2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Stock Watch: Week 10
You couldn't make this stuff up.
Driver is suspended "indefinitely" by NASCAR two days before the season-opening Daytona 500 for alleged domestic abuse. Driver is reinstated by NASCAR when the state of Delaware declines to file criminal charges after a thorough investigation of the alleged incident.
And now that same driver, Kurt Busch, is squarely in the thick of the 2015 championship hunt after winning at Richmond International Raceway, barely six weeks after his reinstatement. Busch not only won at RIR to all but guarantee a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup that determines the champ in an elimination-style playoff format over the season's final 10 races, but did so in dominating fashion by leading a career-high 291 of the 400 laps in the rain-delayed race.
"We've got a lot of things ahead of us and this was a great step," Busch told FoxSports.com of his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing team afterward.
That can't be disputed and obviously rose the stock of a driver who wouldn't have been touched by anyone a mere six weeks ago. See who else is on the rise, in a holding pattern or on the selling block after a pair of short-track races in Bristol and Richmond (based not only on who won, but on who, or what, has momentum, chemistry with all that is happening around it or them, and plain old gut instincts).
Air Titan 2.0
1 of 10
After two weekends of seemingly endless rain delays, NASCAR's Air Titan 2.0 jet-drying machines have been the stars of the show all too much.
Described in a FoxSports.com headline as "more powerful than a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick," the Air Titan 2.0 technology was used to dry the .75-mile Richmond track in less than an hour after it stopped raining. Promotional material issued by NASCAR claims the 2.0 dries tracks up to 50 percent faster than the old Air Titan 1.0.
To put it into terms that can excite most statistical-driven sports fans, these babies pump air out at 568 miles per hour, could fill the Goodyear blimp in 3.4 minutes and dry a football field in 20.5 seconds (all according to NASCAR, per FoxSports.com).
Hey, let's hope NASCAR doesn't need to keep trotting them out to beat the rain. But knowing all this cool stuff, who wouldn't want to own one?
Verdict: Buy
Danica Patrick
2 of 10
Currently at 16th in the points standings, Danica Patrick for the first time in her Sprint Cup career is flirting with something other than boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
She's actually in contention for one of the 16 Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff berths, which go to all drivers who win races plus those next in line in the points who haven't won. (Last year, 14 drivers who won races got in, plus two who didn't in Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman).
Of course, it's still a long way to go in the season and being 16th in points won't mean a thing if drivers sitting well ahead of you also are winless at the end of the 26-race regular-season cutoff. But Patrick was up to 13th prior to last week's misadventure at Richmond, where it seemed everyone kept trying to run into her and she finished 21st after scoring top-10 finishes in two of the previous three races, also at short tracks.
"The race really didn't go our way (Sunday)," Patrick told FoxSports.com. "We struggled with accidents both on track and on pit road that didn't do us any favors. Our team had to dig in and get everything we could out of our GoDaddy Chevrolet. When you have days like this, you just have to be proud of your team for sticking with it and coming out with a top-25 finish."
It actually was a testament to her improved driving skills that she was able to avoid complete disaster at Richmond. The fact is, Patrick has made herself relevant this season for more than whatever sporting event or off-the-track gala she's attending with Stenhouse.
Verdict: Hold
Tony Stewart
3 of 10
While Busch, Parick and current points leader Kevin Harvick all seem to be flying at times in their Stewart-Haas Racing cars, driver-owner Tony Stewart seems stuck in neutral. Or worse, at times he seems to be going in reverse.
There is no way Stewart, a three-time Cup champion, has suddenly forgotten how to drive a race car. But it's also no secret that he doesn't like the current Cup car, nor the rules package that NASCAR brought in along with it this year.
And it shows. He posted a decent finish at Bristol two weeks ago but had to knock Kasey Kahne out of the way to do it. Then at Richmond, he unceremoniously bumped none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of the way in an effort to improve position with fewer than 50 laps to go and wrecked himself out of the race.
Asked about the incident afterward, Earnhardt told FoxSports.com of Stewart: "You'll have to ask him, he hit me in the left rear quarter panel. I was trying clear the 51 (of Justin Allgaier) on the outside of me, so I was as high as I could go. You'll just have to ask him."
Television reporters tried, but a visibly angry Stewart stormed off, slinging his helmet and other equipment into his hauler along the way. Thus continued the worst start to a season in the 43-year-old Stewart's 17-year career, with the 41st-place finish dropping him to 30th in points.
Verdict: Sell
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Jamie McMurray
4 of 10
McMurray finished fourth at Richmond for his fourth top-10 finish in the last six races.
More importantly, he's finally starting to lead some laps. He led just four at RIR, but also led nine at Texas before finishing sixth two weeks earlier. Considering he had led only one lap in the first six races of the season combined, it's a good sign that McMurray and crew chief Matt McCall are beginning to find more speed in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet.
Now it's on to Talladega, where like for many drivers it's been a feast-or-famine proposition. In his 11 starts at the 2.66-mile superspeedway since 2009, he's won twice, finished second once and finished 21st or worse a total of seven times.
But if you're speculating on someone at a restrictor-plate race with a proven track record, he's not a bad bet.
