With 2014 now behind us and the New Years' celebrations put to bed, NASCAR fans can look forward to another action packed and event filled season over all of its three tiers.

Last season in the Sprint Cup Series saw a new champion crowned in the form of Stewart Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick and a couple of rookies, Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, make a name for themselves in their maiden seasons.

The new Chase format brought with it even more intense racing, three of the four potential champions heading into in the season closer at Homestead were 1-2-3 with four laps to go, and fights galore between some of the biggest names in the sport.

But one big name driver who many believed had a very under par season in 2014 was six time champion Jimmie Johnson in the #48.

Although the Hendricks Motorsport driver unsurprisingly made the Chase, his performances during the season and in it were not up to his high standards.

Over the course of the season there was talk of unrest between himself and crew chief Chad Knaus as people believed that the legendary partnership in recent times of the sport was starting to break down.

But as the 2015 season looms large on the horizon it seems that all is well in camp #48 and the talk of a break up between the legendary partnership is in the past, for now.

Anti-Jimmie and team #48 fans may want to look out though as the king of NASCAR in recent years could once again rise to the top of the Sprint Cup Series tree in 2015.

Another team that will be under the sports spotlight in 2015 is Stewart Haas Racing.

As was mentioned earlier they have a defending champion in the form of Harvick in the #4 car but it is the teams co-owner and driver of the #14 car Tony Stewart.

Stewart would even admit himself that he had a shocking 2014 season and created some unwanted records in the process.

Last season saw him pick up the records of first season without a victory and the first time in Sprint Cup series history that he didn't make the Chase.

But away from NASCAR there was an incident which overshadowed everything else that happened to Stewart in 2014 and that was the death of 21 year old driver Kevin Ward Jr.

Stewart will be hoping to start afresh in 2015 and potentially get off to the best possible start by getting his maiden Daytona 500 victory. 

For Smoke fans, the hope will be that he can get another Sprint Cup Series trophy and get back to victory lane to put the nightmare that was 2014 behind him.

Finally it could be a pivotal season for NASCAR's second most popular character and driver of the #10 Danica Patrick.

A large number of fans believe that she can finally go to victory lane during the 2015 season and prove her doubters wrong. There is a portion of NASCAR fans that believe she doesn't deserve her place in one of the sports biggest teams SHR.

But over the course of the 2014 Sprint Cup series season, Patrick was vastly improved from the driver in the 2013 season, although in 2013 she grabbed a pole award for the Daytona 500.

Last year she was one of the drivers to look in every qualifying session as she would normally always make it to the final round of each races qualifying rounds.

On top of that she had a large number of top 20 finishes when people would expect her to finish towards the back of the field. She should be able to carry on with this momentum, and 2015 could finally be the year that we see Patrick climb out of her car in Victory Lane and grab her first ever victory.

So, there are the three major stories we can see making headlines over the course of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Boogity Boogity Boogity, let's go racing boys and girls!