NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: New Hampshire
Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth took the lead for good with 93 laps left and held of Kyle Busch to win the Sylvania 300, his second consecutive win. He leads Busch by 14 in the Sprint Cup point standings.
“The No. 20 Toyota was awesome,” Kenseth said. “If anyone needs to size me for a champion’s pair of slacks, I wear a ‘Husky.’”
2. Kyle Busch: Busch finished second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth for the second straight race, this time at New Hampshire. It was Busch’s series-best 13th top 5 of the year, and he trails Kenseth by 14 in the points standings.
“In the JGR ‘1-2 Punch,’” Busch said, “I must be the ‘2.’ Joe Gibbs brings the ‘punch’ to the Chase. Michael Waltrip brings the ‘punchline.’”
3. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson took fourth at Loudon, and remained within striking distance of Matt Kenseth in the points standings. Johnson is third, 18 behind Kenseth.
“Matt won the traditional lobster claws trophy for the victory,” Johnson said. “His two victories to start the Chase, however, have everyone else in a ‘pinch.’”
4. Carl Edwards: Edwards finished ninth in the Sylvania 300, his 14th top 10 of the year. He is fourth in the points standings, 36 behind Matt Kenseth.
“It looks like Matt Kenseth is the man to beat,” Edwards said. “And I used to be the man to do it.”
5. Kevin Harvick: Harvick finished a disappointing 20th at New Hampshire on a day dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing. He is now sixth in the points standings, a distant 39 out of first.
“Did you hear?” Harvick said. “Danica Patrick will be hosting the American Country Awards in Las Vegas on December 10th. One thing is for sure—she won’t be winning anything.”
6. Greg Biffle: Biffle finished third in the Sylvania 300, posting his best finish since a win at Michigan in June. He is fifth in the points standings, 38 out of first.
“The Richmond scandal is still casting a dark shadow over NASCAR,” Biffle said. “I know there’s one on the front of my car, but the real ‘splitters’ are Michael Waltrip Racing sponsors.”
7. Clint Bowyer: Bowyer took 17th in the Sylvania 300. He fell to tenth in the points standings and trails Matt Kenseth by 48.
“NAPA dropped sponsorship of Michael Waltrip Racing,” Bowyer said. “It’s no longer ‘NAPA Know-How;’ it’s ‘NAPA No More.’
“Now 5-Hour Energy may be ending their sponsorship. If MWR loses any more sponsors, out cars will be drawing ‘blank’ stares next year.”
8. Kurt Busch: Busch finished 13th as bother Kyle took the runner-up spot, while Matt Kenseth won his second Chase race. Kurt is seventh in the points standings, 40 out of first.
“We’re the only single-car team in the Chase,” Busch said. “But really, who needs teammates? That’s not me talking; that’s a quote from Tony Stewart, right after I decided to join Stewart-Haas.”
9. Ryan Newman: Newman started on the pole at New Hampshire and led two laps before handling issues led to a 16th-place finish. He is ninth in the points standings, 47 out of first.
“I set a record for speed in qualifying,” Newman said, “with a lap of 136.497 miles per hour. That’s one of the reasons they call me ‘Rocketman.’ The other reason: because with me, there will be a re-entry.”
10. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt posted his 16th top-10 result of the year with a sixth at New Hampshire. He trails Matt Kenseth by 62 in the points standings.
“You could say I’m a long shot to win the Sprint Cup title,” Earnhardt said. “And that’s okay with the people of Junior Nation, because they like any shot.”
Grading the Sprint Cup Rides – 2013 Third Term Report
This grading system is pretty basic. Top 10’s, with extra consideration given for wins and Top 5’s, can help you earn an A+. Keep it in the Top 20 each race and that is worth a B. Just by finishing 30th each time out and that would still get you a C-. Less than that is a failure; a failure to compete, a failure to get noticed.
