The Best Moments of the 2015 NASCAR Season so Far
The moments of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season to date have been exciting … unexpected … bizarre … and in some cases … unprecedented.
Not all of them have been at the tracks. Some were. Some were in courtrooms of various sorts. Some were instant. Some were ongoing. Some were spectacular. Some were remarkably consistent.
It’s time to take a week off to reflect. Twelve is a nice number, but not nice enough for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Talladega victory to make it. This will displease his fans, and other fans won’t like Danica Patrick’s inclusion. Some of Patrick’s fans won’t like her inclusion. She belongs, though.
It seems always to be raining on someone, particularly this year. Besides, this is just one view, and there’s lots of racing left.
And, most likely, other stuff.
12. He'll Take It Any Way He Can Get It
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Carl Edwards is a big star. He’s come reasonably close to winning the Sprint Cup championship three times, and in 2011, he lost to Tony Stewart in a tie-breaker. Lately, Edwards has been getting the most out of what he has, but it frequently hasn't been a lot.
After a career driving Fords at Roush Fenway Racing, Edwards finally moved on and joined Joe Gibb’s ultra-fast band of rampaging Toyotas. Only they didn’t rampage much in the early going, and most particularly not Edwards’ No. 19. He finished in the top 10 once in the season’s first 11 races.
But Edwards won the 12th, and it was in the sport’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. He won it more with strategy than speed. Is this a harbinger of things to come? Well, two weeks later, in Michigan, the strategy and, more specifically, the rain went against him, but he led 41 laps en route to 12th.
11. Five Who Belong
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The NASCAR Hall of Fame chose another distinguished class, neatly delineated, as usual, between the recent and the long ago, the Cup legends and those of lesser renown. Some argue that others may have belonged there first, but most concede that Jerry Cook, Bobby Isaac, Terry Labonte, Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner deserve to be there.
Smith, who once partnered with Turner, is flamboyant. So was Turner, who died in a 1970 plane crash. Cook is a record-setting Modified champion who went to work for NASCAR when he hung up his helmet. Bobby Isaac was as shy a man as ever won a championship. Terry Labonte is shyer than anyone else who ever won two.
Notably still in line are owners Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress; drivers Mark Martin, Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker; master crew chief Ray Evernham; and more than enough other candidates to make next year’s selection process just as interesting.
10. The Match Made in Heaven Is No More
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Danica Patrick and her longtime sponsor, GoDaddy.com, seemed inseparable. Her fluorescent green Chevrolets looked fast even if they weren’t. It stood out in the far reaches of race tracks like the aurora borealis, a.k.a., Northern Lights. She made racy commercials. She went to ballgames, concerts and wherever people congregated, spreading the GoDaddy gospel.
So far, the marketing surveys are fantastic, but the racing performance is not. The company announced it was leaving at year’s end. Now, one of racing’s more familiar faces is losing its most familiar color scheme. Better finishes would help.
She’s the most successful woman driver. She’s Sprint Cup’s only woman driver. That’s 19th in the standings. The novelty is wearing off. It’s time to get going. All she lacks is in the area of competition.
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9. No ... Not That Deflategate
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Allegedly, the potential for competitive improvement is tied to being able to allow air (nitrogen, actually) to escape, gradually and systematically, from tires in the middle of a race.
NASCAR officials punished driver Ryan Newman, crew chief Luke Lambert and owner Richard Childress after Newman’s Chevrolet finished fifth at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on March 22. Through three stages of hearings and appeals, the penalties were but mainly upheld. Lambert received a seven-race suspension.
What did they use? Acupuncture? No one really knows. Neither NASCAR nor Richard Childress Racing has publicly offered much in the way of explanation. The whole notion seems counterintuitive. Somehow, the team is alleged to have somehow used “bleeding the tires” to achieve “more consistent air pressures.”
Say what?
8. Mother Nature Has Been Feeling Ornery
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It’s hard to drain a racing moment out of rain, though easy to drain rain from anything else. So far, 2015 has been the Year of the Vigil. Air Titans deserve bonus points for leading the most laps. No one expected track dryers to be dominant.
Every race has made it to an official conclusion. The most recent one, Kurt Busch’s victory at Michigan, is the only one that didn’t make it the full distance. But five of the first 15 races have been marred by rain that delayed, aggravated, nixed qualifying, flooded practice, or kept fans up way past their bed times.
Fortunate for drought-stricken, bone-dry California, NASCAR is headed there next. Bring an umbrella to Wine Country.
7. That Sense of Johnson Deja Vu
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Oh, Jimmie Johnson. So smooth. Such timing. So little time. So many championships.
Seven titles would equal the record, jointly held by legends Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt. Johnson winning it all got old for many fans who watched him win in 2006, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10 and ’13. For the fans who respect Johnson’s achievements but find him somehow bland, and guilty as charged of races upon races captured efficiently, matching The Intimidator and The King would be even older.
