2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Stock Watch: All-Star Edition
It's the Sprint All-Star Race week in NASCAR, and that's always exciting.
Frequently one of the best all-star shows in sports, where drivers compete for $1 million in a shortened, sometimes tricked-out contest in which the rules seem to change every year, it often produces a surprise winner because teams and their drivers take chances they might not otherwise take in an event where points were counted.
Last year's winner, for instance, was Jamie McMurray of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. It was the only race he won all year.
McMurray described to ESPN.com afterward what it was like to battle with Carl Edwards on the final restart:
"As a kid, that is what you grew up wanting to do, is have a shootout like that...He got a little bit of a jump on me on the restart and I was able to hang on to his quarter panel, and when we kept entering Turn 1 and 3, I was like, 'It is for a million bucks. If we wreck, it's not that big of a deal.' It's so cool to come out on top.
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As the race beckons again, whose stock is on the rise, whose stock needs to be held for further evaluation and whose stock needs to be dumped? Based on not only the current number of race wins but also who is willing to take chances in this no-holds-barred event and who seems to be displaying the best chemistry with their crew chief and pit crews, plus which shop is producing the fastest cars most consistently, let's take a closer look.
Charlotte Motor Speedway
1 of 10
This is the time of year for Charlotte Motor Speedway to shine.
Not only will the 1.5-mile track host this Saturday night's All-Star race, but over what it advertises as the "10 Days of Thunder" starting this Thursday, it will be the site of a Camping World Truck Series race, an XFINITY race and the Coca-Cola 600. Oh, and there also will be concerts and campers, probably a staged military invasion of the infield or two, and who knows what else?
For casual race fans, or even just fans of other sports who want to check out a race to see if they like it, the All-Star Race is your event. It's split up into several shorter segments, and it always has a festive feel to it.
Then for the real diehard fan, there is the Coke 600. It's NASCAR's longest race and leaves plenty of time for food and beverage consumption, plus it's still a good test of man and machine.
Verdict: Buy
AJ Allmendinger
2 of 10
Some good things are going down at JTG Daugherty Racing.
And it appears that both the team's driver, AJ Allmendinger, and ownership, which includes former NBA All-Star and ESPN broadcaster Brad Daugherty, realized that the synergy is good for the both of them. Thus, Allmendinger signed a five-year contract extension with the team last week, removing speculation that he might jump to another team anytime soon. It coincided with the fact that the team recently announced it had a new long-term deal with Kroger, the grocery chain, to continue as Allmendinger's primary sponsor for at least 24 races per season.
"This sport's not easy, especially in this day and age," Allmendinger told Tom Jensen of FoxSports.com. "It's so competitive and it's so brutal when it comes to trying to find sponsors and keep sponsors and having a job. So this is my home and I know it's the right place for me."
The JTG Daugherty Racing group gave Allmendinger a chance to be a full-time driver again in the Sprint Cup Series after he had been suspended for violating NASCAR's substance-abuse policy in July 2012, and he rewarded them with the first victory in company history last year at Watkins Glen.
That qualified Allmendinger into the Chase, and he finished a career-high 13th in points. He's going to be a threat to win every year at the two Cup road courses, which means he'll be a threat to get back into the Chase every year, plus he and the team have been getting better on some of the ovals.
This was a smart move that bears close watching over the coming months and, well, years.
Verdict: Hold
Trevor Bayne
3 of 10
Remember when Trevor Bayne was the toast of NASCAR after becoming the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500 in 2011?
He had just turned 20 then and seemed to have such a bright future ahead of him. Now he's 24 and finally getting his first shot to be a full-time driver in the Sprint Cup Series as the pilot of the No. 6 Ford fielded by Roush Fenway Racing.
Unfortunately, the Roush Fenway organization seems well past its prime. And Bayne never seemed to fully reach what most figured would be his.
In the first 11 races this season, his best finish is 18th (at both Martinsville and Texas). He's finished 24th or worse eight times, including in each of his last four starts when his average finish has been 31.0.
Since winning the 2011 Daytona 500, Bayne has run 67 more Sprint Cup races and has yet to score another top-five finish with only two top 10s.
Verdict: Sell
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Ives
4 of 10
Earnhardt Jr. followed up his epic win at Talladega with a third-place finish in the rain-delayed race at Kansas.
He did so by gambling on fuel at the end, a luxury afforded him by virtue of the 'Dega victory that assures him a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup no matter how the rest of his regular season unfolds. Both races were indicative of a relationship with new crew chief Greg Ives that obviously is growing in the right direction.
One of the keys to continuing improvement is that Ives seems to be handling the inevitable pressure that comes with being crew chief of NASCAR's most popular driver with incredible ease.
"As far as pressure goes, I think of it as an opportunity to improve. That's how this team looks at it right now. We look at the pressure. What Junior Nation says on our bad days is nothing less than what my (8-year-old) daughter (Payton) will tell me when I get home. They're going to have great things to say, they're going to have bad things to say. The honesty is what I want. I don't care about fluff and buff.
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Earnhardt now has registered five top-three finishes in the first 11 races of the season, a number exceeded only by three-time winner Jimmie Johnson and two-time winner Kevin Harvick.
Verdict: Buy
Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn
5 of 10
The chemistry between Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. and his first-year crew chief Cole Pearn has been nothing short of fabulous this year.
Eleven races into the season, Truex already has 10 top-10 finishes and two top-five finishes, twice as many as last year in both critical categories. It's been good enough to propel him to second in the current points standings.
