Top five story lines for 2020: Schedule shake-up, stellar rookies, more

With another NASCAR Cup Series season having seen its sunset and Kyle Busch picking up his second career title, it's time to look forward to the 2020 campaign -- less than 100 days away. Here are the top five things to watch for next season.

New Chevy, Old Jimmie in his swan song?

Since winning his seventh title in 2016, each year has gotten progressively worse for Jimmie Johnson, who missed the playoffs entirely this season for the first time in his career. The 2020 season will mark his final full-time season as he chases an eighth title and looks to snap a two-year-plus winless streak.

Chevrolet as a whole has played third fiddle to Toyota and Ford in recent years and will switch to the Camaro ZL1 1LE in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2020, replacing the Camaro ZL1.

NASCAR's Dream Team?

Joe Gibbs Racing put together a season for the ages this year, hitting all its marks with the 2019 rules package and riding its success to a whopping 19 wins -- more than half the season's 36 races.

With next year's rules package largely similar to this year, look for JGR to continue to provide nightmare fuel to its competitors, especially considering it'll have a satellite car piloted by uber-talented incoming rookie Christopher Bell in the JGR-aligned No. 95 Leavine Family Racing Toyota.

Twenty wins in 2020 among those five cars isn't out of the question.

New series, who dis?

NASCAR saw a strong rookie class in 2016 with the entrance of Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott, but dare we say next year's is ... better?

Two-time reigning Xfinity Series champ Tyler Reddick will move up to the Cup Series along with fellow NXS Big 3 members Christopher Bell and Cole Custer after the three drivers each made a name for themselves at the national series level.

At this point, it's not insane to think any of the three could snag a victory next season and sneak into the playoffs.

2020 schedule is lit

Somewhat lost amid an entertaining, dramatic 2019 season? The fact 2020 will be lit, too -- literally.

Next season's schedule received a shake-up that will has playoff implications, with Homestead-Miami Speedway's date moving to the spring, ISM Raceway near Phoenix claiming the finale and, yes, the Round of 8 cutoff finishing under the lights at Martinsville Speedway to decide the Championship 4.

If that wasn't enough, Daytona International Speedway -- in August -- is now the cutoff race to set the playoff field (hello, underdogs), there's a doubleheader Pocono Raceway weekend, Indianapolis Motor Speedway rings in Fourth of July weekend and Bristol Motor Speedway's Night Race is set as the Round of 16 elimination race.

Busch was just crowned '19 champion, but can it be 2020 now, please?

Will feuds re-emerge after hibernating for winter?

We saw very little in the way of tempers after the dust-up at Martinsville between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. As the two longtime rivals are expected to each be in championship contention once again next season -- along with Logano's other rival, Busch, and his other other rival in their teammate, Martin Truex Jr. -- do you really think this one (or the other ones) is settled? Not a chance.

We don't want to poke the fire, but some other unsettled feuds (Busch-Aric Almirola; Bubba Wallace-Alex Bowman) could certainly rear their heads again at any point, along with any new ones that might crop up.

On an unrelated note, we just feel it's worth mentioning, once again for good measure, Martinsville is the cutoff for the Championship 4.

See you in 2020.