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The 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season kicks off this weekend with Daytona Speedweeks leading up to the legendary Daytona 500.
Here are six things to watch as the marathon season gets underway.
New Sprint Cup Points System
Instead of, say, fixing the cars themselves to encourage better racing, NASCAR’s brains trust have decided to rejig the Chase for the Championship format again.
Despite some of the more cynical observers suggesting that you only need to run 40th on a weekly basis to qualify for the season-ending 12-race ‘playoff’ to determine the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, there are certainly more spots available in the Chase – 16 of them – which will almost certainly guarantee any race winner a berth.
The significant difference between this year and previous incarnations of the format is that drivers will be eliminated, four at a time, after the third, sixth and penultimate race of the season.
This will leave the top four drivers to battle it out (with their points scores reset to 5,000) in a ridiculous manner for a season-long championship, and the driver who has the best finish on the 1.5-mile speedway at Homestead-Miami will be crowned the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.
Too bad if that driver hasn’t won all year, or has just one trip to Victory Lane to solidify his Chase position.
Personally, I think the new system is too gimmicky – particularly in the case of the elimination rounds and the winner-take-all format for the final race – and almost certainly born out of an obvious frustration about NASCAR racing basically being left behind by the double shot of professional and college football during the fall months.
NASCAR says that the new system encourages winning races, yet it is still possible for someone to go through the entire season without visiting Victory Lane (though, granted, said driver must be there or thereabouts) and be crowned Sprint Cup Series champion.
Like it or not, the 16-driver Chase system is what we have to deal with in the 2014 season, and it will be interesting to see how teams adapt.
Will we see more mid-race gambles by crews in pursuit of those important wins? The late stages of the elimination races should provide exactly the sort of drama NASCAR is after.
Of course, shortening race distances would do that, too, but I digress.
As an aside, if Australia’s lone Sprint Cup driver Marcos Ambrose were to win a race at either of the two road courses – Watkins Glen or Sonoma – he would likely secure a Chase berth.
This would be another solid achievement for a guy who left his comfort zone years ago to try and find success in one of the most cut-throat racing categories anywhere on the planet.
Kurt Busch at Stewart-Haas Racing
The older of the two controversial brothers, whose own bad temper and attitude issues saw him lose his ride with Penske Racing at the end of the 2011 season, is back with a top-flight team after seasons with James Finch Racing and then with Furniture Row Racing, both one-car teams.
The 2013 season that Busch and Furniture Row Racing put together delivered just about everything – a Chase berth included – except for an elusive win.
During many races, just when it looked like the battling team, based in Denver, Colorado, would break their duck, something happened, and Busch never did take the chequered flag.
Still, his efforts with a smaller team put Busch on the radar of Gene Haas, who is using his own company’s money to finance a fourth car out of the Stewart-Hass Racing Shops with Busch as the driver.
It’s a gamble, especially splitting resources over four cars – he joins Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick at SHR.
But Busch’s speed with under-funded cars over the past two seasons is proof positive that the guy can still turn a wheel, so it’s a gamble that might pay off big-time in Victory Lane.
Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Junior
The news that NBC Sports had hired Letarte, the high-profile crew chief for the sport’s most popular driver, away from Hendrick Motorsports was a bit of a surprise, and it must’ve been disheartening news for Junior.
The two have shown increasing chemistry over their time together, and although this has not yet translated into wins, you get the feeling that they’re pretty close.
Then NBC Sports comes calling, almost certainly with a very good financial offer, and Letarte takes it. You can’t blame him for it.
A loyal soldier, he’s been with Rick Hendrick for nearly twenty years, under the spotlight first with Jeff Gordon and now with Junior, and doubtless wants something with a little less stress while still getting to travel to the race track each weekend.
The 2014 season will be something of a lame-duck year for the Letarte/Earnhardt Junior combination because they won’t be together next year.
But that doesn’t mean that they can’t pick up where they left off in November at Homestead-Miami – a Chase berth capped a pretty good run throughout 2013. All eyes will be on the chemistry as Junior looks ahead to the prospect of a new crew chief for next year.
You’d like to think that this duo can go out on a high with a few wins and a Chase berth to put smiles back on the faces of Junior Nation.
Jimmie Johnson’s Dominance
Like him or hate him, there’s no denying that Jimmie Johnson is the best driver to race in the Sprint Cup Series in at least the last 15 years. Of that, there’s no doubt.
In fact, he might be the best driver of all time – apologies to the King, Richard Petty, and the Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt Senior, but Johnson’s that good. It will take a herculean effort for anyone to beat him again this year.
Yet someone does need to beat Johnson, because his lack of popularity with most of the NASCAR fanbase is not doing the sport any favours.
It’s no secret that crowd numbers and TV ratings have been trending downward over the past few years, and while you can certainly attribute some of that to the downturn of the United States economy, there’s an increasing number of fans who’re not watching the sport because of Johnson’s dominance.
Perhaps it’s not just his dominance on the track, but a combination of him winning just about everything there is to win and a personality that seems to reflect more than a little arrogance.
I know of four who’ve grown up in the south, with NASCAR as much a part of their lives as fried chicken after church on Sunday, who are now not watching because they dislike the Hendrick/Johnson dominance.
That’s bad news, especially as there are some worrying figures that suggest NASCAR isn’t attracting younger eyes.
Either way, for the sport to grow heading into 2015, the year of a new broadcast deal, it would be good to see someone other than Jimmie Johnson dominating and winning the 2014 Sprint Cup Series.
Kyle Larson
The rookie, elevated from the Truck Series straight to the big-time of Sprint Cup Racing, is thought by many to be the Next Big Thing in NASCAR, and his performance in the #42 Chevrolet for Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing will be keenly watched by many eyes.
It’s a brave (or foolish or even commercially driven) decision by the Earnhardt-Ganassi camp to bring Larson into Sprint Cup so quickly, replacing the Indycar-bound Juan Pablo Montoya in the Target-sponsored ride.
A similar thing happened a few years ago with a young Joey Logano at Joe Gibbs Racing. Logano was also supposed to be the next superstar, and although he was on a regularly front-running team, he never really reached his potential.
Was that because he wasn’t as good as we thought, or more that he was simply thrust into a high-pressure racing environment too soon?
The same could be asked of Larson. Will he be way out of his depth or will he be able to run with the big dogs of the sport?
Perhaps more important is the ability of the EGR shop to give Larson a car that matches his apparent ability.
It’s not exactly a state secret that the years since Jamie McMurray went on an incredible run, winning Daytona and Indianapolis in the same year, have been lean. They’ve been a mid-pack team at best recently, so the pressure is on them to give Larson the right machinery with which to display his talent.
The alternative isn’t good for either race team or driver.
TNT/ESPN Lame Duck Year
With less and less fans attending races – as proven by too many shots of empty grandstands – the television broadcast of NASCAR events is key to sustaining fans and making new ones.
How, then, will current broadcast partners ESPN and TNT go about fulfilling their contracted duties in their lame-duck years?
Both networks are out of the sport after this season as FOX expands its early-season schedule and NBC Sports takes over the second half, including the Chase.
There have been some well-documented issues with broadcasts, particularly on the ESPN side during the Chase – focusing wholly and solely on the Chase field, to the detriment of the other drivers and teams competing – and it’s hard to see the self-professed Worldwide Leader changing their tune this year.
If anything, we figure to see cut back coverage with less on-site presence and ancillary program, just as TNT has been visibly scaling back its coverage over the past few years, jettisoning the mobile rig where a host took viewers through a ‘Countdown to Green’ pre-race show.
That’s it – lets drop the green flag and go racing!
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