The only thing as sure as the next race is that there will be flux and change during the NASCAR season. And this year hasn’t been any different. This summer we saw crew chief shifts at some of the sport’s top tier teams – I even wrote about it here. From Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to Roush Fenway Racing changes were made in the name of improving performance, but has that actually happened so far?
Juan Pablo Montoya
Brian Pattie Average Finish: 17.6 Average Start: 16.5 Place in Points: 17
Jim Pohlman (9 races this season) Average Finish: 18.2 Average Start: 16.4 Place in Points: 19
Montoya and Pattie had been together since the mid-point of the 2008 season and had success together. It was apparent this season though the relationship was straining and with the EGR cars not as strong as they were last year, something had to give. And it was Pattie.
In the nine races since Pohlman took over Montoya’s performance, as evidenced by the numbers, has actually gotten worse. There’s certainly time for improvement before the end of the season, but so far this move hasn’t impressed. And with Montoya’s patience notoriously short we’ll see how long this lasts.
Martin Truex Jr.
Pat Tryson Average Finish: 19.6 Average Start: 17.3 Place in Points: 21
Chad Johnson (15 races this season) Average Finish: 16.2 Average Start: 17.7 Place in Points: 18
A slight improvement is perhaps better than no improvement at all. Pat Tryson, a seasoned and successful veteran of the sport, left Penske Racing at the end 2009 to join Truex at Michael Waltrip Racing. The move was highly touted but a less than successful pairing.
Chad Johnson has been atop the pit box for 15 races and in that time the two have had slight improvement in their finishes and made up three spots in the points. I suspect he’ll have ample time to prove himself in the role.
Greg Biffle
Greg Erwin Average Finish: 16.8 Average Start: 17.9 Place in Points: 14
Matt Puccia (10 races this season) Average Finish: 16.9 Average Start: 13 Place in Points: 14
This was another duo that had been together for a long time and found quite a bit of success. This season though was a struggle and like Montoya and Pattie chemistry was waning. Ultimately, from what we heard, Erwin walked.
Matt Puccia, a long time fixture in the Roush organization and a reasonably successful crew chief in his own right took over 10 races ago. And the move has been negligible. Biffle didn’t make the chase and they have seen no improvement in their average finish and no change in their points standing. Was Erwin the problem? You tell me.
Jeff Burton
Todd Berrier Average Finish: 20.8 Average Start: 19 Place in Points: 25
Lucas Lambert (9 races this season) Average Finish: 18.1 Average Start: 20.7 Place in Points: 24
Todd Berrier joined Burton at the end of the 2009 season after stints with Casey Mears and Kevin Harvick. The two looked great at the end of 09′ and had a decent year last year including a Chase appearance and six top-fives. Then came this season. After 19 races without a single top-ten RCR’s leadership had seen all it needed to see.
Lucas Lambert’s performance in the top job has looked pretty similar to the 19 races prior. One thing Lambert was able to do that Berrier wasn’t, was help Burton to a top-ten finish. This is an interesting one to watch.
AJ Allmendinger
Mike Shiplett Average Finish: 17.1 Average Start: 15.1 Place in Points: 16
Greg Erwin (9 races this season) Average Finish: 16.3 Average Start: 15 Place in Points: 15
Mike Shiplett had been through a slew of drivers (and owners for that matter), during his time with RPM and its predecessor organizations. And during that time there was only fleeting success.
Erwin’s addition was interesting, but color me surprised performance hasn’t picked up much. Erwin has proven himself to be a capable crew chief, but things are apparently not quite working at RPM. We’ll see if they improve.
It’s interesting none of the moves made so far this season have had much of an impact on performance. Like all things though changes in leadership sometimes take a while to have an impact. I think the jury is still out on all of the crew chief swaps so far this season but after 9-15 races the picture is becoming clear. Stay tuned.
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Often times when drivers get one off rides there becomes this serious sense of urgency. They have to do whatever it takes to get a good result now, because they may not get another chance. I believe what we saw today out of Boris Said could somewhat be explained this way. He came in as a ringer for James Finch’s #51, and after winning the Montreal NNS race last season from a similar position, maybe thought he could win again. Instead, he ended up driving over his head, made a lot of enemies, and finished a mediocre 22nd.
