10. Matt Kenseth – 22 races – Last Win: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Fall 2007
9. Jeff Gordon – 27 races – Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Fall 2007
8. Greg Biffle – 29 races – Kansas Speedway, Fall 2007
7. Tony Stewart – 36 races – Watkins Glen International, Summer 2007
6. Jamie McMurray – 40 races – Daytona International Speedway, Summer 2007

5. Martin Truex Jr. – 45 races – Dover International Speedway, Spring 2007
4. Kevin Harvick – 57 races – Daytona International Speedway, Spring 2007
3. David Ragan – 60 races – No NSCS wins
2. Brian Vickers – 68 races – Talladega Superspeedway, Fall 2006
1. Elliott Sadler – 141 races – Auto Club Speedway, Fall 2004

Post from: EveryJoe

List of the Week: Longest Winless Streaks Inside the Top 20

We all know that Joe Gibbs Racing has established themselves as the powerhouse of the field at this point in time. We know that Roush-Fenway Racing has come a long way in figuring out this new car and that Hendrick Motorsports seems to have lost the edge that they had on everyone else last year. We’ve analyzed potential contractual signings every which way we could, and still found ourselves locked in a guessing game. Been there, done that, but perhaps one of the stories that we haven’t talked nearly enough about are two teams that are holding out hope of getting a driver into contention for the Chase for the Cup for the first time in their team’s history, and another that hasn’t fielded a Chase contender since 2004.

Once considered one of the top organizations in NASCAR, Yates Racing last visited Victory Lane back in the Fall of 2005 when Dale Jarrett drove the no. 88 car to a win at Talladega and the last time they were able to land a driver inside the top-12 in points was with Elliott Sadler back in ‘04. Since those days, the team has gone through a horrendous rebuilding stage and continue to struggle week in and week out to find primary sponsorship of their cars driven by Travis Kvapil and David Gilliland. Both are highly regarded as “underdogs” every Sunday when the series hits the track, and both have failed to land a top-five finish all season long. Still, they’ve continued to push forward, and have managed to turn a few heads along the way, particularly Kvapil. Coming into the season as a driver that nobody really paid much attention to, Travis admittedly got off to a rather slow start. But, something seems to have clicked within this team ever since a solid run at Phoenix turned sour and he finished 22nd. After that race, Kvapil sat 24th in points, but four finishes of 16th or better in the last six races – highlighted with a 6th place run at Talladega and an 8th place run in Darlington – have now moved Travis up six spots in the standings. He’s now 18th in points and trails 12th place, Tony Stewart, by only 150 points.

Red Bull Racing has been the team that quite a few people have been talking about as of late. With Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel for the organization, the team managed to qualify for only 40 races in a combined 72 attempts in their inaugural season in 2007. Coming into the season with both cars outside of the top-35 in points and forced to qualify on time, Allmendinger again missed out on the first three events of ‘08 before being replaced temporarily by veteran driver, Mike Skinner. Despite failing to finish inside of the top-25 in any of the five races that Skinner filled in, the move appears to have paid dividends. AJ has been able to take what he’s learned from Skinner and put it to good use on the track, first winning the All-Star Showdown at Lowe’s to make the cut for the All-Star event itself, and then scoring a career best 12th place finish last week at Pocono. Still, the focus of the media on this team has been placed with Brian Vickers, who appears to be on the verge of scoring the second Cup victory of his career. After a disappointing 2007 that brought him only 1 top-five and 5 top-ten’s, Vickers has been impressive on several occassions this year, though it may not always show up in the results column. He’s been strong on all of the superspeedways, but the team really started to turn heads when they established themselves as one of the dominant cars in the Coca Cola 600 before an equipment failure ended their day. Since then he’s bounced back with a 13th place effort at Dover and finished 2nd last week at Pocono. Brian has now moved up to 17th place overall and trails 12th by a mere 112 points.

