NASCAR Sprint Cup 2015 Preview, News: Hendrick Motorsports

By Joshua Lobdell, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, February 18, 2015

2014 was a fairly impressive year for the Hendrick Motorsports team as a whole. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. each won four races. They along with teammate Casey Mears all qualified for the Chase for the Championship, however only Gordon advanced as far as the Eliminator round.

2015 becomes something of a transition year for the team as this will be Gordon's final time as a full time driver and Hendrick will take advantage of the rule that allows a team to run a fifth team in selected races to help get Chase Elliott ready to take over for him in 2016.

#24 Jeff Gordon- Gordon got his final full time tour of the Sprint Cup circuit started in grand fashion as he won the pole for the Daytona 500. Once more he will be paired with crew chief Alan Gustafson and be sponsored by the Drive to End Hunger and 11 races with 3M. Gordon has stated he does not want this to be a retirement tour but it seems likely he will bring out famous paint schemes from his decorated past at some point during the 2015 season.

#48 Jimmie Johnson- once again paired with longtime crew chief Chad Knaus the #48 team begins there drive for their seventh Sprint Cup title. He is one short of the record held by NASCAR royalty King Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr. Last year Johnson made it to the contender round of NASCAR's new Chase format and will certainly be looking to improve upon that performance.

#88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.- Dale had a pretty good 2014 winning four races, but he failed to advance past the contender round in the Chase. A Sprint Cup title is the one thing his racing resume lacks. Greg Ives, who guided Chase Elliott to the 2014 Xfinity series title takes over as crew chief for the #88 team.

#5 Casey Mears- Casey did not find his way to victory lane in 2014 and new Crew Chief Keith Rodden will certainly be looking to fix that. Following the old Ray Evernham checklist for success one has to be able to win races before contending for series titles.

#25 Chase Elliott- son of NASCAR legend Bill Elliott Chase is being groomed to take over the #24 team. He will race in five races with NAPA as a primary sponsor and Kenny Francis on the pit box. He continues the trend of promoting young drivers rapidly to NASCAR's premier racing series. Given that he had an average finish of eight, won three races, the Xfinity series titles, and was running at the end of every race in NASCAR's lower series this promotion may be fully justified.