2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Stock Watch: Week 15
There likely won't be a more popular win in the Sprint Cup garage than the one that went down last Sunday at Pocono Raceway, where Martin Truex Jr. snapped a 69-race winless streak by going to Victory Lane for the first time in his current No. 78 Furniture Row Racing ride.
First off, Truex has come close oh-so-many times recently, only to fall short of closing the deal (including the three weeks leading up to Pocono, when he led the most laps each time but failed to win). But more importantly, Truex has been through an emotional ringer over the last two years since losing his ride at Michael Waltrip Racing through no fault of his own at the end of 2013 to being by the side of his long-time girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, as she continues her battle with cancer.
And finally, Furniture Row Racing is a single-car operation owned by Barney Visser, a quiet man and military veteran who does things and treats people the right way. It was only the second win for his organization in 285 Sprint Cup starts since they opened for business in 2005.
Truex told Fox Sports:
"I wanted to win for this team because I knew how good they were, how much they deserved it, the job they've been doing, and I've just honestly been so proud of their outlook on the way this year has gone. It would be easy the last three weeks to get down and to hang your head and to make excuses and, honestly, just be disappointed, but they weren't. They were excited. They knew we were going to get this win, and they knew we were going to get it soon, and they worked hard. They didn't lose focus of how we got to where we're at, and, honestly, that's what pushed us over the edge and was able to make the difference.
"
But while the stock of this driver and this team obviously was sent soaring, others aren't so fortunate. As the Sprint Cup Series now heads to Michigan and Sonoma over the next two weeks, see whose stock deserves to be placed on the buy, hold and sell lists based on recent momentum, immediate outlook, chemistry and plain old common horse(power) sense.
Sonoma Raceway
1 of 10
It's still two weekends away, but the first Sprint Cup road-course race of the season looms at Sonoma Raceway.
And that's a good thing. Sonoma sits in the heart of wine country in California, a short drive from San Francisco. In addition to that dreamy location, the 1.99-mile race track (which features either 10 or 12 turns, depending on who is counting them and how) is just plain fun.
It's also unpredictable, with 10 different winners over the last 10 races, covering a full decade.
Throw in the fact that NASCAR needs more road-course events, not fewer ones, and you get the picture. It's a can't-miss event for race fans, whether they're fortunate enough to attend in person or they're merely grabbing a beer (or glass of wine, in this case) and watching on television.
Verdict: Buy
Matt Kenseth
2 of 10
Since going to Victory Lane at Bristol in mid-April, Matt Kenseth has had only two hiccups on his 2015 race resume.
To put that in perspective, throw out those two finishes (25th at Talladega and 39th at Dover when his day ended because of a failed suspension in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) and in the last seven races, counting Bristol, Kenseth hasn't finished worse than seventh with an average finish of 4.8.
Kenseth and crew chief Jason Ratcliff are getting zeroed in, folks. And now they're headed to Michigan, where Kenseth has two wins, 12 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 31 career starts.
So Kenseth definitely is worth keeping an eye on this weekend before he has to head to Sonoma, the only Sprint Cup track where the 18-year veteran has never led a single lap and has an average career finish of 22.1 that is by far the worst of all the tracks where he has raced.
Verdict: Hold (for this weekend, then dump for Sonoma)
Sam Hornish Jr.
3 of 10
Sam Hornish Jr. is an easy guy to cheer for.
He's disarming and polite and ever so humble for a guy who won 19 IndyCar Series races in eight years, including the Indianapolis 500 in 2006, before coming over to NASCAR.
But enough is enough.
It's hard to believe he's been at least dabbling in stock-car racing for almost a full decade now, with ever so little to show for it. The hope was that after making a return to the Sprint Cup Series following a two-year hiatus (when he ran in the XFINITY Series or not at all) Hornish finally would show at least considerable improvement this year in the No. 9 Ford he now drives for Richard Petty Motorsports.
Instead, this season has been a disaster. He's 26th in points heading into Michigan, coming off a 41st-place finish at Pocono after he wrecked out of the race. It was his fifth finish of 32nd or worse this season, which overall has included 11 finishes of 19th or worse in the first 14 races.
Verdict: Sell
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AJ Allmendinger
4 of 10
Guess what?
Marcos Ambrose has gone back to Australia. Juan Pablo Montoya has fled back to the IndyCar Series, where he is experiencing a career revival.
That leaves AJ Allmendinger as the heir apparent when it comes to crowning the new, unofficial king of road-course racing in Sprint Cup. In two weeks at Sonoma, Allmendinger's skills will be on full display as he makes his first road-course run of the season.
Last year Allmendinger qualified second and led 35 laps—nearly one-third of the race—before making contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and ruining his day at Sonoma. He went on to finish 37th, but then out-dueled the crafty, resourceful Ambrose to score the first win of his Cup career at the next road-course stop at Watkins Glen.
This year it wouldn't be a shock to see Allmendinger sweep both road-course events in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.
Verdict: Buy now (and wait for dividends in two weeks at Sonoma)
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates
5 of 10
Maybe Felix Sabates was onto something after all when he guaranteed that both Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson would make the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup field that will determine the 2015 champion.
Yes, Sabates is biased. He's part-owner of the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates organization that fields the Cup cars driven by McMurray and Larson.