Verdict: Buy
Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth
5 of 10
After Denny Hamlin won at Martinsville earlier this season and Matt Kenseth followed that up with another win at Bristol, it figured that the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates would be factors on the next short track as well.
But they and their other two JGR teammates (Carl Edwards and David Ragan, who is subbing for the injured Kyle Busch) struggled mightily at Richmond. So these guys are difficult to figure out.
Kenseth did scratch out a respectable seventh-place finish by the end, but Hamlin ended up 22nd, two laps down to race winner Kurt Busch. Thus continued an up-and-down season that included Hamlin stepping out of his No. 11 FedEx Toyota after only 23 laps a week earlier at Bristol when his neck cramped up during a long rain delay.
"We just missed it," Dave Rogers, Hamlin's crew chief, told FoxSports.com of the effort at Richmond. "Made a few adjustments ... and obviously went the wrong way.
It's too soon to say his or Kenseth's season is heading that way, in the completely opposite direction, or somewhere in between.
Verdict: Hold
Carl Edwards
6 of 10
Edwards arrived at Joe Gibbs Racing this season with high hopes and great expectations.
It's way too soon to say definitively that he still can't turn his season around. But after nine races, it's a little shocking how much he's struggled.
His only top-10 finish thus far is a 10th at Texas. At Bristol, he started third and led 86 laps but ended up finishing four laps down in 24th.
Until Edwards and new crew chief Darian Grubb can start clicking, the driver of the No. 19 Toyota doesn't figure to be much of a factor.
Verdict: Sell
Rodney Childers
7 of 10
Yes, defending Sprint Cup champion and current points leader Kevin Harvick can drive a race car.
But behind every fast race car driver is a crew chief who knows what he is doing to make it go fast. And for Harvick, that guy is Rodney Childers.
It's time to stop saying Childers is a rising star in the Sprint Cup garage and anoint him what he is: the best crew chief currently working in NASCAR's premier series. Yes, right now he's better even than Chad Knaus, who has won six titles with driver Jimmie Johnson.
Harvick and the Childers-led No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team finished second at Richmond, giving them a total of two race wins and five runner-up finishes in the first nine races. The key is Childers' approach that combines a lifetime of experience around racing with keeping up to speed with all the latest technological advances.
"Usually, you either have an old-school guy who doesn't have the engineering side or you have a new-school guy who doesn't have the common sense from a racing side of it," Harvick once told USA Today of Childers. "It's hard to find that balance. But he has it."
Verdict: Buy
David Ragan
8 of 10
David Ragan is one of the nicest guys in racing.
But as speculation swirls that he may soon be headed to Michael Waltrip Racing, let's be honest. He hasn't done a whole lot with the rare opportunity granted him when he was tabbed to drive the No. 18 Toyota at Joe Gibbs Racing as a substitute for the injured Kyle Busch.
He finished fifth at Martinsville but has struggled mightily just about everywhere else. So why not hit the sell button?
Because he's headed to Talladega, where he actually won in 2013 while driving for Front Row Motorsports and owner Bob Jenkins. That was in the midst of a stretch where he finished seventh or better in four Talladega races in a row, which is no small feat.
That makes him worth holding onto for at least one more week to see what he can do at 'Dega in JGR equipment.
Verdict: Hold (for one more week anyway)
April Race Dates
9 of 10
Rain, rain go away.
After all the rain delays the last two weekends at Bristol and Richmond, it's great to turn the calendar from the traditionally wet month of April to May for the next round of Sprint Cup races. The race at Bristol, scheduled for the afternoon, took more than nine hours to complete. The Richmond race, originally scheduled for Saturday, wasn't run until Sunday.
What's the old saying? April showers bring May flowers?
Well, we don't care so much about that. But a few more dry race tracks in the upcoming month would be more than welcome.
Verdict: Sell
Kurt Busch
10 of 10
Kurt Busch has been in and out of trouble throughout his NASCAR career. Former championship driver and current FOX Sports television analyst Darrell Waltrip described Busch's latest resurgence as the mercurial driver's "last second chance" in a column Waltrip wrote for FoxSports.com.
"At some point in time you get to your last second chance, and quite honestly, I think that is where Kurt Busch is right now," Waltrip wrote. "He's on his last second chance. I don't know that any of us that ever questioned his ability from the moment he got behind the wheel of a Sprint Cup car. We all knew he was a special talent."
But (and you knew there was a "but" coming), Waltrip also wrote in the same column: "All of us have been given second chances. It's what we do with it that counts. A lot of us have been given a last second chance. When you get to that point, well, you better not blow it. I'm so happy for Kurt both personally and professionally. Things couldn't be going better, but it's up to him to help keep it that way."
We couldn't have said it better. Life is great when you're leading laps and winning races. The 291 Busch led at Richmond, by the way, are the most he's led in any race in his entire career.
It's what Busch, who won his only previous title in 2004 in the first year of the Chase era, does from here that will determine how he ultimately is defined as a driver and a person.
Verdict: Buy (very reluctantly)
Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.
Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report as well as covering NASCAR as a Digital Content Producer for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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