Before the start of any season, everyone makes predictions, taking into account everything that’s new, in order to try and make sense of what might be to come. Though my crystal ball is usually spot on, it had a little bit of an oil leak or something that fogged up a few calls for 2009. Here are three in particular.
1. Matt Kenseth and Drew Blickensderfer
Kenseth and new chew chief Blickensderfer surprised everyone by winning their first two outings together, the Daytona 500 and the next race at Auto Club Speedway in California.
Following California, I wrote a column for my college newspaper, “Out of the Dust, A Star is Born.” It appeared as though these two had instant chemistry, something so valuable, yet so hard to find in Sprint Cup racing, that often is the X-factor between successful teams and unsuccessful teams.
“Blick” had a habit of doing big things out of the box as well. In 2008, he became Carl Edwards’ Nationwide crew chief midseason, beginning at Milwaukee. Drew and Carl met for the first time 30 minutes before the green flag dropped, and won the race.
Unfortunately, their success was not meant to be. With engine problems, they finished last in the season’s third race in Las Vegas, and never regained their composure. By the all-important fall race in Richmond, they fell out of the Chase.
But, if you look at it this way, I didn’t totally blow this call: the whole Roush-Fenway fleet had a terrible year, and Kenseth was often one of the best performing Roush cars at the track. If Roush-Fenway Racing had not fallen off the box as a whole in 2009, this point might not be in this article now.
2. Johnny Benson and Red Horse Racing
After winning the Truck Series championship with Johnny Benson in 2008, Bill Davis Racing closed their operation due to lack of sponsorship, leaving the defending champion without a ride for 2009.
Fortunately, long-time Truck Series team Red Horse Racing came to his rescue, hiring Benson, most of the Bill Davis crew, and purchased some of the Bill Davis fleet. Red Horse Racing had always been a solid team, though never a great team. Now that they essentially had all the pieces of Benson’s championship team, it appeared RHR would become a powerhouse.
Not so. After just a few races, still lacking a sponsor, RHR released Benson, replacing him with Timothy Peters, who had a sponsor in Strutmasters.com. A short time afterwards, Benson suffered injuries in a late model race that would keep him off the track for the rest of the year.
Peters had some good runs with RHR, including a win at Martinsville, the team's first since 2005. I do think, however, with Benson’s experience and his crew, if he had been able to bring in some money, he would have run better with Red Horse Racing. But, we’ll never know.
3. A.J. Allmendinger
When A.J. Allmendinger first began in the Sprint Cup Series in 2007 with Team Red Bull, he was clearly a fish out of water. It isn’t inappropriate to say he had the worst entry into NASCAR… ever. Not knowing the terminology, he couldn’t even tell the team if the car was tight or loose.
After suffering through 2007, Team Red Bull called in veteran Mike Skinner to help him out and mentor him. In 2008, after taking the reigns back from Skinner, he began to show signs of slow improvement. He had some promising runs toward the end of 2008 season, but was suddenly released. Fortunately, he found a new home at Gillette-Evernham Motorsports, and had some career runs.
In 2009, after GEM became Richard Petty Motorsports, many, myself included, expected big things from Allmendinger. He was quickly taken under the wings of The King, and began 2009 on the cusp of the Chase. I even picked Allmendinger in my fantasy league once.
However, as 2009 went on, he would finish 15 races 25th or worse. Though Allmendinger was showing promise as a NASCAR driver and was really becoming a strong driver in a stock car, Richard Petty Motorsports proved not to have the chops to support an increase in performance. He even had to race for part of the season without a salary while RPM was mired in financial struggles.
With their switch to Ford in 2010, maybe they’ll be better. We’ll see.
-David Dubczak
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
What I'm Excited for in 2010
I think I’m more excited about the 2010 NASCAR season than I have been for any other season since Nextel came aboard. NASCAR has announced several new rule changes, new teams are appearing, and new team combinations all came about through the winter that should add up to one doozie of a season in 2010. So, here’s what has me most excited for in the upcoming season:
1. Truex/Tryson/Waltrip
You know, I’ve been a Michael Waltrip fan for years. I was excited when his what seemed ill-fated team began to turn around in 2009, save for Waltrip himself. When Reutimann and Ambrose were running in the top-15 and Waltip was in the 30’s, it was sad to watch. When part-time self-funded rookie Dexter Bean was turning faster practice laps than Waltrip at one race in particular, you knew something was up.
Waltrip said he would hang up his helmet in 2010 if he didn’t perform better in 2009. By mid season, he realized he would need to hire a replacement.
That replacement came in the form of Earnhardt-Ganassi racing’s Martin Truex Jr this summer. By the end of the season, Penske’s top crew chief Pat Tryson decided to move to MWR as well. In 2010, Truex and Tryson will be paired together.
If MWR continues to climp up the slope, look for some big things from the NAPA Toyota.
2. Denny Hamlin
Despite the recent news that Denny Hamlin, driver of the no. 11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing tore his ACL playing basketball, he is regarded by many as the driver with the best shot at interrupting Jimmie Johnson’s drive toward a fifth straight championship.
Hamlin has the right equipment, and things certainly seem to be clicking with crew chief Mike Ford. They handedly made the Chase, and were in contention to win many of the Chase races.
The reason Hamlin isn’t the 2009 champion might just be because Johnson somehow figured out how do divert all of the crappy stuff that might happen to him over to Hamlin. If not for three DNF’s caused by just rotten luck in the 2009 Chase, his stats beat Jimmie Johnson.