Rounding out the list of underdogs making a charge towards the Chase is non-other than Petty Enterprises. Despite the fact that this team has more wins than any other organization in the history of the sport and a slieu of championships from when “the King” himself, Richard Petty, drove the car, the company hasn’t celebrated a win since 1999 when John Andretti won at Martinsville, and the closest they’ve come to a bid for the Chase was an 18th place finish in the standings last year from Bobby LaBonte. Now, nobody’s really sure who will drive the no. 45 car next year as Kyle Petty, Chad McCumbee, and Terry LaBonte have all failed to do much with the ride, but Bobby continues to press forward. Though he’s failed to score a top-ten all season long, he does have seven top-15’s and has gone the entire year without a DNF, something that has hindered the team in recent years. Additionally, he’s got six finishes of 18th or better in the last eight races, which started with a 12th place run at Phoenix, and LaBonte now resides in 19th in the standings, trailing his former Gibbs teammate in 12th by 159 points.

As many of the drivers in the top-12 continue to experience their share of misfortunes as they bounce back and forth between the bubble spots, this could be a prime opportunity for one of these teams to capitalize. But, with the recent emergance of guys like David Ragan, the resurgance of Matt Kenseth, and other perrenial Chase hopefuls such as Ryan Newman and Martin Truex Jr. standing between them as well, the guys currently in the top-12 may not be all they’ll have to contend with.

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

1. Which driver in these 3 organizations will be the first to score their first / next win?
2. Are consistent top-15 and top-20 runs going to be enough to land a driver in the Chase field?
3. Which of these teams has made the best organizational move(s) in the last 2 years?
4. Will any of these 3 teams get a driver into the 2008 Chase? If so, who?

*Credit photos to Newscom.

Post from: EveryJoe

3 Teams Under the Radar & On the Move

10. Busch gets spun by Jeff Burton at the finish line as they race for the win at the Sam’s Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2007.

9. Kyle Busch sets off “the big one” in the 2006 Aaron’s 499 at Talladega.

8. Richmond wasn’t the first time that Kyle Busch has been involved in an accident with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Here they make contact on pit road during the Ford 400 in 2007 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

7. Kyle is involved in another “big one” at Talladega Superspeedway, this time during the 2007 UAW-Ford 500.

6. Kyle Busch and Mike Skinner get into it at the Craftsman Truck Series’ opening event in 2008, the Camping World 300, at Daytona International Speedway.

5. In the closing laps of the Craftsman Truck Series’ Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle plows into Johnny Benson as they race for third place.

4. Kyle’s involved in a horrific accident in the 2007 Aaron’s 312 at Talladega Superspeedway, in which his Nationwide car performs several barrel rolls.

3. Kyle Busch was already quickly approaching notoriety status with the NASCAR fans, but here’s the one that pushed him over the top. Watch again, as Kyle battles Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the lead in the closing laps of the 2008 Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

2. Kyle gets into his older brother, Kurt, while racing him for the lead at the 2007 All-Star Race. Neither of the brothers appeared to take it personally, and Kurt even makes some witty comments following the race to make light of the situation.

1. Saving the best for last … at the 2006 NASCAR Awards Banquet held in New York City, Kyle Busch was giving his “thank you” speech – and, actually called his girlfriend by the wrong name. You’ll love this!

Post from: EveryJoe

the Big Ten: Best Kyle Busch Wrecks

After a long, wet, and miserable weekend for racing fans at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, fans filled the seats for 87 laps on Sunday – 27 of which were spent under caution and multiple red flags – only to be told in the early hours of the morning that competition would not resume again until the following afternoon.

The portion of the race that was run on Sunday was clearly dominated by the no. 24 car of Jeff Gordon, as he led the majority of the first 87 laps, despite the fact that his teammate Jimmie Johnson finished the segment at the front of the field. The day was filled with caution after caution, and many drivers felt that the mayhem on the track was to be credited not only to the fact that the drivers ran only 17 laps of practice prior to the race, but also to the notion that water was actually seeping through the track. The frustration was painted clearly on the face of Dale Earnhardt Jr after he was innocently taken out of the race by a spinning Casey Mears. In a post-wreck interview on FOX, Junior stated that NASCAR rushed the start of the race and that the track clearly wasn’t ready. The major concern in that pileup, however, had little to do with NASCAR’s most popular driver, but more so with Mears. After Mears hit Junior, he spun back up the track and was resting on the wall when rookie driver Sam Hornish Jr. blew into him, inverting Mears’ car and leaving it sitting on its roof.

