1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

The 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup season began on Sunday, February 7, and ended on Sunday, November 21. Dale Jarrett, representing Robert Yates Racing, was crowned the champion. The NASCAR Manufacturers' Championship was won by the Ford drivers with 13 wins and 231 points over second place Chevrolet who had 12 wins and 210 points.

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule

Limited schedule

Bud Shootout

The exhibition Bud Shootout race, for drivers who had won a pole position in the previous season or had won the event before, was held on February 7 at Daytona International Speedway. Rusty Wallace drew the pole.

Top ten results

Gatorade Twin 125's

The Gatorade Twin 125's, a pair of qualifying races for the Daytona 500, were held February 11 at Daytona International Speedway. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart won the pole positions for the races, respectively.

Sprint Cup Series

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (often shortened to Sprint Cup or the Cup Series) is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series is named for its current sponsor, the Sprint Corporation, and has been known by other names in the past. It was originally known as the Strictly Stock Series (1949) and shortly became the Grand National Series (1950–1970). While leasing its naming rights to R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, it was known as the Winston Cup Series (1971–2003). A similar deal was made with Nextel in 2003, becoming the Nextel Cup Series (2004–2007) and it became the Sprint Cup after Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005. The name "Sprint" refers specifically to the subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank which is the entitlement sponsor; sprint car racing is a separate racing discipline.

The drivers' champion is determined by a point system where points are given according to finishing placement and laps led. The season is divided into two segments. After the first 26 races, 16 drivers, selected primarily on the basis of wins during the first 26 races, are seeded based on their total number of wins and compete in the last 10 races with the difference in points greatly minimized. This is called the Chase for the Championship.

2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

The 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 60th season of professional stock car racing in the United States. The season was contested over thirty-six races, and began on February 9 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race, followed by the 50th Daytona 500 on February 17. The season continued with the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup beginning on September 14 with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and concluded with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16.

As a result of the merger between Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications, NASCAR's premier series was renamed as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series beginning with the 2008 season, The sseason marked the first season that the Car of Tomorrow was used for the entire season after being used for select races during the 2007 season. Coors Light also replaced Budweiser as the Official Beer of NASCAR, thereby becoming the new sponsor of the Pole Award given to pole winner in each Sprint Cup Series race. However, Budweiser was still the official sponsor for Bud Shootout at Daytona in February. Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports was crowned champion at season's end, making him only the second driver in NASCAR's top division to win three championships in a row, with the first being Cale Yarborough.

2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

The 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 61st season of professional stock car racing in the United States. The season included 36 races and two exhibition races with the regular season beginning with the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway and ending with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The final ten races were known as 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Rick Hendrick won the Owners' Championship, while Jimmie Johnson won the Drivers' Championship with a fifth finish at the final race of the season. Chevrolet won the Manufacturers' Championship with 248 points.

Teams and drivers

Complete schedule

Because of the merger of Dale Earnhardt, Inc. with Chip Ganassi Racing, the No. 01 and No. 15 teams closed after the 2008 season. However, the owners' points from the No. 15 were transferred to the No. 34, while points from either the No. 01 or No. 41 was transferred to the No. 07, with the No. 33 car, owned by Richard Childress, receiving the other. (NASCAR allows for a transfer if the original owner maintains some stake in the team to which points are transferred.) 2009 also saw the demise of Petty Enterprises, which merged with Gillette Evernham Motorsports. The new company would be called Richard Petty Motorsports, forming a 4 car team with Kasey Kahne in the No. 9, Elliott Sadler in the No. 19, Reed Sorenson driving the famed No. 43, and A. J. Allmendinger driving the No. 44. Also Bill Davis Racing was bought by Triad Racing, however the No. 22 was bought by Penske Racing with Bill Davis holding minority interest. The No. 22's points were transferred to the No. 77, thus guaranteeing that car a spot in the Daytona 500 should all other transfers occur. There were 41 full-time teams in 2009.

2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

The 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 67th season of professional stock car racing in the United States. The season began at Daytona International Speedway with the Sprint Unlimited exhibition race, the Budweiser Duels, and the Daytona 500. The season ended with the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Kyle Busch won the championship. Despite not running the full season, Brett Moffitt was named Rookie of the Year.

The season also marked the first season of a new television contract. During the season, races were televised in the United States on Fox, Fox Sports 1, NBC, and NBCSN. ESPN and Turner Sports, who televised races from 2007 to 2014, did not seek to renew their contracts NASCAR following the completion of the 2014 season; this marked the end of a 31-year relationship between NASCAR and Turner's primary stations, TBS and TNT. In addition, it was the first season on the newly rebranded Fox Sports Racing in Canada and the Caribbean.

On January 22, 2015, four-time champion Jeff Gordon announced that 2015 would be his final season as a full-time driver, but he did not rule out retirement completely. Chase Elliott will replace him in the No. 24 car for Hendrick Motorsports in 2016.