So, if Hamlin’s knee holds up and he can figure out how to avoid all that freaky crap, Hamlin has a fair shot at winning the 2010 championship.
3. The Ford teams
In 2009, Ford had one of their worst years ever. With only 7 cars – Roush-Fenway’s 5 and Yates’ 2 (occasionally, the Wood Brothers’ single entry) – they won the first two races of the season with Matt Kenseth, but then went winless until Talladega in October, much to the ire of those involved in the “We race, you win” sweepstakes, where Ford gave away a 2010 Fusion every time a Ford driver won a cup race.
In 2010, Ford has Roush, the Wood Brothers, the newly converted Richard Petty Motorsports, and the newly Ford-backed Front Row Motorsports.
What separates the Ford teams from the Chevrolet teams, however, is the way these Ford Teams are working together. Roush-Fenway seems almost like the central clearing house for data ¬– Petty, Front Row, and Wood Brothers all get Roush chassis support, and will all feed data into that system as well. On top of that, all these Ford teams will be running Roush-Yates engines.
Speaking of engines, Ford is beginning to introduce a new engine in 2010 as well. The new FR9 engine is Ford’s first purpose-built NASCAR engine, and is a badly needed update to their old design.
At times last year, it seemed as though the Ford cars were handling as good, if not better, than many other teams in the turns, but got killed on the straights with their old engine. When the FR9 is fully rolled out, expect the Ford teams to be serious challengers once again.
4. NASCAR’s loose approach
Finally, NASCAR has begun to loosen up on the drivers. No longer are they restricted from bump-drafting in the turns at Daytona and Talladega, no longer will they be penalized for a little rough-housing. NASCAR is finally letting the drivers go back to bumping and grinding, the way NASCAR started, and the way NASCAR is meant to be.
These are four reasons why the 2010 NASCAR season has me more excited than ever. Were within spitting distance of Daytona now…
What are you excited about?
-David Dubczak
1. Truex/Tryson/Waltrip
You know, I’ve been a Michael Waltrip fan for years. I was excited when his what seemed ill-fated team began to turn around in 2009, save for Waltrip himself. When Reutimann and Ambrose were running in the top-15 and Waltip was in the 30’s, it was sad to watch. When part-time self-funded rookie Dexter Bean was turning faster practice laps than Waltrip at one race in particular, you knew something was up.
Waltrip said he would hang up his helmet in 2010 if he didn’t perform better in 2009. By mid season, he realized he would need to hire a replacement.
That replacement came in the form of Earnhardt-Ganassi racing’s Martin Truex Jr this summer. By the end of the season, Penske’s top crew chief Pat Tryson decided to move to MWR as well. In 2010, Truex and Tryson will be paired together.
If MWR continues to climp up the slope, look for some big things from the NAPA Toyota.
2. Denny Hamlin
Despite the recent news that Denny Hamlin, driver of the no. 11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing tore his ACL playing basketball, he is regarded by many as the driver with the best shot at interrupting Jimmie Johnson’s drive toward a fifth straight championship.
Hamlin has the right equipment, and things certainly seem to be clicking with crew chief Mike Ford. They handedly made the Chase, and were in contention to win many of the Chase races.
The reason Hamlin isn’t the 2009 champion might just be because Johnson somehow figured out how do divert all of the crappy stuff that might happen to him over to Hamlin. If not for three DNF’s caused by just rotten luck in the 2009 Chase, his stats beat Jimmie Johnson.
So, if Hamlin’s knee holds up and he can figure out how to avoid all that freaky crap, Hamlin has a fair shot at winning the 2010 championship.
3. The Ford teams
In 2009, Ford had one of their worst years ever. With only 7 cars – Roush-Fenway’s 5 and Yates’ 2 (occasionally, the Wood Brothers’ single entry) – they won the first two races of the season with Matt Kenseth, but then went winless until Talladega in October, much to the ire of those involved in the “We race, you win” sweepstakes, where Ford gave away a 2010 Fusion every time a Ford driver won a cup race.
In 2010, Ford has Roush, the Wood Brothers, the newly converted Richard Petty Motorsports, and the newly Ford-backed Front Row Motorsports.
What separates the Ford teams from the Chevrolet teams, however, is the way these Ford Teams are working together. Roush-Fenway seems almost like the central clearing house for data ¬– Petty, Front Row, and Wood Brothers all get Roush chassis support, and will all feed data into that system as well. On top of that, all these Ford teams will be running Roush-Yates engines.
Speaking of engines, Ford is beginning to introduce a new engine in 2010 as well. The new FR9 engine is Ford’s first purpose-built NASCAR engine, and is a badly needed update to their old design.
At times last year, it seemed as though the Ford cars were handling as good, if not better, than many other teams in the turns, but got killed on the straights with their old engine. When the FR9 is fully rolled out, expect the Ford teams to be serious challengers once again.
4. NASCAR’s loose approach
Finally, NASCAR has begun to loosen up on the drivers. No longer are they restricted from bump-drafting in the turns at Daytona and Talladega, no longer will they be penalized for a little rough-housing. NASCAR is finally letting the drivers go back to bumping and grinding, the way NASCAR started, and the way NASCAR is meant to be.
These are four reasons why the 2010 NASCAR season has me more excited than ever. Were within spitting distance of Daytona now…
What are you excited about?
-David Dubczak
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