January’s big claim to fame is change. Whether it’s a lifestyle switch-up, getting to the gym more, or, in NASCAR terms, a new crew chief or driver or manufacturer, the overall theme is variation from the norm, permanent or otherwise.

With it usually comes hope, optimism and excitement — a few words we’ll be hearing plenty next week during Charlotte Media Tour.

But it has us asking the question: Which team faces the biggest transition in 2016? NASCAR.com’s Pat DeCola and RJ Kraft debate the topic and offer their choices for the upcoming Sprint Cup Series season.

DeCola: Hey, RJ, this is a pretty interesting topic, and hopefully these teams embrace their changes a little better than I have, considering I’m currently on pace to exercise just once in 2016 … but I digress. To me, this is an easy one. Changes across the sport will be dynamic and plentiful this season, but no team faces a bigger transition than Hendrick Motorsports. 

The man that has all but defined NASCAR over the past two decades-plus will now watch races from the broadcast booth, as Jeff Gordon steps out from behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet and hands the reins over to young Chase Elliott. The four-time premier series champion was such an embedded presence at Hendrick that his absence will be felt in several ways, regardless of how strong Elliott is in his first year of full-time Cup competition. 

Based on the height difference, Elliott’s feet may be larger than Gordon’s, but that’s a heck of a big set of shoes for the 20-year-old to fill, and it will likely define much of Hendrick’s upcoming season.

Kraft: Put the pedal to the metal on those personal goals, Pat. Anyways, I think the biggest transition will be with a team that is changing manufacturers for the first time. Furniture Row Racing, the single-car team based out of Colorado, is moving from Chevrolet to Toyota and will have a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing. The move gives Toyota another entry among its Sprint Cup entries (replacing the departing Michael Waltrip Racing) and also should help Furniture Row get to its eventual goal of being a multi-car organization. Yet, with that move, comes a raised set of expectations not to mention the pressure that comes from following up a breakout 2015 season.

The team is looking to build off a dream season that saw Martin Truex Jr. score a win at Pocono (the organization’s first since 2011), post 14 top 10s in his first 15 races and reach the Championship 4 in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. The Cinderella-esque run to Homestead and Truex’s bounce-back season was the feel-good story of the 2015 campaign and it will be interesting to see what both he, crew chief Cole Pearn and the team as a whole can do for an encore. Interestingly enough, JGR didn’t find its footing until the summer and the reduced-downforce package was a mixed bag for Truex at Kentucky and Darlington, so there could be some short-term pain before the long-term gain for the No. 78 team in the new alignment.

DeCola: Great point about Furniture Row. Its 2015 breakout was great to see and the transition to Toyota should pay dividends. Speaking of Toyota and JGR, it brings up another facet about Hendrick’s changes — the addition of Darian Grubb. 

After notching nine wins as the crew chief for Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards over at JGR the past four seasons, Grubb parted ways with the organization that currently holds the Sprint Cup Series title and wound up back at Hendrick (where he previously served on the No. 48 team) as vehicle production director.

As you may have noticed, JGR’s four cars spent most of the 2015 season dominating the field, with Kyle Busch eventually being crowned champion. With Grubb’s technical knowledge (along with any trade secrets he may have picked up at JGR the past few years) and Kenny Francis’ vehicle technical direction, there’s a better-than-not chance that Hendrick’s cars regain the speed they’ve shown over the past decade, in which it won six titles.

Kraft: I’m glad you brought up the JGR changes, Pat. Last year, JGR made crew chief changes to three of its four teams and it took some time and the return of Busch from injury before things seemed to click into gear. The past few years there has seemingly been a new pairing that hits the ground running in the top series (Matt Kenseth-Jason Ratcliff in 2013 at JGR, Kevin Harvick-Rodney Childers in 2014 at SHR Busch-Adam Stevens at JGR and Truex-Pearn at Furniture Row in 2015) but those feel more like exceptions rather than the norm.

With the Carl Edwards-Dave Rogers pairing, both driver and crew chief are going on their third different pairing in three years so there is going to be an adjustment period and a transition phase if you will. Of all the crew chief changes that have taken place thus far, the Denny Hamlin-Mike Wheeler pairing is the one that I believe to be the most likely to fly to amazing heights from the start of the season. Wheeler was with Hamlin as the race engineer on the No. 11 up until last season when he became an NASCAR XFINITY Series crew chief for the No. 20 team. The duo won three of their six XFINITY Series races together in 2015.

How do these changes affect Furniture Row, you ask? Through their technical alliance in which the teams will share data much like Furniture Row did in its technical alliance setup with Richard Childress Racing under the Chevrolet umbrella. The better the results, the better the data to analyze, the better you can make the cars. Enough with all this talk of transition though, let’s get some of these cars on track and let the results speak for themselves.