Let's move on to another Elliott, Elliott Sadler said that this weekend he's celebrating his two year anniversary of his driving for Gillett Evernham Motorsports. He would like to celebrate the snapping of his four year win less streak. His last win coming in the 2004 September California event.
If there was a list of drivers that fans wouldn't mind seeing in victory lane it might be Mark "the kid" Martin, as Kenny Wallace calls him. Martin's last visit to victory lane came during his retirement tour in 2005 in the Banquet 400 at the Kansas Speedway.
Martin didn't retire and currently drives for DEI, and badly wants to win a race for them. Just as Earnhardt Jr. did before him, Martin will leave the company for Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the year.
Here's where we're going to switch it up and play musical chairs.
Everyone is talking about the dominance of Kyle Busch and Toyota but there's another Toyota driver that's making some noise, Brian Vickers. Vickers had announced early in 2006 that he was departing from Hendrick Motorsports but before leaving he desperately wanted to win for the No. 25 team which was so important to his friend Ricky Hendrick.
He finally was able to pull the No. 25 into victory lane at Talladega but it didn't come without controversy as he spun teammate Jimmie Johnson and leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. Vickers has since joined Red Bull Racing and has starting knocking on the door for his second career victory. It's almost a matter of time before he busts through.
As for the driver that replaced Vickers at Hendrick Motorsports, Casey Mears, he was able to bring the Mears name back to victory lane on Memorial Day Weekend during last seasons Coca-Cola 600. Now Mears isn't only searching for his second career win, he's also searching for a job.
The Mears era is ending and Mark Martin's is getting ready to begin.
But what about the others who are searching for their first win in over a year?
Kevin Harvick brought Richard Childress back to victory lane at Daytona in last year's 500. Harvick fans and myself thought this would lead to a couple wins and a title contending year, instead Happy's win-less clock had struck 59 races.
The second race of the year and the last race were won by Mr. Consistency, Matt Kenseth. This year it seems that Kenseth along with his teammates not named Carl Edwards, are running consistent but not enough to catapult them to victory.
However, this weekend at Michigan all five Roush Fenway cars finished in the top ten. And oh yeah, a man named Carl Edwards won the race.
Which brings us to two drivers who have won last year that have yet to pick up a "W" this season. Anybody know who? You have until the next paragraph to figure it out.
Martin Truex Jr. is from New Jersey which makes Dover International Speedway his home track. So, with teammate Earnhardt Jr.'s pending departure, Truex Jr. knew he was soon going to be the main man at DEI.
On Jun. 4 at Dover he showed he was ready for the job a he led the most laps and won the Autism Speaks 400.
Truex has recently resigned with DEI and his fans hope that with that distraction behind him, victory is not far ahead.
And so, we're down to one, or should I pronounce that Juan?
He's NASCAR's international star and has no problem mixing it up with the best. When he won at Sonoma a year ago it wasn't all the surprising considering it was a road course race. But it does seem surprising that he didn't win Watkins Glen or even come close to competing this year.
Montoya is one of the sixteen men looking for the black and white flag as they come out of turn four.
The race for the Chase may be taking center stage but for NASCAR's biggest stars the race to capturing their first checkered flag is just as important.
And we haven't even begun to discuss the drivers searching for their first career victories in 2008...
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