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With the Sprint Cup Series now just one week away from reaching the official halfway marker of 2008, DYN is going to take a look at the 5 most disappointing teams and drivers in the series so far this year:

5. Ryan Newman - no. 12 car - Penske Racing - After missing out on the Chase for the Cup playoffs in each of the past two seasons, Newman came into 2008 - his contract year with Penske - with high hopes of finding some of the magic that he and the no. 12 team had a little earlier in his career. Things got off to a great start when Ryan gave Roger Penske his first-ever restrictor plate win when he won the season-opening Daytona 500, but the season’s been downhill ever since. Newman’s finished inside the top-five only once more since then, and has slipped down to 15th in the standings.

4. Dario Franchitti - no. 40 car - Chip Ganassi Racing - Nobody should have been expecting this team to tally any marks in the win column in Dario’s rookie campaign in the Sprint Cup Series, but sharing a team with Juan Pablo Montoya, many believed that he would be able to use a lot of the second-hand information from JPM’s transition into stock cars last year to his advantage. That has not been the case thus far, however, as Dario has failed to finish inside of the top-20 in any of the ten races he’s competed in this year. Even more disappointing is the fact that he failed to qualify for the road course race in Sonoma, the place where Montoya picked up his first NASCAR win and many felt that Dario would get his best finish to-date. 

3. Elliott Sadler - no. 19 car - Gillette-Evernham Motorsports - Once considered a perrenial Chase contender while racing for Yates Racing, Sadler came to Evernham Motorsports with high hopes when he relieved Jeremy Mayfield of his driving duties in the no. 19 car. Things haven’t really panned out so far, though, as Elliott just recently picked up his first top-five of the season last weekend at Loudon. They have also been unable to improve on their points position from last year. In 2007 he finished 25th in the standings, which is also where he currently sits 17 races into 2008.

2. Jamie McMurray - no. 26 car - Roush-Fenway Racing: In a NASCAR season that’s been dominated with Silly Season headlines, McMurray is one of the remaining drivers that still finds his name on the potential chopping block. Even if he survives 2008 with a job in-hand, he can pretty count on ‘09 being his last year with the organization unless he performs anything short of a miracle. 17 races into the season, McMurray finds himself with only 3 top-ten finishes, and no top-five efforts to show. 2006 - McMurray’s first season with Roush - marked the worst points season of Jamie’s career when he finished 25th. After climbing up to 17th last season, many people felt that he and the no. 26 team were finally beginning to develop some chemistry, but that has not been the case. He dropped as low as 36th in the standings earlier in the year following Bristol. They’ve been able to find a level of consistency since then, but they still find themselves down in 24th in the points, with very little hope of making the Chase.

1. Kurt Busch - no. 2 car - Penske Racing: After the addition of Pat Tryson as the Crew Chief, the team made a late-summer charge in 2007 to get Kurt into the Chase for the Cup, and the they came into 2008 with high expectations across the board. Kurt just recently picked up his first victory of the season last weekend at New Hampshire, but the car still tremendously lacked the desired performance. Furthermore, the win gave Kurt only his third top-ten finish of the season. The team finished 8th in points in 2007, but currently sit 18th overall and find themselves 222 points behind 12th place, Kevin Harvick.

After smashing the field during qualifying, and then establishing himself as the car to beat throughout the practice sessions over the weekend, Kasey Kahne backed it all up in convincing fashion as he won Sunday’s Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Kahne, who started Sunday’s race from the pole position, ran up front during the early portions of the race, though he didn’t lead for the first time until lap 17, but a pit road mishap on lap 57 put him in the back of the field. Crew Chief, Kenny Francis, originally called for a four-tire stop, but then changed his mind and wanted to change only two, but the tire changer had already begun loosening the lugnuts, and Kahne drove off with the lugs still loose. They were forced to call him back into the pits, thus giving Kahne some catching up to do, but the car was so dominant that he had made it back to the front by lap 129.

Kasey surrendered the lead when he came into pit under green on lap 154, but re-assumed command once the field had cycled itself through the stops. Kahne again lost the lead after making his final stop for the day on lap 175. The tenth and final caution flag of the day came out one lap later, and Brian Vickers and Dale Earnhardt Jr. had used a bit of pit strategy to work their way up ahead of the no. 9 car. Kahne struggled momentarily to get around the two cars on older tires, but after disposing of Earnhardt, he finally made his way around Vickers for the lead on lap 184. It appeared briefly that Denny Hamlin might have had a fast enough car to contend with Kahne, but he was never able to find a line to get around Vickers, and Kahne pulled away from the field and sprinted to his second win of the season.

