NASCAR has changed the aero package so many different times, that when I look at an action shot of a gen 6 race, I can tell what year its from just by looking at the spoiler

Normal People: It's just cars going in a circle, I don't see a difference NASCAR Fans: Now let me stop you right there

We had 900hp fire breathing chariots from hell that produced the best racing in the Cup series series since the early 2000's

I feel like this was the last season where the racing was consistently great from week to week without being manufacturered by stages and stupid engine/aero packages

2014 had the best engine sounds in the gen 6 era no debate about it

2014 Car was the best they had it since the GEN 4 car. Every week it was like new track records. Throttle control. The day Jeff Gordon won the pole at MIS was the 7th fast time in history and is the fastest qualifying time that's not at Daytona or Talladega. We need more horsepower.

1:40 “Denny Hamlin wins a controversial win at talladega…” Oh wow. I hope that doesn’t happen again.

This season also concluded the NASCAR coverage for both ESPN/ABC and TNT

No where: Absolutely no where: NASCAR twitter: *_post the Chicagoland race and immediately gets mass likes_*

Everyone: Misses 2014 because the same package was never ran again. Me: Misses 2014 because Allen Bestwick never announced another televised NASCAR race since.

For Gordon fans, it was one last bit of greatness… as well as the fact that he was again robbed by the system.

The year Brad K gave what the fans wanted... and they neglected him for it.

I gotta say the 2014 season is one of my favorites. One of the greatest NASCAR seasons of all time imo. Too bad Jeff Gordon couldn't win the championship

2014 was the first season I watched where I had a good understanding of everything in NASCAR. It has a special place in my heart for that reason.

For me, I am nostalgic for the season mostly because of me being a Junior fan, plus waking up after a long ass rain delay to finally watch Junior win at Daytona + attending the Coke Zero 400 race made 2014 my year honestly

2014 was the year I've returned watching NASCAR after a 6 year hiatus. Watched the entire season and enjoyed it overall despite Gordon didn't win the championship. Also seeing basically every team exploiting the bent sideskirts at the latter part of the season was interesting NASCAR let it slide since it was the first year of the playoffs.

Why can't we have this package for the 2022 high speed tracks, and the 2016 low downforce package for low speed tracks??

Also an underlying reason for the liking of 2014 must be the roster of drivers that were still in the cup series at the time. It wasn’t quite the changing of the guard with all of the 2000s drivers retiring just yet.

Honestly I miss the commentators the most: Adam Alexander with Kyle Petty & Wally Dallenbach, Allen Bestwick with Andy Petree & Dale Jarrett, plus the legend DW.

I miss this season. The aero package was amazing. Hearing those 900 HP beasts scream down the straightaway was beautiful. The influx of young rookies, The new championship format which has since become an absolute joke, The resurgence of Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Dale Jr having a great year. So many storylines. Bad Brad Keselowski taking his nickname a little bit too seriously. This season had anything and everything. I miss it so much. I really do.

2014 is when I got into NASCAR. That season will always be special to me.

I’ve been saying for the longest, 2014 was dope af

Personally, 2014 was a great life for me. And as a Gordon fan, I enjoyed 2014 up until the round of 8.

I'll remember the 2014 season mostly thanks to that Doge Coin car Josh Wise drove

Great battles, great drivers, crazy fights, best playoffs, best package, best commentators, and my personal favorite, best sounding engines in motorsports

I’m obsessed with 2014 because SPEED. the FASTEST the cars have ever been.

"for nascar fans its kicked up a notch" f1 fans: [laughs in v12]

The 2014 and 2015 are my favorite era of NASCAR. I’m a Joey Logano fan so those were some cool years. Also you had more competitive driver and a ton of different personalities

The worst part about 2014 was the points format. I remember my grandma was super annoyed when it was announced and I was still looking forward to it. Then the round of 8 happened. As a Gordon fan, it was a tragic end to a magical year.

I love it because the 1.5 mile tracks (my favorites) were good, drivers weren’t full throttle for laps and laps, and the Cup series cars were harder to drive than the Xfinity cars on bigger tracks. Also Harvick won so it’s my favorite year anyway lol

It's also scary to think that as it stands now, there is only one driver who raced in the 2001 Daytona 500 that is still in the Cup series full-time...

