Preseason Driver Rankings: #5 Matt Kenseth

02/25/2012 By Leave a Comment

Matt Kenseth
No. 17 Best Buy/Valvoline/Zest Soap Ford
Team: Roush Fenway Racing
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig

2011 Stats
Wins: 3
Top-5s: 12
Top-10s: 20
Poles: 3
DNF: 3
Average Start: 14.2
Average Finish: 12.2
Races Led: 23
Laps Led: 875
% Laps Completed: 97.8%
Points Finish: 4th

2011 in a Nutshell
In his first full season working with Jimmy Fennig, Matt Kenseth saw a return to the stability which has been the hallmark of his career, and more importantly, a return to his winning ways after a 76-race drought. All told, Kenseth went to Victory Lane at Texas, Dover and Charlotte, and was in contention for his second series title until a blown tire at Martinsville with three races to go ended his title hopes.

Reasons to Believe
Kenseth is a smooth driver, who knows how to avoid trouble and doesn’t take unnecessary chances … He and crew chief Jimmy Fennig compliment one another nicely … Kenseth ss at his best on the mile-and-a-half tracks … He has finished fourth and fifth in the standings the last two years … Rarely, if ever, can you question Fennig’s decision-making during the race … The 2003 Sprint Cup champion doesn’t get rattled and doesn’t succumb to the pressures associated with racing for the championship … Kenseth runs great at and has multiple victories at Texas, Dover and Charlotte – all tracks in the Chase … He likes keeping a low profile and as such, has no trouble taking a backseat to teammate Carl Edwards … There is no reason to think Roush Fenway Racing won’t be as strong as they were a year ago.

Reasons to Doubt
He hasn’t won races in back-to-back seasons since 2006 and ’07 … With the exception of last year, he is typically a very poor qualifier … The lack of a fulltime sponsor is a huge concern … The perception is Jack Roush is putting his championship chips into Carl Edwards’ basket … Kenseth struggles at both Infineon and Watkins Glen and tends to get swept up in other’s messes at Daytona and Talladega … He is a free agent at the end of the year and his contract renegotiations could become a distraction.

Area of Strength: Mile-and-a-half to two-mile tracks
I am certainly no mathematician, but I do know when a driver has won 12 of 21 races on a particular kind of track, I take notice. And it’s worth noting, Kenseth has multiple victories at Texas, Charlotte, Fontana, Michigan and Las Vegas.

Area of Weakness: Road Courses
Matt Kenseth has won on tracks as diverse as Daytona, Bristol, Rockingham, Phoenix and just about everything in-between with one notable exception, road courses. And not only has the 2003 champ never won on a road course, in 24 combined starts, he’s never finished in the top-five.

Best-case Scenario For 2012
Flying under the radar in typical Matt Kenseth fashion, he quietly uses his trademark consistency to win a couple of times during the regular season and easily makes the Chase. In the final 10 races of the year, Kenseth wins once and top-10s everyone to death to claim his second championship.

Worst-case Scenario For 2012
A slow start combined with a lack of a fulltime sponsor becomes too much of a distraction and the resulting effect has Kenseth missing the Chase for only the second time in his career.

In Their Words
“I think we performed better than Carl down the stretch, we really did. I think most races we ran better than him. At Homestead he was a tick better than us – a couple other races, but, really with David blowing up at Talladega really hurt us. That was probably a 15-spot swing and then we had Martinsville and Phoenix I wrecked out of both of those and that really hurt us, but just off of performance I thought we could outrun them. We weren’t as good as Tony, so we still need to get better, but I thought our performance was pretty good down the stretch. If we can build on that and make it a little bit better, and I can do a better job behind the wheel, I think we’re capable.”
–Matt Kenseth

Predicted Number of Wins: 2

The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
He’s not as charismatic as Carl Edwards and doesn’t win with the same frequency as Jimmie Johnson and some others. But what Matt Kenseth does have is consistency and that can’t be ignored. If he can win a couple of races, particularly one in the Chase, there’s no reason he can’t put together a serious run and win his second championship.

Filed Under: 2012, Kenseth, NASCAR, Preseason Rankings, Sub-Feature

Lessons Learned At The Halfway Point

06/12/2011 By Leave a Comment

When the checkered flag waved on the STP 400 last Sunday at Kansas Speedway, it signaled the official halfway point of the 2011 Sprint Cup regular season. What a memorable first half it’s been.

Through 13 races we’ve had unexpected first-time winners in two of the sports biggest events, a legend finding lost glory, NASCAR’s favorite son returning to prominence, Carl Edwards flexing his muscles on the track, with Richard Childress wielding his fists off of it, Richard Petty Motorsports rising up from the ashes, Kyle Busch getting some form of comeuppance, Juan Pablo Montoya threatening legal action against Ryan Newman for punching him, midrace temper tantrums from Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr., which brought in sweeping changes for their respective teams, notable flops from drivers who were expected to contend (Jeff Burton, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray), secret fines that weren’t so secret, Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Toyota all having won at least once, and a plethora of other happenings which has made this season a worthy sequel to the phenomenal year that we saw in 2010.

Here’s a look back at some of the lessons we’ve learned thus far in 2011.

●With an emphatic victory at Phoenix which snapped his 66-race winless streak, Jeff Gordon showed the racing community that he still knows how to win. The bad news, his bouts with inconsistency likely will prevent him from winning his fifth Sprint Cup title.

●Not only is Jeff Gordon’s former crew chief, Steve Letarte, proving to be a miracle worker; he’s also proving to be a much better crew chief than I gave him credit for this offseason.

●Instead of going out with a bang in his final season with Hendrick Motorsports, Mark Martin – zero wins, one top-five, and four top-10s – is going out with a whimper. It’s all but a certainty that in what is likely his final full season in Sprint Cup, the driver who has finished runner-up in the championship five times will be on the outside looking in for the second straight year when the Chase commences in September.

●Ford (particularly the Roush Fenway cars) is head and shoulders above everyone else. Counting the non-points All-Star Race, cars with a blue oval on their hood have won five events this season. On top of that, points leader Carl Edwards is the clear-cut championship favorite, while teammate Matt Kenseth, with victories at Texas and Dover, is also a fringe title contender.

●As a follow-up to the above point, the Ford FR9 is everything it was cracked up to be and more. Since working out the kinks last summer of their long developed and much-maligned power plant, Ford has seen cars bearing its name make eight trips to the winner’s circle, including Trevor Bayne’s much celebrated victory in the Daytona 500.

●Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, and Brad Keselowski have all won this season, while Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Kasey Kahne, and Clint Bowyer all are still looking for their first checkered flag of 2011.

●For fear of getting taken to the woodshed, you don’t mess with Richard Childress. A lesson Kyle Busch now knows all too well after the 65-year-old grandfather sent the 26-year-old cowering to the ground in a fetal position last Saturday in Kansas. Also, the expression “Here, hold my watch” has entered our lexicon as phrase that signals someone’s about to put a whuppin’ on somebody.

●The pipeline of young drivers climbing up through the ranks, which seemed dry just a season ago, is now oozing with talent. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier, Cole Whitt and Austin Dillon have all shown that they have the talent to one day be winners at the Sprint Cup level. And that’s not even taking into account 20-year-old Trevor Bayne’s triumph in the Daytona 500. Even better for these youngsters is there are more opportunites to compete at the next level than there were a couple of years ago, when Cup team owners shied away from putting a young driver in one of their cars due to lack of sponsorship and the cost involved in repairing wrecked cars through the inevitable growing pains associated with moving up to NASCAR’s top series.

