Be honest- you thought it was gonna be all about Busch, Carl and Johnson this year. So far, the hot drivers are not the Young Guns, but the Wise Sages. Oh- they’ll be there before it’s all over, but it’s interesting to me to see how the former champs- Kenseth, Gordon, Stewart and the old Busch brother are representin’ so far.
In the eyes of most observers, the Fontana race was when the real racin’ season began. No drafting partners, no restrictor plates, no steep banking- just a driver and his car. Given what I’ve described, it should be no surprise that the B.D.S (“Bump Draft Studs”) Top 10 Rankings look quite a bit different:
EDITORIAL NOTE: A reader “RoyBoy” has astutely pointed out my omission of Greg Biffle from the list. I do remember his name coming up on my radar as I compiled my list, but somewhere along the line, he fell through the cracks. Blame it on exhaustion or the exhaust fumes I refer to below, but I did NOT include the Biff on my list as I had intended. I will not completely re-do the list now, but will concede Greg Biffle would be worthy of making the Top 10 cut. My bad. I take responsibility for the error. I would say he would probably be worthy of no worse than 5th on this current list. I suspect he’ll make the grade next week. And by the way, Roy, no worries…I’m not on the drugs you seem to think I’m on.
#10- Jimmie Johnson (unranked last week)- I’ve held him out as long as I can. It was a matter of time before the defending champ cracked the top 10, and his 9th place finish at Auto Club sealed the deal. His car may have gone away at Fontana, but he won’t.
# 9- Clint Bowyer (8th last week)- It was a tough week to be an RCR driver at California, but Bowyer at least managed a top 20. Once again, I’ll say I have my concerns about Team Childress keeping up in terms of horsepower, but I’ve made a mistake once…or twice.
# 8- Denny Hamlin (unranked last week)- Last week, Hamlin was one of my on the
verge picks. Hamlin did a nice job of running towards the front with JGR teammate Kyle Busch to wind up 6th.
# 7- Carl Edwards (ranked 10th last week)- Edwards’ performance was as ho-hum as the race. It’s really difficult to imagine a race where Cousin Carl has been more invisible. Still, a 7th place finish can’t be ignored.
# 6- Kevin Harvick (ranked 1st last week)- The stereotype of a hard-chargin’, plain-talk speakin’ guy like Harvick is to be a “Check ‘er or Wreck ‘er” type. Believe it or not, Harvick’s DNF was his first since 2006.
# 5- Tony Stewart (3rd last week)- Smoke only slips because a couple of drivers pulled out better finishes to accompany a consistent body of work. You have to give Stewart props for getting his new team out of the gate right. A lot of it is because he’s hired good people and it shows.
# 4- Kyle Busch (5th last week)- It was just a matter of time. Shrub couldn’t pull off the trifecta, but you get the feeling he would’ve with another 25 laps. I still can’t help but wonder what he’d be like if he actually focused his attention on Cup racing. That’s another story for another time.
# 3- Kurt Busch (7th last week)- The Blue Duece has been nothing but steady out of the gate. It will be interesting to see what Vegas brings for the hometown Busch boys. So far the Penske team is really shaping up to be solid.
# 2- Jeff Gordon (4th last week)- This team is right. Gordo’s car isn’t perfect, but they’re not as far off as they have been. He just didn’t have the juice to catch Kenseth, but he looked brilliant on long runs.
# 1- Matt Kenseth (2nd last week)- Who else? To go from “Oh for ‘o8″ to two wins right off the bat, it doesn;t get any better than that. You can’t win a championship in February, but can sure lose one. Nobody knows better than “Matt the Brat” who spent far too much time playing catch up last season.
Falling Off The Pace (Out of the Top 10)- Mark Martin- he’ll be around, but so far, HMS has done him few favors.
Ready to Strike- Juan Pablo Montoya…the merge has been good to JPM. This might be his year. David Ragan…I’m not quite as high on the “6″ as the experts are, but they love him. David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip….what????? Yeah, I know that Daytona is in Mikey’s wheelhouse, but a 15th in Cali is not slouchy. Dude is 7th in the points!!! As for Beak, he’s finished 12th and 14th. Maybe I’ve stood too close to the exhaust, but I like what I see from MWR this year.
PHOTO CREDITS- Kenseth by TotalPhoto (Leon), Hamlin by plstt, and Kurt Busch by Walter G. Arce. These photographers do lot of great work and you may see more of it at flickr.com.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
hey thanks for commenting on my blog, every little bit helps. take care.
Nice to see Matt off to a good start this year. We’ll see by race 10 where some of these drivers and teams are really at. But, it’s fun to see it take shape. Cheers!
Where is the Biff? He was 3rd in points last year. He is 5th in points this year. He had one of the strongest cars on Sunday. He is from THE Ford shop in Sprint cup.
Put down the crack-pipe!