Things from '14 season that NASCAR fans should appreciate

By Tom Jensen
Published

The just-concluded 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season was one of the most thrilling in recent memory, with great racing from start to finish.

Here are five things from the season for which fans can be thankful:

BREAKOUT YEAR FOR DALE JR. -- NASCAR's most popular driver finally had the kind of breakout year his fans have been waiting for since Hendrick Motorsports signed him for the 2008 season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s season got off to a spectacular start with a dramatic and emotional victory in the Daytona 500. Earnhardt followed that up with a sweep of the two Pocono races and a huge victory at Martinsville on the 10th anniversary of the Hendrick Motorsports plane crash.

Although Earnhardt struggled some in the Chase, he wound up having his most productive season in terms of victories since 2004. And he was a contender most everywhere he went.

FIRST-TIME WINNERS -- Some of the best stories in NASCAR involve first-time race winners, and there were two of them in the Sprint Cup Series this year, Aric Almirola of Richard Petty Motorsports and AJ Allmendinger of JTG Daugherty Racing.

Almirola won the rain-delayed July Daytona race, while Allmendinger drove a fantastic race at Watkins Glen to prevail over Marcos Ambrose. With NASCAR's win-and-you're-in format, both Almirola and Allmendinger qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the first time.

What made these feel-good stories are the fact that Almirola and Allmendinger are two of the nicest drivers in the garage and they won with teams that have tiny budgets relative to the big squads.

RYAN NEWMAN, RUNNER-UP -- When Gene Haas decided to cast off Ryan Newman and replace him with Kurt Busch at Stewart-Haas Racing for 2014, few believed Newman would take the championship fight to the very last lap at Homestead, but that's exactly what happened.

For that matter, when Newman entered the Chase as the No. 16 seed, who figured he'd wind up No. 2 behind only champion Kevin Harvick? Correct answer: Virtually no one.

In his first season with Richard Childress Racing, Newman and crew chief Luke Lambert used consistency, not speed, to put together a year to remember.

TEAM PENSKE DOMINATES -- The 2014 Sprint Cup campaign was the most successful in history for team owner Roger Penske. Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano combined to win 11 races and scored 33 top-five finishes and six poles.

The 11 victories in a single season are a Team Penske record. The only team with more wins in 2014 was Hendrick Motorsports, which won 13 races among its four drivers.

Penske also won the owner championship in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the IndyCar driver's championship with Will Power. Quite a year for "The Captain" Roger Penske and his crew.

AUSTIN DILLON DAYTONA 500 POLE -- For the first time since the death of Dale Earnhardt, the No. 3 was back on the track in the Sprint Cup Series this year.

And the very first time out, Austin Dillon put the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet on the pole for the Daytona 500, where he finished ninth. Dillon went on to have a respectable rookie season, finishing 20th in points. No question, though, the Daytona 500 pole was a highlight moment.