After being involved in the horrific crash with David Ragan and David Reutimann, and apparently a dust up earlier in the race, Said and Greg Biffle had a scuffle in the garage area post-race. Said later threatened Biffle in his post scuffle interview, and Biffle responded via Twitter. But Biffle wasn’t the only driver to take exception to Said’s racing. Regan Smith, Jeff Burton, and David Ragan all weighed in post-race against Said. And when guys like that are speaking out against you, something is clearly wrong.
No matter what side of the fence you are on, Said’s move on Ragan was dirty. Hitting a guy in the rear quarter panel like that is about as a low as it gets. With one lap to go, I really question the judgement of flat wrecking a guy so you can finish 22nd instead of 23rd.
I have to say though, Said deserves some props for his comments in the interview following the race. At least he was honest and isn’t afraid to stand up for himself (did anyone else notice the RCR #27 guys enjoying a front row seat to the skirmish?).
Going forward, don’t expect Said to get a lot of respect from his fellow competitors. He used to be a guy other drivers went to for road racing advice, but now he’s going to become the driver they root up 0ut of the way so they can finish 22nd instead of 23rd. What goes around, comes around, and guys like Biffle aren’t going to forget this any time soon.
FoxSports first reported Monday that Greg Erwin had been replaced as crew chief for Greg Biffle’s #16 at Roush Fenway Racing. Matt Puccia, who was working on Roush’s R&D team, was announced as Erwin’s successor beginning this weekend.
Erwin and Biffle have struggled this season capturing just one top-five and five top-tens – they sit 14th in the points. Biffle finished an abysmal 21st on Sunday. Compare that to his teammates: an eighth place finish for David Ragan, a sixth place finish for Matt Kenseth and a fifth place finish for Carl Edwards. Those three also have at least one win each and combine for a total of four.
Still, the move came as a bit of a surprise. Together Erwin and Biffle have racked up four wins and three Chase appearances – including a third place points finish in 2008. For all intents and purposes, it’s been a good marriage.
That apparently has been in flux recently. Biffle is known to harangue his crew and crew chief on the radio when he doesn’t think things are going like they should. We heard that this weekend’s ranting from Biffle was enough for Erwin and he told Roush management he had enough.
It sounds as if he’s still with the organization, but was unwilling to continue in his role as crew chief of the #16. Erwin is no doubt a talented crew chief, but no one can blame him for finally deciding it was time to move on.
As we say here so often, success in this sport is all about chemistry. When you’re driver is constantly telling you you’re “ruining his career” or are incompetent it’s only a matter of time before things start to sour.
While I don’t necessarily think Matt Puccia is the answer to Biffle’s performance issues this season, perhaps a change at the top will be enough to improve that all important chemistry. Good luck to Matt Puccia in his new endeavor – I think he may need it.
Remember that time Roush went 31 races without a win? Yeah I don’t really either. With memories of 2009 slowly fading away, Roush is proving, with this season and last, that it’s still very much a team on top.
The team currently has two of four cars inside the Chase and one knocking at the door, and three wins, 12 top-fives, and 21 top-tens. They are all weekly contenders. And though fellow organizations Hendrick, Childress and Stewart-Haas all also have two in the top-10, no one has the stats of the Roush teams.
Carl Edwards currently sits atop the driver points with a 24 point lead, and one win. Even though last season was an improvement for the #99 bunch, 2011 is shaping up to be a better year. Edwards is averaging a 7.3 place finish and he accounts for one of those two wins and 307 total laps led.
Matt Kenseth has been the other standout, becoming only the third repeat winner of the season. Though there has been some bad luck, he’s managed a 14.1 average finish and a sixth place position in the points. His laps led? 231. Apparently he and Jimmy Fennig are working well together.