Vickers used quite a bit of strategy throughout the day to earn his second place finish. He put himself on a completely different pit cycle than the majority of the field, and it allowed him to lead the race on three different occasions. After making his final stop of the day with 35 laps remaining, he didn’t pit under the final caution and was able to stay up towards the front of the field despite running on older tires.

Denny Hamlin had an interesting run en route to his third place finish. After a red flag halted the action on lap 71 for rain, Hamlin made some extra pit stops to fix the damage he’d incurred earlier in the day from contact on pit road, sending him to the back of the field and forcing him to work his way back through the pack. He, too, briefly put himself on a different pit schedule than everyone else as he and five other cars elected to remain on the track after a lap 81 caution. The yellow was brought out when Clint Bowyer got loose trying to get under Paul Menard, sending Bowyer into a spin that collected Juan Pablo Montoya in the process. Staying out later enabled Hamlin to lead his only laps on the day when he wrestled the lead away from Elliott Sadler on lap 90.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. completed a solid run that saw him up near the front for the better part of the day as he came home in fourth, while Jeff Burton continued his consistent streak with a fifth place finish after a relatively quiet day. The two drivers battled fiercely for position in the closing laps of the race, but in the end, it was Junior edging Burton to the line despite running on older tires (Earnhardt was on the same pit sequence as Vickers, whom last pitted with 35 laps to go).

Sixth place went to Jimmie Johnson, whose car looked very strong in the early goings, but slipping back in traffic about halfway through the event seemed to hinder the car’s performance. Crew Chief, Chad Knauss, was forced to use some strategy by keeping Johnson on the track when the rest of the field pitted on lap 122. The move handed Johnson - who was running 8th at the time of the caution - the lead for the fifth time of the day, but in the end, the gamble didn’t pay off and Johnson had to settle for a top-ten finish.

Matt Kenseth had a solid and consistent day of running in the top-ten, and it netted him a seventh place finish as he continues to climb through the standings in his quest to make the Chase. Kurt Busch managed to hang onto 8th place after overcoming near catastrophe. A spin through the infield back on lap 39 broke several of the struts and splitters underneath the car, but after several repairs, Pat Tryson and crew were able to keep Busch on the lead lap, resulting in a much needed top-ten.

Carl Edwards overcame a late-race flat tire and was forced to make two stops under caution with less than 25 laps remaining, but battled his way back to a 9th place finish. Mark Martin rounded out the top-ten with a fairly silent tenth place run.

Disaster struck late in the race for two of the stronger cars at the time - and, two of NASCAR’s unluckiest drivers as of late. As the field cycled their way through their final green flag stops of the day with less than 35 laps to go, both Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart - both of whom ran up around the top-five for most of the race - were caught exiting their pits too fast and were forced to make drive thru penalties. Biffle was able to rebound to a 15th place finish, but Stewart got caught a lap down in 35th.

After wrecking his car during Saturday’s practice session, things only got worse for points leader, Kyle Busch. Mired back in traffic for the start of the race, Busch tried to slide in front of Jamie McMurray on lap 45. He clipped McMurray’s front end, and the 18 car went sailing into the wall. The crew spent quite a bit of time trying to repair the car, and eventually got him back out on the track. After spinning again on lap 176, Busch eventually finished dead last, 105 laps down. McMurray went onto finish 20th.

Bobby LaBonte matched his best finish of the season with an 11th place run, while his brother, Terry LaBonte, made his first start of the season and finished 30th. AJ Allmendinger had a career-best 12th place run after qualifying 8th and running inside the top-ten all day long. Kevin Harvick changed batteries before the race after the team left the ignition on in the car overnight, forcing him to start in the back of the field, but he slowly climbed his way up through the field and finished in 13th.

Kahne’s victory makes him the third multi-race winner on the season and moves him up to 9th in the standings. The disappointing runs for Clint Bowyer and Tony Stewart have now put them on the Chase bubble in 11th and 12th, with 13th place David Ragan now just 7 points behind Stewart. Kyle Busch retains the points lead, now just 21 points ahead of Jeff Burton.