●There is no more schizophrenic team in all of NASCAR than Kurt Busch and his No. 22 team. One week they look like world-beater’s, the next they look like a team coming apart at the seams. For example, last week at Kansas Kurt Busch started on the pole. Yet, as soon as the green flag dropped, the volatile driver was on his radio complaining he had a 43rd-place car. And what happened? All he did was lead the most laps and would’ve likely won had the race had not turned into a game of fuel-mileage. Judging from some of Busch’s comments this season, you’d think he would be somewhere in the teens points-wise. Instead, with a team he rails against almost weekly, he’s sixth overall and has racked-up the third-most top-10 finishes.

●The curse of finishing second to Jimmie Johnson lives on. A year after finishing runner-up to Johnson in the championship standings, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin all went winless and came nowhere close to the form they showed the previous year. Although he’s ran better as of late, and the expectation is he wins today at Pocono, the fact is Denny Hamlin has struggled for much of the year and is still is looking for his first victory of 2011.

●With just two top-10s and buried back in 27th in points, Jamie McMurray’s magical season of a year ago which saw him win a career-best three times, is looking more and more like a fluke.

●NASCAR’s revamping of how one qualifies for the Chase and implementing the two wildcard spots, is turning into a stroke of genius. The greater emphasis placed on winning has produced some outstanding racing with teams more willing to gamble and go all-out for victories than ever before. The ferocity will only get ratcheted up as the regular season dwindles down and the opening Chase race at Chicagoland gets closer and closer.

●Joey Logano may be all hype with little actual substance. The third-year driver, despite driving for the powerhouse known as Joe Gibbs Racing and having two-time championship crew chief Greg Zipadelli guiding the Home Depot team, Tony Stewart’s handpicked successor continues to languish in mediocrity.

This is just a sampling of the lessons we’ve learned halfway through the regular season. All of which brings us to some storylines I’m keeping an eye on as we enter the second half.

Crew Chief Roulette
Being a crew chief is a tenuous position with your job status always in constant flux. But with many a big-name driver – Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann, Jamie McMurray, and the aforementioned Joey Logano – all struggling to find consistent success, perhaps none more so than in the next couple of months.

We saw the first shoe drop earlier this week when Michael Waltrip Racing announced Pat Tryson had been replaced as crew chief for Martin Truex Jr. Not a surprise, considering everyone knew the noose around Tryson’s neck was tightening following Truex’s meltdown a month ago at Richmond, all of which predicated an overhaul of his pit crew a few days later.

With the pressure to perform higher than ever and with the opportunity to sneak into the Chase now an option thanks to the wildcard, owners will not hesitate to make a change if they feel it will jumpstart their chances to get their driver into the playoffs. As with the stick-and-ball sports, it’s always easier to fire the manager than the players. The same theory holds true in NASCAR, where crew chiefs are often looked at as nothing more than scapegoats.

Wild Road To The Chase
The wildcard to getting a wildcard into the Chase is what happens at the two road courses the series visits each year, first later this month at Infineon and in August at Watkins Glen. Say Juan Pablo Montoya wins one or both of these races; the odds are it will be enough for him to snag a spot in the Chase. The same can be said for Marcos Ambrose, another expert road racer who has had a sneaky good year in his first season with Richard Petty Motorsports.

The King Is Dead, Long Live The King?
We say it every year, but it may apply more this year than any other, as there are some chinks in the armor of Jimmie Johnson and the 48 team. The vaunted pit crew which was overhauled in the offseason is still prone to the occasional blunder on pit road, and the magic wand which Chad Knaus often uses to make the Lowes Chevy stronger late in races seems to have run out of pixie dust. More than anything though, Johnson’s reign may come to an end not because of anything he or his team did or did’nt, but simply because the Roush Fenway camp is that much better. Particularly points leader Carl Edwards who, with the exception of Martinsville, has been stout week in and week out.

What’s Mark Going To Do?
Mark Martin has repeatedly said he has no plans to retire at the end of the year and that he plans to race somewhere in 2012. The question is for what team and in what series? No one wants to see one of the classiest and well respected drivers to ever turn a wheel put out to pasture, but the way things are unfolding there doesn’t look to be a ride for the 40-time Sprint Cup winner.

To be honest, I’m not sure Martin is set on enduring the 38-week grind known as the Sprint Cup Series. Look for an announcement sometime this summer that Martin will run a full Nationwide slate for Turner Motorsports with a handful of Cup races sprinkled in.

Danica Mania All The Time; But For Which Team?
Speaking of pending announcements, it’s all but a certainty that in the next month or two Danica Patrick will make it known she will be leaving IndyCar and will be making a fulltime move to NASCAR, where she will run the entire Nationwide schedule next year in preparation for move up to Sprint Cup in 2012. Like Martin, the question is which team will Patrick align herself with?

Conventional wisdom says she’d be foolish to leave Hendrick/JR Motorsports where she’s grown quite comfortable working with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and where the equipment is always second to none. However, there are those who say it’s no guarantee that Patrick will continue her association with Rick Hendrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and that she, along with sponsor Go Daddy.com, will be taking her services elsewhere.

The Year of The Surprise
From Daytona to Kansas, 2011 has undoubtedly been the year of the surprise. Even after improbable winners at Daytona and Darlington, and an unlikely winner in Kansas, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see another unexpected race winner or amazing finish the rest of the year. One that will collectively make everyone go, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” However, with the way things have been going, there is always a chance. I’m not sure who it will be next, or when over the next 13 races it’s going to happen, but the way this season has gone, I think its fair to say expect the unexpected.

 

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Allgaier, Ambrose, Bayne, Busch, Danica Patrick, Edwards, Ford, Gibbs, Gordon, Hamlin, Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, Letarte, Logano, Martin, McMurray, Montoya, NASCAR, Penske, Roush, Sub-Feature, Truex Jr., Tryson

Monday’s Thoughts: Two Is Better Than Four at Dover

05/16/2011 By Leave a Comment

Through the first 340 laps it appeared a virtual certainty that either Jimmie Johnson or Carl Edwards would leave Dover with their second win of the season. Respectively, the two led 207 and 117 laps and neither was far from the lead at any given point of the 400 lap/mile race.

If there was someone who could topple the two giants of the Monster Mile, Clint Bowyer was the leading candidate. The Richard Childress driver had worked his way back from being nearly a lap down earlier, and took the top spot from the 99 and 48 on Lap 334 for 29 laps.

Except this wasn’t a normal race at Dover. Instead, this race featured ever changing track conditions thanks to the continued rubber buildup on the one-mile concrete oval. From the drop of the green flag it was obvious the Monster Mile was nothing more than a one-groove racetrack, where one bobble would quickly move a driver up out of the preferred line and consequently lose positions on the track.

As things played out, it was track position and not having a fast car that ultimately played the pivotal role in deciding the outcome.

Thanks to a single-car incident involving Juan Pablo Montoya 38 laps from the finish, teams had a crucial decision to make. A) Come in to the pits and put four fresh Goodyear’s on; B) Hit the pits but only take two tires; or C) Stay out on the track and gamble that the tires you have are fresh enough to make it the finish.

