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Four teams headed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday

The first NASCAR test of the 2015 season is scheduled to take place Monday when four Sprint Cup Series teams participate in a one-day Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The teams of Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing) and AJ Allmendinger (JTG Daugherty Racing) will be on hand as representatives for Chevrolet; Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing) is the Toyota entry while Brad Keselowski (Team Penske) and his No. 2 Ford team will be on hand to round out the test teams and vehicles.

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According to a Team Penske representative, Keselowski’s teammate Joey Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and several members of the No. 22 Team Penske group will be on hand as well to help and observe.

In previous years, tire tests haven’t generated a great deal of interest. Now that NASCAR no longer allows private team testing, however, track time is considered more valuable.

The NASCAR National Series Unified Testing Policy, announced last month, consists of three types of tests for 2015 — NASCAR-approved tire tests, NASCAR tests and open team tests.

Goodyear has scheduled 14 tests for the upcoming season; Monday’s trip to Las Vegas is the only one currently on the schedule that does not dovetail with a team test. Others will be either one- or two-day tires tests followed by a single-day team test.

For now, only a stop next month at Atlanta will see teams test prior to a Goodyear tire test at the facility. Teams will be given a four-hour window for testing one day before the start of that track’s race weekend. A two-day Goodyear tire test will be conducted at the track on March 2-3 after the completion of the Sprint Cup event. In all other cases, the team test will come after the Goodyear test is completed.

"We think the fact that they’re going to be testing on tracks they will actually be racing on … they’ll get a lot more value out of this," Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR Senior Vice President Innovation and Racing Development, said last month.

"They did get value out of what we did in the past, but this will just be more in line with where they’re going to be racing."

There is no team testing scheduled for the NASCAR XFINITY Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Teams in those series will be given extended practice time during race weekends.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee’s winning percentage ranks fifth all-time

MORE: NASCAR Hall of Fame profile of Fred Lorenzen | His career in photos

(Note: This release is part of a series in advance of the 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Jan. 30, broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network, Motor Racing Network Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio. Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White are the five 2015 inductees.)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Fred Lorenzen’s NASCAR career was brief, just 158 premier series starts over slightly more than a decade.

The Elmhurst, Illinois, native never ran a complete season, his Holman-Moody Ford team choosing only to compete in the schedule’s most prestigious events.

But when Lorenzen did buckle into his white, No. 28 Ford, it could be argued the rest of the field was running for second place. He was the "Golden Boy."

From 1961 through 1967 he won 26 times, posting more major victories than NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty (21) and David Pearson (eight). Lorenzen’s 16.46 career winning percentage ranks fifth all-time and highest among drivers without a NASCAR premier series championship.

Lorenzen retired after the 1967 season, made a brief return in 1970-72 but left many – including himself – wondering what could have been.

"I quit way too early," Lorenzen said in a 1985 interview with Circle Track magazine. "I was good for another five or six years. I was at my prime, but I’d won about everything there was to win and I had plenty of money.

"I was sick with stomach ulcers and I was tired of living out of a suitcase. Most of all the spark was gone; the candle was out."

How good was Lorenzen? His crew chief, Herb Nab, asked to name the best driver in NASCAR, pointed to Lorenzen’s picture on a poster. "People say Fireball Roberts is the best driver. That there is the best driver."

Petty, quoted in the same Insider Racing News.com article, said, "Fred Lorenzen was total concentration before, during and after the race."

Longtime friend and mechanic Jack Sullivan, quoted by Stock Car Racing in 1968, said, "Freddie ate, slept, breathed and dreamt racing, 24 hours a day."

Lorenzen also was among the first "outsiders" to capture the fancy of the partisan southeastern crowds following NASCAR premier series competition. Lorenzen was named the circuit’s Most Popular Driver in 1963 and 1965.

"Freddie was the first northerner I knew that all the people here liked," Charlie "Slick" Owens, a Charlotte auto parts manager told Chicagoland Auto Racing.com’s Stan Kawalsinski.