Johnson’s a nice guy. Greatness is a virtue, not a vice. The key to the championship goes through intermediate tracks. Johnson has won at three of them already, and added Dover, where he’s won a record 10 times. That was his moment, at least so far: his third win there in the last four tries, comfortably crossing the finish line, comfortably ahead of Kevin Harvick … yet again.
6. Second Ain't Bad, but ...
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Kevin Harvick, the reigning Sprint Cup champion, is leading the points again. He’s won twice and leads the series in top-five finishes (10), laps led (1,225) and average finish (7.3).
Harvick may win another title this way, but it would help if he could start closing the deal. He has to beat Jimmie Johnson, who has won six championships. So far Johnson has won four times. Harvick finished second in each. He’s finished second eight times overall. It’s got to be getting old.
Johnson lacks Harvick’s consistency – who doesn’t? – but the champion can no longer be won on consistency alone. It’s the whole reason for the Chase. Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers are tight. They need to get tighter in order to work the system like Johnson and Chad Knaus.
The moment? Pick one. He’s had eight of them.
5. Stardust at Daytona
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Joey Logano took the checkered flag in NASCAR’s most prestigious race at age 24, and yet, somehow, he seemed overdue. He arrived at the sport’s top level at a young age and bore the brunt of high expectations. He always had the talent. What he lacked was maturity when he became a Sprint Cup rookie in 2009.
Two accomplishments stand above all the rest in NASCAR. Winning a championship is foremost, but no one forgets those who win Daytona 500s, either.
Success in the latter signals that Logano has reached stardom. The former, the championship, would cement a place in history. Logano remains a contender, though he has slumped a bit lately. He’s got plenty of time to regain the magic come Chase time.
4. ... Tony Stewart, NASCAR Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You
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Stewart is one of the greats. He’s won three Sprint Cup titles. He’s won an IndyCar championship. Times have turned tough, and it’s hard to sift among the reasons why.
He’s older, 44 now. In 2013, he suffered a gruesome leg injury in a Sprint Car race. Last year an accident that was gruesome in another way took the life of driver Kevin Ward Jr. at a dirt track, subjecting Stewart to criticism, police investigation and the trauma of being involved in the taking of a young man’s life.
He’s 26th in the point standings. He’s led a total of 14 laps in 15 races. He trails his teammates by 307 points (Kevin Harvick), 157 (Kurt Busch) and 88 (Danica Patrick). No one who ever watched Stewart during the 2011 Chase is likely to count him out. He’s still hurting, though. Obviously.
3. Ripped from the Tabloids!
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Kurt Busch has always been controversial. He’s had his share of difficulties away from the track. The latest one seemed too weird for Hollywood. Apparently, NASCAR racing alone just isn’t exciting enough.
The older Busch brother, and 2004 champion, entered The Twilight Zone through his relationship with a woman who, it must be conceded, is quite interesting. Patricia Driscoll is deeply involved in fundraising and charitable work. Her ex-boyfriend, the race driver, claimed she’s “a trained assassin” on the side. She claimed he assaulted her last September while Busch was otherwise occupied by a Cup weekend at Dover. NASCAR, as taken aback as everyone else, suspended Busch while the authorities sorted everything out. No charges were filed, and Kurt was reinstated.
He’s racing again and very well. He’s won twice and led 665 laps, second only to teammate Kevin Harvick. Ms. Driscoll is under investigation for misusing funds raised in behalf of the Armed Forces Foundation. The affair seems ever weirder. No one has been assassinated … that we know of.
2. Too Impressive for a Cinderella Story
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Martin Truex Jr. is a good driver who has taken his lumps. He’s bounced from team to team. The current one, Furniture Row Racing, is in Denver, Colo., which is at least as odd as salsa made in New York City. Barney Visser, the man who owns the team, is a furniture magnate. Go figure.
Truex’s victory at Pocono was overdue. His No. 78 Chevrolet, the one in mostly a plain black wrapper, has astonishingly been the season’s most reliable. Think Kevin Harvick’s been consistent? Truex has finished in the top 10 in 14 of the 15 races to date. No one’s done that since Richard Petty in 1969.
That’s 1969. When Nixon was president. Petty was driving a Torino.
No one begrudges Truex his rise to the top. Pocono was a feel-good story for almost everyone.
1. Kyle Busch's Daytona Disaster
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The Sprint Cup Series has never been enough to keep Kyle Busch happy. He has famously dominated his moonlighting visits to the Xfinity and Camping World Truck series.
This year his victory lust finally bit him. The younger Busch crashed severely during Daytona’s season-opening Xfinity Series race, and no SAFER barrier had been erected in front of the concrete barrier Busch’s disabled Toyota hit at high speed. The result? Serious injuries to both legs, sidelining the would-be title contender for 11 Sprint Cup races.
NASCAR boss Brian France granted Busch a waiver that would allow him entry into the Chase if he wins a race and reaches the top 30 points. The win may happen, but it now appears almost impossible that he can earn enough points. What if he does win? Will France grant another pardon? It would be interesting to see.
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