But the latest of those top-10 runs, a ninth at Kansas, was a bitter disappointment after Truex had led a race-high 95 laps and was running second behind only Kevin Harvick when Pearn made the decision to pit for fuel before the final restart of the night. Four cars (including race winner Jimmie Johnson) gambled and stayed out on the track, and when Truex got caught up in traffic on the restart, he fell all the way back to ninth.
Truex said afterward that he still thinks Pearn is doing an incredible job and that this was just a little bump in the road. The driver told Jay Pennell of FoxSports.com:
"I told Cole that he's still new at this, this is his first year calling races, and he's been spot on all year long. He's taken gambles when he needed to that paid off, he's been smart when he needed to, he's done everything right, and (Saturday night) he just...he didn't make the right call. Sometimes you don't always make the right call. Sometimes the circumstances don't play out the way you think they will or whatever.
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It's worth keeping an eye on the pair to see how they bounce back from this disappointment.
Verdict: Hold
Clint Bowyer
6 of 10
How bad has it gone for Clint Bowyer in the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota this season?
Well, after 11 races he's still seeking his first top-five finish, and he's led the grand total of one lap all season. Digging a little deeper into the numbers, his average finish of 19.4 is his worst since his first full-time Cup season back in 2006.
His last win came in the Charlotte fall race of 2012, 88 races ago. The native of Emporia, Kansas, had hoped some home cooking might help turn things around last weekend, but he got tangled up early in the race at Kansas Speedway with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and never was a factor before straggling home in 21st, which is right where he started.
It seemed like he spent a whole lot of time going nowhere, which was a microcosm of his season.
Verdict: Sell
Past All-Star Race Winners
7 of 10
One of the cool deals about this Saturday night's Sprint All-Star Race is that it will feature 11 drivers who have won it previously.
Of those, six stand out as strong candidates to contend for the win and the $1 million prize this time around.
Four-time All-Star winner Johnson tops the list, but Harvick, who won it in 2007 and has been strong in points races lately at Charlotte, also is sure to be fast. Defending race winner McMurray has been running well of late, as has Earnhardt Jr. (All-Star winner in 2000, when he was a Cup rookie) and Kurt Busch, Harvick's Stewart-Haas Racing teammate who won it in 2010.
But the one we think you should watch most closely is Jeff Gordon, a three-time winner who hasn't visited Victory Lane in the All-Star extravaganza since 2001. In what is his last full-time season and therefore almost certainly his final All-Star Race, it would be a storybook win if Gordon could pull it out. He's been running better of late, and you have to believe Hendrick Motorsports will do everything it can to give Gordon his best chance.
The five past winners who seem destined to watch someone else celebrate (because none of them is running particularly great at the moment, or else this format doesn't seem to suit them) include Carl Edwards (winner in 2011), Tony Stewart (2009), Kasey Kahne (2008), Matt Kenseth (2004) and Ryan Newman (2002).
Verdict: Buy (the first six mentioned)
SpongeBob SquarePants
8 of 10
SpongeBob SquarePants sure received plenty of air time last weekend.
Even before the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway was delayed by rain for two hours, 17 minutes after the first 99 laps, the cartoon legend seemed to be everywhere. Or at least his likeness did, and then he showed up all over the place at the track, even gracing the media center.
Once the rains came, so did the jokes. If only SpongeBob could soak up the rain to dry the track...yuk! yuk! It was all in good fun, to be sure, but enough is enough.
And as far as some drivers saying they hope to draw in new fans with paint schemes featuring SpongeBob and other characters from his show, well, let's hope it hasn't really come to that in NASCAR, has it?
Verdict: Hold (until next year's Kansas race, when he's sure to be back)
David Ragan's SpongeBob Car
9 of 10
Speaking of cars with SpongeBob-themed paint schemes, arguably none stood out more at Kansas than the No. 55 Toyota that was driven by David Ragan for Michael Waltrip Racing.
But it didn't go well. Ragan was running in the middle of a pack on Lap 119 of the 267-lap event when he got into the left rear of Josh Wise's car. The contact sent Ragan's car sliding through the rain-soaked infield, where it came to rest and got stuck in the mud in, of all places, the middle of the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 logo painted on the infield grass.
Track crews had to pull Ragan's car from the grass. But by the time he was able to continue, he restarted the race in 40th and was fortunate to finish 33rd, four laps down.
It has been a crazy year for Ragan. He started the year driving the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford for owner Bob Jenkins in the Daytona 500. Then he jumped in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as a substitute for the injured Kyle Busch.
Now he's in the No. 55 for MWR. But hopefully this particular car will be retired for a while, or better yet, maybe sold at auction for charity.
Verdict: Sell (or at least donate)
Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus
10 of 10
Perhaps all Johnson and crew chief Knaus needed to get locked in this season was another team attempting to steal their thunder.
That team appears to be the one headed up by crew chief Rodney Childers and driver Kevin Harvick, the defending Sprint Cup champion. Their No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing group has won two races, led more laps than anyone else (including Johnson) and generally been the class of the Sprint Cup field week in and week out.
But while that may have been the case again in Kansas, Knaus' call to keep Johnson on the track when others, Harvick and Truex included, ducked into the pits for fuel at the end was brilliant. It enabled the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy team to steal their series-high third win of the season.
"We haven't really gambled before and won. Not to my knowledge," Johnson told Tom Jensen of FoxSports.com. "So it feels a little different and pretty cool to have that come together."
Verdict: Buy
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 assisting in coverage of NASCAR for FoxSports.com as a Digital Content Producer. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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