The Chicago Tribune’s David Condon wrote similarly in 1964. "If there is one athlete in America who is as wholesome as (baseball’s) Stan Musial, it has to be stock car racing’s Fred Lorenzen from Elmhurst, Illinois. Fred is the All-American hero."

"He was good-natured and got along with everybody," said fellow competitor and Daytona 500 winner Marvin Panch.

Lorenzen, born Dec. 30, 1934, followed racing from an early age once setting up a tent in his family’s backyard so as to listen to a broadcast of the Southern 500 without interruption. He built a miniature car out of spare parts at age 13, a washing machine motor-powered contraption that was confiscated by police for being too fast.

Lorenzen’s first races came on Chicago-area dirt tracks and drag strips. He won the 1958-59 U.S. Auto Club stock car championships and caught the eye of Ralph Moody, who with partner John Holman operated Ford’s preeminent NASCAR premier series program.

Moody called on Christmas Eve 1960 to offer a mechanic’s job – and the possibility of driving. Lorenzen accepted and couldn’t believe his good fortune.

"It was like walking into a diamond factory," he said of the team’s shop and resources in a 2009 interview with the broadcaster TNT. "I had the best of everything. When you’ve got it all, it’s easier to do."

Lorenzen won three times in 1961 including Darlington Raceway‘s Rebel 300 in which he out-foxed NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Curtis Turner with two laps remaining to earn the nickname "Fearless Freddie." Mirror driving the second-place Lorenzen, Turner repeatedly blocked the high side of the one-groove track. Lorenzen faked a high pass and shot under the not-pleased Turner.

"That race was extra special because the track is so very, very special and because I was able to beat Curtis Turner," said Lorenzen in an interview with the Charlotte Observer’s Tom Higgins. "You’ve got to remember that for a kid like me, names like Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and Fireball Roberts were hero stuff."

His best season was 1963 when he finished with six wins, 21 top fives and 23 top 10s in 29 starts. Despite winning 26 races that season, he finished third in the standings.

Lorenzen started just 16 races in 1964 but won eight times including five consecutive starts. During that stretch, he led 1,679 of the possible 1,953 laps, one of the most dominant runs in NASCAR history. A year later he won two of NASCAR’s major events – the Daytona 500 and World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In retirement, Lorenzen became a successful Chicago real estate developer. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998. He was previously enshrined in the National Motorsports Press Association and International Motorsports halls of fame and Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

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Team expands to three cars in Sprint Cup Series

RELATED: See all the changes for 2015

Front Row Motorsports announced Friday that Cole Whitt will drive for the team in 2015 as it expands its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series operation to three full-time cars.

Whitt will drive the No. 35 Ford for team owner Bob Jenkins, carrying sponsorship from Speed Stick deodorant for 10 races, including the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 22 (1 p.m ET, FOX). Whitt will also work with crew chief Randy Cox, who was atop the pit box for all of his Sprint Cup starts last season.

"I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity to go racing with Front Row Motorsports and continue my relationship with Speed Stick," Whitt said. "Bob Jenkins is a smart businessman and has grown his team the right way over the years, and I’m really looking forward to being a part of that growth. The 2014 season was great for me as a driver. We had some important personal victories and some areas where we’ll want to improve."

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Whitt, 23, has 50 career starts in NASCAR’s top series. He drove in all 36 races last season, finishing the year with BK Racing after Swan Racing shut its doors in the spring. Whitt ended the season 31st in the Sprint Cup Series standings after his Sunoco Rookie of the Year campaign.

For his career, Whitt — a former sprint car champ in USAC competition — has four top-five finishes in what is now the NASCAR XFINITY Series and two top-fives and a pole position in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

The move is the second driver announcement for the Statesville, North Carolina-based team this week. Tuesday, Front Row said that David Gilliland would return to the organization’s No. 38 Ford. David Ragan also drove for Jenkins last year on a full-time basis, completing his third straight season in the No. 34 entry; he indicated in media reports last fall that he hoped to renew his contract with the team for 2015.