Bowyer, Edwards and Johnson all went with option A. A decision which I thought was the right one to make under circumstances, considering Dover typically chews up tires and there were still quite a few laps left in FedEx 400.

But on this day, on this track, with tires that showed little wear, it was a decision that came back to bite the three frontrunners. Not to mention, a move that caused me to eat a plate full of crow afterwards.

The beneficiaries in all this were Matt Kenseth, who had steadily worked his way into the top-five after starting 23rd, and Mark Martin, who was no better than an eighth-place car all day. Both correctly figured that their only chance of winning was to roll the dice and gamble on track position. With Kenseth taking only two tires and Martin completely foregoing a trip to pit road for fresh rubber.

This decision proved to be a wise one as the final 34 laps went caution free. The favorable track position, along with the clean air that goes with it, allowed the two veterans to pull away from the field. When the checkered flag waved, Kenseth had picked up his second victory of 2011 while Martin’s runner-up finish represented his first top-five finish since Texas last fall.

As for the three drivers who combined led 353 laps, playing it safe and taking four tires proved to be their downfall. Bowyer and Edwards could only fight their way back to sixth and seventh in the final rundown, while Johnson crossed the line in ninth.

“I guess in our minds we didn’t think that would take place, so many guys taking two [tires],” said Jimmie Johnson, who has now led the most laps in the last five Dover races. “It was certainly the call. I knew basically from the numbers we were in trouble when we left pit road and there were so many guys in front of us. It is just the way it is.

“We had a great race all day. Led a lot of laps but unfortunately, not the one at the end that counted.”

So the victory, in a race which two drivers dominated pretty much throughout and another had put himself in position to win, instead went to a driver who himself said he had a 15th-place car.

If there’s one lesson we’ve learned in a season in which Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith have won the two biggest races, it’s that anything can and often does happen. Rarely is the car sitting in victory lane at the end of the day, the one who actually dominated the proceedings.

Conversely, for those who think maybe Kenseth didn’t deserve the victory, the counterargument to that is strategy and track position has long been as much a part of NASCAR as oversized engines and crew chiefs skirting the rules through dubious means.

As winning car owner Jack Roush vehemently pointed out post-race, it’s not as if his driver wasn’t strong all afternoon.

“If anybody was watching the lap checkers, Matt drove from 23rd to the top five,” Roush said in the media center. “As hard as it is to pass, as hard as it is to deal with this Car of Tomorrow, struggling there, when I saw that, I figured the 17 was the equal of the cars running up front based on my look at it.

“They didn’t back into this thing. They deserved to be up there. Between the two of them (Kenseth and crew chief Jimmy Fennig), they made the gutsy call for two tires. As many times as they’ve been burned by it, I was surprised they did that.”

Yeah, Kenseth may have stolen this victory, and who cares if the only thing he was missing in victory lane was a mask and a pistol. Often in racing you lose races you should win; other times you win races you had no business winning.

Either way, the record book will show Kenseth notching his 20th career Sprint Cup. And really, that’s all that matters.

###

As his one win and three second-place finishes can attest, no driver in 2011 has exhibited the consistent speed that points leader Carl Edwards has week in, and week out. A trait once again on full display Sunday as outside of green flag pit stops, he never ran outside the top-10, and would have likely finished first or second if that fateful yellow flag 38 laps from the finish wouldn’t have come out when it did.

At the time Edwards was running second, and he and crew chief Bob Osbourne as detailed above, elected to go with four tires instead of two. Their thought process being they had enough laps to work their way up to the front even if a couple of drivers either just took two or didn’t pit at all.

The flaw in that plan was more teams gambled than they expected, and therefore the 99 team found themselves in a position where winning was no longer a possibility.

Surprisingly, Edwards wasn’t regretting his ill-fated decision that cost him a chance to notch his second victory of the year.

Something that I guess is easier to accept when you’ve had the kind of year that the Roush Fenway driver has had. Instead he had to settle for his ninth top-10 finish in 11 races and expanded his points lead over second-place Jimmie Johnson by 24 markers.

“That is too tough of a choice (two-tires vs. four) to make right there and I don’t blame Bob Osborne one bit. I thought we would be able to march up through there and I thought the race would be between Clint and I. I did see a couple cars go fast early on two tires but I really felt we were going to have something.

“If we had had a caution who knows what would have happened? You can’t look back, you have to look forward. We still have the points lead and the fastest car here today.”

###

For the second race in a row at the Monster Mile, AJ Allmendinger looked to be inline for his first career victory. Starting second, thanks to a fast practice time Friday after qualifying was rained out, the former open-wheel standout quickly asserted himself as one of the cars to beat. Although his Best Buy machine wasn’t in the same class as the 99 or 48, the No. 43 Ford was a fixture up front, running solidly in the top-five.

But just like last fall, factors outside of Allmendinger’s control contributed to him getting a finish less than he deserved. This time around a sickly engine running on only seven cylinders sent the 29-year-old driver to the garage prematurely.

A disappointing end to a day once filled with so much promise.

“I don’t know, it was weird because it all happened at once and there was no sign of it. We were going to run them down and all of a sudden off of two it went. It was getting steadily worse. Doug Yates and all the guys at the engine shop do a great job. We had a ton of horsepower and this rarely happens.

“Honestly it sucks. I really wanted this for us and Ford and Best Buy and everybody; The King especially. I hate this.”

The 37th-place finish knocked Allmendinger down five spots in the standings to 16th and again made me wonder what would happen if the talented, star struck driver was driving for a team that matched his talents. A moot point, considering last August he signed a contract extension with Richard Petty Motorsports that will keep him with the two-car team for the foreseeable future.

Sunday was another race in a long line of them this season where Carl Edwards had a car good enough to win, but came away with a finish less than he deserved.

 

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Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Allmendinger, Dover, Edwards, Johnson, Kenseth, NASCAR, Roush, Thoughts

Monday’s Thoughts: Talladega Fulfilled All Our Expectations

04/18/2011 By Leave a Comment

Twice a year the Sprint Cup Series rolls into Talladega. Each and every time you’re guaranteed three things: a high amount of lead changes; multiple wrecks, often involving a gaggle of cars; and of course controversy – lots of it and in heavy doses.

Sunday’s running of the Aaron’s 499 certainly didn’t disappoint. Jimmie Johnson tied the mark for the closest finish in NASCAR history since the advent of electric scoring. At the same time mangled cars and angry, frustrated drivers were scattered across the garage.

As was expected, two-car tandem racing ruled the day with drivers pairing off and working together around the 2.6 mile track.

From the drop of the green flag it quickly became apparent the four Hendrick Motorsports cars, which started in the first four positions, had a gameplan in place that plan involved Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin working as one unit and Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. doing the same.

A plan that worked to perfection, as the pairs stuck together all afternoon, all the while escaping the numerous incidents which engulfed many a driver.

When it was time to make a move toward the latter stages of the 188-lap race, there was Gordon and Martin, and Johnson and Earnhardt running up front and in prime position for the win.

But it was Johnson, with a strong push courtesy of Earnhardt, who made a bold move inside the duo of Gordon and Martin and dashed ahead of Clint Bowyer who was being pushed by Richard Childress teammate Kevin Harvick, and won by a margin of .002-seconds.

