It is funny that the press (and some bloggers) thought Kyle Busch was in a slump because he hadn't won in what 2 weeks!
But there are a number of drivers who haven't won in quite a while.
If someone said at the beginning of the year that Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordan, Tony Stewart, and Kevin Harvick would be winless at this point in the chase we would have thought they were crazy. 3 former champions winless after 23 races, what the @#%& is going on?
So who is going to win first and get off this list?
Driver Last Win # Since Win
The Needy
Matt Kenseth 11-18-07 23
Jeff Gordan 10-13-07 28
Greg Biffle 9-30-07 30
Tony Stewart 8-12-07 37
The Hungry
Juan Pablo Montoya 6-24-07 43
Martin Truex Jr. 6-03-07 46
Casey Mears 5-27-07 47
Kevin Harvick 2-18-07 58
Brian Vickers 10-08-06 65
The Starving
Mark Martin 10-09-05 101
Jeremy Mayfield 8-21-05 106
Joe Nemecheck 10-10-04 137
Elliott Sadler 9-05-04 142
Help Me!
Bobby Labonte 11-16-03 167
Michael Waltrip 9-28-03 181
Robby Gordon 8-10-03 181
Where Do I Sign To Retire
Kyle Petty 6-04-95 457
Ken Schrader 6-03-91 533
Count includes all points races run since their last win.
Given what has happened to some other drivers who have changed teams (unwisely?) and have not had a win since I hope Tony will win this year. He has been in contention for a win a few times and he has finished in the top 5 numerous and if it wasn't for bad luck he would have been in the winners circle already.
I don't see any of the bottom 5 winning anytime soon.
So let us all know what you think, who will win this year and who is destined to be a field filler and also ran.
UPDATED: NASCAR took 10 engines last night from the Nationwide Series cars back to their R&D center to put them on the dyno!
3 Toyotas, 3 Chevys, 2 Dodges and 2 Fords.
Toyota engines were taken from the Joe Gibbs Racing cars of Kyle Busch (the race winner) and Tony Stewart and Braun Racing’s Brian Vickers.
Bowyer’s was one of three Chevrolet engines taken by NASCAR. The other two were JR Motorsports’ Brad Keselowski and CJM Racing’s Jason Keller.
NASCAR also took two Ford engines – from Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle – as well as Dodge engines from Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti and Gillett Evernham Motorsports’ Elliott Sadler.
IF they release the results we will know once and for all what the HP numbers really are. Will they take engines tommorrow too? Sprint and NNS run differant engines, so logically they should take some sprint engines too.
Does that mean if Toyota does have a HP advantage but are within NASCARS specs they should take something away from them to level the playing field? Or will they share what they find with the other manufacturers and tell them to get busy? Chevy already has the R07 engine which is reported to put out 850 HP (Which by the way JGR was working on before the switch) and J Johnson won his championship with. Dodge has a NEW engine available for Gillette later this year.
IMHO it doesn't seem fair to take anything away from Toyota if they are within NASCARS specs. So what would be fair?
Tony is my guy and He is currently 12th and on the bubble 499 points behind the leader. His finish average this year is 14.7, with no wins, 4 top 5's, 6 top 10's, 2 DNF's.
This is his lowest average finish in his NASCAR career. I guess he will have to resort to point racing for the remainder of the chase. He can not afford anymore DNF's or early race crashes.
However this is his prime time and when it gets hot and the tracks get slick Smoke kicks it into a different gear.
Tony likes racing at MIS with 8 top 5 finishes and 12 top 10's in 18 starts. He say's there are plenty of grooves and you can race from the white line all the way to the wall.
Tony's quotes about MIS: "The drivers can really help themselves out if they don't have a car that's working right. You can move around on the race track and find a spot that helps your car do what you need it to do."
"I####uy gets going and gets his car balanced, then he'll tend to run away," Stewart said. "That's just the characteristic of that kind of track. It's fast, it's flat and momentum is so important there, that i####uy is off just a little, he's off a lot. The drivers like it from the standpoint that if you can find a way to get around it a little better, then it'll help them in the long run. You end up racing the race track instead of each other."
Tony's primary chassis at MIS is #209 which he ran at Charlotte 5/25/08 starting 31st and finishing 18th. His backup chassis is #203 which he ran at Fontana 2/24/08 s6*/ f7th, Atlanta 3/9/08 32/2nd and Texas 4/6/08 24/7th.
All of the Gibbs drivers are using their Charlotte cars as their primary this week. Bet Kyle likes that #193 - s1/f3. Denny #208 - s16/f24.
I am a male who is a life long Ohio State football fan. (GO BUCKS) and a NASCAR fan. I like the Cleveland Browns so I know the agony of defeat but they are still my boys. A huge JGR fan going back to Bobby Labonte - 18 Interstate Batteries, Tony Stewart - 20 Home Depot, Denny Hamlin - 11 FedEx and now Kyle Bush - 18 M&Ms.
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I am getting older and I guess more opinionated too. But I am always willing to listen to others ideas and hear other opinions. Promise I will not personally attack, berate or hate because of differing opinions even if you are wrong. 8-) We can always agree to disagree without making it personal.
