Ranking the 10 Most Memorable Moments of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season

The NASCAR season came to an end with Kyle Busch’s incredibly spirited run to the Sprint Cup.

And over the course of 36 weeks of racing, it’s a challenge to boil down any season to 10 big moments. This season was no different. And you know something? This list doesn’t even involve the Daytona 500 (though it does involve Daytona).

There are record wins, retaliations, unlikely comebacks and issues with weather that stand tallest in a crowded year of moments.

Why wait? Read on for the 10 biggest moments of the 2015 NASCAR season.

10. Jimmie Johnson's Perfect 10

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Why not start No. 10 with Jimmie Johnson winning for the 10th time at Dover in the spring. There are drivers who don’t win 10 races in a career, yet Johnson won his 10th at one track.

Early in the season, Johnson was one of the favorites to win the Sprint Cup. His four wins in the regular season were logs on that fire. He’d win one more in the Chase.

The real irony came in the fall race at Dover, where Johnson’s mechanical issues thwarted any chance he had at advancing in the Chase.

9. Aric Almirola's Spirited Run at Richmond

R Brent Smith/Associated Press

Aric Almirola qualified for the Chase in 2014 by winning a rain-shortened Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. In 2015, he was on the bubble as a consistently good car, just never great.

Almirola showed his grit at Richmond in the final race of the regular season. He needed to win the race to get into the Chase and, though he didn’t get in, he drove hard, fast and with winning intent.

He said in Tom Jensen’s FoxSports.com story:

"

It is tough. This is what we race for. We race to win races. We race to run for a championship. This race team, we got to do it last year and we had an engine failure at Chicago and feel like we had a lot more to show in the Chase last year. We wanted another shot at it really bad. We have a really, really good race team, and I am disappointed we didn't get Smithfield and Ford into the Chase again.

"

Seeing a driver like Almirola in the mix shakes up the tenured elite who live in the top 10. A fresh face is desperately needed to stir up the top, and Almirola proved he belonged. It was just too little, too late, but darn fun to watch.

8. Steve Byrnes' Public Battle with Cancer

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Steve Byrnes' fight against cancer inspired millions and moved the entire NASCAR culture in his dying days. He passed away at the age of 56 after the Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up to Cancer at Bristol.

He made quite an impact on those he worked with and those he covered.

In a NASCAR.com staff report, Richard Petty said, “The best at what he did. He was always humble too, and I never saw him treat anyone unfairly. That's just how he did his job and lived his life.” 

President Barack Obama offered his condolences, and drivers Danica Patrick, Elliott Sadler, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr. tweeted their support to the Byrnes family.

Whenever somebody passes, you find people are always willing to say nice things. The level of support and adulation for Byrnes went that extra lap, and that’s how you know the importance of a single person.

After a longer-than-usual race at Bristol, someone asked Byrnes if he made it through the entire race. He tweeted back, “I went the distance.”

Yes, he did.

7. Joey Logano Sweeps the Contender Round

Terry Renna/Associated Press

There isn’t a more polarizing driver on the entire Sprint Cup series than Joey Logano. He’s young, at times arrogant, but above all else he’s really good.

He proved that in spades by sweeping the Contender Round of the 2015 Chase. Wins at Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega secured him as the favorite to win the Sprint Cup.

Talladega was the site of the infamous green-white-checkered restart that wasn’t. That elicited the sound bite that embodies why people dislike Logano.

"You gotta be kidding me. That was an attempt! Junior rules, that's what those are," Logano radioed (h/t ESPN.com).

The context being the one and only GWC-finish was “waved” off due to a caution that would allow Dale Earnhardt Jr. another chance at winning and thus advance to the Eliminator Round.

Logano did get the last laugh by edging Earnhardt and eliminating him from Sprint Cup contention.

The win at Talladega was Logano’s second restrictor-plate win of the season. He won that first one back in February. He won six races in 2015 and became the most hated driver on the circuit.

6. It Rains in the Desert

Ralph Freso/Associated Press

Not all moments are great, and the Phoenix elimination race—the Chase semifinals—was cancelled with about 100 laps remaining.

Yes, the weather was bad and yes, it would have pushed the finish time to 2 or 3 a.m., but IMO (and as much I desperately wanted to go to bed), NASCAR should have finished the race that night or even waited until noon on Monday to play out the final 100 laps.

Or, instead of trying to shoehorn the race between storm cells, postpone it from the outset and run it Monday.

Had this race been in March, sure, go ahead and cancel the race, but this was the final elimination race of the vaunted Chase. This was a sour moment for NASCAR during its playoffs.

Waiting for the rain to pass for a few more hours or restarting the race as a sprint would have been terribly inconvenient, but this is the playoffs. In the NHL, they play it out until there’s a winner.

As a result, the Champ 4 were locked during a red-flag stoppage, not with checkered flag waving.

5. Kyle Busch Comes Back, Wins the Sprint Cup

Terry Renna/Associated Press

What more can be said about Kyle Busch? Originally this slide was simply dedicated to his improbable comeback from the broken leg and foot he suffered by finding the concrete at Daytona.

Then, you know, he won the Sprint Cup.