Grade: A
The top students have been to joy to have in class, even though Jimmie did cost himself an A+ by playing hookey in the weeks leading to the Chase. We are hopeful Kyle continues his stellar work through the final part of the year, though he has had trouble in the past. Matt has really hit the books as of late, and could wind up class valedictorian if he continues his progress. Carl once again is near the head of the class, but time will tell if can charge to the front to finally be number one.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
48 |
Jimmie JOHNSON |
4 |
11 |
17 |
21 |
25 |
|
18 |
Kyle BUSCH |
4 |
13 |
17 |
20 |
22 |
|
20 |
Matt KENSETH |
7 |
8 |
15 |
21 |
24 |
|
99 |
Carl EDWARDS |
2 |
8 |
14 |
24 |
26 |
Grade: A-
Kevin has been in the top half of the class pretty much the entire year and only twice has the dog eaten his homework. Clint is usually a very popular boy, but for some reason I detect that many of his classmates do not want him to wind up at the head of the class this year.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
29 |
Kevin HARVICK |
2 |
7 |
14 |
25 |
25 |
|
15 |
Clint BOWYER |
0 |
8 |
14 |
24 |
26 |
Grade: B+
Kurt, who usually does not play well with others, has some cheering for him. It will be interesting how he works with his new friends when class resumes next year. Kasey had some trouble last week, as did little Joey a week earlier. Dale is once again a very popular boy while Ryan has had some issues to work through, but seems to have replaced former friends with some new ones for next year. Martin has had some problems as well due to the company he keeps, and I am not sure how that will work out. Greg remains a solid student, with Mark helping Tony since he hurt his leg. Meanwhile, Jeff needed some help near the end of the term, though I am not sure it will be enough for him to realize his dreams by the end of the school year.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
78 |
Kurt BUSCH |
0 |
9 |
14 |
20 |
23 |
|
5 |
Kasey KAHNE |
2 |
8 |
11 |
18 |
20 |
|
22 |
Joey LOGANO |
1 |
8 |
14 |
19 |
23 |
|
88 |
Dale EARNHARDT, Jr |
0 |
5 |
15 |
21 |
24 |
|
39 |
Ryan NEWMAN |
1 |
6 |
13 |
21 |
22 |
|
56 |
Martin TRUEX, Jr |
1 |
6 |
12 |
21 |
23 |
|
16 |
Greg BIFFLE |
1 |
4 |
11 |
23 |
24 |
|
14 |
Tony STEWART |
1 |
5 |
10 |
19 |
27 |
|
24 |
Jeff GORDON |
0 |
5 |
13 |
21 |
22 |
Grade: B
It has been a disappointing year for some students. Brad has stumbled a bit since being last year’s valedictorian. Juan Pablo plans to transfer out of our school next year, returning to where he had previously enjoyed very good grades. His friend Jamie will remain with us, and has hopes of improving his status next year. Mark has been busy, first helping Brian earlier this year and now Tony. I am expecting good things when Brian returns full-time next year. Along with Paul, they might not make the honor roll this year, but these boys have done enough work to show they belong here.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
2 |
Brad KESELOWSKI |
0 |
7 |
12 |
18 |
23 |
|
42 |
Juan Pablo MONTOYA |
0 |
4 |
7 |
17 |
23 |
|
1 |
Jamie MCMURRAY |
0 |
3 |
7 |
20 |
25 |
|
55 |
Brian VICKERS |
1 |
6 |
11 |
17 |
23 |
|
27 |
Paul MENARD |
0 |
2 |
7 |
19 |
26 |
Grade: B-
Aric has shown signs that we might expect better things ahead for him. Jeff, as always, was expecting more. As he leaves us a year early, we will miss this well spoken young man.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
43 |
Aric ALMIROLA |
0 |
1 |
5 |
22 |
24 |
|
31 |
Jeff BURTON |
0 |
2 |
6 |
17 |
23 |
Grade: C+
Marcos and Ricky have been okay, though not great. They both manage to get their work done, but I still would like to see better things from them before the year is out.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
9 |
Marcos AMBROSE |
0 |
0 |
5 |
19 |
23 |
|
17 |
Ricky STENHOUSE, Jr |
0 |
0 |
2 |
20 |
25 |
Grade: C
I do not know what to say about Denny. I know he was hurt earlier in the year, but he has not been his old self since he returned. It appears he would just as soon end the year, go on vacation, and start afresh next year.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
11 |
Denny HAMLIN |
0 |
3 |
6 |
12 |
19 |
Grade: C-
Casey is not quite ready to compete with the big boys just yet, but I have been pleased with his progress. I am interested to see how he might do next year. I will miss Bobby, though he has had another disappointing year. Some seem happy with Danica’s progress, but I feel we should expect more by this time. She is blessed with so much more than a lot of the other students. David did succeed on the subject of Alabama geography, with some help from his close friend, the other David, but neither are quite there yet. As for A.J., who sometimes goes by Regan or Austin or, just last week, by Michael, might make some real progress once he figures out who he really is.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
13 |
Casey MEARS |
0 |
0 |
1 |
9 |
23 |
|
47 |
Bobby LABONTE |
0 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
21 |
|
10 |
Danica PATRICK |
0 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
23 |
|
34 |
David RAGAN |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
21 |
|
38 |
David GILLILAND |
0 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
20 |
|
51 |
A.J. ALLMENDINGER |
0 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
18 |
Grade: F
To be honest, I am not sure why these boys are even in my class. Both Dave and Travis, I am sure, would do so much better at Nationwide High. What can you say about J.J. (other than he enjoyed Daytona seven months ago), David S. (who just isn’t the same boy the past two weeks), David R. or Timmy? No, really. What can you say about them? Well, I’ve seen worse. I feel bad for Trevor, as I think if he would attend class more often he might be able to pull in a better grade than this. However, to be fair, of the nine assignments he has done, none have been much to write home about. As for Landon, things just don’t seem to work out. He and Tony R. have done most of the assignments for Austin, which is too bad as the young fellow has done so much better on the two he has written on his own. There are other students who drop in from time to time, but I have reserved my remarks for those who have tried to attend class at least nine times this year. God bless Scott, Michael, Joe, and Mike, but if the school board ever considers reducing class size, they make a good argument. To be honest, they usually do not stick around long enough to become a nuisance. The sad thing is, all four have ability but you never get to see it.
