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Filed under: Jeff Gordon, Sprint Cup, Hendrick Motorsports

LOOKING AHEAD: Seven races into the 2009 season, Jeff Gordon crossed the finish line first at Texas Motor Speedway for his first win of 2009. Obviously, a Jeff Gordon win isn't what we'd call a landmark occasion in NASCAR -- he does have 82 checkered flags to his name -- but, for heaven sakes, Jeff Gordon was winning at Texas.

Gordon and Texas Motor Speedway simply had not gotten along, meaning a win for Gordon at the 1.5-miler looked to be a point in the 2009 season where his competition and fans could look to and identify as the true turning point for Gordon's ascent to a fifth NASCAR Sprint Cup title.

As we now know, a team from the Hendrick Motorsports shop did take the the title, but it wasn't Gordon. And so it was, another year, another missed chance at capturing the fifth title that has eluded Gordon since his last in 2001.

Surprisingly, Gordon never found victory lane again in 2009 and, as a result, the dry spell in the win column is even a little more pressing than most would think. The Texas victory was Gordon's only points-race triumph since Charlotte in the fall of 2007 -- meaning he's batting 1 for 77 in that period.

Thanks to NASCAR's point system -- a format Gordon has yet to be crowned champion under -- such a dry spell has hurt the four-time series champion more than most realize. In the same period Jimmie Johnson, Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports teammate and the only champion NASCAR fans have seen in awhile, has won a total of 18 times. Of course, NASCAR's point system doles out 10 bonus points in the Chase for each race a driver wins in the 'regular' season -- giving Johnson a nice advantage heading towards the title dash.

Going into 2010, should Gordon want to win that 5th title and distinguish himself, for a season at least, from his teammate Johnson as the current driver with the most championships, the goals for the No. 24 crew boil down to one thing: win, and win often.

Consistency hasn't been a problem for Gordon in the past few seasons -- he's only got two Top-10s less than Johnson in the span from the fall 2007 Charlotte race until today -- but finding victory lane has.

A big part of that this season will be crew chief Steve Letarte, who will need to step up his game in making the correct adjustments on Gordon's car during a race. A slow start for Gordon will put Letarte on the hot seat in the minds of the Evernham-obsessed fans, despite Gordon's continued support of Letarte's leadership and problem-solving style.

Those fans, of course, should take note that Gordon -- under Letarte's tutelage -- set NASCAR's single season modern era record for Top-10s in 2007.

Still, Gordon needs to win, and win lots for him to be a factor in the Chase. Even if he makes the final 10 race stretch as a qualified championship contender -- actually, there's no reason to doubt he won't -- it'll be easy to tell before the green flag at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September if Gordon is a championship threat based on one thing: wins.

2009 STATISTICS:

Best Finish - 1st, Texas
Worst Finish - 37th, Talladega & Watkins Glen
Top-5s - 16
Top-10s - 25
Total Laps Led - 827
Percent of Laps Completed - 99.1

 

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Filed under: Kurt Busch, Penske Racing, Sprint Cup

LOOKING AHEAD: Kurt Busch, after walking an occasionally tumultuous road in his switch from Roush-Fenway Racing to Penske, is back in championship form -- if statistics tell us anything.

When the checkered flag waved into the breeze of the warm Homestead, Fla., night at the season-finale last November, Busch's No. 2 was showing as No. 4 on the scoreboard. It was one of many finishes in 2009 that led him to his best average finish over the course of a season since his 2004 title at Roush.

Busch made the turn into victory lane twice and grabbed two handfuls of Top-10s (10) en route to his fourth-place finish in the 2009 Chase. Now, he's ready to give team owner Roger Penske something the extraordinarily successful car owner has never had -- a NASCAR Sprint Cup championship.

Pat Tryson, who sat atop Busch's pit box calling the shots as the team's crew chief in 2009, will be the biggest change for Busch as the teams roll into Daytona to start the first on-track activities of 2010. Tryson has moved on to head up Martin Truex Jr.'s operation at Michael Waltrip Racing, while Steve Addington moves from Joe Gibbs Racing to lead Busch's 2010 effort.

Of course, there's some irony in the fact that Addington was demoted at JGR from the position of crew chief for Busch's brother Kyle in the second half of 2009.

The biggest change for Busch and the rest of Penske Racing may be the theory of addition by subtraction. In other words, Penske is now the only operation left in the NASCAR garage with support from Dodge -- meaning every once of the manufacturer's effort will be focused on Busch and teammates Sam Hornish Jr. and Brad Keselowski.

Busch showed no signs of slowing down as the 2009 season waned to completion, and it would be quite hard to think he won't be a contender when the leaves change again this fall.

2009 STATISTICS:
Best Finish - 1st, Atlanta, Texas
Worst Finish - 38th, Atlanta
Top-5s - 10
Top-10s - 21
Total Laps Led - 738
Percent of Laps Completed - 98.5

 

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Filed under: Tony Stewart, Sprint Cup, Stewart-Haas Racing

THE SEASON: Anyone contemplating the story of Tony Stewart's 2009 season before the fact might easily come away with the thought "career suicide after the two-time champion pulled up his roots at Joe Gibbs Racing to become a co-owner of an oft-struggling Sprint Cup Series team.

