NASCAR SPRINT CUP AND NATIONWIDE SERIES NEWS, VIEWS AND COMMENTARY

Well race fans, the season is half over and we are seeing some interesting trends as the year progresses. We have seen twelve different race winners so far this season after we did not see but twelve all of last season. Chevrolet is the big gun this year on the track, leading the most laps and their 12 victories lead all of the manufacturers. The COT cars as controversial as they are, have produced some good races and after seeing the Sam Hornish Jr-Jeff Gordon wreck last weekend, they are providing a huge safety net for our drivers. Tony Stewart has been a pleasant surprise and is leading the points but he will have his hands full in the Chase as Jimmie Johnson will give him all he wants as he pursues his 4^th straight championship. All in all, it has been a pretty interesting season so far so lets look at who is hot in the series and who isn’t all that hot in the last five (5) races leading up to Michigan. 

Who’s Hot: 

Tony Stewart – Won his third race of the season Monday at Watkins Glen, which ties him with Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch for the most victories this season. That will be huge because even though he has a confortable lead in the points right now, you have to remember that the points are reset at the start to the Chase to the Championship and wins mean bonus points. Overall this season, Stewart has only finished outside the Top 20 in two races. In the last 5 races, Stewart has been red hot, winning two races, finishing in the Top 5 in four of them and in the Top 10 in all of them. At this rate, he will be a serious contender for the Championship this season. 

Jimmie Johnson – Seems like he has been pretty quiet here the past few races but after taking a rare pole at Watkins Glen, you know that this guy is still on top of his game. He has three wins this season but could have a few more had he not run out of gas on the last lap in two straight races. One of those races was the first Michigan race that he dominated, leading 146 of the 200 laps. He is the current leader in the series in several loop categories including having the highest driver rating, laps led, fastest laps and highest average running position. In the last five races, he has a win, two Top 5’s and three Top 10’s. His two finishes outside the Top 10 were a 12^th at Watkins Glen and a 13^th at Pocono, which was truly amazing considering he was three laps down with 40 laps to go. 

Juan Montoya – This guy has come out of nowhere recently and has put himself in the thick of the Chase as a result. Who would have ever thought at the beginning of the season that Montoya would be in seventh place in the points with just four races to go before the Championship hunt starts. Hasn’t won a race yet this year and just notched his first Top 5 of the season at Pocono but he saw a near certain win at Indy slip away then came Pocono, a 2^nd place finish. In the last five races, he has that Top 5 and has finished in the Top 10 in four of those races. His worst finish was tha tarce he should have won where he finished 11^th. Michigan will prove to be a challenge to him however as he has never ran well there. If he does, well then he may stay hot the rest of the year. 

Denny Hamlin – After a slow start to the season that saw several opportunities slip away and saw some bizarre stuff happen to his equipment, Hamlin has rebounded well. He picked up a much need win at Pocono and has found himself in the Top 10 in four of the last five races. His only hiccup was at Indy, where he finished badly in the 34^th position at the end of the race. He is pretty much locked into the Chase at this point, sitting in 5^th place and will come into Michigan this weekend knowing that he finished third there in the spring race. Keep an eye on him this weekend to see if he continues his hot streak. 

Who’ Not: 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. – I came into the season with high expecations for Jr as did most of Jr nation but the results just have not materialized. We know that he has the best equipment in the series but for some reason the team has just not gotten its act together. Who would have ever thought that he would be sitting in 25^th place in the points at this stage. A crew chief change in the middle of the season cannot help the team form any real cohesion until they figure it all out in working with each other. In the last five races, his best finish was a 13^th at New Hampshire and his other finishes have been 15^th, 26^th, 36^th and 39^th. It’s too late to make the Chase this year and all he can hope for is to right the ship before the season ends to give Jr. Nation something to cheer about. Ranked 42^nd over the last 5 races. 

Jeff Burton – Here is a guy that everyone had written into the Championship hunt this year and when the season started there was nothing that would tell us any differently. He was riding high in the points battle and looked to be a Top 5 driver. Then something happened to Burton and not only Burton but the entire Childress organization. Suddenly they couldn’t keep up with the big boys and started looking mediocre at best. He fell from being 4^th in the points at that point but now sits in 18^th place with no chance to make the Championship race this year. While some of the Childress teams have shown improvement recently, Burton has not been so blessed. In his last 5 races, his best finish was a 16^th back at Daytona and that coupled with finishes of 21^st, 25^th, 37^th and 38^th. I’ve always been a Burton fan and think he is one of the most classic driver in the series so I am pulling for him to improve before the season is over. 

Kyle Busch – Here is another guy that many experts not only had in the Championship hunt but as one of the guys that ultimately could stop Jimmie Johnson’s bid for a fourth straight championship. When the season started, well he looked very much like he might just do that, picking up three wins in the season first ten races. Pretty impressive numbers but some of the races that he didn’t win, he was just horrible in. Then in mid-season everything went south and rather then being a Championship contender, he is sitting outside the Top 12 guys who will form the Chase field. Not sure what is going on with this team and Busch but he has everything he needs to contend but just isn’t getting the results. Seems if he doesn’t win, he is complaining about one thing or the other so maybe that is rubbing off on the team. He finally notched a Top 10 finish at the Glen Monday but his other races in the last 5 races consisted of finishes of 14^th, 16^th, 33^rd and 38^th. He still has a shot at the Chase field but needs to improve on those last 5 race numbers quite a bit. 

Ryan Newman – I sort have expected the same type of results out of Newman as we have seen in Stewart and when the season started, I thought that Newman finally was regaining that winning form he displayed early in his career. But he didn’t seem to get any better and now seems to be locked into the all so raced mode. He is still in the Top 12 in the points but his place in the Chase certainly is not locked up yet by any sense of the imagination. In his last five races, his best finish was a 6^th at Chicago and then his other four have been a pair of 14^th place finishes coupled with a 20^th and a 21^st place finish. The next four races are huge for him and it starts at Michigan where he hasn’t exactly lit up the track in the Sprint Cup series. In the last seven races there, he has not sniffed the Top 10, ranks 32^nd among active drivers and has a finishing average of 25.57.  

There we have it, Who’s Hot and Who Isn’t in the last 5 races in the 2009 Sprint Cup season. Stay tuned for next weeks version to see if these guys stay where they are or if we get some changes in the list.  

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