April 12, 2001
By Allen Madding
Seven races deep in the season and some interesting developments have been observed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson has a second and two third-place finishes but no wins. Likewise, last year’s runner-up for the Sprint Cup, Denny Hamlin is winless. At this point last season, Johnson had already scored three wins, and Hamlin had won two events.
Kevin Harvick has scored two wins. Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards have both scored a win for Roush-Fenway Racing. Jeff Gordon has broken his winless streak, while Kyle Busch has recorded one win, and rookie Trevor Bayne has a win to his name. None of these drivers had recorded a win this early last season.
Meantime, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who has gone winless since June 2008 in what is now a 99 race winless streak, has suddenly begun to show promise. Junior captured a second-place finish at Martinsville and has four top-ten finishes in the first seven events of the 2011 season.
Tony Stewart flirted with a win at Las Vegas -- eventually finishing second after leading 163 laps. Saturday night at Texas his crew chief had devised a winning strategy, but Stewart got caught speeding entering pit road. The pass-through penalty coupled with running out of gas on the last lap wiped out the well played out strategy and relegated Stewart to a 12th place finish. For the season, Stewart has one top-five and two top-ten finishes.
Stewart’s teammate, Ryan Newman has three fifth-place finishes this season and four top-ten finishes.
Clint Bowyer finished second Saturday night in Texas which was his first top-five finish this season, coupled with three top-tens. Bowyer’s teammate, Paul Menard finished fifth -– his second fifth place this season. His other fifth place finish came at Bristol. Menard has two top-five and thee top-ten finishes driving Childress Chevrolets which puts him on track for having the best season of his Sprint Cup Series career. All told, Childress drivers, Harvick, Bowyer and Menard seem to be making impressive starts to the season while their fourth teammate, Jeff Burton has yet to record a top-ten finish. His best finish thus far this season was an 11th-place finish this weekend at Texas.
Greg Biffle finished fourth Saturday night, his first top-five finish this season and his second top-ten finish. His Roush-Fenway teammate, David Ragan qualified on the pole for Saturday night’s race in Texas and led 11 laps before finishing seventh. That was Ragan’s second top-ten finish so far this season. Couple those performances with Kenseth and Edwards wins, and the Roush-Fenway teams seem to be poised to be contenders this season.
Kurt Busch has asserted himself this season with a fifth-place finish at Daytona and five top-ten finishes including a tenth-place finish Saturday night. Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski has led a total of 41 laps so far in 2011 but has been unable to log a single top-ten finish thus far.
Juan Pablo Montoya has been hot so far this season recording two top-five and four top-ten finishes in seven starts as well as setting on the pole for the Auto Club 400 at California.
In seven races, these are the movers and shakers in the Sprint Cup Series.
Will other drivers rise to the top? Will one of these carry home the Cup at season’s end?
There are 29 more races on the schedule before the Champion is crowned. Next week the Cup teams compete at Talladega, a track known for surprise winners. There is no runaway title contender so far this season as many complained there was last year early in the season.
2011 appears to be a sports fan’s year to follow Sprint Cup racing because every weekend adds a new wrinkle in the developing story. Keep watching folks, it will just keep getting better from here.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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