"I've never guaranteed anybody anything in all the years I've been in racing, but I guarantee both of these guys will be in the Chase," Sabates told FoxSports.com at the time.
As the 26-race regular season passed its halfway mark last weekend, neither McMurray nor Larson had won a race to lock themselves into the Chase field. But after strong runs by both produced a seventh-place finish for McMurray and a much-needed eighth for Larson, who is finally showing signs of fighting off a sophomore slump, McMurray sits a strong seventh in the Cup points standings and Larson, though he still has much work to do, was up to 19th.
Both bear watching in the coming weeks, with McMurray, quite frankly, capable of winning both on the oval at Michigan and on the road course at Sonoma.
Verdict: Hold
Richard Childress Racing
6 of 10
Everyone has been so busy bashing the ineptitude of once-formidable Roush Fenway Racing this season that another former giant in the series has somewhat escaped the wrath of critics.
That's partially because Richard Childress Racing nearly pulled off the unthinkable and came within a whisker of winning a title last year without having any of its three drivers win a single race. Ryan Newman qualified for the Chase on points and finished second overall to champion Kevin Harvick by running second in the final, winner-take-all race of the season at Homestead.
Newman again has been competitive for the most part this season. He's 15th in points and already has four top-five finishes, only one fewer than all of last season. But he hasn't won a race since coming over to RCR from Stewart-Haas Racing after the 2013 season.
No driver, in fact, has won a race in an RCR car since Harvick departed the company to begin driving for Stewart-Haas after 2013. That's a combined 202 starts and counting without a single win for drivers Newman, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon, Brian Scott and Ty Dillon over the last two seasons.
Verdict: Sell
Rodney Childers
7 of 10
It's obvious that Kevin Harvick has been bad fast no matter where he's run over the last two seasons.
But the man behind all that speed is crew chief Rodney Childers, who was rewarded for his efforts by a multiyear contract extension he signed with Stewart-Haas Racing last week. Team co-owner Tony Stewart said it was a no-brainer to award Childers with the extension after the crew chief helped Harvick win the Sprint Cup title last year and get off to an even better start this season.
"Rodney Childers and Kevin Harvick set a new standard of excellence in 2014 that they’ve carried into this season," Stewart told USA Today. "Keeping Rodney and Kevin together was a high priority, and we’re obviously very happy to have the two of them at Stewart-Haas Racing for many years to come."
The Childers-Harvick tandem hasn't slowed down in 2015. Through the first 14 races, they've won twice and finished second a remarkable eight times, including last Sunday at Pocono.
Verdict: Buy
Team Penske Fords
8 of 10
Joey Logano won the season-opening Daytona 500 in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford, and teammate Brad Keselowski went to Victory Lane in his No. 2 Ford one month to the day later at Auto Club Speedway.
But since then, it seems the Team Penske Fords have been playing a somewhat futile game of catch-up with the Chevrolets of Hendrick Motorsports and Stewart-Haas Racing, and at times even with the Toyotas fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing.
That may change at Michigan.
Logano won at Michigan for team owner Roger Penske in Ford's backyard in 2013 and has finished in the top nine or better in each of the four races he's run at the two-mile track since joining Team Penske. And Keselowski is a Michigan native who burns with desire to win at his home track, where he's finished second once and third twice but never won.
Verdict: Hold
Current NASCAR Schedule
9 of 10
We've been down this road many times before, but it is one that needs traveled relentlessly until change occurs.
It simply makes no sense whatsoever for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to make two trips every season to places like Michigan and Pocono, and then run two road courses during the regular season but no road courses during the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup that determines each year's champion.
If running at two road courses is going to play a role in who qualifies for the Chase, then it only makes sense to include one road-course race within the Chase itself. This could easily be accomplished without shortening the schedule by adding either a race at a place like Mid-Ohio or just adding one more from either Sonoma or Watkins Glen and taking away a race every other year from either Michigan or Pocono, or someplace else, on a rotating basis.
(The schedule desperately needs shortening, too, but that's another subject that won't be seriously broached, if ever, until the current television contracts with FOX and NBC approach expiration in 2024),
Verdict: Sell
Martin Truex Jr., Cole Pearn and Furniture Row Racing
10 of 10
To understand how good Truex Jr. has been this season, all one has to do is look at the number of laps he's led.
After leading 97 en route to his big win at Pocono, he's now led the whopping total of 486 over the first 14 races. That more than he's led in every other entire 36-race season except one in his career, now in its 12th year (10th as a full-time driver).
But after leading at least 95 laps in each of the previous three races, plus finishing in the top 12 of the first 13, all without getting to Victory Lane, the win validated not only Truex's efforts but those of first-year crew chief Cole Pearn and the entire hard-working Furniture Row Racing operation.
"It feels unbelievable," Truex told FoxSports.com during an emotional Victory Lane celebration. "I can't thank all these guys enough on the Furniture Row Chevrolet. What a great group of guys. I knew we were going to get one. Everybody kept asking, 'When are going to win? When are you going to win? What's going on?' I knew we had the team. I knew we had what it took. We just needed things to play out the way we needed them to. I feel like we're on cloud nine right now."
And the only way to go from here is to keep moving up.
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 while also covering NASCAR as a Digital Content Producer for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.
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