Newman set for strong run
In recent years, the driver who finishes second in the standings one year tends to have a drop in performance the next time around. Tony Stewart is the most recent driver to follow a second-place points finish with a championship, but it’s been years since he pulled that off, in 2001-02.
But many in the sport expect better things from last year’s points runner-up Ryan Newman. That’s because Newman, in his first year at Richard Childress Racing and first year with crew chief Luke Lambert, seemed to get better as the season went on. His second-place finish in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway was his best of the year and followed a surge in performance over the final races.
The general thinking in the garage is that Newman and Lambert exceeded expectations in 2014, so there will be no letdown over losing the title as they move to 2015. Instead, they’re expected to build on the momentum from a year ago.
Crew-chief changes
There were an unusual number of crew-chief swaps in the offseason, and many of them involved some of the sport’s biggest stars. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is starting anew with Cup newcomer Greg Ives after his former pit boss Steve Letarte left his job for one in the TV booth for NBC.
Joe Gibbs Racing has a wholesale crew-chief swap, with Adam Stevens replacing Dave Rogers on Kyle Busch’s team, Rogers moving to Denny Hamlin’s team, and Darian Grubb leaving Hamlin’s team to take over the new No. 19 team for driver Carl Edwards.
Keith Rodden left Jamie McMurray’s team at Ganassi Racing to take over the No. 5 team for Kasey Kahne at Hendrick Motorsports, with Rodden’s old job being filled by Matt McCall, who comes to Ganassi from Richard Childress Racing.
There also have been major changes at Roush Fenway Racing, with Bob Osborne returning to a crew chief position, this time on the No. 6 for Trevor Bayne. Nick Sandler is the new crew chief for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
But some of the sport’s leading teams, including both of the Team Penske entrants and Jeff Gordon’s and Jimmie Johnson’s teams at Hendrick Motorsports remain intact from 2014.
Focus on Carl Edwards
Adding a new team, especially a fourth one, to an established multicar team often leads to a struggle for the entire organization. Stewart-Haas Racing bucked the trend in 2014 as Kevin Harvick’s team won the Cup championship. But the other three drivers had subpar seasons. Richard Childress Racing has had little luck with four teams in the past.
This year, the focus is on Joe Gibbs Racing, which has added a fourth team for veteran driver Carl Edwards, who is moving over from Roush Fenway Racing.
While his new teammates at Gibbs say they welcome the veteran Edwards, others in the sport said it will be a struggle for Gibbs to have all of his drivers, including Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, performing at a top level.
“I don’t think all four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers will make the Chase,” said Larry McReynolds, a former crew chief who is now an analyst for Fox. “Can I tell you which one misses? No. But my gut tells me there will be some growing pains with the fourth team.”
Next big thing
Kyle Larson entered the Cup series in 2014, with relatively little experience in Cup-like racing. But Larson had one of the best rookie Sprint Cup seasons in recent memory, raising the question of whether he’s the circuit’s next superstar.
After taking over the No. 42 Chevrolet at Chip Ganassi from the veteran Juan Pablo Montoya, he immediately began contending for race victories. Although he came short in his bid for a Chase berth, his performance during the final 10 races of the season showed that he is ready to run for wins and championships. In the 10 Chase races he had six finishes of seventh or better, with two of those being second-place finishes.
He finished the season with eight top-five finishes, which was more top-fives than eight of the Chase drivers who finished ahead of him in the final points standings.
“I hope I’m the next big thing,” Larson said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m sure there are a lot of other ‘next big things’ coming up. I hope I can stand out as that guy.”
He did say people will be looking for more from him this season.
“Last year, nobody had any expectations for me other than failing, so the expectations are different this year (with) a little bit more pressure,” Larson said. “I think we can run up front every week, hopefully, and be competitive and try and get a couple of wins.”
Reducing capacity
One of the bigger stories of the latter part of the 2014 season was the reduction in seating capacity at two of the sport’s cornerstone tracks — Atlanta Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. Atlanta removed the 17,000-seat Elliott Grandstand, and Charlotte dismantled 41,000 seats. The moves were part of a trend that has seen significant reductions at many tracks, including Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway.
While the lack of empty seats should improve the sport’s image during TV broadcasts, the question moving forward into the 2015 season is whether the reduction in seating capacity will line up with attendance and make for the packed grandstands that once were commonplace on the NASCAR circuit.
Former Cup driver Ricky Craven, now an analyst for ESPN, said showing empty seats on TV sends the wrong message.
“The key aspect is this sport is healthy,” he said. “Removing seats that have been empty is a great move.”
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