It was true racing from the aero package to the simplicity of the product , also the announcers calling the races was made you wanna see every lap of a race That’s why

2014 was the last year I watched NASCAR on a week-to-week basis. While the on-track product was a massive improvement compared to 2013's dull as paint product, '14 is cherrypicked even now. On long runs at any track bigger then Dover moves almost never happened. And like you said, the plate racing was godawful for the second year in a row and it continued to be bad until 2019. I will always maintain that the last two and half years of the COT was the best racing we ever saw in NASCAR, especially because you could still see things be attempted even during long runs. The move from spec-bodies to manufacture bodies for 'meh manufacture identity' really hurt the product badly. The biggest thing that turned me off to NASCAR that year was the new points format. In a normal year there are maybe 3 to 8 drivers that you could say deserve being called championship contenders. With 16 drivers and the constant point resets, the first six races of the chase was basically watching to see when irrelevant drivers like Allmendinger would fall off and it was impossible for drivers to actually get any serious momentum built. As much as people bitched about the 2004-2013 chase for various reason (some legit some not) at least you could get momentum and drive. With constant point resets it was impossible to see who actually was deserving of making it to homestead or not until after the fact. And FUCK, the way that the drivers, particularly Brad K, drove in the last few races was insulting. For a professional series, seeing them acting like idiots and ramming and dumping eachother, then fighting and being pushed into petulant moshpit brawls afterwards was a god danm black eye to the sport. No one was acting like champions. And the final race with Newman, who was already years past his peak, nearly winning a title from doing nothing was peak incompetence. So after 2014, I stopped watching NASCAR except for Plate races, the 600, Darlington, and maybe a Road Course. Proved to be a good idea as from what little I saw and what friends told me, it just kept getting worse. I gave it another try in the later half of 2018 and had moderate enjoyment from some of the races but then another massive HP cut and DF increase was added for 2019 and after a few weeks of giving that a try I turned it off except for, again, Plate Races, the 600 (which is pointless now also), Darlington and maybe a Road Course. On the other hand since 2012 Indycar was going through a renaissance and I followed JPM in 2014 back to Indycar and was amazed with how great American Open Wheel Racing had become, after having written nearly all of it off after Champcar was shuttered. And this holds true to this day. Even with NASCAR kicking their limbs and trying to take most of American motorsports to the grave with them, Indycar and a few other racing series continue to put on a much more engaging, more interesting, and more mature racing product.

I miss tnt and espn

I'll always remember the 2014 season as the year Marcos Ambrose punched Casey Mears after Mears kept bothering him.

Imagine the 2014 HP with the low downforce of today? The amount of throttle control would be insane.

In the NASCAR Twitter part about the new package, u forgot to include Kevin Harvick and Kyle Larson racing side by side for like 3 laps and then Brad Keslowski splitting between them for the lead.

Let's see we had Spin Master making diecast of the drivers back then. 2014 was the last dose of magic from Jeff Gordon as he had a great season winning at Dover and Indy and scoring 5 wins overall and Dale Jr's resurgence after a 2 year wait. Overall this was the best year of the Generation Six race car by far. I am glad I was around to watch it.

I also think a lot of fans remember it for the fight that happened between Brad k and Jeff Gordon But I remember for the fact that we got to see one last real shot from the 2014 to when his fifth championship That's what I remember as a race fan from 2014 That's Jeff Gordon was the only guy who could go head to head with Kevin Harvick and beat him straight up But we really didn't get to see that it was one of the biggest letdowns in the 2014 season

4:39 That is an image that needs to be remembered, 4-wide at Bristol.

900hp low downforce pure racing performance machines. Many and most fans admit we miss the cars that used to be the greatest the sport ever had.

The first raced I watched was at the end of the 2013 season. So the 2014 means a lot to me because it was the year my love for NASCAR definitely grew. Then, my driver finally won a championship in 2015!

The 2014 package clips look a bit tame in comparison to things seen about 11 years prior to that. I think a large part of why 2014 in particular is picked is because it was the last year with big horsepower, but also because of the age of a lot of people on NASCAR twitter. If twitter had been around in 2009, you'd see clips from 2003 -- before the chase/playoffs, the splitter, the COT... ... and I'm fully aware I showed my age with this, hahahaha. I also liked group qualifying, but not necessarily it's implementation.

God I miss this I really do the 2014 package was perfect I rewatch these races every offseason.

I’m still obsessed with 2011

ah yes, the year Happy Meal Harvick got the championship title.

Obligatory "Bring back the Winston cup format" comment

Simply put it was some of the best racing we've ever seen. And oh my listen to the roar of those engines😍

I feel an under appreciated change during this season was the addition of camber in the rear wheels. It added grip and area for ideas to thrive for the engineers of the teams which added parity in the overall competition. The aero was also a good combination with the horsepower package

Great subject, outstanding video! Loved the 24 paint scheme that year

2022 Should Have 1000HP

2:21 I'm watching on November 9 2021. And become a championship he finally did.