Pocono Grades:
the Race: 86%
the Drama: 85%
Coverage: 81%
Pre-Race: 75%

Overall Grade: 83.7%

*Credit photo to Newscom.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Sprint Cup Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Recommended Reads:
- Kasey Kahne Captures Third Win in Four Weeks (Racing for the Win)
- NASCAR Needs Dedicated Safety Team (NASCAR Insiders)

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Utter heartbreak and sheer disappointment. That’s the best way to describe Kurt Busch’s career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ever since younger brother, Kyle, joined the circuit full-time for Hendrick Motorsports back in 2005 … well, I guess you could throw subtle envy into that equation as well. Since then, it just seems as though the seasons have been getting longer and tougher for the 2004 Cup Series champ.

Okay, so maybe it has less to do with Kyle and more to do with Kurt’s jump from Roush-Fenway Racing over to Penske Racing, but the numbers don’t lie, and the numbers indicate to us that there’s something amiss with the no. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team these days. In his first four full seasons of racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Kurt tallied a total of 11 wins, 34 top-five’s, and 61 top-ten’s and won Jack Roush’s second consecutive Cup for him. Since the beginning of 2005, however, those numbers have taken a severe hit, as he’s put together only 6 more wins, 23 top-five’s, and 45 top-ten’s, with his best points finish in that span coming during his 8th place run last year after having to put together a late-season rally just to make the cut for the Chase field.

To add a little salt to the wound, since Kyle’s emergence onto the Cup scene, he’s beaten big bro in every major statistical category with the exception of pole awards - only due to the 6 poles that Kurt won in his 2006 campaign - and, Kyle appears to be in major contention to win the title this year while Kurt lags back in 21st place in the points standings.

After finding some success with the addition of Pat Tryson as his crew chief late in the ‘07 season - a move that many people feel salvaged the year for the team - many people expected a big year from Kurt this season, but that hasn’t been the case by any means. He was able to finish runner-up to teammate, Ryan Newman, at the Daytona 500 and received many kudos from around the racing nation for the big push that he gave Ryan at the end of the race to push him across the finish line and secure the first restrictor plate win for car owner, Roger Penske.

Since then it’s been downhill, though. He went onto score top-15 finishes at Atlanta, Fontana, and Bristol, but finished outside of the top-20 in the five events that followed, as Kurt plummeted down the points standings. They put together a decent run at Darlington, where they finished 12th, and then they got the car out front last weekend in Charlotte and appeared to be the class of the field through the early portions of the race before that heartbreak and disappointment kicked back in.

After leading 64 laps in the race, Kurt was running second behind race leader, Brian Vickers, on lap 161 when a blown right tire sent him flying into the wall and ended his bid for the win. He was able to get his car back out on the track without losing any laps, but the damage was severe enough to halter any progress he attempted to make towards the front, and ultimately settled for a 16th place finish.

Now, with only 14 races remaining before NASCAR sets their Chase field with the top-12 drivers, Kurt finds himself all the way down in 21st - 668 points back from his brother and current points leader, Kyle Busch, and 262 points separating he and 12th place, Kasey Kahne. This is the furthest back in points that Kurt has ever been at this point in the season. The good news for Kurt Busch fans, though, is that his average finish in races 13 through 26 last year was 13.07 and consisted of 2 wins and 7 top-ten finishes.

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Bill Marx recently wrote an article called Who Turned the Standings Upside Down over at sportingnews.com, and to be quite honest, I just plain ol’ found it rather interesting. All Bill did was simply compare the standings this year as they sit now to what they looked like at this point last season, and highlighted some of the top comers and goers along the way. As I stated, the article peaked my interest, so I wanted to go ahead and touch up on it here as well.

Comers:
Not to be confused with rookies such as Sam Hornish Jr, or drivers who were without a ride in the Cup Series last year like Travis Kvapil, here are some of the drivers that have shown the most improvement from a purely statistical standpoint between the first portions of 2007 and 2008.

- Brian Vickers tops the list by jumping up 27 spots in the standings over the past year. After wrecking out of the Dodge Avenger 500 at Darlington in 2007, Vickers sat 43rd in points, and was well on his way to dismal season finishing outside of the top-35 in points. Now, with a new look to the Toyota-powered Camry’s, Brian has accumlated four top-15 finishes throughout the first 11 races of the season and now sits in 17th place, still holding out hope to be able to make a charge towards the Chase field.

- Kasey Kahne struggled through a nightmarish 2007 campaign. Following last year’s race at Darlington, Kahne sat 30th in points with his only top-ten finish coming in the season opening Daytona 500. This year, Kahne’s got a new sponsor and has been driving with a more patient look.  It seems to have paid off, as he now five top-10’s already - nearly matching his total from last season - and sits 14th in points, trailing the 12th place cutoff spot by a mere two points.