Despite posting his second straight runner-up finish, Bowyer wasn’t quite as enamored with his place in the record-setting finish, as he got little satisfaction in losing a race in the narrowest of margins.

“Hell, no, that sucks,” Bowyer said jokingly. “It’s never very good to know you made NASCAR history by losing. Sooner or later I need to start making history by winning.

“That guy’s won enough.”

It was a victory that without question wouldn’t have been achieved without the efforts of Earnhardt, who was credited with a fourth-place finish.

Even though he hadn’t won a race in 100 starts, the five-time Talladega winner dutifully played the role of loyal teammate all afternoon. He was in constant communication with Johnson throughout, and he even called for the two to swap positions late in the race even though he was leading, as they were faster with the 48 leading the way and Earnhardt doing the pushing.

This decision ultimately proved to be the difference maker.

“I can’t thank Junior enough,” said a grateful Johnson. “He made the decision that my car was faster leading. And the way these things are finishing up, the lead car is going to get the win.

Johnson showed his appreciation on pit road when he beckoned Earnhardt over and then proceeded to hand him the checkered flag. A gesture Earnhardt appreciated, but didn’t think he deserved as he attempted to hand the memento back.

“I handed it to him,” explained Johnson, “and he (Earnhardt) said, ‘Man, I don’t want that.’ I said, ‘Well, I have to give you something for the push and working with me.’ He said, ‘No, that’s what teammates do.’

“I smiled and I said, ‘Take the damn flag. I’ll give you the trophy, too.’

“He says, ‘No, I don’t want the trophy. I’ll take the flag, though.’”

Like he usually does and like he did yesterday, the five-time defending series champ came out on top and Earnhardt ended up hanging onto the keepsake.

At any rate, Johnson couldn’t stop expressing his gratitude towards his wingman. Knowing that without him, there was no way he would be credited with the win, the 54th of his career.

“Junior was more worried about the team having a good performance than anything,” Johnson said. “We worked together all day, and in the end he was responsible for this win. I can’t thank him enough.”

However this day was more than just one driver helping another.

Once again, there were a bevy of drivers upset with a rules package that gave them little choice but to run in pairs. As a result, the trailing car had almost zero visibility, which often led to drivers running over the top of one another.

One of those drivers swept up in one of the three multi-car wrecks was last week’s winner, Matt Kenseth. His day ended when Kyle Busch was tapped from behind by his Joe Gibbs teammate Joey Logano coming out of Turn 2.

“This two-car thing is really hard as a driver,” an exasperated Kenseth said standing beside his wrecked Ford Fusion. “If you’re the tail car, you can’t see anything. All you can see is the spoiler in front of you and going that fast and not being able to see is not the most comforting feeling.

“You catch people real fast and you have to have a lot of faith in the guy in front of you. You’re gonna spin people out because they make a quick move and you’re shoving them as hard as you can shove them doing 200 miles an hour. If they make a move too quick, they’re gonna crash. It’s a difficult environment to race in to say the least.”

Of course the guy who won had a different perspective of how the racing went.

There is some technique required now,” Johnson said. “Instead of just running wide-open all the time and just sitting there in a guy’s tire tracks, now there’s some work required and some skill. I think that this racing is fun, and certainly easy for me to say because I won, and probably if I crashed I would be bitching and moaning.

“But it was a good day. When you have this many lead changes for a Cup race, that’s a good thing.”

Another less talked about controversy is whether Johnson committed a NASCAR no-no when making his winning pass.

Video and still photographs suggest at the very least the left-side tires on the 48 were touching the yellow line, which at Talladega and Daytona is marked as out-of-bounds. If that were indeed the case, and the 48 did go below the yellow line to make a pass, Johnson’s victory should be forfeited and the win would then be given to Bowyer.

It’s not as if NASCAR is afraid to make such a call.

As recently as February in the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, the sanctioning body took away an apparent win from Denny Hamlin when it was deemed he went below the yellow line right before the start-finish line. And three years ago on this very same track, Regan Smith was denied the win when it was declared that he went out-of-bounds, much in the same spot as Johnson, in attempt to get by race-leader Tony Stewart.

Post-race, NASCAR was quick to state that no penalty was forthcoming and Johnson’s pass was very much within the rule book.

“I have not seen the video yet, and I was not focused on where that yellow line was,” said Johnson. “I was more worried about causing a big pile up and luckily the 5 quit coming down and then the 24 pulled back up.

“There’s so much going on at the end of that thing coming to the stripe and I don’t know what anybody could have done differently. When you’re four-wide across a start-finish line, I think that’s a pretty damn good race.”

NASCAR’s ruling is supported by the fact nary a driver voiced a dissenting opinion. Kevin Harvick even took to Twitter in defense of Johnson.

“[D]ear people, the 48 did not go below the line, he won the damn race in Talladega fashion…roll on with it,” Harvick tweeted.

At the end of the day, what would a race at Talladega be without a little controversy? Not to mention a photo finish, and a pile of torn up racecars. With this year’s newest wrinkle being the driver who finished fourth walked away with the checkered flag.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bowyer, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, NASCAR, Talladega, Thoughts

Monday’s Thoughts: Kenseth Stomps The Competition

04/11/2011 By Leave a Comment

From Jeff Gordon snapping his 82-race winless streak at Phoenix to the continued efforts of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his quest to end his 100-race drought, the word ‘streak’ has been a popular one in 2011.

Just because he doesn’t have the accomplishments of Jeff Gordon or the pedigree of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth’s winless streak was often overlooked.

But Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, the 2003 series champion made his presence felt in a big way. As he dominated the Samsung Mobile 500 and easily cruised to his first victory since February 2009, when he won at Auto Club Speedway, a span of 76 races.

“Yeah, it feels good to get back to Victory Lane,” said the driver who had four runner-up finishes since his last victory. “It’s been a long time. You talk about the second place finishes here (Kenseth finished second here last fall), and I got beaten at the end of a lot of these races. It’s great to finish second if you can’t win.

“But another way is like getting kicked in the gut. You have to come back. Like last fall you look at Jimmy, and you come back and look at the guys and you’re leading with two to go, three to go, five to go, and you don’t win, it’s always disappointing.

The only disappointment in this race was the lack of competition up front.

On a night where long stretches of green flag ruled the evening, Kenseth’s margin of victory was a cushy 8.3 seconds over second-place Clint Bowyer. The only thing in doubt was whether Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who had pitted out of sequence, could squeeze enough out of their fuel tanks to make it to the finish without pitting. But forced into fuel conservation mode wasn’t enough, as both Busch and Stewart came up short and handed the lead to Kenseth 13 laps from the finish.

It was then they started engraving Kenseth’s name on the trophy, because on this night there wasn’t a car in the country who could keep pace with the driver who was desperately in search of his 19th career win.

Like any driver in a prolonged slump who then finds himself back in the winner’s circle, it reminded Kenseth of just how special winning is and how precious each and every victory is.

“You know, I felt better the last six months. Everything’s been looking up. Certainly the previous 12 months before that was frustrating for me. As you start to get older and with the results — it’s been over two years since we won — you can’t help but think, ‘Is this the way it’s going to go? Are we going to keep trickling backwards?’

“It’s been a long time, and we’ve had a lot of fun going to the racetrack here the last two months the last year, and the first part of this year it feels like we’re back into a contending form.”

