iNSIDE SCOOP: What’s Cooking?

As we head into the time of year where most are focused on family and the season, let’s take a little look at the changes we’ve already seen for 2015 in terms of teams.

Crew chief changes are chief among the new order of things, if you’ll pardon the pun. Joe Gibbs Racing is the biggest changer, realigning its lineup to accommodate four teams for the first time in its history.

Newcomer Carl Edwards gets Darian Grubb for his first foray outside the world of Roush Fenway Racing. That’s a good gift, if you’re Cousin Carl. Ironically, it was Grubb who engineered the 2011 title run that cost Edwards his best shot at the NASCAR Sprint Cup title. You remember that, right? Tony Stewart made the Chase after going winless through the first 26, then won five of the 10 Chase races to beat Edwards in a tiebreaker. Carl remembers it too, and if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?

Matt Kenseth, feast or famine with JGR after winning seven races in 2013 and zero in 2014, stays with Jason Ratcliff and hopes that the mojo that worked in 2013 returns after a season away. That’s a good move too.

Dave Rogers goes from telling Kyle Busch to park his car—and his whiny little [body part] at the truck—to Denny Hamlin, one of the four Chase finalists last month at Homestead. That could pay dividends. Rogers is an engineer who might fit better with Hamlin’s personality than Grubb did, and it’s a change.

The most risky move, in my opinion, could turn out to have the highest upside. Adam Stevens, former late model driver and engineer on Tony Stewart’s No. 20 back in the day, moves up to the big leagues to replace Rogers with Busch.

It’s risky in that Stevens has never been on the box as a Cup crew chief; that’s all. Stevens won 31 races in the Nationwide Series (now Xfinity) with JGR and 19 of those came with Busch in the cockpit. Chemistry is already built in, and the new engine regs are right in his wheelhouse since they make the Cup cars more like Xfinity cars with reduced power.

It’s a gutsy move for JGR and Jimmy Makar. If it’s a home run, he’s a genius. If it’s a pop fly to the warning track, he’s still a hero. If it’s an easy ground ball to short…we’ll see.

All four are talented at what they do, and all four drivers are as well. It’s a dream team to rival Hendrick, at least on paper. Let’s see how they roll when the lights come on for real. The fact that everyone will be dealing with another new tech package is an equalizer, and there’s going to be a period of adjustment as well.

Who comes out the tunnel quickest is going to have an advantage, and it just might be JGR.