Burning Questions Entering the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season
There are many questions to be asked and answered in the coming days, weeks and months that will comprise the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
For starters, how will rule changes related to the 2015 car affect competition on the track? Former Cup champion and current Fox Sports analyst Darrell Waltrip said he can't wait to find out.
"We've got some minor changes on the car for 2015 with less downforce and less horsepower," Waltrip wrote on FoxSports.com. "You are just going to hustle the car more, and like any rule change, it will be interesting to see who gets their arms around the right setup combination first.
"Drivers told me time and time again last year that the car stuck to the track like glue, handled great and they really didn't have the sensation of going over 200 miles per hour pretty regularly at most racetracks. The thing that is going to be really interesting to watch is who benefits or who suffers from these changes for 2015, as the cars will be a little harder to drive."
So while we're waiting for the answer to that to be ironed out, here are 10 more burning questions that beg to be answered as well heading into the season.
10. Is This Season Danica Patrick's Last Chance to Prove She Belongs?
1 of 10
Danica Patrick is entering her third full-time Sprint Cup season as driver of the No. 10 Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing, and it appears there is danger that it may be her last.
While Patrick deflected questions about that rather brusquely during the recent NASCAR media day at Daytona, according to Jim Utter of The Charlotte Observer, the questions are legitimate. In 82 career Cup starts, she has recorded precisely four top-10 finishes and has never finished higher than sixth.
Perhaps most importantly, as Utter noted, Patrick is in the final year of not only her contract with SHR, but also of her sponsorship deal with GoDaddy.com. She told the newspaper she isn't worried, however.
"It’s frigging February, buddy," she said. "It’s really a matter of cart and horse. It’s sponsor and team. Both are happy, so it’s a matter of getting GoDaddy in a place where they’re happy and committing to something, and from my understanding the team wants that, too, and it’s just a matter of time."
If she wasn't a marketing machine—which to her credit, she is—it's highly likely she already would be out of a ride. All she needs, though, are a few good runs on the track and to shoot a couple of smoking-hot commercials off it, and that'll probably buy her another couple of seasons.
9. Can Roush Fenway Racing Remain Relevant?
2 of 10
Roush Fenway Racing heads into 2015 trying to stay relevant in the hierarchy of the Sprint Cup Series.
In 27 years of competing in NASCAR's highest series, co-owner Jack Roush's teams have won 135 races. Last year, his organization won two—and the guy who won those two, Carl Edwards, soon split for a new ride at Joe Gibbs Racing.
Edwards followed in the footsteps of Matt Kenseth, who made the same career move for the same basic reasons two years earlier: The chances of winning races and ultimately a championship are much better elsewhere.
Edwards' departure left RFR with a stable of drivers who scare no one: an aging Greg Biffle (now 44, who last won in June 2013), underachieving Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and young Trevor Bayne, who is still trying to prove to the racing world that his 2011 victory in the Daytona 500 was no one-time fluke.
More than the weak driver lineup is the seemingly crumbling infrastructure behind it. The only way out may be to convince Team Penske that it needs to be more forthcoming in sharing valuable information with its fellow Ford organization, which doesn't seem likely.
8. Will Tony Stewart Be Able to Return to Old Ways?
3 of 10
Tony Stewart had a year to forget in 2014.
The driver of the No. 14 Chevrolet and co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing entered last season still hurting from a broken leg he suffered in August 2013, and his performance on the track seemed to reflect that. Then, last August, in what ultimately was ruled an accident, Stewart's sprint car—in a non-NASCAR race at a dirt track—struck and killed 20-year-old fellow driver Kevin Ward.
Now, Stewart appears healthy, much happier again and optimistic about the season that lies ahead.
"I'm ready to put the last two years behind me and never look back," he told Jordan Bianchi of SBNation.com. "I'm not talking about it, I'm not thinking about it. I'm going back to being me again."
The seems to bode well for his chances of returning to Victory Lane again and, ultimately, competing for the 2015 Cup championship.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
7. Who Will Be the Surprise Chase Participant(s) This Time?
4 of 10
Last year, the surprise entrants into the Chase for the Sprint Cup were AJ Allmendinger and Aric Almirola.
Allmendinger qualified for the Chase by virtue of his thrilling win on the road course at Watkins Glen last August, while Almirola did so by going to Victory Lane in a rain-shortened race in July at Daytona.
This year Allmendinger seems poised to again take advantage of his obvious expertise on the two Sprint Cup road courses, especially now that Sprint Cup's other acknowledged road-course ace, Marcos Ambrose, has left the United States to return to his native Australia. So Allmendinger is a good bet to win one or both of those and qualify for the Chase again.
Almirola is more of a long shot. He could sneak in again, but it seems more likely that the next surprise Chaser will come from Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. That organization fields two full-time teams with driver Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson, neither of whom has ever made the Chase. But Sabates, for one, thinks that is about to change.
"I've never guaranteed anybody anything in all the years I've been in racing, but I guarantee both of these guys will be in the Chase," he said, via Jay Pennell of FoxSports.com recently.
6. Will Six-Time Make a Strong Run at a Record-Tying Title No. 7?
5 of 10
Six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, always prided themselves on preparing for the Chase better than anyone else.
Then came last season and NASCAR's decision to switch to an elimination-style format in the Chase. It appeared to throw Johnson and Knaus off their game, and Johnson failed to advance past the round of 12.
Johnson and Knaus have made no secret of their desire to not only tie the NASCAR record for most Cup championships with seven (trying Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt), but to eventually surpass it. So their level of focus and determination may be at a new all-time high heading into this season.