Not only was it Kenseth’s night, it was Ford’s as well. The Blue Oval Armada led 191 of 334 laps and placed five cars in the top-seven spots. Four of them being fielded by the powerful Roush Fenway organization, which is experiencing a resurgence after a couple of down years.

This has left longtime Ford team owner, Jack Roush, extremely proud of what he and his team have accomplished in the past year in overcoming their struggles.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to do in 2011,” Roush said. “You know, we tuned up our engineering program with Ford’s help over the winter and we got a new Ford nose. Everybody got a new nose this year, but our new nose was better than our old nose, I think. And we’ve had our FR9 engine really up to speed.”

More than anything though, this night was about Matt Kenseth and his fight to break a winless streak which has hung around his neck like a noose, the last two years.

“I can’t say how proud I am to be here with Matt,” beamed Roush, “realizing that he’s not gotten the success that his effort has deserved in recent past.”

###

On a night when the winner appeared virtually decided from the outset, Clint Bowyer’s runner-up finish can be looked at as a best in class finish. One that wasn’t without adventure, as the Richard Childress driver mixed it up with the lapped car of Brian Vickers late and it resulted in him dancing sideways down the front stretch.

“I just forced the issue a little too much,” said the driver who’s won many a race on a dirt track. “Got loose underneath, having got into him, and almost ruined the night.

“Did you see that? It was dirt tracking at its best, in the middle of the straightaway.

“Not supposed to do that.”

No matter how he did, the end result shows Bowyer posting his best finish of the year, and a finish which moved him up to 12th in points. It also marked his third consecutive finish inside the top-10 and considering he stubbed his toe out of the gate and was struggling to show the form that had him winning two races the previous season, this would be constituted as a nice turnaround.

Even better is a stop next Sunday at Talladega, a track which the Kansas driver won on last fall, and where he will certainly be viewed at as one of the heavy favorites.

###

Due to a rice-and-bean dish mom cooked up for him Friday, Edwards’ stomach wasn’t up to the task of racing on the Texas high-banks. As someone whose mom’s cooking hasn’t always agreed with him, I know firsthand how the nauseous Carl Edwards was feeling Saturday night. What I can’t relate to is having to endure 500 miles of hard racing at 200 mph after a “questionable” meal.

It got the point that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was standing by in case a relief driver was needed. Not that Edwards was ever going to succumb to pulling himself out of the car, because that’s not who he is.

Instead, he gutted through the 3 hour and 21 minute race thanks to a concoction of medicine his crew passed to him and somehow finished third. A position which was good enough to move him back ahead of Kyle Busch atop the Sprint Cup standings.

###

There was no late-race rally Saturday for the driver who entered the weekend having won back-to-back races. Thanks to a punctured radiator as well as not being able to get track position in a race where it was of the utmost importance, Kevin Harvick, for really the first time all year, turned in his first race where he was a complete non-factor.

Was this simply an off-weekend or was it a sign that this team’s program on the intermediate tracks still has a way to go before they can be viewed as serious title contenders?

Considering this team won at Auto Club Speedway just two weeks ago, a track similar to Texas, the evidence suggests this was just one of those weekends.

Something crew chief Gil Martin concurred with post-race.

“We’ve had a good race every race this year. Sooner or later you’re going to have a bad one. We’ll bounce back from it.”

This Sunday will be more to the 29’s liking as the series returns to Talladega. A track which saw Richard Childress Racing sweep both races at a year ago, including Harvick’s win in the spring event. A good run Sunday will quickly erase what was considered a lost weekend in the Lone Star State.

###

Odds & Ends

● Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed up his strong runner-up finish at Martinsville nicely with a ninth-place run. The result moved him up two spots in the standings to sixth.

● In a clear sign of how wayward his season has gone, Jeff Burton’s 11th-place finish was his best of the year.

● Greg Biffle’s fourth-place finish was not only his best result of the year; it was also his first top-five of 2011.

● After recording zero top-10s through the first five races, Saturday night’s polesitter David Ragan has scored consecutive finishes of 8th and 7th the last two weeks.

● Saturday marked the Sprint Cup debut of Truck Series regular David Starr. Unfortunately though, it ended with the Texas native finding the outside wall, resulting in a 38th-place finish.
 

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Bowyer, Edwards, Ford, Gil Martin, Harvick, Kenseth, NASCAR, Roush, Texas, Thoughts

Preseason Driver Rankings: #12 Matt Kenseth

02/16/2011 By 2 Comments

Matt Kenseth
No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion
Team: Roush Fenway Racing
Crew Chief: Jimmy Fennig

2010 Stats
Wins: 0
Top-5s: 6
Top-10s: 15
Poles: 0
DNFs: 0
Average Start: 19.4
Average Finish: 12.8
Races Led: 13
Laps Led: 108
% Laps Completed: 99.9
Points Finish: 5th

2010 in a Nutshell
A strong start, along with a solid finish to the year was enough for Matt Kenseth to overcome a dreadful summer stretch, that saw him go nine races without a top-10 and finish the year fifth overall. Resulting in him posting his best points finish since finishing fourth in 2007, not to mention he did all this working with three different crew chiefs.

Best-case Scenario for 2011
After being up-and-down the past few years, Matt Kenseth runs consistently up front from Daytona to Homestead, wins a couple of races along the way and makes a spirited run at his second Sprint Cup championship.

Worst-case Scenario for 2011
Matt Kenseth continues to change crew chiefs as often as a woman changes outfits in a day – he went through three last year –continues to have stretches of good weeks followed by longer periods of mediocrity, goes winless for the second straight year and misses the Chase for the second time in three seasons.

Reasons to Believe
A former Sprint Cup champion, who can still get the job done when given the proper tools…Because of his bland personality, he’s often overlooked as one of NASCAR’s better drivers, but he is…Having won a title working with Kurt Busch (2004), crew chief Jimmy Fennig knows what it takes to win a championship in the Chase Era…With the exception of a road course, Kenseth has won on every kind of track on the circuit…Will have the much-improved Ford FR9 engine underneath him for the entire season.

Reasons to Doubt
The 108 laps he led last year was his lowest total since 2001…After winning a race every year from 2002-2007, he’s gone winless twice in the past three years…Is consistent, but doesn’t run up front enough…Hard to believe the shuffling of crew chiefs will come to a halt anytime soon…Is probably the No.2 man on the Roush Fenway totem pole…Almost all of Jimmy Fennig’s success has come working on the old style car and not the CoT

Area of Strength: Intermediate Tracks
10 of Matt Kenseth’s 18 career wins have come on intermediate tracks, which is not a coincidence considering his smooth driving style and Roush Fenway’s penchant for the mile-and-a-half to two-mile tracks. It’s also worth noting, the former series champ has multiple victories at Fontana, Michigan and single wins at Texas, Charlotte and Homestead.

Area of Weakness: Road Courses
Here’s all you need to know about Matt Kenseth when it comes to the two road courses on the Sprint Cup schedule: one and one. That’s the combined number of top-10s he has in 22 career starts at Infineon and Watkins Glen, followed by the number of laps he’s led in those same 22 starts. That’s not just bad, it’s awful.