- David Ragan may very well top the list of surprises in 2008 by the time all is said and done. David came into the season completely under almost everyone’s radar, and was widely expected to be competing with teammate, Jamie McMurray, to maintain the fourth spot with Roush-Fenway Racing following 2009. At this point last year, Ragan was 26th in points and eventually finished 23rd. Now, he is the envy of several drivers behind him in the standings, as he sits in 12th and has the looks of a kid on the verge of attaining his first Cup victory.

Go’ers:
- Matt Kenseth has to be as much of a surprise to the average NASCAR fan as anything else that’s happened this year. Matt has made the Chase field ever since the format’s inception into NASCAR, but could very well be on the verge of missing out this year. At this time in 2007, Kenseth was third in points with a win, five top-5’s, and eight top-ten’s under his belt. After a losing crew chief, Robbie Reiser, for “the sake of the team”, he’s a lowly 20th in points with only one top-5 and five top-10’s to his credit, and he trails the Chase cutoff by 153 points.

- Kurt Busch was in 7th place at this point last year, but started to struggle shortly after. Things appeared to be back on track, though, after adding crew chief, Pat Tryson, to the mix late in the season and making some strong runs to close the year out. Kurt came into ‘08 with high expectations, but so far, it’s been all younger brother, Kyle, as far as the Busch family’s concerned. He is now 22nd in the standings - a distant 194 points from the Chase cutoff - and, his only top-ten finish came in the season opener at Daytona.

Season’s Biggest Points Movers:
Brian Vickers (+17) - 2008 Rank:  17th  /  2007 Rank:  43rd
Michael Waltrip (+24) - 2008 Rank:  32nd  /  2007 Rank:  56th
Kasey Kane (+16) - 2008 Rank:  14th  /  2007 Rank:  30th
David Ragan (+14) - 2008 Rank:  12th  /  2007 Rank:  26th
Paul Menard (+14) - 2008 Rank:  24th  /  2007 Rank:  38th

Season’s Biggest Points Losers:
Matt Kenseth (-17) - 2008 Rank:  20th  /  2007 Rank:  3rd
JJ Yeley (-16) - 2008 Rank:  36th  /  2007 Rank:  20th
Kurt Busch (-15) - 2008 Rank:  22nd  /  2007 Rank:  7th
Jamie McMurray (-11) - 2008 Rank:  23rd  /  2007 Rank:  12th
Elliott Sadler (-11) - 2008 Rank:  28th  /  2007 Rank:  17th

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …

1. Will David Ragan be able to maintain his current streak and make the 2008 Chase field?
2. Can either Kurt Busch and/or Matt Kenseth rebound in time to make this year’s Chase?
3. What driver has had the most pleasantly surprising turnaround between this season and last?
4. What driver has been the biggest disappointment in 2008?

In a related article, please visit Trouble in Turn 2 to read Mike Muraska’s article, Elevators and Imitators, where he distinguishes between some of the drivers’ current position in the points standings and their actual driver ratings.

#1 – Kyle Busch (-) – It’s been said a hundred times by now, but Kyle Busch is in fact the hottest ticket in all of motorsports right now, and he’s steadily proving himself as the real deal. Last weekend was one of historic proportions for Kyle, and he heads into this Sunday’s race at Bristol with three things in mind … 1) defending this race that he won last year;  2) winning two consecutive races for Toyota;  and 3) maintaining his position at the top of the points standings. All three goals revolve around picking up the checkered flag in Bristol.

#2 – Greg Biffle  (+3) – Another solid run this past weekend in Atlanta, and Biffle now has consecutive top-five finishes, and his worst finish on the year is 15th at California. As the series heads to Bristol this weekend, Biffle may not be the first name that pops up on your radar, but you might be surprised to learn that he has five top-ten’s in his last six runs there, has finished outside of the top-fifteen only twice in nine races, and has the best average finish in the last five races at Bristol with an average of 8.8 during that span.

#3 – Kevin Harvick (+1) – Harvick continues to steadily – and quietly – creep his way up through the points standings. After his seventh play finish in the Kobalt Tools 500, he now has three consecutive top-ten finishes, spoiled only by his fourteenth place run at Daytona. Bristol has been up-and-down over the last four years with four finishes outside of the top-ten in those eight races. All four of those finishes were, however, during the fall. In the last four spring races he has finished 3rd, 1st, 2nd, and 4th since 2004. Is overall Bristol average finish is 10.5 in fourteen races.

