The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has boasted strong rookie classes over the past years. However the 2008 class has been nothing more than disappointing.
The 2006 Raybesto’s Rookie of the Year contenders were some of the strongest in recent memory. It included such stars as, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Reed Sorenson, David Stremme, and J.J. Yeley.
They had a total of 41 Top 10's, 15 Top 5's, and the ROTY winner Denny Hamlin took three poles and won a total of two points races and also won the season opening Budweiser Shootout at Daytona.
Though the 2007 Rookie class wasn’t quite as spectacular, they produced some good results. The ‘07 class included international Formula 1 superstar Juan Pablo Montoya, up and coming Roush Fenway driver David Ragan, and Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver Paul Menard.
This talented rookie class produced a total of nine Top 10's, five Top 5's, and the road racing ace Juan Montoya won the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway.
This season’s rookies however have not fared too well so far, more then halfway into the season. The majority of the rookie class comes from different forms of open wheel racing and have little to no stock car experience.
Former Indy Racing League and Indy 500 champion Sam Hornish Jr. sits 33rd in the standings and is in danger of falling out of the very important top 35. His best finish is a 13th in the Coca Cola 600 in May.
Hornish had a great run going towards the end of the Lifelock 400 at Michigan when he was up battling Jimmie Johnson for the lead. He lost control of the car and spun out on lap 198.
"I feel really bad for the guys," Hornish said. "They got me in good position. We had a good strategy where we were able to run longer and still run respectable times, like a lot of other guys were.”
New York native and driver of the No. 01 DEI Chevy is also finding it difficult to adapt to the Cup Series. Smith is barely inside the Top 35 in the 34th position and has a best finish of 14th early in the season at Martinsville.
Regan had a strong run going at Richmond in May only to get together with the No. 84 and end up a lap down, but that wasn’t the end of his misfortunes that night. He was collected in the pile up caused by Carpentier spinning out. He came out of the wreck with minimal damage.
“It was a bad break that we were involved, but it was a good break that we didn’t hit [anything]. There were a lot of guys behind me that were involved with that stuff; I’ll take what happened to us over that,” said Smith.
Patrick Carpentier, a former F1 and international superstar drives the No. 10 Dodge for Gillette Evernham Motorsports. Carpentier however is outside the top 35 in 37th. His best finish of 14th came two weeks ago at the Coke Zero 400.
Though the Canadian driver has had trouble finishing on Sunday, he has shocked everyone with his ability to qualify for the races, which he has had to do on time all season long.
Carpentier missed three of the first five races this season but since then has made every race he’s attempted to qualify for. On June 29th at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he went out and grabbed the first pole of his career.
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