"This is an exciting time for Front Row Motorsports," Jenkins said. "Adding Cole Whitt to our program, along with the support of the Speed Stick team, is another big step in our growth as a young team. We’re going to have a diverse mix of experience with our drivers, which, I think, is going to be a big benefit for everyone."

Whitt’s move to the Front Row team was foreshadowed late last November with an early congratulatory tweet from Anthony Marlowe, a co-owner for BK Racing. In it, Marlowe said that Whitt was earmarked for the team’s No. 34 ride, replacing Ragan.

Representatives for Front Row Motorsports denied the rumor, and while Marlowe backed down from his initial tweet, he still indicated he was "98 percent certain" that Whitt would eventually land with Front Row.

Jenkins’ team fielded three cars in a handful of events last season, but the No. 35 Ford had as many starts — four — as it did failures to qualify. Veteran David Reutimann drove the car in three races and Blake Koch one.

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Joe Gibbs Racing driver looks to bounce back from winless season

RELATED: Full schedule of driver previews

Team: Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota

Rank in final 2014 standings: Seventh

Wins: None

Year in photos: Recap Kenseth’s 2014 season

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Strides: "Highlight of our season? That’s a tough one because we didn’t win any races," Kenseth said when asked about 2014 superlatives.

The winner of a career-best seven races after making the move to JGR in 2013, Kenseth and the No. 20 team couldn’t find their way to Victory Lane once the ’14 season got under way. But by the end of the year, Kenseth actually had more top-five (13) and top-10 (22) finishes than he managed the previous year.

He also qualified for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the 10th time, advancing through two rounds before being eliminated in the Eliminator Round.

In addition to earning two pole positions, Kenseth posted a career-best second-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Actually, Kenseth wasn’t shut out of Victory Lane entirely — he did collect a checkered flag in the season-ending Nationwide (now XFINITY) Series event at Homestead, and won one of the two qualifying races prior to the Daytona 500.

"Winning the first (Duel) race at Daytona was probably the highlight, going out and feeling like we were going to be pretty competitive there; Denny (Hamlin) won the second one, we won the first one," Kenseth said. "At the time I didn’t think that would be our highlight, but that was probably one of them.

"We had a lot of solid races but none that really stand out, where I was like ‘Man, that was just an awesome day’ because we didn’t get any wins."

Setbacks: The lack of wins — it was his first shutout season since 2010 — and a lack of get-to-the-front speed proved to be the team’s undoing. But Kenseth said it wasn’t a single item that held the team back throughout the course of the 36-race season.

Down the stretch, he and his team remained in contention. A third-place finish at Phoenix in the Eliminator Round finale saw him finish just outside the cutoff for advancing to the Championship Round.

"Exceptionally fast" the previous year, Kenseth said "between the aero changes (in ’14) and getting the car down on the track, we just didn’t seem to have a handle on it the way we did the year before. Our balance was just way off and we could never get it fixed the way we wanted it."

Quoteworthy: "I feel like we did a really good job this year with what we had to work with. None of our cars were near as fast as they were last year."

What’s next: While expansion and a crew chief shuffle at JGR will have new faces in new places for ’15, Kenseth’s group will have a familiar look. Jason Ratcliff returns for a third season as crew chief, a non-change that Kenseth feels good about.

Kenseth said he’s also looking forward to the the latest changes to the rules package, moves that will take away a bit of horsepower and lessen downforce.

"Hopefully that will make it a little easier to pass in traffic; hopefully it will make the cars a little freer," he said. "They just had so much spoiler on them last year and were always so tight. I’m hoping that will help. It’s the same for everybody but hopefully it will help."

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Deal includes Sprint Cup, XFINITY Series races

Joe Gibbs Racing officials and sponsor Sport Clips Haircuts announced a multi-year contract extension Thursday, with primary sponsorship for drivers Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards for a combined five events.

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Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota will carry the Sport Clips paint scheme in three events, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Auto Club Speedway and Darlington Raceway, as well as the XFINITY Series event at Darlington.

Edwards, who made the move to Joe Gibbs Racing after the completion of the ’14 season, will be sponsored by Sport Clips for the Sprint Cup Series events at New Hampshire in July and the Texas stop in November.

