NASCAR Cup Series

Sprint Cup series off to flying start as it heads to Phoenix

Published Mar. 9, 2015 11:15 a.m. ET

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Darrell Waltrip

We now have three races under our belt in 2015 and the thing that is really exciting to me as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Phoenix International Raceway is there isn't any letdown from 2014.

Last year was truly one for the ages with the new Chase format. Kevin Harvick had his back to the wall and had to win the last two races of the season to win his first-ever championship. Then there was Ryan Newman nipping at his heels during the final race at Homestead. Ryan almost pulled off the unbelievable in winning the 2014 championship without winning a single race.

I love the fact that in three races we've had three different winners. Young Joey Logano won at Daytona. Jimmie Johnson was back to his old form winning Atlanta and then Sunday ol' freaky fast Kevin Harvick, our defending series champion won, which puts him in the Chase field with a chance to win back-to-back championships.

Kevin is enjoying an amazing run. Sunday's win was Kevin's third in five races dating back to the final two events of last season and it marked his sixth consecutive top-two finish. That is phenomenal.

Sure the favorites are winning and that's expected. There's a reason they are labeled as favorites, right?  If you look past that, you'll find equally compelling storylines. We have three underdog single-car teams that are making a lot of noise early in 2015.

Martin Truex Jr. now has finished in the top 10 in all three of our 2015 races. Sunday he also added a top-five finish by coming home second to Harvick. What an amazing turnaround for that driver and team after a pretty dismal 2014 season. Martin is sitting fourth in the points too.

AJ Allmendinger is another one of those single-car team drivers. He brought his No. 47 Chevrolet home sixth on Sunday in Las Vegas. That also marks his second top-10 finish of the year. With that strong finish, AJ moved up three spots to fifth in the points. While Las Vegas wasn't a great weekend for Casey Mears -- he started 17th and finished 25th -- Casey's been right up there this season as well. He's had one top-10 finish in our first three races and is ninth in the points.

What's the common denominator among these three single-car teams? They all have an alliance with Richard Childress Racing. To be running as well as they are this early in the season is a huge accomplishment for these teams and drivers. They simply don't have the personnel and sponsorship resources that the bigger teams do. With that said, the alliance with Richard Childress Racing gives these teams a real shot of running up front. That's a good thing for our sport and everyone involved.

Ryan Newman is carrying over his run of consistency from last year. He came home third Sunday in Las Vegas. It was his first top five of the season and second top 10 so far. Sunday's great finish also jumped Ryan nine spots in the points as he now sits in 12th. Sure it's still all about winning, but Ryan is showing everyone that consistency and points are equally important. So I love the balance between there being two avenues to make the Chase. You can either "win and your in" or you can be consistent each and every week with high-placing finishes and still find yourself with a shot to win the title.

The competition on the track is just as exciting as it was last year. We've now had two races under our belt with the new 2015 rules package. While everyone was saying in the off season that the lower horsepower and less downforce was going to slow the cars down, I was saying it really wasn't going to change much as they balance each other out. Guess what, we were both wrong. These cars are going even faster.

Less, less, less actually equals more, more, more. We went to Atlanta in 2014 with unlimited horsepower plus more downforce and qualified at 192 miles per hour. In 2015 we went there, again with less horsepower and less downforce yet qualified at 194 mph. I never would have expected at a place like Las Vegas we would even equal the speeds we saw in 2014, but there was Jeff Gordon shattering the track record, again with less horsepower and downforce than in 2014.

So that's why I think NASCAR got it right. The racing is great. The teams took the rules NASCAR issued them yet are still able to perform at the same and sometimes even higher levels than a year ago. That is simply amazing to watch.

I also love the fact we utilizing the concept of the west coast swing this year. I have been promoting that forever. Now we finally have it. Las Vegas is in our rearview mirror and now we're off to Phoenix. Following the race this weekend, we then head to Fontana. I think since those three tracks are working together to cross-promote, that maybe our NASCAR on FOX team should join in. Maybe we should offer up a big NASCAR on FOX trophy every year if a driver is able to win all three of the West Coast swing races?

It's just all working folks.  The product on the track and on your TV is great. Did you see the grandstands in Las Vegas? I don't know if it was a sell-out or not, but it sure looked like it to me. I love seeing the sport flourish again and I think NASCAR has got the right formula. I also love the fact that FOX has the XFINITY races back this season. I think our guest analysts are fun to have up in the booth whether it's Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Danica Patrick or Brad Keselowski. I think that adds a new spark to the XFINITY race coverage.

I also think the competition on the track is going to get even better as we get deeper into the 2015 season. Remember, Sunday at Las Vegas was only the second race under these new rules. As those teams get more races under their belt, more of them will get a better understanding of what their car likes and needs to go faster.

Probably the only glaring negative that keeps rearing its ugly head is the SAFER barrier issue.  For the third week in a row, a race car at a NASCAR event went headfirst into a concrete wall. Last Saturday in the XFINITY race at Last Vegas, Ryan Blaney got loose and got into Erik Jones. Jones then lost control of his car. It swung left and then turned back to the right and went hard headfirst into a concrete wall unprotected with SAFER Barriers. Thankfully young Mr. Jones was okay after that hard hit. There's simply no excuse in this day and age. This has to stop.

So we are on our way to Phoenix this weekend. It's stop No. 2 of the western swing. It's hard to believe we've been going there since 1988. The late Alan Kulwicki was our very first winner out there in November of 1988. Oh by the way, as another example of how things have changed, in 1988 we only had a 28 race schedule comparted with the 36 races that are run today.

Who's the favorite this weekend? I think that's an easy pick. Your winner from Las Vegas would be someone you should put money on. Kevin Harvick is the winningest driver at Phoenix having been to Victory Lane out there six times. Now coming off a huge win and momentum booster from Las Vegas, expect ol' Harv to be freaky fast once again. 

NASCAR Victory Lane: Kevin Harvick wins Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

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