That should be good news for them and may be very bad news for the rest of the competitors in the Sprint Cup garage.
5. Can Kevin Harvick Hope to Pop the Champagne Again?
6 of 10
It's been 17 years since the last repeat Cup champion not named Johnson (Jeff Gordon in 1997 and 1998).
So Kevin Harvick, the defending champ, knows it will be no easy task winning it all again. Heck, it took him 14 years to win his first championship, so he definitely knows.
On the positive side, Harvick obviously knows what he's doing behind the wheel, and he has a great crew chief in Rodney Childers. Plus, he got to keep the pit crew that originally belonged to Tony Stewart after the two Stewart-Haas Racing drivers swapped crews for the Chase last season.
On the negative side, oftentimes, a champion not named Johnson seems to struggle the year after winning a title. It could be because the team pours so much into winning it all one year that it falls behind in preparing for the next and it's difficult to play catch-up.
Time will tell where Harvick and his No. 4 team fall, but it's likely to be somewhere in the middle and short of a repeat performance.
4. How Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jell with New Crew Chief Greg Ives?
7 of 10
Getting socked with a penalty during their first Speedweeks together isn't the way new crew chief Greg Ives wanted to begin his relationship with driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports team.
But the fact that Earnhardt's car was deemed slightly too low in the left front following Daytona 500 qualifying will soon be forgotten if the two can make it legal and repeat Earnhardt's performance in last year's 500, which he won. If, however, Earnhardt struggles in his Budweiser Duel qualifying race Thursday and again in Sunday's main event, it will not be a good sign.
Earnhardt typically is the type of driver who takes some time to adjust to change. It wasn't until his fourth and final season with Steve Letarte that the pair started winning races, so it might be a bit much to expect Earnhardt to immediately pick up this season with Ives, the former lead engineer for the No. 48 team of Johnson, where the driver left off last season with Letarte.
Ives, though, is smart and inspires confidence in Earnhardt, who told Jeff Owens of SportingNews.com that Ives is one of the top five engineers in the sport and added of their new union, "I think it’s going to be great. There may be a little time for us to learn how to communicate and get the jargon down to handle how he talks and how I explain the car. But once we get that done, I think the cars will have the speed. I’m excited."
3. Will Brad Keselowski's Season Go Up in Smoke?
8 of 10
In addition to the races that were held in Sprint Cup late last season, there also was a little game that seemed to play out weekly.
It was called "Who Will Brad Keselowski Tick Off This Week?"
He angered a bunch of drivers at Talladega, then enticed the usually mild-mannered Matt Kenseth to tackle him and place him in a headlock post-race at Charlotte. But the biggest blowup of all he saved for, appropriately enough, Texas, where he upset Jeff Gordon so much that their two teams, and even a few members from some other teams, ended up in a Texas-sized brawl on pit road following the race.
Will any of that carry over to this year? It's hard to say. You want to think and say no. And it's almost certainly not something the carefree Keselowski is going to spend much time dwelling on.
But as long as Keselowski keeps driving hard and pushing competitors' buttons, there always will be that chance, however remote, that one or more of them will conspire to put him into the wall the next chance they get. And that could make it very difficult for the 2012 champ to win another title this year or any year.
2. Will Carl Edwards' Move to Joe Gibbs Racing Pay Huge Dividends?
9 of 10
Carl Edwards is looking forward to a fast first year in the No. 19 Toyota that he'll drive for Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I'm actually nervous and I think that's good," he said, via Tom Jensen of FoxSports.com, during NASCAR media day last week. "That's a motivator and for me it's an opportunity right now. I'm way outside of my comfort zone and that's good. Hopefully it yields good results."
He's off to a rapid start after finishing third in last Saturday's Sprint Unlimited non-points exhibition and then posting the seventh-fastest speed in qualifying Sunday, which gives him a great starting position in his Budweiser Duel. Don't be surprised if he wins it.
There is a history of drivers doing very well in their first year at JGR after switching from another team. Kyle Busch won a career-high eight Cup races after coming over from Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, and Matt Kenseth won a career-high seven after coming over from Roush Fenway Racing in 2013.
That's no guarantee that the same kind of magic will unfold for Edwards. But the two-time 2014 race victor was the only Roush Fenway driver to win at all last season in what appeared to be inferior equipment (in comparison to the best teams). Logic follows that he will at least double that win total with JGR this season, if not triple it or more.
1. Can Jeff Gordon Go out on Top in His Final Run at a Sprint Cup Title?
10 of 10
Jeff Gordon's final full-time Sprint Cup season is off to a storybook start after he won the pole for the Daytona 500 during qualifying last Sunday.
Gordon, who recently announced that this would be his final run at a fifth championship, obviously is going out on his own terms. And that's cool.
Unlike some rubber-legged boxer past his prime, Gordon arrives at what he has said is his final Daytona 500 still seemingly on the edge of his prime after a 2014 season in which he won four races and led the points standings in 20 of 36 weeks, including two in the Chase. He has made it clear that he would love nothing more than to go out on top.
"I've got a great team with a great opportunity to go win a lot of races and win this championship this year, and I don't want to take that for granted," Gordon said, via FoxNews.com. "I can't think of anything better to end this season with than to be the champion, to win Homestead [Nov. 22 season-ending race]. I would be celebrating for a month."
He would not be celebrating alone.
Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.
Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report while also assisting in coverage of NASCAR as a writer and editor at FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
