Season Preview: Haas CNC Racing

Haas CNC Racing is yet another in a long line of underachieving race teams in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. So much so, in fact, that the typical casual race fan probably isn’t even quite sure who the heck I’m talking about when I say “Haas CNC”. Well, to sum them up, historically they’ve been an underfunded team lacking key sponsors, a competent development program, and capable drivers. At the beginning of 2007, their two cars were fielded by Johnny Sauter – who had his best Cup season of his career by finishing 30th in points – and, Jeff Green – a driver that was fired with four races left in the season in favor of a driver that to that point had failed to qualify for 15 of the 32 Cup races that year.

To put it mildly, 2007 was a very poor season for this program – just as their prior seasons had been.  While 2008 doesn’t look to be the year that this team makes “the Chase” by any means, things are definitely looking brighter in the sense that they’ve at least got two drivers on board that have at least demonstrated the ability to succeed on some level at some point in their careers. Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs probably aren’t going to become the new restrictor plate duo that scares the crap out of the other 41 drivers on the track, but I don’t think that’s exactly the team’s immediate goal. What Mayfield and Riggs bring to the table for this team is the hopes that Haas CNC might head into 2009 with two cars solidly in the top 35 in owner points. Depending on what the Toyota cars and the new “open wheel flood” drivers are able to do this season, I don’t think it’s so unreasonable to think that they might actually accomplish this feat, either.

Cup Series Roster:

66: Jeremy Mayfield – This guy may have one of the most up-and-down careers in the Cup Series in the past 20 years, because every time it looks like he’s got things on track and he might soon join NASCAR’s elite class of drivers, everything around him suddenly seems to take a quick and serious turn for the worse. While racing for Penske Racing, Jeremy finished a career-high 9th in points back in 1998, but the next three years had gotten so bad that he was later released from the team in 2001. After finally rebuilding his career with Evernham Motorsports driving the no. 19 Dodge, he again finished in the top ten in points in 2004 and 2005 with a win in each of those seasons. He dropped so far the following year, though, that Evernham released him after 22 races. He finished 39th in points and failed to crack the top ten on a single occasion. In 2007 he joined Bill Davis Racing for the new launch of the Toyota Camri into the Cup Series, and that was an absolute nightmare. He failed to qualify in 15 events and was released from the team with four races to go in the season. He was picked up by CNC Haas that same week and finished the season out driving the no. 66 Chevy. Though his best finish in those four races was only a dismal 22nd, perhaps he can find solace in the fact that he did qualify for all four events under the CNC banner. While it’s not likely that he’ll find any of his past success immediately this year, Jeremy knows that the important thing is to just stay consistent. He needs consistent top 20 or top 25 finishes with the occasional top 10 and to just focus on keeping is car inside the top 35 in owner points and in the race each and every week. If he doesn’t, he could quickly find himself petitioning for a Nationwide Series ride.

70: Scott Riggs – He’s never won a Cup Series race, and his best Cup Series points finish to date is only 20th. Riggs qualified for only 27 of the 36 Cup races last season, finishing 36th in points behind the wheel of the no. 10 Valvoline Dodge for Evernham Motorsports. If you look at 2006, however, you’ll see that Riggs has proven that he does have the ability to compete in this series. That year he amassed a total of 8 top ten finishes, including a top five and finished 20th overall in the points. The year before he had two top five’s and four top ten’s, though he finished only 34th. This year he takes over behind the wheel of the no. 70 Yellow Transportation Chevy that was driven last year by Johnny Sauter. Sauter did manage to keep the car inside the top 35 in owner points, which should take some of the pressure off of Riggs heading into the Daytona 500.

Driver Roster: C
Off-Season: B
2008 Outlook: D+