“When Denny began driving for Sport Clips, we had a few more than 700 locations open at the time, and we now have more than 1,300 locations in the U.S. and Canada,” Gordon Logan, founder and CEO of Sport Clips, said in a statement from Joe Gibbs Racing. “Joe Gibbs Racing and its driver have been excellent ambassadors for our brand over the years.”

Sport Clips also returns as sponsor for the Sept. 5 Darlington XFINITY Series race, the Help A Hero 200, for the fourth consecutive season. The Veteran of Foreign Wars "Help a Hero" scholarship program, which launched in 2013, provides funding to active-duty and members of the military as well as veterans seeking a college degree or vocational certification.

You can see the Sport Clips paint schemes for the Sprint Cup Series below.

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NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2016 Voting Day set for May 20

RELATED: Steve Byrnes to vote on NASCAR Hall of Fame heroes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today announced several revisions to the NASCAR Hall of Fame (NHOF) Voting Panel. The 59-member panel will vote for the NHOF Class of 2016 on Wednesday, May 20 in Charlotte, North Carolina, to be announced that afternoon in the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s Great Hall.

For the first time, new NASCAR broadcast partner NBC will be represented on the Voting Panel. Below are the nine new members of the NHOF Voting Panel.

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• Ron Bennett, Holland (New York) Motorsports Complex

• Jeff Burton, NBC Sports Network

• Steve Byrnes, FOX Sports 1

• Brent Dewar, NASCAR

• Eli Gold, Motor Racing Network

• Kevin Harvick, reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion

• Tom Jensen, FOXSports.com

• Marty Smith, ESPN

• Jim Utter, Charlotte Observer

A full list of the panel members can be found below.

"These nine new voters collectively hold a vast array of NASCAR knowledge from all disciplines of the industry," said Brett Jewkes, NASCAR senior vice president and chief communications officer. "Each new member brings a unique background and passion for the history of NASCAR and will contribute greatly to the Hall of Fame voting process."

The 22-member Nominating Committee — which includes the additions of Bennett and Dewar — will meet on Friday, Feb. 20 in Daytona Beach, Florida, to discuss, debate, and vote for the 20 NHOF Class of 2016 nominees and five nominees for the second Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR. The results will be announced that afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.

Additionally, Dr. Jerry Punch will move to the voting panel for the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. The fifth recipient of the award will be announced during the July race weekend at Daytona.

The NHOF Class of 2015, which includes Bill Elliott, Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly and Rex White, will be officially inducted on Friday, Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. ET live on NBC Sports Network.

NOMINATING COMMITTEE

NASCAR Hall of Fame: Executive Director Winston Kelley; Historian Buz McKim.

NASCAR Officials: Chairman / CEO Brian France; Vice Chairman Jim France; Vice Chairman Mike Helton; Chief Operating Officer Brent Dewar; Executive Vice President / Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell; Executive Vice President / Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps; Senior Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton; Competition Administrator Jerry Cook.

Track Owners/Operators: International Speedway Corporation CEO Lesa Kennedy; Martinsville Speedway President Clay Campbell; Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage; Atlanta Motor Speedway President Ed Clark; former Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Tony George; Dover Motorsports CEO Denis McGlynn; Pocono Raceway board of director member Looie McNally; Bowman Gray Stadium operator Dale Pinilis; Holland Motorsports Complex operator Ron Bennett; Rockford Speedway operator Jody Deery; West Coast representative Ken Clapp.

Media: Mike Joy, FOX.

VOTING PANEL

The Voting Panel consists of the above 22-member Nominating Committee and the following 36 representatives. In addition a Fan Vote is the 60th — and final — vote.

American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association: Dusty Brandel, AARWBA President.

Eastern Motorsports Press Association: Ron Hedger, EMPA President.

National Motorsports Press Association: Brian Nelson, NMPA President.

Print & Online Media: Kenny Bruce, NASCAR.com; Jenna Fryer, Associated Press; Tom Jensen, FOXSports.com; Al Pearce, Autoweek; Jim Pedley, RacinToday.com; Bob Pockrass, ESPN.com; Nate Ryan, NBCSports.com; Jim Utter, Charlotte Observer.