As for Greg Biffle and David Ragan, while they only combine for 41 total laps led, both have had bright spots here and there. Ragan, if you’ll recall, almost won at Daytona and has had some solid top-five and top-10 runs recently. He too though has had some bad luck and generally bad weeks this season. As for Biffle, he had a rough start to the season, but has made up for it with top-15 runs six of the last eight weeks. That includes one top-five and four top-tens.
All of that’s not even including the three wins Roush and Edwards have in the Nationwide Series this season. Add to that the very promising talent of Trevor Bayne (who won the Daytona 500 for an RFR supported Wood Brothers Racing) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Organizationally Roush is looking good this season. And after a less than wonderful couple of years they’re cementing their perch. With the competition tight and two thirds of the season remaining we’ll see if Roush can continue this momentum. As always, it’ll be interesting to watch.
So far this season, we’ve seen everything from tire carriers becoming catch can guys, to second gas men, and tire changers and jackmen hanging tires. This new fueling system has the teams trying absolutely anything to figure out a way to make pit stops faster. At this point however, the only thing the teams are really sure about is that these new style gas cans require serious precision.
We saw our first real victim of the problems that can arise with the new cans on Sunday at Las Vegas. While running third part way through the Kobalt Tools 400, Greg Biffle’s #16 Ford ran out of fuel. The culprit? A mistake by the team’s gas man on the previous pit stop led to a less than full fuel cell. And if you were watching the race, you saw the result. The mistake ruined Biffle’s day, and relegated him to a 28th place finish.
The way the new dry break systems are designed, gas men must be near perfect when they make their “sticks.” Anything less than that will result in air in the lines and in the can, and an incomplete fill. Because of this, you can be sure Biffle won’t be the last victim.
Besides the potential problems, you’ve been able to see now just how much slower these new cans cause pit stops to be. Both Phoenix and Las Vegas gave us accurate views, as the races put the teams in situations where they needed tires and full loads of fuel. And trust me, the drivers and crew chiefs are not happy about the now slower stops. There has been no shortage of whining and butt chewings by both groups.
As the season progresses, teams will start to get some of the kinks worked out of the new system, and you’ll see less and less errors. But for now, expect there to be more victims, and more upset drivers. You can also be sure that pit crew coaches won’t be getting much sleep.
Want some more information about the new fueling system? Check out the system’s builder Schultz Products.
Filed under: Carl Edwards, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Roush Fenway Racing, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
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Filed under: Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Roush Fenway Racing, Chase for the Sprint Cup, Sprint Cup, NASCAR
Filed under: Chase for the Sprint Cup, NASCAR
It’s hard to believe we’re closing in on the final races of the season. In just more than two months we’ll be in Homestead to crown a champion for 2010. In the meantime we’ve got our Chase field set and 10 races to sort out the good from the great.
So far this season we’ve seen just how important consistency is in this points system (Kevin Harvick) and how bad luck can damage even the best teams (Jimmie Johnson). While we’ve had some convincing wins and some great performances, who exactly the strongest team is, is hard to say. The race for the championship is wide open for the first time in years, and there are 12 drivers now in a dogfight to become the next Sprint Cup Champion.
Denny Hamlin: Has all the makings of a champion. He’s the winningest driver so far this season, and when the #11 team is on, they’re on. The trouble they, and frankly all the Gibbs teams have had is consistency. Hamlin has two DNFs and five finishes of 30th or worse. His championship hopes are on his team at this point. The driver has proven he’s capable. The rest of the team now needs to figure out if they are.
Jimmie Johnson: The #48 team has been good this season – there’s no doubt about that. But they’ve struggled since the implementation of the spolier. Chad Knaus has been unable to keep up with track conditions some weekends, and other weekends, when they look like they’re on, they get hit by bad luck. Consistency was the thing that made this team so strong for so long and it just hasn’t been there. Johnson has four DNFs so far this season and nine races with finishes of 20th or worse. Just like Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson’s championship hopes rest heavily on his team – perhaps more importantly though are the things he cant control, like luck.
