Get a jump-start on NASCAR’s new year

When the doors swing open at Nextel Cup teams’ shops Monday morning, the countdown will be on.

In 40 days, on Feb. 12, the Budweiser Shootout will open the 2005 season at Daytona International Speedway. Speedweeks testing will begin Jan.11, when teams finishing in the odd-numbered positions in the 2004 standings take to the 2.5-mile track. A new season, as always, will bring with it a lot of questions.

Let’s see if we can answer a few in advance:

Does the Sprint-Nextel merger spell big changes for NASCAR’s top circuit?

Not immediately, mainly because a business deal of that size will take the better part of 2005 to actually get done.

If the final company comes up with another name aside from Sprint or Nextel by 2006, though, you can expect a name change for what’s now Nextel Cup. Nextel is paying about $75million a year over its 10-year sponsorship deal, and if the brand name disappears the new company will want its name on the series. That’s what makes the sponsorship work.

If what once was Winston Cup goes to a third name in four years, that’s not an ideal “branding” situation for NASCAR. But as long as the check clears, the name will change if it needs to.

Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin will run their final full seasons in 2005, and Terry Labonte will race a partial schedule. Will others follow?

Only the drivers themselves know what’s on their minds. What we know is that Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett, who’re 48, were both born the same year as Wallace and are both older than Martin. Jarrett’s last win came in February 2003 and Rudd’s most recent win was in June 2002. Sterling Marlin also will turn 48 in June. In more than 2,000 races in NASCAR’s top series, only 19 have been won by drivers who’ve reached their 48th birthdays.

How soon will we notice new rules and procedures for 2005?

When the series goes to California for the season’s second race. Qualifying will be Feb. 26. That makes it the first track to use the schedule that will be in effect for roughly half of this year’s events, with cars impounded after qualifying and racing on the same set-ups used in qualifying.

The race will also see the debut of the smaller rear spoilers, a change that will likely have all of the teams testing especially hard.

There will be a couple of things different for Speedweeks. First, Dodge teams will have a new car – the Charger instead of Intrepid. Second, the qualifying races for the Daytona 500 will increase from 125 to 150 miles.

Will NASCAR have any surprises before the season?

There’s talk NASCAR will have an electronic timing system on pit road, but nothing official yet. If that comes, we’ll have to see how it’s implemented. If only NASCAR officials see the data from such a system, who’s to say their enforcement of the speed limit will be any less arbitrary than it has been?

NASCAR officials have said they don’t expect any major changes in the Chase for the Nextel Cup system. But does that mean they’ll make no changes?

If the May 7 race at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway doesn’t sell out, will that be the end of Cup racing there?

The better question might be whether it matters whether Darlington sells out. Some believe the track’s fate is sealed and that race will be moved somewhere else as soon as 2006 and no later than the time International Speedway Corp. gets a track built in the Pacific Northwest or in the New York City area.

Me? I choose to be optimistic.

I choose to believe the lights at Darlington and the Saturday night date on Mother’s Day weekend will give fans a chance to save a track that certainly deserves to be saved. I choose to believe that somewhere in NASCAR there’s somebody who’s smart enough to figure out that the Southern 500 ought to be run on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend at Darlington for another 50 years.

Who’ll win his first championship sooner, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman or Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

Oh, it’s way too early to spoil a good argument like that one.