After missing 11 weeks, he had a K2-style climb to qualify for the Chase. He needed to win a race (nailed it at Sonoma) and then power into the top 30. #nailedit

Busch endured a lot and said he wouldn’t change a thing, said the whole thing was a dream come true. Well…yeah.

"I powered on through all of that to get better, to go through rehab and become stronger mentally and physically,” Busch said on NASCAR.com. “I think it was just a great chance for me to recoup and regather my thoughts and myself in order to go after this championship run."

Busch won five races on the year and none bigger than the final one of the season, the one that delivered his first career championship.

4. Austin Dillon Caught by Fence

The most visually striking moment of the 2015 NASCAR season came early on July 6, around 2:30 a.m.

In the closing moments of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Austin Dillon’s No. 3 car took flight from the inside and soared into the catch fence. It was a terrifying, ugly crash that put into question Dillon’s health.

Then Dillon surfaced from his unrecognizable car and gave two thumbs up. He said in Jeff Gluck’s USA Today story:

"

It was very vicious. It's twisting you around in there, and the belts are loosening with each hit, so the hits are getting more and more violent. By the fourth hit, you've separated enough so that the fourth one is going to hurt more than others. I held on to the steering wheel as hard as I could. I'm sure I'm going to find more bumps and bruises during the week, but right now I feel all right.

"

He walked away with a bruised tailbone and forearm, and only a baker’s dozen of fans were treated for injuries.

Imagine for an instant a car of that size airborne and heading toward you in the seats. What a feat of structural engineering that the catch fence could stall the flight of Dillon’s car. The same is said for the car’s safety.

Amazing that we get to sit here nearly five months later and reflect on it with no sense of mourning, just awe.

3. Jeff Gordon Wins for the Ninth Time at Martinsville, Qualifies for Homestead

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Jeff Gordon finished third in the Sprint Cup standings, this after a mediocre year. He and the No. 24 team never could piece together an entire weekend.

Then Gordon traveled to Martinsville, a track where he already had eight career wins. This race, the first of the Eliminator Round, was Gordon’s best chance—maybe his only chance—at advancing to Homestead.

And, in his final season, Gordon didn’t disappoint.

"That's what I was talking about,” Gordon said in Reid Spencer’s NASCAR.com story. “We just keep digging and fighting... "This is the sweetest, most amazing feeling. I am so proud of this team. You want to talk about holding back emotions; right now man, wow, we're going to Homestead! I can't believe it."

Gordon didn’t burn his tires down. Instead he drove to the start-finish line, parked his car and climbed out. He threw his arms in the air. He rested his helmeted head on the car. He jumped into the arms of his pit crew. NBC wouldn’t couldn’t keep the cameras off him.

Gordon’s reaction to this win was one of the more energetic of all his 93 wins. If his tearful outpouring at winning the Coke 600 (his first career win) was the best, his final win was right up there, a perfect bookend to transcendent career in the No. 24 car.

2. Joey Logano Spins Out Matt Kenseth at Kansas

Logano already had rubbed people wrong when he was with Joe Gibbs Racing. Being named Sliced Bread, as in the best thing since, doesn’t engender good will.

As evidence of the fact, few drivers are actually booed during introductions, and even fewer get cheered when they get railroaded into the fence (more on this later). Logano was the recipient of said vitriol.

And the fecal matter hit the fan at Kansas, the second race of the Contender Round, when Matt Kenseth kept blocking a surging Logano. Logano got fed up/impatient and spun out Kenseth.

It was called “quintessential NASCAR” by NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France. But what it did was create tinder.

"That's good, hard racing," Logano said on ESPN.com. "We were racing each other really hard. I felt like I got fenced twice. He raced me hard, so I raced him back."

To which Kenseth added, "I'm really disappointed. I was running the lane he wanted to run in, but my goodness, isn't this racing? Strategically, I think it wasn't the smartest move on his part. He'll probably sleep good tonight. I hope he enjoys that one. It's not what I would have done."

Which, of course, led to…

1. The Revenge of Matt Kenseth

At first, Kenseth tried saying he cut a right-front tire and—whoops—snow-plowed Logano into the fence at Martinsville with the bumper of the No. 20 Karma.

Here’s what Kenseth said after the wreck through a fecal-matter-eating grin on ESPN.com:

"

The right front was dragging down there and probably should've went to the garage area and went into the corner there and, man, couldn't get it to turn and collected him. I know it's got to be disappointing for him, you know? It's a tough sport. Some days you're the bat, and some days you're the ball. I was the ball a few weeks ago, and I was the ball again today, so that part is never fun.

"

It must have tasted sweet for Kenseth because he took out the likely winner of the race, which would have been Logano’s fourth win in a row and a berth in the Champ 4. But Kenseth later said it was pure retaliation, and he practically got an ovation from the fans at Martinsville.

Kenseth said you have to respect the garage area and, basically, have a spine, otherwise you’ll get walked in a successive season.

''Drivers are going to be like, 'Well, he ain't going to do nothing,” Kenseth said. “We'll just knock him out of the race and then jack with him as much as possible and make sure he's not going to make it through because he's not going to retaliate. At some point, in my opinion, you have to retaliate.''

Kenseth sat out two races for his actions and it was, without question, the biggest moment of the season.