What we are thankful for in 2015
Happy Thanksgiving, y’all! With the 2015 racing season behind us (save for a Formula 1 race on Sunday), it’s time to look back and give thanks for what auto racing gave us over the past nine months. Got anything you think needs to be added? Drop it in the comments below.
• Jeff Gordon’s career. We’re not going to write anything in this space below that is anything different than what you’ve already read. But Gordon holds a special place in my NASCAR life. When I first started watching NASCAR (the 1993 Daytona 500), Gordon was the guy that won too much. As I found non-Gordon favorite drivers, it continued until sometime in the early 2000s.
Yeah, I went through the same transition many NASCAR fans did. I realized Gordon’s greatness and his appeal and it was hard not to appreciate his driving skill and the way he was able to help make NASCAR the fairly mainstream sport it is today. Every Cup Series race I’ve watched has included Jeff Gordon in it. Being in Daytona for Speedweeks in 2016 is going to be differrent. Especially as NASCAR starts a sendoff for Tony Stewart.
• Kyle Busch’s speedy recovery from his injuries and broken Chase hex. His drive at Homestead on Sunday was perhaps the most impressive of his career. Busch has evolved over the last nine months. I think we’re all excited to see what the future holds.
• Busch’s race win on Sunday. As long as the current Chase format stays in place, there’s going to be a time when the title winner doesn’t win the race. Cherish the moments like Sunday, when the champion won the race for the second year in a row.
• The continued emergence of Joey Logano. He had the most wins in the Cup Series in 2015 and has the most wins of anyone in the past two seasons. Much like Busch, it’s only a matter of time until Logano wins a Cup title.
• Kevin Harvick’s excellence. He tied Logano with 28 top-10 finishes but led 2,294 laps, almost 800 more than Logano. Harvick was always very good at Richard Childress Racing. But his success at Stewart-Haas is incredible.
• Brad Keselowski’s candor. Keselowski isn’t afraid to make his point, either directly or indirectly. It’s appreciated.
• Matt Kenseth’s statement. Yeah, we didn’t agree with his revenge against Joey Logano or it’s blatant nature. But Kenseth showed NASCAR he was unhappy with the way the sanctioning body was governing. And while his retaliation netted a punishment, it might have changed the way drivers race each other in the futre.
• We say might because NASCAR CEO Brian France didn’t back down from his “quintessential NASCAR” comments when talking about Kenseth and Logano at Kansas. And we’re glad France did that. While the NASCAR chairman can seem disconnected with his sport, his consistency and authority was striking at Homestead.
• Jimmie Johnson’s professionalism. Yeah, six titles helps, but he’s been an example of how to act publicly when a stupid part failure derails your title run. And he went out and snagged the race from Brad Keselowski at Texas to prove that the No. 48 team is still one of the best in NASCAR. Johnson and Chad Knaus should be a force with the new rules in 2016.
• Speaking of the new rules, kudos to NASCAR for testing things out for the future during the season when it was apparent that the 2015 rules were a disaster. Yeah, the high-drag packages at Indianapolis and Michigan were a disaster too, but NASCAR recognized that and went with the low-downforce rules for 2016. If Goodyear can make softer tires with the reduction in downforce, Cup racing in 2016 is going to look a lot different.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s continued Twitter excellence.
• We can’t forget Kurt Busch, either. He handled the aftermath of what happened at Phoenix with his start penalty well, and his year can’t be qualified as anything but a success. After coming back from an ill-advised suspension from NASCAR, Busch was one of the fastest drivers throughout the season. Busch should at least be contending for titles for the next few seasons.
• The Wood Brothers’ return to full-time racing in 2016. If NASCAR goes through with a charter/franchising system, the Wood family needs to have one of the teams. If the move to full-time racing with Ryan Blaney is a way to do that, good for them. The sport needs to keep its links to the past.
• Erik Jones’ super-sub ability. The kid’s been in damn good equipment this year, sure, but he can sure drive it really fast. Does anyone other than Jones get to say he won a truck title, an Xfinity Series race and drove for three different Sprint Cup series teams in the same season? By the way, he was less than two months old during the Atlanta Olympics.
• And, once again, you all. Thanks for reading and entertaining us with your emails, tweets and comments (yes, we sometimes read the comments). Have a great Thanksgiving, eat a bunch of good food, don’t waste your weekend chasing shopping bargains and enjoy the holidays.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