Predicted Number of Wins: 1

The Racing Geek’s Final Thought
Matt Kenseth’s 2011 season is going to go one of two ways. Either he’s rejuvenated by the improvements Roush Fenway has made on the aero and mechanical side of things and as a result becomes a darkhorse to win the title. Or, what we saw last year – some good mixed with a lot of bad – is what we see this year. Except this time, it’s not enough to make the Chase and leads to questions about his future with the only team he’s ever driven for.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, simply click here, and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: 2011, Kenseth, NASCAR, predictions, Preview, Roush

NASCAR New Year’s Resolutions

01/03/2011 By 3 Comments


Ah 2011, a new and fresh year filled with optimism, hope and the promise of better things to come along with the knowledge that we can learn from the mistakes of the previous year.

While I can’t believe 2010 has already come and gone, we’re not going to use this forum to reflect on the year that was. Instead we’re going to use this time to look forward. You know, the clichéd New Year’s resolutions thing that millions of Americans make at this time every year – and usually forget about come March. And I promise you unlike the vast majority of resolutions that are being made today, the following list of NASCAR resolutions won’t be filed with things like quitting smoking or spending more time with the family.

No, these involve lame jokes, sarcastic comments and the occasional cheap shot that’s somewhat undeserved. So here are my thoughts on what some NASCAR personalities can do to better themselves in the coming year.

I Brian France resolve to pay attention to what an increasingly disgruntled fanbase is saying. That doesn’t mean enacting every change they’re clamoring for, because as any great leader knows, the general populist isn’t always correct. But what that does entail is taking the time to listen to their complaints, concerns, and not acting completely clueless. As such, for the New Year I resolve to do this very thing.

I Jimmie Johnson resolve that I will learn to share in the coming year. I understand that me winning all the time probably isn’t the best thing for the sport and that nobody ever likes the kid in the sandbox who has all the toys.

I Tony Stewart resolve that I will spend some time in a gym. I understand that just because Burger King happens to be one of my sponsors, it doesn’t mean that I have to give the appearance that I eat there three times a day. Therefore, you will see a slimmer, more focused Tony Stewart in 2011.

I Darrell Waltrip resolve not to turn every story about someone else into an antidote about my career. I also resolve not to constantly remind everyone how great I was/am every time the opportunity presents itself.

I Dale Earnhardt Jr. resolve to do to everything possible to live up to my vast potential. I know I will never meet the enormous expectations that Junior Nation has placed on me, but that won’t prevent me from doing whatever it takes to return to victory lane on a semi-regular basis. If that means putting down the video games and testing four times a week, so be it.

I Kevin Harvick resolve to stop the frequent bitching and moaning every time a crew member of mine drops a lug nut or is a little slow putting on a tire. It’s time for me to realize that unloading a verbal tirade on my crew that would make Bobby Knight blush is not good for anyone involved, and is a quick way to demoralize a team that has lofty expectations in 2011.

I Mark Martin resolve that I will actually retire at the end of the year. (No, really, I’m serious this time.) I don’t want to be like Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte and take rides with lesser teams just because the paycheck is too good to pass up. There’s something to be said about riding off into the sunset with your head held high.

I Jack Roush resolve to get some flying lessons, because it’s obvious that when you’ve crashed two planes in nine years that I might need a refresher course or two. Or at the very least, some seat time in a flight simulator.

I Denny Hamlin resolve to put last season behind me and return in 2011 with the same fire and determination I had throughout 2010.

I Carl Edwards resolve that I won’t intentionally wreck Brad Keselowski no matter what he may do to provoke me. Entering the New Year, I understand that what I did last year at Atlanta and Gateway was uncalled for and that I’m incredibly lucky that no one got hurt.

I Kyle Busch resolve to grow up and stop acting like a petchulant child whose toys just got taken away when things aren’t going my way on the track.

I Matt Kenseth, after cycling through five crew chiefs in four years, resolve to keep the same guy atop my pit box for more than 18 months. I know this is going to be difficult, but no one ever said New Year’s resolutions were supposed to be easy.

I Mike Ford resolve that I will keep my mouth shut the next time I feel inclined to say something that might provoke the competition. Especially if said comments are directed towards the team that has won the last five championships. My philosophy in 2011 is to not poke the sleeping lion.

I NASCAR, the sanctioning body of the most popular form of motorsports in North America, resolve to finally commence a massive overhaul to a schedule that is in desperate need of a makeover. This means taking away a second date at tracks that don’t deserve them, as well as shortening every race outside of the four majors (Daytona 500, Southern 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400.)

If you would like to contact the author of this post, please feel free to email him at jordan@theracinggeek.com and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Edwards, France, Hamlin, Harvick, Johnson, Kenseth, Martin, Mike Ford, NASCAR, Roush, Stewart, Waltrip

Offseason Analysis: Roush Fenway Racing

12/21/2010 By Leave a Comment


While the superteams of Hendrick, Gibbs and Childress were slugging it out for the championship, the fourth superteam, Roush Fenway Racing, was noticeably absent; spending most of 2010 playing catch-up. Attempting to make the transition fulltime to Ford’s new FR9 engine as well overcoming NASCAR’s testing ban which put the organization behind the eight-ball.

By the end of the year though, the hard work paid off. Roush Fenway Racing placed three of their four cars in the Chase, two of which finished in the top-five and saw Carl Edwards go to victory lane in the final two races of the year. As a result, the organization enters the offseason with a pocket full of momentum and is poised for big things in the forthcoming season.

2010 In the Rearview: Depending on whether you’re a glass is half-full or half-empty person will affect how you view Roush Fenway’s 2010 season.

The glass is half-empty attitude is that it took 21 races before the team’s first victory and for the second straight year, a Roush-owned car wasn’t in contention for the championship. Not to mention Matt Kenseth went winless for the second time in three years, David Ragan continued to flop and reliability issues cost the team precious points and potential victories.

On the flip side of things, despite struggling with a front nose that gave them fits through the first half of the season and an engine which proved problematic, Roush Fenway still fielded cars that won a combined four times, placed more cars in the Chase than either Hendrick or Gibbs, just as many as Childress, and finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the standings. And of course, there was the harrowing plane crash team patriarch Jack Roush survived in August. Not a bad year, all things considered.

2011 Drivers: No. 6 David Ragan (UPS Ford); No. 16 Greg Biffle (3M Ford); No. 17 Matt Kenseth (Crown Royal Ford); No. 99 (Aflac Ford)

Key Changes: Things are status quo this offseason on the competition side of things, not surprising considering this team made a few notable moves during the ’10 season. Among them Jimmy Fennig was named Matt Kenseth’s crew chief in June, a position he’ll keep fulltime in 2011, and Drew Blickensderfer assumed crew chief duties on the 6 car of David Ragan in September.

Offseason Analysis: After a sluggish start to the year, Carl Edwards ended the year as well as any driver not named Jimmie Johnson could. He stretched his fuel to its max at Phoenix and in doing so, snapped his 70-race winless streak. He followed that up with a dominating victory the next week at Homestead.

To go along with his two wins, Edwards posted seven other finishes in the top-five, recorded a total of 19 top-10s and ended the year fourth in points. Looking back, it was one of those years where you go “Wow, he was a lot better than I remember.”

As such, in 2011 the Missouri driver will be a popular pick to unseat Jimmie Johnson. A position Edwards is more than familiar with, having been the preseason favorite in 2006, when he was coming off a year in which he won four times and finished third in points, and again in 2009, when the previous year he won nine races and pushed Johnson to the championship.

