Rick James
2009 NASCAR Season Dissapointments
With thirteen races now finished, it is clear which drivers were the pleasant surprises of the 2009 Sprint Cup season. Making NASCAR news is a small group of hot drivers. Stewart-Haas Racing drivers Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman have exceeded preseason estimations. David Reutimann, a driver for Michael Waltrip Racing, is having a exceptional season, with a recent victory at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Reutimann is very close to reaching top twelve status.
Brad Keselowski, a part-time Spring Cup driver, became a first-time winner in 2009. He also won at Talladega as a driver for James Finch’s independent racing team, Phoenix Racing.
There were other pleasant surprises, including the improvement of Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr over their 2008 season records.
Now, there have also been disappointments in NASCAR, both with drivers and teams that have had less than stellar records.
Dale Earnhardt Jr tops the list of disappointments in 2009. When Earnhardt Jr first arrived at Hendrick Motorsports in 2008, he was the strongest of the four-car outfit. However, as the season progressed, other teams caught up, and Earnhardt Jr started lagging behind. Neither he nor Tony Eury Jr have managed to recapture the power of the early months of the 2008 race season. Rick Hendrick dismissed crew chief Tony Eury Jr and replaced him with Lance McGrew. McGrew is serving as the interim crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt Jr carries a hefty weight on his shoulder when he is performing well; but when he struggles, the burden seems impossible for him to bear. NASCAR’s fan favorite driver must improve quickly in order to rid himself of all of the negative press.
Kevin Harvick, who was a qualifying driver in the Chase for the Championship between 2006 and 2008, also won six races during that time. Now, he is struggling to salvage what’s left of a season that has proved just about as unproductive as his 2002 sophomore slump. It seems as though a fourth Chase for the Championship just isn’t in the cards for Harvick, who hasn’t had a victory on the track since the 2007 Daytona 500.
Harvick is not the only racer from his group that is drowning weaker track performance. Fellow members of the Richard Childress Racing team have not fared very well over the last year, especially Clint Bowyer. While Bowyer did manage a fantastic start to the 2009 season, he has finished below the top ten on the previous seven races before the Pocono 500. Jeff Burton is consistent as usual, but it is obvious that the performance is off with that team . Casey Mears encountered a very slow start to the season, but he has scored two top ten finishes in the last four races.
As ineffective as the performances of Harvick and Earnhardt Jr were, Roush Fenway Racing driver David Ragan gives them a run for their money. The NASCAR news circuit continues with negative reports. It was suggested that Ragan was the most improved driver of 2008, but he has since become a disappointing statistic. After finishing thirteenth in the championship standings in 2008, many NASCAR news groups and analysts project that Ragan would be one of the twelve drivers vying for the Sprint Cup championship. Unfortunately, for Ragan, he only scored one top ten finish in the first thirteen races. Something is definitely up with this team.
Ragan’s teammate Carl Edwards achieved victory in the Sprint Cup series, with nine races in 2008. After thirteen consecutive losses, Edwards has not been able to perform his signature celebratory back flip. Still, with Edwards ranked in the top twelve in the championship standings, his performance has been a bit of let down, as it has been for other members of the No. 99 group.
Rick James – Super Freak
