So how does this compare with the old format? Well, under the 2013 Chase rules we would have had a two man race at Homestead with Harvick and Joey Logano, both of whom were in the final four. Only difference is that instead of Harvick winning the championship by 1 point over Ryan Newman, Joey Logano would have won by 7 points. What if there wasn't a Chase? Jeff Gordon would have easily picked up championship number five by edging out Logano by 37 points, Harvick would have finished 5th. While we're playing what if, let's have some fun and throw in another scenario.What if Nascar used Formula One's point scale? Brad Keselowski would have won the championship by 17 points over Jeff Gordon with Harvick and Logano coming in 3rd and 4th respectively.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Several other driver's had incredible season's besides Harvick. Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski rejuvenated their championship forms. Joey Logano finally had his breakout year (keep an eye out for him. He will win a championship in the future.) And Ryan Newman, despite not winning a race, took advantage of this new system and had his best championship finish of his career. But the most heart warming performance came from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Nascar's most poplular driver came into this season with just one win in his previous 5 seasons and only 4 wins in the last 9 seasons. He hadn't had a multiple win season since 2004 win he won a career high 6 races, but there was a lot of hope after he finished 5th in points last season. He went into Daytona as the favorite, as he always seems to be, even though he only won the big race once in his career, that being in the big 6-win season ten years ago. The fans got what they wanted though, after a six and a half hour rain delay, Dale Jr. took
the checkered flag. He followed that up with a 2nd place finish at Phoenix. Earnhardt looked to be cruising to another win in the season's 3rd race of the year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. As Jr. took the white flag, excited fans began reaching for their phones, cameras, etc. to capture the glory of him picking up another win, only to be surprised to see Brad Keselowski, who was 2nd coming to the white flag, come off turn 4 in the lead and steal a victory. Dale had run out of fuel coming on the back stretch and coasted to another 2nd place finish. No matter. Jr. would go on to sweep both races at Pocono and a week after getting eliminated from the Chase picked up a win at Martinsville (historically one of his worst tracks), to finish off the year with an astounding 4 wins. He may have only finished 8th in points, but it was a fantastic season. We can only hope that he can continue his success into next season with new crew chief Greg Ives.
Jimmie Johnson
While it was all fun and games for the 88 bunch, it was a struggle of a season across the garage with the 48 camp. Jimmie Johnson came into the season trying to tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt by winning his 7th Cup title. Through the first 11 races, Johnson was winless, had four finishes outside the top 20, and sat 7th in points, begging spectators to ask, "What's wrong with Jimmie?" He answered that question by winning 3 of the next 4 races and jumping to 2nd in points. All of a sudden it was business as usual for the Lowe's team. Or was it? A crash at Daytona led to a 42nd place finish. He followed that up with another crash and another 42nd place finish at New Hampshire. Then 14th at Indy, 39th at Pocono, and 28th at Watkins Glen and Jimmie was back in 7th. He was able to rattle off 4 straight top 10's going into the Chase and sat in a great spot, 2nd in points, but with all the problems the team had over the season, there wasn't a lot of faith that Johnson could win a 7th title this year. He had a great start to the Chase and easily cruised into the 2nd round, but the bad luck caught back up to him. Two top 10's and 3 finishes outside the top 30 led Jimmie to finish a career worst 11th in points and his 11 top 5's on the season was his worst since his rookie season when he only had 6.
Rookie Battle
This is the time where I insert my foot in my mouth for saying that Austin Dillon would easily win the rookie of the year. What I should have said was that Kyle Larson would easily win it, because he did. Neither driver won a race, although Kyle came close a few times, but Larson's 3 runner up finishes, eight top 5's, and 17 top 10's easily trumped Dillon's one top 5 (5th at Daytona in July) and 4 top 10's. Don't write off Dillon yet though. He was actually pretty consistent throughout the year. The biggest accomplishment was that he completed all but 53 laps on the season, 2nd only to Jeff Gordon, who completed all but 38 laps. Also, of the non-Chase drivers, the only two who would have made it
to the 3rd round if they had picked up a win and made the Chase, were Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon. Richard Childress has a history of getting Austin's feet wet in his first season and letting him loose in the second. He finished 5th in points in his rookie season of the Truck series and won the championship the next year. He finished 3rd in points as a Nationwide rookie and again went on to win the championship the following year. Now I am in no way, shape, or form saying Austin Dillon will be the 2015 Sprint Cup champion, but I would not consider him a bust. At least not yet.