Broadcasters: Rick Allen, NBC; Jeff Burton, NBCSN; Steve Byrnes, FS1; Eli Gold, MRN; Dave Moody, SiriusXM; Doug Rice, PRN; Marty Smith, ESPN.

Manufacturers: Jim Campbell, Chevrolet; Edsel Ford, Ford; David Wilson, Toyota.

Retired Drivers: Ned Jarrett; Richard Petty; Ricky Rudd.

Retired Car Owners: Junior Johnson; Bud Moore; Robert Yates.

Retired Crew Chiefs: Buddy Parrott; Waddell Wilson; Eddie Wood.

Reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion: Kevin Harvick.

Industry Leaders: Former NASCAR Senior Vice President Paul Brooks; MRN announcer Barney Hall; Retired Associated Press writer Mike Harris; former motor sports journalist Tom Higgins; former broadcaster Ken Squier; former Charlotte Motor Speedway President Humpy Wheeler.

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ThorSport Racing veteran looks to take aim of ending teammate’s title reign

RELATED: Full schedule of season previews

Team: ThorSport Racing No. 98 Toyota

Rank in final 2014 standings: 4th

Wins: 1 (Michigan International Speedway)

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Strides: Sauter’s consistent start to the season — with top-10 finishes in 12 of the first 14 races — helped him carry the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points lead into September. Notably, the steady start came during a stretch of turnover for the ThorSport No. 98, which used three different crew chiefs — Eugene Wachtel, Dennis Connor and Jeff Hensley — through the season.

Besides the time spent atop the standings perch, Sauter also thwarted a personal nemesis by conquering Michigan International Speedway, a track that had yielded zero top-10s in his previous five tries before his breakthrough victory. It was a triumph made even sweeter upon the realization that his father, Jim — who died in October — cherished racing at the two-mile track in the next state over from his family’s Wisconsin home.

"Winning Michigan, it’s been for whatever reason historically a difficult race track for me," Sauter said, "and now the way things are, that was probably one of my dad’s favorite race tracks, so it even means more to me now than it ever did before. That’s a huge feather in my cap because it’s just one of those places that he loved and I didn’t, and now we’ve got a win there and that’s pretty cool."

Setbacks: Sauter won the Keystone Light Pole Award at Chicagoland Speedway in September, but dipped out of the points lead after a 14th-place finish. After another midpack finish at Las Vegas, engine failure at Talladega Superspeedway sent him tumbling to fourth in the standings with four races left.

While the rare mechanical breakage halted the No. 98 team’s momentum, Sauter suggested that the team’s ability to compete for checkered flags needs a boost in 2015.

"Talladega was a tough one … but me, personally, I didn’t think we ran well enough all year to be a championship deal," Sauter said. "We were consistent at times and we did a good job of finishing races, but we need to go out and lead laps and win races, in my opinion, and the points will take care of themselves. It was a good year and consistent year, it just wasn’t a great year and there’s a lot of little things I can point to to say that we need to do better to be better ultimately."

Quoteworthy: "There’s a lot of things we’re looking at, and it’s funny because a lot of people say well, you’ve got to do this or got to do that, and it’s really just a lot of little things that you have to do different. It’s not one big thing that sticks out like a sore thumb that says, ‘Hey, you’ve got to fix this and you’ll be the best.’ It’s probably eight or 10 little things, and it’s all different aspects."

What’s next: ThorSport has indicated that the No. 98 team’s flotilla of sponsors — Nextant Aerospace, Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff, Curb Records and Carolina Nut Co. — will return for 2015. Sauter will work with veteran crew chief Doug George, whose most recent tenure was spent at Turner Scott Motorsports helping four-time Camping World Truck Series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. and Ben Kennedy, the 2014 Sunoco Rookie of the Year in the series.

Sauter carries an impressive streak of notching at least one victory in each of the last six seasons, plus a solid run of top-five results in the series standings in four of the last five years. While ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton has hoisted the series crown the past two seasons, Sauter says he’s ready for a taste of the championship laurels by visiting Victory Lane on a more regular basis.

