NASCAR's 2008 Rookie Disappointments

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.

“It's amazing," said an ecstatic Carpentier, "We made a couple of changes from [Friday] morning, and the car just rotated beautifully through the middle of the corner. Our Dodge was just stuck to the track.”

Michael McDowell took over in the No. 00 for MWR at Martinsville in April when David Reutimann moved over to the No. 44 replacing retired champion Dale Jarrett. With a best finish of only 21st at Infineon he has failed to produce a top 20 finish in 14 starts.

McDowell finds himself 39th in the standings, outside that coveted top 35. His Cup career started out with a bang, and not a good one. While qualifying for just his second Sprint Cup Series start at Texas, McDowell lost control of his Toyota Camry and took a hard right hand turn head on into the wall.

After he slammed into the wall, his car continued to barrel roll down on to the apron. Miraculously McDowell climbed from his car shaken up but uninjured nonetheless.

"That's one of the worst wrecks I've seen, for sure, in a while and I'm not excited I had to participate in it." said McDowell. "I thank the guys back in the shop. They make these cars extremely safe. They spend the extra time padding everything. For me to walk away from that wreck, right there, is unbelievable."

Dario Franchitti has struggled the most out of this years contenders. The 2007 Indy 500 and IRL champion has had trouble performing at the NASCAR Sprint Cup level. His best finish came at Martinsville, a mediocre 22nd place finish.

After race number 17 of the season, at NHMS Dario Franchitti found himself no longer with a Cup ride. Chip Ganassi announced at the end of June the No. 40 team would cease operation immediately.

"This is a difficult decision for [co-owner] Felix [Sabates] and I that did not come without its share of anguish," Ganassi said. "In this tough business environment, continuing to run the car without proper funding has become increasingly difficult."

Franchitti will continue to drive for Ganassi in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. 

"It was a big shock that it happened," he said. "Myself and 70 people lost their jobs down in Concord [N.C.], so a lot of people are upset right now. I understand if there is no money, there is no money.

The timing of these things are never good. "So you can never pick the right time for something like this to happen, but it's particularly frustrating because we really felt that we were getting a hold of it."

So what’s behind the poor performances of this rookie class? The fact that the majority of them have no experience in a stock car could be just the reason.

These open wheel sensations were rushed into Cup rides and should have at least spent one or two years in the Nationwide Series. The five ROTY contenders have failed to produce a single Top 10 and all find themselves below 30th in the standings.

Next year’s rookie class is already looking to be a stronger one than this years. With Marcos Ambrose running full time next season and Joey Logano the leading candidate to replace Tony Stewart at JGR, the 2009 Raybesto’s Rookie of the Year contenders should be able to produce the results this season’s have not. Lets hope so at least.

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