Best Moments
As with every season, this year was filled with many highs and lows. Let's take a look back at the best moments of the 2014 Nascar season.
10. Auto Club 400
Fontana gave us one of the best races of the 2013 season and it did not disappoint us this year. Just one day after Kyle Larson edged out Kyle Busch to nab his first Nationwide Series win it was the Kyle and Kyle show all over again. Kurt Busch and Landon Cassill shared the front row on the Green-White-Checker restart and Kurt jumped out to the leading bring teammate and boss Tony Stewart with him. Kyle Busch, who restarted 5th, and Kyle Larson, who restarted 9th, made up a lot of ground and were 3rd and 4th coming to the white flag. Both Kyles dive bombed into turn one to get around the Stewart-Haas Racing duo and Kyle Busch held off Larson to win by .214 seconds. Even though he failed to get the win, that was the race where Larson grabbed everyone's attention and proved he belongs in this series.
9. Tackled for a Loss
Brad Keselowski turned the cool down lap into a demolition derby in the October race at Charlotte by trying (and failing) to spin out Denny Hamlin and then smashing into Matt Kenseth on pit road. Afterwards in the garage Hamlin went after Brad, but was held back by several crew members and Nascar officials. Brad walked away towards his hauler with a cameraman following him when out of nowhere Matt Kenseth shows up and in true linebacker style, tackled Keselowski from behind. Ironically, neither Kenseth nor Hamlin were penalized for their actions, yet Keselowski was.
8. The Next Big Thing is Here
Similar to the surprise move by Chip Ganassi to put young, hot shot Kyle Larson into full-time Cup competition with relatively little Nascar experience, JR Motorsports put 18 year old Chase Elliott into full-time Nationwide competition. Prior to this season, Chase ran two full seasons in the K&N East series, where he picked up a victory, and ran 9 Truck Series races in 2013 where had 7 top 10's, 5 top 5's and a win. Elliott, however, had never raced in the Nationwide series. It didn't take Chase long to figure it out, though. After a 15th place finish in his series debut at Daytona, he rattled off 4 straight top 10's as they headed to Texas Motor Speedway for race number six. Shortly after halfway, Chase took the lead for only the 2nd time of the season. He would end up trading the lead back and forth with Kyle Busch and JRM teammates Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick, but with 16 laps to go, Elliott would take the lead for good and go onto to win by 2.666 seconds over Busch. As impressive as that first victory was, it was nothing in comparison as to what would come next. The series rolled into Darlington, the track labeled as "Too Tough to Tame" and not friendly at all to rookies. Well, needless to say, Chase looked like no rookie and made his presence known early and used a last lap pass to take the lead from Elliott Sadler to win his 2nd career race just one week after his first. Chase would go on to win again later in Chicago and become the first rookie and youngest driver ever to win the championship.
7. Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500
The penultimate race of the year and the last race of the Eliminator Round set the field for the championship race at Homestead. Kevin Harvick was the favorite to win the race and it just so happened that he needed to win to advance to the championship race. Harvick stepped up when he needed to and absolutely dominated the race. And just when it looked like Jeff Gordon was going to be his biggest competitor at Homestead, Ryan Newman, who needed just one more point to knock Gordon out and race himself in, pulled a bonzai move on Kyle Larson in turn 3, slid up the track into him, and Larson bounced off the wall. Newman advanced and finished 2nd to Harvick at Homestead and in the championship. Gordon wound up finishing 6th in points.6. Dirt Truckin'
Nascar returned to it's dirt roots for the 2nd year in a row as the Camping World Truck Series hit Eldora. Erik Jones, Kyle Busch's protege and dirt track regular, nabbed the pole and was one of the favorites to win along with Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Jones got into an accident early on and his teammate, Bubba Wallace, who has no dirt experience other than this race, found himself in the lead. Bubba lost the lead late in the race to Larson, but was able to regain it on a restart with 18 to go. Larson did not give up though, racing as hard as he could. Despite his best efforts, Larson pushed too hard and bounced his truck off the wall one too many times. Bubba wound up beating some of the best names in dirt racing with Ron Hornaday, Ryan Blaney, and Ken Schrader finishing behind him.
5. Chevrolet Silverado 250
The Camping World Truck Series has brought us some of the most exciting races over the years. So too have road courses. So what happens when you combine the two? You get the Chevrolet Silverado 250 from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. Alex Tagliani was the favorite early, but Ryan Blaney appeared to be running away with the race in the end. That is until German Quiroga caught up to him on the final lap. What happened after that was pure magic. Quiroga rode on Blaney's bumper the whole lap and took the lead with 2 turns to go, but it was Blaney's crossover move in the final turn that would prove victorious as he squeaked by to win by a nose (.049 seconds) denying German of his first career win.
4. Cheez-It 355 at the Glen
Did I mention that road courses often provide the most exciting races? Mix that with the new "win and you're in" Chase format and two road course experts in Marcos Ambrose and A.J. Allmendinger trying to make the Chase for the first time in their career and you'll get one doozy of a race! Allmendinger and Ambrose started side by side on the Green-White-Checker restart. The Dinger got a good jump, but Marcos put his bumper to A.J. in the carousel to take the lead. A.J. worked his way back to the side of Ambrose and after a lot of door beating, Allmendinger came out on top to pick up his first career victory and lock a spot in the Chase.
3. The Race
All the excitement of the new Chase format built up to the final race at Homestead. Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Newman were the final four and whoever finished best among them would be crowned champion. All through the season I thought the odds of the eventual champion actually winning the race were pretty slim, but these guys proved me wrong. Not only were they extremely competitive, but for the majority of the race all four drivers were in the top 10. For a good chunk of the race all four drivers were in the top 5. And even for a few laps they were the top four drivers on the track! Throw in that it came down to 3 different strategies (Denny Hamlin staying out on old tires, Ryan Newman taking 2 tires, and Kevin Harvick taking 4 tires) you didn't know who was going to win it until the very end.
2. Fisticuffs in Fort Worth
Just three weeks after getting tackled by Matt Kenseth in the Charlotte garage, Brad Keselowksi returned to his shenanigans. After trying to squeeze his car into a hole that was about half the size of his car, Brad made contact with Jeff Gordon's left rear tire. The contact cut down Gordon's tire, causing him to wreck a lap later and severely damaging his championship hopes. After the race Gordon confronted Keselowski outside his car, but a blockade of crew members kept him away and Brad was able to safely back away....or so he thought. It just so happened that Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin were standing behind Brad's car watching the scene when Harvick decided that Brad shouldn't back away from a fight, so Harvick gave him a shove in the back nudge and a brawl ensued between the 2 and 24 teams. Gordon emerged with a bloody lip while Brad came away with a cut above his eye.
1. 2nd Time's a Charm
The start of a new season, restrictor plate racing, and 3 months of no Nascar all boil down to make the Daytona 500 the most exciting race of the year. Now add in America's favorite driver who has struggled in recent years and is coming off his best season in 7 years leading the race, and it just gets down right emotional. Needless to say when Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag to win his 2nd Daytona 500 there were plenty of tears to go with those cheers.Honorable Mentions
Aric Almirola returning the famed 43 to victory lane.
Kurt Busch running the "double".
Austin Dillon putting the number 3 on the pole in it's return to Sprint Cup action.
What an incredible year it was. Can't wait for February. Until then....Happy Racin'!
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