The Downfall of N2SC4R

Crazy how I missed everything that happened that season since it was a world cup year. From everyone trying to Fight Brad. Newman 1 restart Away from exposing the system Harvick escaping from The Jaws from elimination. And this was Larson's Rookie season

2013/2014 were the rise of the Gen 6, then the downfall was 2015, 2016 was the rise again, 2017 was still the same, but was okay, 2018 was the downfall a bit, and 2019-2021 is the downfall of the Gen 6. 2014 was easily good because of the package, but it it’s not like my favorite season due to certain reasons I shall not say. But 2014 was still a good year!

Another thing I'd bring back from 2014 is Wally Dallenbach in the booth replacing Slick Rick.

This season had a lot of what NASCAR fans either still love or want to return. Low downforce high horsepower packages, no stage racing, unmanufactured action, allen bestwick, storylines and rivalries built on as the season went on, parody up and down the grid, entertaining xfinity and truck campaigns as well, it was the last great season we’ve seen, group qualifying done correctly Along with that you still had full crowds at a lot of races and NASCAR still had a mainstream appeal, all be it a lesser extent If I was NASCAR i’d try to get back to all of this, but knowing them they’d probably fuck it up

I think that they need to put at least 800 horsepower in the next gen for intermediates just so we can really see what the car is made of and get some actual good racing

4:41 This is the year that broke Darrell in the booth. Things that were once impossible became possible and he was just like ‘But… he… I… bu…. He jus….’

2014 was an amazing season. -Great racing -Great rookies -Great crashes -Great combination of old and new drivers racing compedabaly -Great fights and brawls -Great playoffs Keyword GREAT

High HP High Downforce is the way to go. Unfortunate the drivers felt it was unsafe. Either way, in terms of the package, we need to be looking forward, not back, as it’s clear NASCAR doesn’t care much about the past.

The one thing I remember from this season is Kevin Harvick winning the championship. I still remember using the photo of his championship car as my Facebook profile pic.

Great video! Loved it!

This season is easily one of my favorite seasons of the 2010s and one of my favorites of all time, watched every race that season and glad I did cause this season alone had some of the best racing I'd ever seen and really threw me back to the mid to early 2000s 👏👏👏😆🤟

High horsepower package

This is something I kinda hope for with the Next Gen car, I feel like if ya gave the same package as 2014 it would make the racing pretty good since the cars r more aerodynamic and don’t have any side force really, it’d actually make for pretty good racing. Plus ya look at the cars from other series, the other series that had around the same horsepower either in the same year or around it were F1 cars with the Twin Turbo V6 Hybrids and LMP1 cars with the engine producing around 500-600 horse, 450 if you’re Porsche with a 4 banger, but gained an extra 500 horsepower from the electric motor of the hybrid system. The only other cars that produced the power the 2014 package had were Can Am cars. They ran about 850+ horsepower from Chevy big block V8s. Even Porsche was rumored to have 1200-1500 horsepower in qualifying trim from the Flat 12 in the “Turbo Panzer” otherwise known as the Porsche 917/30. Which got me thinking about it. When u think about, NASCAR kinda almost made a Can Am car from a stock car. Ya give the cars LMP1 aerodynamics and u basically got a modern day Can Am car lol. Plus anyone wanting to comment on how the cars would be too sucked to the ground with the package of the Next Gen with the HP and spoiler of the 2014 package, let me tell ya right now, you’d probably get the same racing ya did with IndyCar back in the late 2000s-early 2010s before Wheldon’s accident. Plus, it’ll solve NASCAR’s flipping issue. NASCAR reduced the horsepower more and more of late to keep cars from flipping in the air and yet they still do. I mean look at the Truck Series who this year, had a Truck flip, even when they go slower in a pack and have more downforce and drag than Xfinity and Cup and yet someone still flipped. Thought ought to tell NASCAR something, that lowering the engine power don’t do jack. It’s all in the aero. Ya look at all of NASCAR’s flips with the Gen 6, it’s all been from the air getting under the car and then not having a place to go. What they should’ve don’t was take notes from Le Man Prototype cars. There’s a reason why there’s cutouts above the tires. And it ain’t just for downforce on the track. ACO and FIA learned well on how to keep their cars from flipping at speed. I think NASCAR needs to do the same aero wise.

I wish they'd let the engines run free

It’s the year that made me go from into NASCAR to addicted

Kevin Harvick is my favorite driver. Unfortunately, the first NASCAR race I ever watched was the 2015 Daytona 500. I was just one race short!

First and only season I watched every race! As a European I had just found nascar in 2013, man was I in for a treat.