Kevin Harvick: Consistent is the one word to describe this team. In 26 races this season Harvick has won just three times, but built a commanding lead in the points. His average finish of 9.8 is the best of his career, and if the team can maintain it, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with. Though the team has been good just about every weekend, they’re not always in a position to win. Because of this, Harvick’s championship hopes hinge on the consistency of his competitors over the next 10 races. If everyone runs like they have all season, Harvick could very well give Richard Childress his first Cup championship since 1994.
Kyle Busch: Though he hasn’t had as many wins, Busch has been more consistent than his teammate Denny Hamlin. For that reason he might just be in a better position to win the championship. As I’ve said here before, whether you like him or not, it’s hard not to admit Kyle’s talents as a driver. That said he’s been plagued through his short career by a lack of maturity and focus. He’s definitely calmed down a lot this season, but with a truck team and his Nationwide efforts also on his mind does he consistently have what it takes to win on Sunday? Kyle Busch will be likely be a Cup Champion in the not too distant future, whether that could be this season remains to be seen.
The Roush Cars: Forgive me for grouping these guys together, but they all have the same problem – an inability to overcome the performance hump. Ford has struggled all year with the switchover to the FR9 and the Roush drivers just haven’t been as competitive as they should be. Greg Biffle is the last Ford driver to win a race back in Pocono. Before that it was Matt Kenseth last February at California. And Carl Edwards hasn’t seen victory lane since Homestead 2008. All of these guys are good enough to win championships – I’m just not sure the teams are there performance wise.
Kurt Busch: Just like many of his fellow Chasers, consistency, or lack thereof, has plagued Kurt Busch. It’s hard to believe Roger Penske doesn’t have a Cup championship. He’s certainly had drivers with the talent to do it, and teams formidable enough to compete, but it just hasn’t happened. Since becoming the lone Dodge team Penske, the organization, looks good. Kurt Busch could deliver “The Captain” his first Cup Series championship, I just don’t know if this will be the year.
Tony Stewart: This isn’t 2009 – and Tony Stewart knows it. He has hustled for every good finish he’s had this season. Though they struggled after the implementation of the spoiler, Stewart’s team looks to be back on track as of late. Since Dover he’s had 11 top-ten finishes, five top-five finishes, two second place finishes and one win. While he’s going to need to run a little bit better – as in more wins – Tony Stewart may be hitting his stride at the right time.
Jeff Gordon: Speaking of overcoming the hump. I feel bad for this team. They’re good year in and year out, but Jeff Gordon hasn’t won a race since April of 2009. Before that it was October of 2007. This season Gordon has 10 top-five finishes but no wins to speak of. He’s certainly got what it takes, but this team needs to find that little bit extra to make them a serious contender. Jeff Gordon can be a five time champion, but some things are going to have to improve.
The other two Childress Cars: Consistent but not Championship great – at least so far this season. Both Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer are consistent performers for RCR, but they, like Gordon, just haven’t been able to close the deal. Burton has been in position a couple of times this season only to lose it because of mistakes. Bowyer, like Burton, hasn’t had a win since 2008 and is probably going to need to be a little stronger to truly compete. If these two are going to go head-to-head with Kevin Harvick they’re going to need to find some speed, and fast. They’re capable, but I have my doubts.
Following Sunday’s race at Atlanta, ten of the twelve Chase drivers are set, with Greg Biffle needing to finish only 42nd or better at Richmond to be in, and Clint Bowyer needing a 28th or better to be in. So with the field all but set, who’s your pick to win the 2010 Cup Series Championship?
Just in case you need a little reminder, here are the twelve drivers that will battle for the title over the final ten races (barring any last minute heroics by Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, or Mark Martin):
After Richmond, the points will be reset among the twelve, with the number of wins being the determining factor for who starts where in the standings and with how many points. Right now, Johnson and Hamlin have the most wins, each with five, so they will be atop the standings heading to New Hampshire.
Now, with everything we’ve seen this season, and what we know of each of these drivers and how they race, who’s your champion? Does Jimmie win a fifth straight? Will a Childress driver finally break through? Will Ford emerge over the last ten races? Let’s hear it!
Also, both Journo and myself wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!