With the Sprint Cup series just past the midway point and taking a week off before it heads to the Brickyard, it's time to reflect on the season that has been so far and look ahead to the second half.
There's been good and bad, surprising and disappointing. Some drivers have excelled while others have been kicked to the curb. The first half of the season has been a memorable one but will hopefully pale in comparison to the way the season ends.
Tony Stewart leads the way in the point standings, with two Hendrick drivers right on his tail. Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson are going to give Smoke all they have right through the final race of the season at Homestead.
Drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya find themselves right in the thick of things for the first time in their career while others such as Dale Earnhardt, Jr., are scratching their heads wondering what went wrong.
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| Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. be able to turn his season around? (US Presswire) | |
Fantasy owners have a lot to look forward to in the coming months as we're right in the middle of Segment 2 while Segment 3, which encompasses The Chase for the Championship, is just around the corner.
Here are some of my observations from first half of the season, both good and bad. I've also included some bold predictions (in some cases) on how the rest of the season will play out:
Most pleasant surprises -- Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya
It wouldn't have been too surprising to see Stewart's name in the top 10 this year, but to lead the standings more than halfway through the season in his first year as an owner/driver is pretty remarkable. Stewart seems to have transformed himself with the decision to leave Joe Gibbs Racing and latch on to the previously down in the dumps Haas Racing. The only question will be if he can keep it up in the second half of the season
Let's face it; Montoya is surpassing everyone's expectations this season. After failing to finish inside of the top 20 in his first two full seasons, Montoya is more than threatening to make The Chase. He is currently in ninth place in the standings, with nine top-10 finishes so far through 19 races. Montoya can no longer be thought of as someone who will only threaten at road courses. He's proven in the first half of this season that he is for real.
Honorable mentions -- Brad Keselowski; Jeff Gordon
Biggest disappointments -- Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kevin Harvick
Dale Jr. fans have had little to cheer about. NASCAR's most popular driver has put up a real dud in the first half of the season. He has only finished in the top 10 three times and has already failed to finish a race twice. He's already made a change with his crew chief this season and it hasn't really seemed to help. He's in 21st in the point standings and is trailing unknown names like Marcos Ambrose and rookie Joey Logano. His last top-10 finish this season was on April 26 at Talladega. It's hard to imagine he'll be worse in the second half of the season than he was in the first, but any thoughts of a championship vanished long ago.
Harvick is off to a terrible start to the season and according to a report he has expressed a desire to leave Richard Childress Racing after this season for Stewart-Haas. RCR says he's staying put, but that whole saga might not be over yet. He is currently sitting in 25th place in the standings after a fourth-place finish in 2008. If Segment 2 were to end today, Harvick would have dropped from a Tier 1 driver at the beginning of the season to a Tier 4. Since coming in second in the Daytona 500, his season has for the most part been awful, with only one other top 10-finish to his credit. He's looked nothing like the driver that finished fourth in the standings in 2008.
Honorable mentions -- David Ragan, Jeff Burton
Drivers to watch -- Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards
Everyone thought that this season's points title would come down to these two guys. Everyone might still be right.
Johnson has a long history of closing out seasons well and there's no reason to think that this year will be any different. He is currently sitting in third in the standings, only 212 points behind Stewart. Six of Johnson's seven wins last year came after the second race at Daytona. If he has a similar finish in 2009, he'll be on his way to a fourth straight points title.
Edwards got off to a disappointing start to the season and ended up in Tier 2 for the current segment. However, he has come on pretty strong of late despite failing to pick up his first win in 2009 after winning a series-high nine last season. In 2008, Edwards won three of the four races after the Brickyard, so expect to see him in Victory Lane before the kids go back to school.
Honorable mentions -- Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin
Overachieving Drivers -- Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann
Where did this Ambrose guy come from? Tasmania? Yes, actually he did. The Australian former V8 Supercar driver has come from pretty much nowhere to make a mark on the Sprint Cup series in 2009. He wasn't even in our product to start the season and is now 18th in the point standings. He has finished in the top 10 in three of his last six races as well. He probably won't threaten to make The Chase, but you never know.
Reutimann picked up the first win of his career this season back on May 25 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He has four top-five finishes to his credit this season and two poles. He may not end up making The Chase, but he is certainly a threat at this point, sitting in 14th place in the standings.
Honorable mentions -- Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart
Chase Misser -- Mark Martin
How could Martin possibly miss it? He's won more races than anyone else this year and came back to racing with the specific intent of winning his first title. Well, you need to be consistent to be in the top 12 and Martin has been all over the place this season. Last week at Chicagoland he won. The three weeks before that he finished outside of the top 10 with two finishes of 35th or worse. Unless he can find some consistency, I am predicting that Martin will end up in 13th place or worse when The Chase begins at New Hampshire on Sept. 20.
Honorable mentions -- Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth
2009 Rookie of theYear -- Joey Logano
Logano's only competition in the Rookie of the Year standings is Scott Speed, who has no chance of catching him. Logano picked up his first career win at New Hampshire in Stewart's old No. 20 car, but isn't exactly blowing anyone away in his rookie season.
Sprint Cup Series Champion -- Jimmie Johnson
I know this isn't exactly a bold prediction, but how do you bet against a guy that became only the second driver to win three championships in a row last year? He is one of the most clutch performers in all of professional sports and seems to be as determined as ever to win the championship.
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