It was the last season with TNT and ESPN/ABC, the season where the start and parks would try and run the whole race, the Dogecoin car, where racing was used as an escape from daily life, the last where the sport focused on the racing rather than the driver's personalities, the return of the 3, Martin Truex Jr.'s career resurgance, the last season for Marcos Ambrose and the last for me where it was broadcast TV, after which, it was exclusively on cable before being on Trackpass completely.

It's the last time NASCAR used unrestricted engines. I just don't like the idea of a motorsport series that big just using 550 hp.

This racing is INCREDIBLE

2014 was heartbreaking as a lifelong Jeff Gordon fan. He was the class of the field and didn’t even have a shot at the title. But besides that… 2014 was a great year

I absolutely loved 2014. For two different reasons, Kevin harvick won his championship and I am a huge fan of harvick, but there was also so many moments throughout the year that were just absolutely amazing to watch. Great video👍👍👍

Bring 200mph at intermediates back.

I binged through the entire season in early 2020 during the pause of the season and it was just awesome. Very fun. Good storylines. Dramatic playoffs.

You forgot to mention it was Kevin Harvick that pushed Brad towards Jeff that started that brawl.

I love how mike joy says oops at 8:48 when the 30 car took out the camera

Let's never forget that Ryan Newman came this close (1 point, iirc) to Matt Crafton-ing the "we want wins to be all that matters" Chase format in it's inaugural season. I really wish he had pulled it off.

2014 was the last time they went into a season without an over-engineered and over-regulated rules package. It was a shoot from the hip, wild assed guess, based off of what they thought would happened. And it was good . . . It was good because no one knew what was going to work best, BECAUSE it wasn't over-engineered and over-regulated. But regulated just enough to keep the competition CLOSE. Not EQUAL, but CLOSE. A small variance, but a huge effect on the racing. Drivers could find lines that would improve their lap times, they could make pass attempts without having to worry about losing ten or twenty spots if it failed. Crews had some adjustments left to play with, to help their driver, etc. But the Chase/Playoffs still suck. It's always been the SEASON Championship. Luck should not play such a big part, in such a short period of time to crown a champion when there are more than two competitors on the same "field" at the same time. Especially when such heavy penalties are given out for lug nut violations, yet someone who comes to the track with a car the won't pass inspection, and needs multiple times to get it right, to only have to start at the rear, then the gets competition cautions, and stage cautions that nullify any real affect the penalty has.

I miss that season because the aeropackage and very high horsepower. But the new format bit me after Gordon got eliminated before finale race caused by winless Newman who shoved Larson to the wall in order in order to advance. I hated the current format since. If they wanted a Game 7 moments, go back to 2011 format where Stewarts and Edwards came in a tiebreaker for the championship.

because back then it was exciting to watch every end of the race

amen to that first line in your description

Loudest race I ever attended was that year. Hearing everyone get on the gas at 900hp at the same time was like thunder

with how just bad a lot of NASCAR has gotten a brief hopeful spot that was the 2014 season is gonna be remembered fondly

Look how how freaking fast the cars look at 0:50!

Who could forget the Sharknado 3 crash

I remember my 2014 rookie year

Jeff Gordon’s last good season, but good for Harvick to finally win a championship. Also, I heard about Stewart’s incident from my mom at a Chili’s restaurant. She was right when she said it was Ward’s own fault that he died.

BFM: talks about 2014 ME: SEES CHICAGOLAND😞

I joined in 2017, but I love the replays

I knew I was obsessed with 2014, but I didn’t know everyone else was too! I feel less weird now 😂

Ummm, ESPN neglecting Motorsports, aren’t F1 being broadcasted in ESPN? and yes, Larson is a future champion probably this year, he can have in his racing suit, the champion badge.

2014 was the first season I got to attend a NASCAR race. As the 500 was on my 16th birthday, I got to go with my dad to see the race and then sit in the rain. SO MUCH RAIN!! But JR won so worth it.

I might be biased as a Harvick fan but that season was AWESOME!

I remember 2014-2015, not just because the innovative cars. I remember seeing those Double e cup series stop motion stuff, and that is kind of how i got into Nascar. I'm not obsessed with 2014, i'm just glad that's when i started watching the sport.

2014 was the last good NASCAR season. Like all seasons post 2003, its a shame the meme playoff format existed and Gordon got robbed(again) on a proper title. The cars were the best they had been since probably 2009. Its a really fun season. But in true NASCAR fashion, they took one step forward and then in 2015 two steps back and they have never recovered. Even they they had the nerve to call 2021 the best season ever, its been very far from that

they had 850 horsies and a great package to race with no stage racing just fast cars and not just 1 car leading all day bring it back

Even Danica had 2014 highlights (one in here). I’ll always love her as a driver, and 2014 shows a few good reasons why. Same for Newman.