|
CAR |
DRIVER |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
TOP 20 |
TOP 30 |
|
7 |
Dave BLANEY |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
18 |
|
93 |
Travis KVAPIL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
15 |
|
36 |
J.J. YELEY |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
14 |
|
30 |
David STREMME |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
13 |
|
83 |
David REUTIMANN |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
14 |
|
32 |
Timmy HILL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
|
21 |
Trevor BAYNE |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
8 |
|
40 |
Landon CASSILL |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
8 |
|
33 |
Austin DILLON |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
|
95 |
Scott SPEED |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
98 |
Michael MCDOWELL |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
87 |
Joe NEMECHEK |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
|
19 |
Mike BLISS |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Talks About His Rookie NSCS Season
Following the opening Cup practice of the weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, I spoke with ROTY contender and 2-time Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. regarding his rookie season. The past few weeks, Ricky has turned a corner winning the pole at Atlanta before ripping off back-to-back top ten finishes. There is no doubting this guy’s ability and it’s only a matter of time before his true potential at the Cup level is fully realized.
Talk first about the transition from Nationwide to Cup and the challenges you face as you try to adapt to the Gen-6 car.
The biggest thing is obviously the horsepower. Having the Gen-6 cars being implemented this year at the same time I’m coming in; I thought (that) was a great time because everyone’s still learning. We haven’t really been as fast at Roush-Fenway as a whole as we wanted and we’re trying to figure this car out as a race team. Driving wise, it’s a big difference. There’s a lot more brake that you got to use and you can’t just jump right back into the gas with all that extra horsepower. It’s been a challenge trying to figure that out. One of the biggest things about Cup is that we always practice at the worst time of the day and then race at a completely opposite (time). In Nationwide, you practice early in the morning; the temperatures are a little cooler and then we race at night. With the Cup cars, we practice dead in the middle of the day so that transition from practice to the race is something I’ve been trying to figure out as well. There’s a lot of factors that go into learning these cars and we’re starting to figure it out.
Every driver has their particular style of driving and how they want their cars setup; how do you like your cars to feel?
Yeah, I like mine loose. I hate when our car doesn’t turn. If you listened on our radio, you would find that out. (chuckles) I like my cars to turn…I feel like when the car’s too tight with my driving style of driving (which is) really hard and aggressive, there’s nothing you can do but slow down to get the car to turn. When it’s a little looser, you can still drive it hard and try to get it to tighten up the harder you drive it so I enjoy a loose racecar.
Going into this season, what were your expectations and have you met them?
No, we have not met them. We wanted to be top 15 team in points.I think we can get maybe an 18th, 17th or something before the year’s up. We feel like we should have more top 10’s by now. I would like to be running top 10 consistently by now…we’ve done it the past few weeks but we still got to get that speed consistently every week. We’ve led laps which is a positive; we wanted to lead laps this year at some point but we just haven’t been able to finish the races off like we want to. We’ve been fast at the beginning of some races; had some bad luck when we have been fast but yeah, we definitely want some more top 10’s before the end of the year…we thought we’d have quite a few by now.
The past few weeks, you’ve been doing a lot better. You got that pole and two top 10’s so what’s changed?