"It’s weird because I still ultimately always go back to this, and maybe my strategy is flawed and that’s why I haven’t won a championship: I think if you win races, the championship will take care of itself," Sauter said. "In 2011, we came really close to winning a championship and just didn’t get it done. We just had too many bumps in the road. It would be awesome. … To win a NASCAR championship in the truck series, I don’t know that you would really know what that would feel like until you did it."

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New pit-road officiating system utilizes technology with an eye on safety

MORE: Go inside the new pit road technology | New pit road technology at ‘tip of the spear’

CONCORD, N.C. — The new NASCAR pit-road officiating system boasts some impressive technological grunt, including what NASCAR officials claim is a processing power estimated at 9,000 times that of the last space shuttle. Its bandwidth means that pit lane infractions — even during the busiest wholesale stops for service — will be monitored and flagged on the laser-mapped tracks and captured by a traveling armada of 45-plus high-definition cameras mounted around every facility the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series visits.

But the new technology, being prepared for Daytona’s Speedweeks, is far from a cold, Orwellian "Big Brother" system of cables, processors and screens. There remains a human element — both for officials and for race teams — in the new way of enforcing the rules.

Officials gave the working press a walk-through of the new pit-road technology Wednesday afternoon at the NASCAR Research & Development Center, revealing the inner workings of the system that will take effect in the 2015 season. In the hauler that for now resembles a "Black Ops" workshop — the plain black transports is still awaiting a graphics wrap ahead of its at-track debut — eight workstations will house officials at a trackside location each race weekend.

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The remote nature will allow the rotating group of eight officials to view pit stalls from an "eye in the sky" viewpoint, making the final call on infractions or providing them the ability to forward footage on to race control for further evaluation. And lest the flow of the race be disrupted, they’ll be doing so with double-time replays, allowing them to click off a pit-stop review at eight seconds a pop.

According to Gene Stefanyshyn, NASCAR’s senior vice president of innovation and racing development, the new system will help officials make major strides in fairness — putting violations that were once judgment calls into black-and-white terms — but also in safety, eliminating the need for NASCAR officials to observe pit stops among the high-traffic areas on pit road. In 2014, an over-the-wall official was assigned to each of the 43 cars each week; in 2015, it’s estimated that only 10 behind-the-wall officials will be necessary under the new system.

The added human interaction, Stefanyshyn said, is designed to help identify circumstances that fall outside black-and-white rulings.

"I think we’re relying a lot on the computer, but we still have a human involved because there are still circumstances like, ‘hey, I didn’t want to drive through that pit box, but there’s a car here,’ so then we can overrule," Stefanyshyn said. "So that’s why we want to keep the human element in for those types of things."

During Wednesday’s demonstration, pit-stop footage culled from the latter races of 2014 were fed into the officiating system, each one prompting a significant "ding!" alert when it reached each officials’ queue. From there, officials are able to see the system’s flagged violations and confirm or refute the ruling as needed.

The resulting human/automation balance falls somewhere between IBM’s "Jeopardy"-dominating Watson and the interpretive referees’ calls that have stoked controversy in the NFL playoffs for the past two weekends.

Some pit-road rules enforcement will remain under the conventional format of previous seasons. Commitment cone violations will remain a call by the pit entrance official and race control, and speeding penalties will still be detected by the use of timing and scoring loops on marked sections of pit road.

But the human side of the new system also involves race teams, especially in one crucial area — lug nuts. Whereas teams in past seasons were docked for loose or missing lugs, anything short of five tight lug nuts will not be a penalty in 2015.

With quick pit stops being held at such a premium and no risk of a penalty, would tire changers gamble with fastening just four or even three lug nuts to save time in a crucial pit stop? Shawn Rogers, NASCAR Managing Director for Planning and Business Operations, said that would be up to the team’s discretion, but that the reward might not outweigh the potential pitfalls.

"We’re just relying on them to install the wheels correctly," Rogers said. "The downside of not doing so, it’s pretty risky."