#4 – Ryan Newman (-2) – Flyin’ Ryan hasn’t really done anything overly impressive since winning the Daytona 500 in February, but his finishes of 10th and a pair of 14th’s since then have been strong enough to keep him inside the top five in points. That could be in jeopardy this weekend, though, considering his inconsistency at Bristol. He does have 6 top-ten’s in 12 races there, but his other six finishes have all been outside of the top-20, five of which were also outside of the top-30.

#5 – Jeff Burton  (+1) – He’s been absolutely solid ever since making the transition over to Richard Childress Racing a few years ago, so why anyone would find it surprising that his first four finishes in ’08 are all inside the top fifteen and that he’s fifth in points is beyond me. He’s been solid at Bristol, and has two 2nd place finishes in the last five races there. His average finish during that five race stretch is 11.8.

#6 – Kasey Kahne (-3) – Kahne entered Atlanta as the only driver to finish all of the first three races inside the top-ten, and looked well on his way to continuing that streak early on, had it not been for a miscue trying to enter pit road. He battled all day to garner as many points as he could, but he’s going to have to be extra tough this weekend if he wants to keep any sort of cushion within the Chase field. He finished 2nd in the fall race at Bristol last year, but other than that, he’d had only one previous top-ten in his first seven Bristol races.

#7 – Dale Earnhardt Jr (+3) – Yes, Junior Nation went wild last weekend … some with tears of joy, some with tears of heartbreak. Some saw it as another top-five, others saw it as another race lost. Regardless, June Bug appears to be settling in well at HMS, and is starting to pick up some real momentum and consistency. That could be bad news for the folks in the garage this weekend, too. He heads to Bristol with 6 top-ten’s and a win in his last 7 Bristol starts, and 9 top-ten’s in his last 12 starts there. He also has a 7.0 average finish in his last 5 Bristol starts and 5.0 and the last three, both of which are tops in NASCAR.

#8 – Tony Stewart (+3) – Many people questioned whether or not Smoke would be okay to compete in Atlanta after aggrevating his ankle in his Vegas crash, especially after staring in 32nd. Alas, it seems as though Stewart simply needed someone to feud with during the race – this time the Goodyear Corp – and, it sent him rebounding to a 2nd place finish. Despite typically running well at Bristol, though, the place has proven to have its rough patches for Tony. He’s got four finishes of 12th or better in the last six races there – including 4th last fall, but prior that had actually gone six consecutive races without a top-ten. He did win once here, however, back in 2001.

#9 – Brian Vickers (+4) – Many people expected him to run much better this season than last, no doubt, but still, sitting 9th in points, Vickers has to be the surprise of the season at this point. He picked up his first top-ten of the season with a ninth place run in Atlanta, but he also had respectable finishes of 11th at California and 12th at Daytona. He finished 15th at Bristol last Spring, but failed to make the Fall race. In his six previous Bristol runs, his only other finish inside the top-fifteen was a 12th place back in 2005.

#10 – Kurt Busch (+2) – Despite the high hopes and the excitement generated from his half of the famous Penske 1-2 finish at Daytona, that was Kurt’s last top-ten run this season, though he did come close last weekend in Atlanta, running 11th. Still, Busch is running mediocre at the moment, but that could all change this weekend. Busch has won five times at Bristol in only fourteen career starts there, including three in a row from ’03 to ’04. His last Bristol victory came in the spring of 2006, but since then has run 37th, 29th, and 6th. Additionally, Kurt’s crew chief, Pat Tryson, won here with Mark Martin back in 1998.

#11 – Martin Truex Jr (-3) – His 21st place run at Atlanta nearly took him out of the Chase field, but he still holds on here.  For how long, though, could be a whole other story. He’s raced at Bristol four times in the Cup Series, with finishes of 38th, 18th, 37th, and 11th. With the competition that looms just outside of the current Chase field, Truex will be looking for his first-ever Bristol top-ten if he wishes to remain where he’s at now.

#12 – Matt Kenseth (+4) – In typical Kenseth fashion, Matt was able to turn a potentially terrible day around into his favor and land himself with a solid top-ten effort. The way the team stuck together last weekend could be a good indicator that Matt is finally clicking with his new crew chief. If that’s the case, this weekend could be big. Kenseth is a two-time Bristol winner, winning once in ’05 and again in ’06. 2007 was a different story, though, as he recorded finishes of 11th and 39th. His overall average finish at Bristol is 12.5.