Retrospectives of 2015

With 2015 on its way out the door, I figure it might be interesting to share some retrospectives of the good, the bad, and the ugly that this year's worth of racing had to offer. So I'll kick this off.

Verizon IndyCar Series

This season perfectly exemplified why IndyCar's popularity is gradually increasing with each year. I became more of an IndyCar fan this season than I have in eight years worth of watching racing. This season showcased some absolutely stellar racing, tarnished only by IndyCar's ongoing management issues (the NOLA race, the start of the Indy 500, Fontana losing its 2016 date, the decision to monitor driver behavior, etc.) and the unfortunate death of Justin Wilson. Most every race was terrific, especially Fontana, which is a track I usually have a disdain for. The "superspeedway racing" aesthetic, while it might have been something that the drivers were not particularly fond of, was a blast to watch on television. Despite Fontana's absence on the 2016 schedule, here's to hoping that IndyCar will continue to develop and build upon its current success. Looking forward especially to the 100th running of the Indy 500.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

This season, abysmal as it was, did have its moments. The rules package and the Chase largely impaired the racing this season, but in between it all there was some great races: The Daytona 500 had me on the edge of my seat for the last twenty laps, the Southern 500 proved to be the race that NASCAR so badly needed with the combination of the low-downforce package and the retro schemes on many of the cars, Kentucky for once put on a show that was interesting to watch, Talladega II had some great racing if you can look past the shenanigans at the finish, and Martinsville II will more than likely be remembered as Jeff Gordon's final Sprint Cup win, as well as remembered for Matt Kenseth absolutely wiping Joey Logano out as he was leading the race. This year certainly had its abundance of story lines; the last season of Jeff Gordon's career, Kyle Busch rallying back to win the title despite missing a third of the season, and of course the aforementioned Kenseth/Logano feud. I can confidently place this season lower on the list of worst Cup seasons, it was certainly better than 2008. The Chase is here to stay as much as the fanbase bears resentment to it, but with NASCAR having adopted the low-downforce package full time for 2016, I look forward to a better year of racing next season. It will certainly be strange to see the #24 driven by someone other than Jeff Gordon, though.

Formula One

There needn't be much said about Formula One this season. There's only two races I'll particularly remember, those being the Hungarian GP and the United States GP. Beyond that, Mercedes F1 has absolutely dominated most every race this season, though it was refreshing to have Sebastian Vettel win the races that both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg performed poorly on. I do like that Alexander Rossi's introduction into Formula One puts another American on the F1 grid in quite a while, and though he drives for the slowest team on the grid right now, he does hold some promise by being marginally faster than his teammate. I can't imagine that 2016 would be any more/less interesting than this season on its own, but with Haas F1 joining the mix and Manor finding backing from Mercedes, we'll just have to wait and see.

Feel free to post your own retrospectives of 2015.

Indycar:

Indycar's been my favorite series since around 2006 but i feel like this year was finally the year the series got back on it's own two feet from the damage the split did, It was up and down with the drama with the aerokits, Wilson's death, and management issues but on the other hand the on-track product killed it this year along with getting people invested in the sport (as evidenced by ratings). I honestly feel this year was the series best year since it's origin all around and with 2016 on the way we might see some more fun. (Intrigued by a lot of the last class of Indy Lights coming up)


Nascar:

Although some people say 2008 was the worst Nascar season since they started watching...I'm going to make an argument for 2015. Garbage racing throughout the year with the number of good races being able to be counted on your hands, several real bad decisions management wise, drivers acting like children throughout the year, and i personally believe the worst championship fight since i started watching the sport. Xfinity Series was boring, with the highlight being the young drivers (I just can't get angry about it anymore). Trucks was alright, another series that most it's intrigue was the younger guys running lose. First year with the new TV Package was kinda bi-polar with some races having pretty good all-around production to other races being just flat cringeworthy at points. I'm so burnt on the Cup series that i can't bring myself to care for 2016.


Formula One:

This year was the personification of the people who say "F1 is follow the leader", because at times this year it felt like it was just that. With politics getting ahead of the racing again, The driver on the top of sport being very unlikable, and the so called "pinnacle of racing" making bush-league decisions at points...Just wasn't fun throughout the year. The engine politics despite dominating the talk of the year might have an interesting result in scrambling up the field next season...that's where my hopeful hype lies.


Other Series:

Formula E was absolutely stellar this year and proves that an electric car series can work at the very least for great racing, WEC was cool to see on America TV and hopefully might give the Nascar Sports Car Series (IMSA) a run for it's money, watched a lot more of V8's this year and had fun. Hopefully we can get some more overlooked series in the spotlight next year!