvick comes up big when it's on the line. That's exactly what he did last year in winning the final two races of the season.

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Jensen brings up the perfect reason why The Closer can repeat this season. He's at the top of his game with some of the best equipment, not to mention a Hendrick engine under the hood. He'll have stiff competition with Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon's swan song, but there is no better driver in the sport right now.

On the completely opposite end of the spectrum from Harvick sits Patrick. Heading into her third season with SHR, Patrick is in a contract year still looking for her first top-five finish, much less a win. After Harvick's title win last fall, Patrick is now the only member of the team without a championship.

While it's highly unlikely she'll become the fourth member to win a title, improvement seems possible. She took a slight step back in the standings last season, going from 27th to 28th, but she did take three top-10s in 2014 compared to just one the year prior.

Stewart, the team's co-owner, doesn't believe Patrick regressed during her sophomore campaign.

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"The speed that she had, the results didn’t show," Stewart said, via Jeff Owens of Sporting News, "but she had speed at a lot of racetracks that she didn’t have the year before and from the beginning of the season through the two-thirds mark of the season, there was an incredible improvement in that category.

“... There was a lot of cases where she had made huge improvements, but those are the things that people don’t write about and they only go by what they can analyze at the end of the day, and that’s the finishing position."

In order to actually silence critics, results will be vital for Patrick this season. The only female driver in Sprint Cup has the capability of running in the top 10 much more often than just three times in a season. Expect her to do well at the superspeedways and show vast improvement on smaller tracks, as she did at Kansas and Atlanta last year.

Patrick has room to progress and so does Stewart.

Enduring a nightmare season in 2014 on the track was nothing compared to what took place away from the NASCAR circuit. Stewart not only didn't make the Chase, but he missed multiple races following the death of Ward to deal with the heartache of being involved in the sprint car accident that took a young driver's life.

The offseason wasn't any easier, as Stewart had even more surgery done on his leg injury. His broken leg was suffered during a sprint car race in 2013, which caused him to miss the final 15 races of that season. Stewart has since noted that he's unsure if he'll ever compete in a sprint car again.

Stewart's biggest obstacle this season will be attempting to make his way back to the Chase, having missed out on it the last two years. If he can get his mind right, there is still plenty of gas left in the tank.

At 43 years old, Stewart simply needs a win to get in—something he accomplished every season up until last year. Look for Stewart to return to Victory Lane and put some of the past behind him with a strong run in the Chase.

Still, rather than focusing solely on his own results, Stewart also has to think about the team. In particular, trying to figure out matters in the garage if Busch is forced to miss any time.

During NASCAR media day at Daytona, Stewart spoke about a contingency plan for Busch.

"We do, but we're kind of waiting to see what happens," Stewart said. "I'm very hopeful we won't have to worry about it. I feel bad that he's in that situation right now, that they're both in that situation. We have to be smart and we have to have a plan in place if it doesn't work out for whatever reason."

From a marketability standpoint, this isn't exactly an ideal scenario for either driver. But Busch still has a slightly better situation on the track from last year, when he won a race and made the Chase.

Before the end of last season, SHR made a swap in crew chiefs between Busch and Patrick. Busch inherited Tony Gibson, a veteran with a wealth of stock car experience, while second-year crew chief Daniel Knost took the helm for the No. 10 team.

The swap happened during the Chase race in Texas, which led to an average finish of 8.7 in the last three races for Busch. Paired up with Gibson for an entire season, the duo has a chance to make some noise. Busch has proved he can be a champion in the past with Roush, and with his talent and Gibson leading the way, there's no reason why he can't compete for another one in 2015.

But with the black cloud hanging over him following his tumultuous offseason, what we'll see from Busch to start the season is still a mystery. In fact, what awaits the entire crew in 2015 is still up in the air.

Can Harvick repeat? Will Patrick finally live up to the extensive publicity she gathers? Are Stewart and Busch able to overcome their off-the-track chaos? Tune in each week to find out what comes next from this always engrossing group of drivers.

Follow @RCorySmith on Twitter.