Even though the system has seemingly omniscient capabilities, Stefanyshyn said he expects crew chiefs to seek out the new technology’s gray areas.

"Of course they will. They’ve got creative minds and that’s what they get paid to do," Stefanyshyn said. "I’m sure there will be some creativity. … At least the cameras won’t be around them, so there won’t be spray paint actually getting on the lens or something like that."

The system is still under development and will get test runs at Daytona International Speedway in preliminary events to the Feb. 22 Daytona 500, including the IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship’s Rolex 24 on Jan. 24-25, the Sprint Unlimited on Feb. 14 and the Budweiser Duels at Daytona on Feb. 19. But the ultimate goal for human engagement with pit-road officiating is to eventually bring a bevy of data, footage and statistical insight both to TV broadcast partners, teams and fans.

"There are a lot of other next steps to come with this," Stefanyshyn said. "I believe we’ll start seeing some of that in the first quarter of this year."

Posted on by Zack Albert

Driver set to begin new chapter of career at Joe Gibbs Racing

RELATED: Complete schedule for driver previews

Team: Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota

Rank in final 2014 standings: 9th

Wins: 2 (Bristol Motor Speedway in March, Sonoma Raceway)

Year in photos: Recap Edwards’s 2014 highlights

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MORE: Edwards discusses new team, Daytona with 120Sports.com

Strides: Edwards placed his name among the first drivers to clinch a berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoffs, winning the fourth race of the season on a rainy day — and night — at Bristol Motor Speedway in March. It marked his first victory in the Tennessee track’s springtime race and his first on the .533-mile oval since 2008.

But Edwards also filled a void on his Sprint Cup resume at Sonoma Raceway in June with his first road course win in NASCAR’s premier series. The triumph came even as rumors began to circulate about his impending departure from Roush Fenway Racing, speculation that was confirmed just a month later.

Even with lame-duck status at the Jack Roush-owned team, Edwards pressed on, making it to the Eliminator 8 round of the Chase before watching the team’s championship hopes expire at Phoenix International Raceway in the final cut before the season finale.

"The highlights of the season were definitely Bristol and Sonoma — Sonoma, in particular," Edwards said. "It was a great win, was really proud of it, and then our performance in the Chase, I thought we did a great job there."

Setbacks: Despite of the pair of wins and the solid run into the new-look Chase’s latter stages, Edwards’ No. 99 suffered from a lack of oomph at tracks that used to be the team’s sweet spot. The team endured erratic performances at intermediate-sized tracks, and the best Edwards and Co. could muster at Michigan International Speedway — formerly a stronghold for car owner Jack Roush — was an uncharacteristic pair of 23rd-place efforts.

Though Edwards was able to survive two eliminations by avoiding major mistakes in the postseason, he registered just one top-five finish in the Chase — a fifth-place in the Contender Round opener at Kansas Speedway.

"The last few weeks were really tough, to be honest with you," Edwards said. "They’re tough for a couple of reasons, but competitively we didn’t have the speed that we needed and so for us to just keep digging down and making something out of those races, that was an amazing performance. My pit crew was basically flawless, (crew chief) Jimmy Fennig made perfect calls, I felt like I did a really good job, and at the end we just weren’t fast enough. We weren’t fast enough at Phoenix and that’s the way it goes."

Quoteworthy: "I’m very excited about what’s coming, but I’m very proud of what we’ve done. In some ways, I feel like I’m stepping off of a ledge and I don’t know what’s down there. We haven’t done anything yet in 2015. I know we have a lot of expectations and a lot of hopes, and now we’ve just got to do it."

What’s next: The biggest bombshell in the "silly season" of driver shifts came in August with Edwards’ introduction as a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver for the 2015 season, changing gears after a 12-year association with Roush and Ford. When asked whether Gibbs’ expansion with a start-from-scratch fourth team might dilute his performance, Edwards was quick to point out that the start-up nature of Stewart-Haas Racing‘s No. 4 team didn’t seem to hamper Kevin Harvick‘s march to his first Sprint Cup championship.