When racing resumed on Monday afternoon, Johnson resumed as the race leader and dominated the majority of the second segment. When the field came out of its eleventh caution of the race on lap 225, it was Johnson still in command with Gordon, Jamie McMurray, and Carl Edwards following behind. McMurray – who had taken only two tires on the stop – was easily passed by Edwards, who then went onto take second from Gordon as well. With only 13 laps remaining on the books, Carl then took the lead from Johnson coming through turns one and two on lap 138. The defending NASCAR champion made a race of it, though, regaining the lead coming out of turn four, but Edwards reconquered the throne on the following lap and never looked back. With a sizeable lead to his advantage, the race ended when Dale Jarrett spun on the final lap of the race to bring out the twelfth and final caution. With the field frozen, Edwards crossed the line to bring home the checkered flag marking his eighth victory in the Sprint Cup Series.

Johnson maintained 2nd place, and Gordon was also able to hang onto 3rd despite blowing his engine on the last lap. Kyle Busch brought home a fourth place finish, which was enough to gain him the points lead for the first time in his career, and the defending race winner Matt Kenseth finished fifth. Ryan Newman lost the points lead despite finishing 10th, while Tony Stewart’s seventh place finish was enough to keep him in third in the standings.  Kurt Busch dropped to fourth in the points after a 13th place finish.

It’s also worth noting that Dale Jarrett led his first laps in the Sprint Cup Series since October of 2006 by staying out on the track while the field was under caution, and rookie Dario Franchitti led the first lap of his career by doing the same.

 Grades (on a 100 point scale):
The Race: 73%
The Drama: 84%
Coverage: 81%
Pre-Race Ceremonies: 62%

Overall Grade: 75.7%
*Note – the Race accounts for 50% of score; Coverage & Drama is 20% each; Pre-Race is 10%

 Results (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Rating the Race: Fontana, CA – Auto Club 500

Entering into their sixteenth season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Bill Davis Racing has yet to find the keys to success to put them on a more competitive level with NASCAR’s elite. The organization hasn’t won a race at this level since 2002 – the season that Ward Burton captured the Daytona 500 – and even worse, they’ve only had 12 top-ten finishes over the last 5 years.

Business wasn’t always so bleak for this race team, however. In 2001, Burton finished 14th in the points standings for Bill Davis, but then dropped down to 25th in ’02, and the two parted ways in 2003, replacing Ward with Scott Wimmer. Burton’s 2002 performance would be the last time a Bill Davis Racing team finished the season inside the top 25 in owner points.

In 2005, the team only ran the no. 22 car of Scott Wimmer full-time, starting their no. 27 team in only 10 races with Mike Skinner behind the wheel. In ’06, they scrapped the 27 team completely, but decided to bring it back as the no. 36 last season in the inaugural debut for Toyota into the Cup Series putting Jeremy Mayfield behind the wheel. Mayfield would later be relieved of his driving duties with just four races left in the season, replacing him with the combination of Skinner and Johnny Benson. It didn’t really matter at that point, though. 2007 was a complete catastrophe for the entire organization, as the two race teams combined for a total of only 50 of a possible 72 starts. The 36 team failed to record a single top ten all season long, while Dave Blaney – now driving the no. 22 – finished 31st in points, making him the only Toyota to finish last season inside the top 35.

2008 is looking a little better, though, with the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing to the Toyota mix and some extra horsepower behind the Camry engines, and it’s shown so far in the pre-season practice sessions. The 36 team has gone back to the no. 27, and Davis has brought in former IndySeries star Jacques Villeneuve to drive the car full-time. The organization will be looking for a win or two at some point in the season – particularly at the superspeedways with Blaney and the road courses with Villeneuve – but, more importantly the primary focus has to be making sure that both teams finish inside the top 35 in owner points and getting things in line for the 2009 campaign.

Cup Series Roster:

22: Dave Blaney – He looked extremely well at quite a few races last season, and was really the main guy to give us an early glimpse of the muscle that Toyota was capable of providing. He won the first pole award for Toyota at the race in New Hampshire and scored a total of 4 top ten finishes, including a Toyota-high 3rd place finish at Talladega in the fall. With the exception of the Joe Gibbs cars, he’s also the only Toyota driver that will begin the season inside the top 35 in owner points, which will guarantee him starts in the first five races of the season. He’s also looked great so far in the Daytona Speedweeks, and if he can keep his nose clean, should contend for at least a top five spot in that race. In my mind, with the changes that have been made to the engine package of the Toyota’s, Blaney’s a shoe-in to remain in the top 35, and I wouldn’t be extremely surprised to see him finish up somewhere around 20th in points. As overlooked as this guy’s always been throughout his career, it could be him – not Villeneuve – that actually gets Bill Davis Racing on the map.