The concern I have is in both ’06 and ’09, Edwards didn’t come anywhere close to meeting the expectations that had been laid out before him, failing to win a single race either year. It’s an issue Edwards is more than aware of, as he was joking with reporters about it in the media center following his victory at Homestead.

What needs to be analyzed by Edwards, crew chief Bob Osborne and team owner Jack Roush over the next couple of months is what can be done to ensure there isn’t a drop-off like the one Edwards has experienced twice previously. Learning to manage expectations is a skill and it’s one that obviously the 99 team needs to learn this offseason if they’re to fulfill the promise they showed towards the end of 2010.

Without question, the number one issue facing the 17 team of Matt Kenseth this offseason, and really all of Roush Fenway Racing, is finding some stability atop the pit box. Last year we saw three different crew chiefs take their turn guiding the No. 17 Ford.

It’s no secret that the 2003 Sprint Cup champion is at his best when he has stability around him. And for the last few years, the only thing stable with the 17 team has been the guy sitting behind the wheel. It’s not a coincidence that Kenseth’s performance has fallen off since Robbie Reiser stepped down following the 2007 season.

While I like the pairing of Jimmy Fennig and Kenseth, the fact is this will be Kenseth’s fourth crew chief since Reiser‘s departure. This leads me to question how long Fennig will have that position since being the crew chief for Kenseth comes with a pretty short shelf-life.

Chemistry and stability isn’t an issue with Greg Biffle and Greg Erwin, who have a great working relationship. Frequently overlooked, this duo is one of the best in the garage. This team is always prepared and if you take away a couple of DNFs due to mechanical failures, particularly at Fontana, which came a week after Biffle won at Kansas, the 16 would’ve finished the year higher than sixth in points.

The biggest factor in Biffle having a successful 2011 is whether he’ll have a reliable engine underneath him. One would think the reliability issues that plagued the Ford teams last season should be solved after another offseason of working out the kinks of the FR9 motor. If so, there’s little reason not to expect this team to run up front with regularity.

In the four years he’s been with Roush Fenway, David Ragan has never won a race, never finished better than 13th in points and his average in the yearend standings is 21.75.

Long story short, the evidence strongly points to Ragan being nothing more than a journeyman driver.

With his contract up at the end of the 2011 season, it’s evident that he won’t be back at Roush Fenway, barring some sort of a miracle. And even a miracle might not be enough to save Ragan from the unemployment line. From all appearances it’s obvious that Jack Roush is thinking the same thing, as he already has a succession plan in place with 19-year-old Trevor Bayne being groomed to fill Ragan’s seat.

Add everything up, and with Ragan and Roush both playing out the string, the expectations for this team entering 2011 have to be minimal at best. I don’t see anything that can be done this offseason to change that fact.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, please feel free to email him at jordan@theracinggeek.com and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of NASCAR Media/Getty Images

Filed Under: Biffle, Edwards, Kenseth, NASCAR, Offseason Analysis, Ragan, Roush

Winners and Losers From New Hampshire

09/21/2010 By Leave a Comment

Round one of the 2010 Chase for the Sprint Cup is in the books and what an opening race it was. The frequently overlooked and underrated Clint Bowyer staked his claim as this year’s surprise contender. Much like he did in 2007. Though, it didn’t come as a complete shock to all of us.

Denny Hamlin overcame a harrowing spin in front of the field to finish in the runner-up position. Kurt and Kyle Busch both persevered through numerous mishaps to finish in the top-15. Whereas Jimmie Johnson wasn’t able to do the same and came home a disappointing 25th.

All in all, the Sylvania 300 has to be considered one of the more entertaining races of the year and offers everyone plenty of storylines to gnaw on before the green-flag flies next Sunday at Dover. Before we start to do that though, let’s digest this week’s winners and losers.

Winners

Clint Bowyer
As noted above, Clint Bowyer is used to being overlooked. That comes with the territory when coming into this weekend, you’ve only won two Sprint Cup races in five years and your last victory was 88 races ago. Add into the equation that he drives for one of the more legendary owners in NASCAR history and his teammates, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton, have won 14 and 21 races respectively and its easy to see why Bowyer’s name is frequently glossed over when discussing who the top drivers in the sport are.

However, after leading a race-high 177 laps and notching his third career victory, he ensured that he wouldn’t be sharing the spotlight with anyone else. That is, at least for one day any way.

Denny Hamlin
Entering into the Chase, all Denny Hamlin talked about was how he had to avoid the early pratfalls that have come to define him in the Chase and put himself in a position the last five races or so to make a viable run at the championship.

So when the No. 11 Toyota went for a spin on Lap 215 it looked similar to years prior, when Hamlin would somehow find a way to self-destruct his title hopes. Except, in this case there was no implosion. The points leader managed to keep his car off the wall, used pit strategy to recoup his lost track position and raced his way to a second-place finish.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That was no misprint in the boxscore; Dale Earnhardt Jr., fourth, actually finished a race in the top-five. It is just the third time he’s done so this season and the first time in 40 Cup starts that he’s finished in the top-five on a non-restrictor-plate track. Is this just an aberration or a sign of things to come? Who knows? But a week after perhaps his worst day as a Sprint Cup driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked like the driver everyone expected him to be when he joined Hendrick Motorsports three years ago.

Kevin Harvick & Kyle Busch
Listening to Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch talk to their crew Sunday reminded me of a teenage girl whose parents had just grounded her for breaking curfew. We heard a lot of screaming, there was some foot stomping and just overall, bitchiness all around. The funny thing is, both drivers finished in the top-10, and are in excellent shape points-wise heading into Dover.

Sam Hornish Jr.
With sponsorship lacking, it appears as if Sam Hornish Jr.’s days with Penske Racing are numbered. But despite all the uncertainty surrounding the future of the former Indy 500 champion, it didn’t prevent him from scoring his best finish of the year. Although a 10th-place finish isn’t something to get excited about, but after the year Hornish has had, you can perhaps appreciate the excitement.

Losers

Tony Stewart & Darian Grubb
On a track like New Hampshire, where passing opportunities are limited and track position is hard to come by, you can understand why Tony Stewart and crew chief Darian Grubb were hesitant to pit for tires and fuel as the race came to its conclusion.

That being said, the risk versus reward in deciding not to pit wasn’t worth it. If Stewart pits, yes, he would have had to contend with traffic, which on this day was no easy task. But few drivers are as good at avoiding trouble on the track as the two-time series champ. As things shuffled themselves out, he would’ve at the very least left the Magic Mile with a top-10 finish instead of 24th like he did. And he certainly wouldn’t be in the position he finds himself in now, sitting 11th in points, 124 behind Hamlin.

This isn’t Monday Morning Quarterbacking simply because the 14 car ran out of fuel leading with the white flag waving. From the moment Stewart’s Chevrolet stayed on the track when the majority of the cars behind him pitted, it was a decision I immediately questioned. You’re risking far, far too much by gambling that you make it 92 laps on fuel.

Matt Kenseth
The driver most everyone has finishing 12th in the Chase did absolutely nothing Sunday to prove his legion of doubters wrong. A complete non-factor all day, Matt Kenseth never ran higher than 14th and his average running position was an ugly 22nd.

