2014 NASCAR Cup Series (Simpsonverse)

The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series was the 66th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 43rd modern-era Cup season. The season began at Daytona International Speedway, with the Budweiser Shootout, followed by the Daytona 500. The season ended with the Oral-B USA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

This season was the final year of broadcasting for the ESPN family of networks. ESPN had covered the second half of the Sprint Cup season since 2007. For 2015, their portions of the season were divided between Fox Sports and NBC.

In one of the largest rookie classes in recent history, Kyle Larson was named the Junie Donlavey Rookie of the Year.

Rules changes
Beginning this year, NASCAR eliminated traditional single car qualifying in its top 3 series for all races except the Daytona 500, the Mudsummer Classic, and non-points events. Qualifying will now be done with heat races. Qualifying will consist of all entered cars in 4 heat races. The first and third races determine the inside row, while the second and fourth races determine the outside row. Starting positions in heat races are based on practice times. On the day before the race, a B-main race is held, with the top three finishers moving on to the main race. A system involving groups of cars being released at five-second intervals was used at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International in 2013.

Another major change was the banning of coil-binding, and a rigid inspection process to ensure crew chiefs weren't cheating the system by binding the coils.

Body rules were tightened to ensure teams weren't trying to create artificial aerodynamic advantages. Finally, bodywork must be symmetrical, with no flaring; teams managed to exploit a loophole saying the front fenders couldn't be flared, as nothing in the rulebook mentioned the rear fenders.

Finally, the field was expanded from 43 to 46 cars, after NASCAR introduced the Local Leasing Program, allowing one-off and local entries into races. These homegrown entries often use cars straight from the showroom, as well as older car models, since there are no rules mandating that Lend-Lease teams use the SSC.

Schedule
The final calendar was released on October 15, 2013, comprising 38 races, as well as two exhibition races. The schedule also includes two Gatorade Duels, which are the qualifying races for the Daytona 500.