Edwards learned in December that he’ll work with veteran crew chief Darian Grubb next year as part of a sweeping overhaul of JGR’s competition personnel. He’ll also have new teammates in Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth, the latter of which was a former stablemate of his with Roush Fenway.

Shortly after NASCAR Champion’s Week in Las Vegas, Edwards took the opportunity to participate in a Goodyear tire test at Charlotte Motor Speedway in an effort to become more familiar with his new team and manufacturer in light of NASCAR’s ban on testing in 2015. Though he’s short on experience with the Gibbs operation, Edwards said the alignment of new factors in the offseason has him setting lofty aspirations — a Sprint Cup championship or else.

"There is no other goal," Edwards said. "I know that personally, I’ve never been a better driver, I feel like the people I have around me couldn’t be better, and I feel like we should go win the championship. That’s our goal. That’s what we plan on doing."

Posted on by Nascar

Groundbreaking system will change landscape of sport

MORE: Go inside the new pit road technology | Data rules, but human element still key

CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR officials will no longer be standing alongside crewmen to police pit stops in 2015, but that doesn’t mean the sanctioning body won’t be watching what takes place.

A new, technologically driven system that incorporates the use of 45 cameras will feed video of every stop made by every team to a central location, where eight officials will log pertinent information and report any violations.

"This is a great new innovation," Shawn Rogers, Managing Director of Business Operations for NASCAR, said as he previewed the system for members of the media.

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"I think it will probably change our sport, put us finally at the tip of the spear with technology.

"Paramount to us, we always want to increase our safety when possible, increase our accuracy … be consistent and above all these days, be transparent."

How will it work?

Each of the cameras will display two specific pit stalls. Once a car is on pit road, the individual cameras will record its progress as it moves through each area. The use of tracking software and pit road scoring loops identifies and verifies each car.

That same system software tracking its movement will indicate any infractions, such as too many men over the wall or driving through too many pit boxes when entering or exiting the pits based on information ingested before the event.

If there are no infractions logged by the system, one of the eight officials will still monitor the stop, noting the number of tires taken, whether fuel was added and whether any changes (chassis adjustments or repair to a damaged area, for example) to the car were made.

Infractions fall into three groups — vehicle (such as pitting outside pit box), equipment (leaving pit box with gas can still attached, etc.) and personnel/crew (too many men over the wall; over the wall too soon, etc.).

When the software picks up an infraction, it will be displayed on the monitor where an official will quickly view the stop and either confirm the issue (and subsequently notify the tower) or clear it if it can be determined that no infraction took place.

As an example, Rogers provided video of a driver that stopped just beyond his pit box last year when pitting, and the system flagged the infraction. However, crewmen quickly pushed the car back into its box before beginning to service it. Therefore, there was no penalty, and under the new system, an official has the ability to remove and clear the infraction notation.

Although it was in place during the final portion of the ’14 season, the system was tested, but not used for official purposes.

"We ran the system, full parallel testing, the final 11 races," Rogers said. "Our focus was to test out our hardware and software … train our officials and give them lots of reps with the system … and train our (operations) group."

The expectation is for each pit stop to be viewed and cleared in no more than eight seconds and stops are prioritized — those that are flagged as infractions are moved to the top of the list for immediate attention. The eight officials work through each stop until all have been cleared, reported when necessary and logged.

Teams will be notified of any penalties that occur once a stop has been completed.

"We’re not going to tell anyone of any violations until they leave pit road," Rodgers said. "That’s how we do speeding violations now. So we don’t get into this person found out a little bit sooner than that person.

That could be different depending on circumstances, he said. "If 35 cars pit at once on the third lap of the Daytona 500, some … could be told sooner than others."

The use of the technology will change the number of officials along pit road. Instead of the approximately two dozen that policed pit stops last year, only 10 will be in the pits this year. And Rogers said they would be stationed behind pit wall where they can respond to any team inquiries and monitor actions from that side of the car when necessary.

The officiating system will not be used at stand-alone events for the NASCAR XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series, according to Rogers.