Jimmie Johnson
Finishing 25th is of course not the way Jimmie Johnson wanted to start the playoffs. Regardless, the result has the four-time defending champ 92 points out of the championship lead and has given further proof to the competition that while Superman may not have completely lost his powers, he’s noticeably weaker than in years past.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, please feel free to email him at jordan@theracinggeek.com and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images/NASCAR Media

Filed Under: Bowyer, Busch, Earnhardt Jr., Grubb, Hamlin, Harvick, Hornish Jr., Johnson, Kenseth, NASCAR, New Hampshire, Stewart, Winners and Losers

2010 Blue-Chip Prospects

08/28/2010 By Leave a Comment

It was a year ago that I put together a list of young drivers who I thought had the talent to one day go on and become successful Sprint Cup drivers. In a nod to one of my favorite sports – college football – I referred to the drivers I spotlighted as blue-chip prospects.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term, a blue-chip prospect is a young talent who is expected over time, to make an impact at the next level of competition. For example, a high school blue-chip football player is someone who is expected to be a star on the college level within a year or two. And a college blue-chip player is someone who is expected to have a big impact on the professional side of things.

What we’re doing again this year, is identifying the five can’t-miss, blue chips prospects who have yet to reach the highest-level of NASCAR.

There is a ton of young talent coming up through the ranks, although it may not seem like it thanks to the lackluster Rookie of the Year candidates in Sprint Cup (I mean Kevin Conway who couldn’t finish in the top-10 if there were only 10 cars on the track is going to win the award this year).

When compiling this list, what really stood out was how many talented second and third-generation stars are attempting to work their way to the top. Although this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who follows the sport. NASCAR has always been a family sport with a long line of drivers from Richard Petty to Davey Allison to Kyle Petty to Dale Earnhardt Jr., all following in their father’s footsteps. Of course, with varying degrees of success.

The talent that it coming up through the feeder series – Nationwide, Trucks, USAC, ARCA, Super Late Models, – is as a impressive a group of young drivers that we’ve seen in years. With a bit more seasoning, along with a few breaks along the way, there’s no reason that any of the five drivers below can’t one day become Sprint Cup winners and perhaps champions.

The only requirement a driver has to meet to be eligible for consideration as a blue-chipper is that they can’t have made a single Sprint Cup start. Of which none of the five drivers below have yet to do in their careers.

Another thing to keep mind, and something that I wrote last year, is that just because a driver is labeled a can’t-miss prospect doesn’t guarantee future success. The road to NASCAR superstardom is littered with the careers of drivers who were once considered “sure things.” Guys like Casey Atwood, Jason Leffler, Reed Sorenson, J.J. Yeley and Buckshot Jones would be included in this group. Without further adieu, the 2010 blue-chip prospects:

1. Justin Allgaier
Age: 24
Level: Nationwide Series
Cup Affiliation: Penske Racing
Credentials: For the second consecutive year, Justin Allgaier finds himself No. 1 on the list of blue-chip prospects. At this time last year, Allgaier was on his way to winning the Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year crown and finishing sixth in the final standings.

One year later, there’s no reason to think that the former ARCA RE/MAX Series champion won’t be future winner in the Sprint Cup Series. He’s the only the non-Cup driver to have won a Nationwide race this year (Bristol) and his talent is held in such high regard that there were some soft whispers that Joe Gibbs Racing was entertaining the idea of signing him to drive their fourth Cup car.

Committed to Penske Racing and the plan they’ve laid out for him in 2011, Allgaier will again run fulltime in the Nationwide Series. It seems like a foregone conclusion that he’ll be in Sprint Cup fulltime no later than the 2012 season. It may be sooner, depending upon sponsorship and what Penske decides to do with Sam Hornish Jr., who continues to struggle in making the adjustment from IndyCars to stockcars.

2. Austin Dillon
Age: 20
Level: Camping World Truck Series
Cup Affiliation: Richard Childress Racing
Credentials: The grandson of six-time Sprint Cup championship-winning car owner Richard Childress, Austin Dillon has far exceeded expectations during his first season in the Camping World Truck Series. He’s won his first race at Iowa in July, is the leading Rookie of the Year candidate, and had a streak of eight straight top-10 finishes before getting spun last week at Bristol and finishing 17th.

Like Justin Allgaier above, Dillon’s team is being patient with him. Grandpa Childress has already stated that Dillon will be running Trucks for at least one more year. With all three teams on sound footing on the Cup side of things, there’s no need to rush the High Point University sophomore to the big leagues before he’s ready.

3. Ross Kenseth
Age: 17
Level: ASA Midwest Tour
Cup Affiliation: None
Credentials: Being the son of a former Sprint Cup titlist never hurts to help further along ones career. With sons of famous fathers, the argument often is that they have better equipment than the competition. While that often is the case, and very well could be the case here, at the end of the day talent doesn’t lie. Ross Kenseth has what it takes to win.

In the highly competitive ASA Midwest Tour – the most competitive super late model series in the country – Matt Kenseth’s son is an impressive third in the points and had one win under his belt, which came earlier this season at Elko Speedway. In addition, he also has victories on the legendary Winchester and Lacrosse Speedways on his already impressive resume.
Like his father, Ross doesn’t commit many mistakes behind the wheel; he is incredibly patient, and rarely tears up his stuff. Something a lot of young drivers are notorious for doing.

Going forward, the biggest adjustment Kenseth is going to have to make is learning how to drive on the bigger tracks. But with a fleet of Roush Fords at his fingertips, getting seat-time shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, don’t be surprised to see Kenseth in an ARCA car sometime in the near future. With him turning 18 next year, the Nationwide Series can’t be too far away.

4. Trevor Bayne
Age: 19
Level: Nationwide Series
Cup Affiliation: Michael Waltrip Racing
Credentials: In his first full season running in Nationwide, the 19-year-old Tennessean has racked-up four top-fives, seven top-10s and earlier this season became the first driver in 18 years to win three straight poles.

The next step for Bayne, the 2008 Camping World East Series champion, is to breakthrough and win his first Nationwide Series race. Granted, that’s not the easiest of things to do with the multitude of Cup regulars running every week. But if the wins start to come, team owner Michael Waltrip would have to look seriously at expanding his Sprint Cup team to three cars.

5. Ryan Truex
Age: 18
Level: Nationwide/ K&N Pro Series East
Cup Affiliation: Michael Waltrip Racing
Credentials: As an 18-year-old rookie last year in the K&N Pro Series East, the younger brother of Martin Truex Jr. won the championship with three wins and eight top-10s in 11 starts. With six top-10s in seven races this season, he’s well on his way to repeating the feat of a year ago.

Though it is a very small sample size, in just two starts Truex has quickly adapted to running the heavier Nationwide Series car. At Michigan two weeks ago, he qualified second and finished a respectable 12th. This bodes well for a successful rookie year, which he will embark on next year.

With older broth
er Martin and team owner and two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip acting as mentors/sounding boards; it’s not too big of limb to walk out on to think that Ryan will soon be competing alongside his big brother on Sundays.

If you would like to contact the author of this post, please feel free to email him at jordan@theracinggeek.com and you can also follow The Racing Geek on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images/NASCAR Media

Filed Under: Allgaier, Bayne, Dillon, Kenseth, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Truck Series, Truex Jr.
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