Just getting more comfortable. The guys are working really hard and Scott (Graves) and the guys are making really good calls at the end of these races to keep our track position. I’m not the only rookie here; Scott is a new crew chief so he’s learning as well. At the beginning of the year, we had a lot of times at the end of these races where we tried to make these cars better and we would never make them better and we’d still be behind a lot of guys on the restarts. Staying out and keeping our track position has been one of the best things but you still got to have a decent racecar to do that. I think our cars have been getting a little better and I’m getting more comfortable as well.
How close do you think you are to that first win…do you think you might be able to get it before the end of the year?
That would be nice…if we can carry this momentum that we got going to some of these mile and a half race tracks like Charlotte, Kansas, and Texas; I feel like those are going to be our best shots at it. You know, Talladega we were really fast and we led laps there earlier in the year so if we can carry some momentum into those race tracks, keep making our cars better and I keep getting better as a driver; those would be our best shots.
As you try to adapt to these cars, which driver has been the biggest help to you?
The teammates are great help. Obviously, I can look at their data and see what they’re doing and how they’re driving the cars. Kevin Harvick has been another good one that has really reached out and helped me; especially at some of the tracks that I haven’t been to like Sears Point or Infinion…(Sonoma)…yeah, Sonoma or whatever it is. He’s (Harvick) raced with me in Nationwide so he knows my tendencies (in Nationwide) and he knows that they won’t exactly work over here. He’s been a big help as well.
You know, as a rookie, sometimes the veterans pick on you so has anyone given you a hard time this year?
Nah….everybody’s been pretty good. Some of them that I haven’t raced with; they’ll get a little madder than others like if I don’t give them enough room or whatever but everybody’s been pretty good. I haven’t really had any issues.
I asked this to Eric McClure this a few weeks ago and got a pretty funny response (Ricky chuckles) and I’ve asked a couple other drivers it and gotten some interesting answers so I thought I might ask you…what’s the strangest fan encounter you’ve ever had?
Mine hasn’t been too bad or at least from what I can remember. Normally, you’d remember something like that. Umm…I signed a guys forehead once; that was kind of weird because I don’t know why you would want someone’s signature on your forehead. (chuckles) That’s probably been the weirdest thing. It’s always a little different….sometimes they’ll show you pictures of their room and they’ll have pictures all over the place but it takes die-hard fans like that to keep our sport going.
At just 25 years old, Ricky has an incredible future ahead of him. He’s got a solid ride with a top tier organization and he will most likely be a chase contender within the next couple of years. He only has two top 10’s in his rookie season but wasn’t there some other new guy a few years back who in his first full-time season, only finished inside the top 10 twice driving for a top level team just like Ricky? I think he is a Nationwide champion too actually. Oh yeah! He’s that guy we call Brad Keselowski…the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion.
Truex, You Do Not Deserve What’s Happened To You
Martin Truex Jr. came out of the cheating fiasco at Richmond in the worse shape when he should have been the one smelling like a racing fuel rose. Why was just 50 points taken away from Clint Bowyer? Why wasn’t Bowyer pulled from the Chase instead of Truex Jr.? I don’t care what anyone says, Truex Jr. was treated wrongly and the wrong driver was pulled from the Chase.
I hope that a lot teams and owners are looking at Truex Jr. as their new driver. If NAPA had any sense they will hang around and follow Truex Jr. That is if he makes the wise decision and leaves Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR). Team owner, Michael Waltrip says that “he won’t hold Truex back”.
It was not Truex Jr. that tarnished the NAPA’s long standing and loyal sponsorship with MWR, whose loyalty followed Waltrip himself when he said he was forming MWR. Talk about blowing millions out the exhaust, you sure did it your way Waltrip. Or lets just say some individuals in your organization did.
I have read many comments about Waltrip in the past few weeks and it is sad that Waltrip has gone from a individual who has been well liked by most people since his career in racing began, to someone who has had his name tarnished, along with many others in the MWR organization.
I use to watch him race in his early years here in Nashville. I think back to those days and see how far he has come in this business. Who would ever thought MWR would have come as far as it has in such a very short time only to be shot down by cheating. Well it’s cost millions and it has blemished and hurt as I said at the beginning, a innocent and a extremely talented driver.
I hope someone makes Truex Jr. an offer that can’t be refused. MWR has done enough damage. If another team does, they will be on the winning end. To Waltrip’s credit, its great that he will not “hold you back” from leaving, even though you are just in your first year of a three year contract with MWR. One can only hope that NAPA follows you.