27: Jacques Villeneuve – The former F1 Series Champion got his start in professional racing back in 1990 racing in the Italian and Japanese F3 Championships and has raced in the F1 Series since 1996, but until the end of 2007, he’d never sat behind the wheel of a stock car. Last year he competed in 2 Sprint Cup Series races, finishing 21st at Talladega and 41st at Phoenix. This year he joins 3 other former open wheel stars in one of NASCAR’s most highly anticipated rookie classes of all-time, but he’s going to have a long road ahead of him due to the fact that his car is not currently in the top 35 in owner points, which means he’s going to be forced to qualify his car every week based on time alone. That could be a huge factor on Jacques’ first full season in the Cup Series, and ultimately I would expect him to spend the majority of the season flirting with the bubble for the top 35 spot.

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

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Bill Davis Racing

It’s hard to imagine that a team like Yates Racing would no longer be considered to be in NASCAR’s elite organizations, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the course that this company has undergone over the past few seasons is the phrase, “My, how the mighty have fallen.” It wasn’t long ago that Robert Yates had the likes of the rising Elliot Saddler and racing legend Dale Jarrett driving the no. 38 M&M’s and no. 88 UPS Chevy Monte Carlo’s and both drivers were contending for championships. Fast forward to 2008, and Doug Yates – Robert’s son – now controls ownership of the race teams and runs the company with the help of Max Jones.

2007 was a complete catastrophe for the Yates teams – perhaps the worst year in the company’s history. The two teams were fielded by David Gilliland (driving in his first full-time season in the Cup series) and Ricky Rudd (driving in his final full-time season). The teams finished the season 28th and 33rd respectively, bringing home a total of (1) top five and (3) top ten finishes … oh, and a Budweiser Pole Award via Gilliland’s efforts at last year’s running of the Daytona 500. The only bright spot from last season is the fact that both cars did manage to maintain their positions inside the top 35 in owner’s points, meaning that Gilliland and Travis Kvapil (replacing Rudd in the now no. 28 Chevy) will have guaranteed starts in the first five points races of the season. That’s of little consolation for the team, though, when they consider the fact that in 2005 their teams finished 13th and 15th in points with 19 top ten finishes and a win, and 9th and 15th in points with 2 wins and 28 top ten’s. In fact, Dale Jarrett’s win at Talladega in October of 2005 was the last time the Yates family has visited Victory Lane, and if last year was any indication of things to come, it may be quite sometime before they receive another ticket to go back there.

NASCAR brand-name sponsors have apparently taken notice to the fallout inside the Yates camp, because it was only early Thursday afternoon that they finally landed their first primary sponsor for either of their cars when they signed Experien Consumer Direct for the first seven races on the hood of the no. 38 car. Yes, they’ve gone from decorating their cars with M&M’s, Snickers, and UPS to opening up the Daytona 500 with Experien and a sponsor TBD. Oh, and what are they going to do 2 months from now when that contract expires? All hope is not lost, though. At the end of 2006, Yates partnered their engine department with that of Roush Racing, who started coming on very, very strong towards the end of last season, primarily with Matt Kenseth. I’m sure both organizations have had their people working around the clock in the offseason to get things right for both camps. If that’s the case, then the potential of David Gilliland should shine brightly right away – provided he can keep the nose of the car clean, and Travis Kvapil could possibly bring home some consistent finishes as well by the end the year. It should be interesting.

Cup Series Roster:
28: Travis Kvapil – He hasn’t raced in the Cup Series since 2006 when he raced 31 races for Penske Racing and finished 36th in driver points, failing to record a top ten finish. He did, however, race the full schedule in 2005 – his rookie season in Cup – and brought home two top ten finishes en route to a 33rd place points finish. Don’t let the numbers fool you, though. Despite his poor performance in the Cup Series thus far, Travis did win the Craftsman Truck Series Championship back in 2003 in what was only his third season of racing the trucks in a brilliant season which saw him finish 22 of the 25 races that year in the top ten, finishing all but one lap. If Doug Yates can somehow find a way to put some solid equipment behind him, Travis should not only have no problem keeping this car inside the top 35 in owner’s points, but could perhaps find enough consistency to bring home a 20th to 25th place points finish.

