New year is a new beginning for Cup drivers
The new year is here now and that means an opportunity for drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to finally put 2009 completely behind them and start focusing on 2010.
If you're Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick or David Ragan, you've been looking forward to this day for a while. It's a day when those drivers, among others, can finally wipe the slate clean and turn their full attention to a new year and the dawn of a new season, hoping that it brings about better results than the one that recently passed.
If you're Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin or Denny Hamlin, you're hoping that 2010 brings success similar to 2009, a year when all three drivers enjoyed tremendous seasons in their own right.
More of the same will be just fine for these drivers, especially Johnson, who will pursue a once-in-a-time-unthinkable fifth straight Cup crown in 2010.
Of course, being in a new year doesn't erase the past or undo what has already been done. Nor does it guarantee more good days for those who have grown accustomed to them.
But it's an opportunity for NASCAR drivers, just like everyone else, to start afresh with anticipation of what lies ahead.
Will drivers who struggled in 2009 turn it up in 2010? Will those who excelled last year be just as strong or even better this year? Will drivers who set the standard in 2009 fall by the wayside in 2010?
These are all questions that will garner plenty of discussion in the coming weeks and months. And I, for one, can't wait to start unearthing some answers.
