NASCAR revs up for new-look 2015

— -- The final date night of the offseason was over. Last Friday night, at the close of my annual Last Date Before Daytona with Mrs. McGee, I drove the babysitter home, waited to make sure she'd gotten into her house OK, took a deep breath, and said, "OK, the 2015 season begins now."

Then, right on cue, REO Speedwagon hit my truck's sound system, lead singer Kevin Cronin belting out, "Roll with the changes ..."

Don't laugh. It's a great tune. And totally relevant.

Yes, the 67th edition of NASCAR's top series is -- finally -- here. And yes, I just wrote the word "finally" in relation to the start of the season. If you know me, I'm Mr. Everything Is Too Long In NASCAR. I've long been a proponent of shortening races, race weekends and the entire season.

Thusly, I've always believed that NASCAR's offseason had become too short. With really only a few weeks off, I've argued that it's caused a bit a of a supply-and-demand problem. Too much supply = diminishing demand. The people will never hunger for you if the buffet's always open.

However, this year, Friday afternoon when the engines are fired for the first time at Daytona, the sound of those engines will feel like your grandma's voice calling you into the kitchen for dinner. It's going to feel good.

For the first time in several years, there was no big December test session at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. And for the first time in forever, there was no January testing at Daytona. There was no testing anywhere, save for a couple of Goodyear workouts involving a small handful of teams. Just how much were drivers jonesing for track time? Several showed up to those tests even though they weren't scheduled to take part. They just wanted to watch other guys do laps.

"Yeah, I'm itching to go, man," six-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson confessed during last month's preseason media tour. "I'm always excited for the new season, but there are definitely some offseasons that never felt like an offseason. It'll be time for Speedweeks, and you're like, 'Weren't we just there? I haven't even had a chance to open my Christmas presents yet!' But this year, we're all really anxious to get into our race cars."

Once they get into those cars, they won't just be working to get their machines up to speed, they'll be working to get themselves up to speed.

The 2015 Sprint Cup cars are packed with more than 60 new tech specs, including most notably a rear spoiler that's been cut from 8 inches to 6 inches, a steep reduction in horsepower thanks to a Space Invader-looking engine choker known as a tapered spacer, and the ability to make track bar adjustments (the rear rod that affects a car's roll center) from the comfort of the cockpit.

There will also be significant changes to how a team's pit stops are monitored by NASCAR, as the longtime one-human-official-per-pit-box procedure is being replaced by a minimum of 45 high-definition cameras, each trained on either a pit stall or pit road timing lines. An officiating command center is being added to the already massive media compound outside the racetrack. They will be watching those cameras, as well as a digital grid laid over the entirety of pit road, making sure that cars stay within the lines and that crew members stay within the rules. Just last week, NASCAR issued more parameters as to how exactly those crews can go about their business.

As for those guys going over the wall, many are with new teams in 2015. And their bosses have also spent winter playing musical chairs. No fewer than 15 Sprint Cup crew chiefs have changed jobs since last fall, including a new head coach for the sport's biggest name, as Greg Ives takes over for new TV star Steve Letarte on the box for Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Over at Joe Gibbs Racing, there's been a three-man round robin. Those moves were spurred by the biggest driver move of the winter, the JGR arrival of Carl Edwards, as the former Face Of Ford Racing will now wheel a Toyota. His new crew chief will be the man who broke his heart in 2011, Darian Grubb, who led Tony Stewart to the Cup title via a tiebreaker -- over Edwards.

"I was really fortunate to have a lot of stability during more than a decade with Jack [Roush], from sponsors to the crew," says Edwards, always one of the smoothest when it comes to sliding sponsors into casual conversation. "So, y'all will have to forgive me if I slip up and say the wrong team during this adjustment period. Maybe I need to keep a jar around and put money into it every time I reference an old team or sponsor."

Cuz is the highest profile of this year's driver moves, but far from the only man setting up shop in a new hauler this weekend at Daytona. Trevor Bayne takes over Edwards' old ride (though with a new/old No. 6 instead of 99) and brings back Edwards' old crew chief, Bob Osborne. Meanwhile, Sam Hornish Jr. returns to Cup with Richard Petty Motorsports, who has moved into a new shop that used to be their old shop, and a slew of second-tier teams are juggling drivers, including a last-minute announcement on Monday that BK Racing (also in a new shop) will be adding Rookie of the Year candidate Jeb Burton, son of Ward Burton. And, oh yeah, you might have heard that Jeff Gordon is retiring as a full-time driver at season's end, replaced by 19-year-old Chase Elliott.

You getting all this? You rolling with the changes? See? I told you that REO song was totally relevant.

"It is a lot to keep up with," NASCAR president Mike Helton admitted during his media tour Q&A. "But that's always the fun part of Daytona, walking around and seeing new people in new places and new changes to the cars. It's exciting. And this year, because we haven't seen any of them anywhere before, I think it will be even more exciting, even for an old guy like me. I'm ready to get going."

So am I. So is everyone else. They cut off our supply, and guess what? The start of the season is here -- finally -- and, yeah, we're demanding it.