38: David Gilliland – David seemed as though he was a perfect match for the NASCAR circuit when he first debuted in the Busch Series in 2006. In only his seventh start he was able to bring home the checkered flag at Kentucky Speedway and then quickly found himself in the Cup Series after Yates had parted ways with Elliot Saddler mid-way through the year. In only his 8th start in the Cup Series, David won the pole award at Talladega and went on to finish a very respectable 15th in that race, though his average finish in the fifteen races he participated in that year was only 28.3. 2007 got off to a great start, though, as he won the pole award for the Daytona 500 and finished 8th in the “Great American Race”, officially scoring his first career top ten finish in the big leagues of racing. The season was downhill from there, though, as David would capture only one more top 10 finish on the season, coming in with an average finish of 27.4. He’s looked good at times in many races, but the big problem he’s had is being able to avoid trouble on the track … purely a sign of his inexperience. If he’s able to maintain a high level of awareness to his surroundings on the track, then I’m confident that he’ll eventually get this car to victory lane and possibly even cruise to a top 20 finish in the points standings. That’s a big “if”, though … much easier said than done.Driver Roster: C+
Off-Season: C+
2008 Outlook: B-

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Yates Racing

On the season, Stewart has three victories, ten top 5 finishes, and twenty top 10’s.  Only points leader Jeff Gordon has better numbers than him in all three categories, and Jimmie Johnson is the only other driver better than Stewart in any of the three.  When you breakdown the upcoming races and look at some of the favorites to win them, you’ll see Tony Stewart’s name come up quite often.  Stewart, or “Smoke” as he’s commonly referred to, won the race at Kansas last year and has an average finish of 6.5 at that track – best amongst all active drivers in NASCAR.  Following Kansas, the Cup Series heads to Talladega, and it’s been no secret that Gibbs Racing has been the only rival to Hendrick Motorsports at restrictor plate racing in the past couple years.  Stewart has also experienced tremendous success in recent years at Martinsville, Atlanta, and Homestead – all races that remain on the schedule as the 2007 season dwindles down.  The key to Stewart’s success this year could lie in the races at Lowes, Texas, and Phoenix, but even those tracks Tony has faired well at over his career.

Don’t get me wrong, while I firmly believe that 2007 is Stewart’s year to shine once again, it won’t come easy.  Jeff Gordon is still working on his “Drive for Five” campaign in an effort to pickup his fifth Cup Championship, and Jimmie Johnson is valiantly trying to become the first back-to-back champion since his Hendrick partner-in-crime did it nearly ten years ago.  The biggest difference, though, is that while the two of them have been losing more and more steam over recent weeks, Tony Stewart has been heating up, and that’s why Smoke is going to be sitting at the head of the table in New York once this season is over.

Post from: EveryJoe

3-Peat is in the Works

It was announced early this week that Tony Eury would be departing his current team in just two weeks with his last DEI race falling at perhaps his favorite track, Talladega, where Eury (along with his father) have joined Earnhardt in sharing a great deal of success over the years.  After all the great runs they’ve had this year only to suffer late-race engine failures, this team is completely amped up right now to end their tenures with DEI on a high note, and I firmly believe that Talladega is likely to be this duo’s stomping ground one final time as employees of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated.

Now, that being said and despite their desire to win some more races for the company before defecting over to Hendrick Motorsports, I believe this is absolutely without a doubt the right move for everyone involved.  This gives Tony Gibson, who served as Junior’s interim Crew Chief during Eury’s suspension earlier in the season, a great opportunity to become much more acquainted and experienced with the roles of the Crew Chief before taking on the task of calling the shots for youngster Ragan Smith, who will drive the no. 1 Chevy for DEI next year.  More importantly, Eury Junior will be able to get a head start on learning more about the program over at Hendrick and start getting their team ready for Daytona in February.

Post from: EveryJoe

Parting Is Not Such Sweet Sorrow