Stewart, incredibly, decided to leave behind his legacy as a consistent winner at Gibbs Racing, where he won Sprint Cup championships in 2002 and 2005, when he made the official announcement at Chicagoland Speedway creating Stewart-Haas Racing.

 

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Filed under: Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing, Sprint Cup

THE SEASON: Roush-Fenway Racing dropped in terms of statistical performance in 2009 as a whole, though Greg Biffle, as the team's eldest statesman (he's roughly two and a half years older than teammate Matt Kenseth), didn't slip as much as the team's other drivers.

Coming off his second-best points result in 2008 (3rd), Biffle and his No. 16 crew seemed primed and ready to take a swing at stopping Jimmie Johnson's drive to become Mr. Four-In-A-Row. Unfortunately, Biffle struck out -- just like the rest of the NASCAR drivers.

Biffle's performance in 2009 didn't quite take the surprising downward turn of his RFR teammates. But instead of penciling himself in as a favorite come time for the Chase in '09, Biffle's regular season performance hardly raised an eyebrow. He wasn't back-of-the-pack bad, but he wasn't consistent-threat-to-win good, either.

 

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Filed under: Juan Pablo Montoya, Sprint Cup

THE SEASON: Considering Juan Pablo Montoya's ever-improving level of performance during the past few seasons, the ex-F1 driver has left no doubt that if he has a competitive car, he can turn the page and become a driver to reckon with in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series.

That page -- or the the book, rather -- was thrown open in 2009.

Montoya easily had his most memorable performance of the season in one of NASCAR's crown jewel events -- the Brickyard 400 at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Indy, of course, was home to another of Montoya moment, as he won the 1999 Indianapolis 500.

At Indy in 2009, Montoya had far and away the fastest car in the field. But after leading a commanding 116 laps, he was flagged for speeding on pit road during the final pit stop. He didn't have enough time to recover, and finished 11th.

 

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Filed under: Brian Vickers, Sprint Cup

THE SEASON: For a third year team in the Sprint Cup Series, Brian Vickers certainly wheeled his No. 83 Toyota to a season that would put a charge in the Red Bull Racing holiday party.

Securing the team's first win and first berth in NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup will do that.

Vickers was an integral part of the biggest crash in the season-opening Daytona 500, but his season was markedly more successful than the key contributor to that accident, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Though he had won once previously with Hendrick Motorsports, Vickers earned the first win for Red Bull at Michigan International Speedway in August during a fuel mileage race. While a fuel mileage finish was certainly no surprise at the track, it was surprising that Vickers used the finish to his advantage to gain his first win at the track.

In fact, Vickers has been quite strong at Michigan in years past -- fuel mileage finish or not. He's got 5 straight top-5s at the track and also three straight poles.

Vickers earned his second victory of the season -- his Chase berth -- with a hard fought battle in the final Chase cutoff race at Richmond. He drove to a 7th-place finish in what was likely the most pressure-packed race of his career to beat Kyle Busch into the Chase by 8 points.

From there, though, the No. 83 stumbled. Despite 9 consecutive pre-Chase races with finishes of 12th or higher, the 10-race Chase saw Vickers take 20th or worse six times.

THE STATISTICS:
Best Finish - 1st, Michigan
Worst Finish - 39th, Daytona
Top-5s - 4
Top-10s - 13
Total Laps Led - 101
Percent of Laps Completed - 96.6

THE FUTURE: Going into his fourth season as a member of Red Bull Racing, Brian Vickers is going to be expected to continue to the up the ante on his performance.

The team has now shown that it can compete at several tracks and they've broken the icebergs of both winning and making the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Now, the team is going to need to focus onmaking such achievements a consistent measure.

Teammate Scott Speed showed signs of future success at times, but Vickers will continue to serve as the team's flagship brand in NASCAR. Based on his strong runs at several of the 1.5-mile tracks -- notably at his hometown Lowe's Motor Speedway -- Vickers needs to be a guy in 2010 that isn't a surprise to win.

Should the team solve what hurt them in the Chase and erase the bad luck, Vickers should again be a guy who is battling for a right to go for the Sprint Cup title.

 

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Filed under: David Reutimann, Michael Waltrip Racing

THE STATISTICS:
Best Finish - 1st, Charlotte
Worst Finish - 36th, Daytona
Top-5s - 5
Top-10s - 10
Total Laps Led - 101
Percent of Laps Completed - 99.2

THE FUTURE: David Reutimann certainly carried the torch for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2009, and one can expect that he'll do so in 2010 -- though he'll certainly be challenged by new teammate Martin Truex Jr.

The addition of Truex should only help the MWR program that has started to become a factor in many of the 1.5-mile tracks, and such assistance could put Reutimann into a legitimate fight to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2010. Without an incident at Pocono with Denny Hamlin, Reutimann could have been on the edge at Richmond this season, anyways.

From the looks of it, Reutimann's ride will be mostly funded for 2010 -- and should he need any more help, it seems that team owner Michael Waltrip will go to any length to make it happen. For a guy with Reutimann's talent, that's good to see.

 

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Filed under: Jeff Burton, Sprint Cup, Richard Childress Racing

After three straight seasons back in the final ten race Chase for the Sprint Cup, the wheels of Jeff Burton's battle to finally end up as a Sprint Cup champion truly derailed during 2009. Fortunately, things did better as the season waned, but the damage was done.

 

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