My 2011 NASCAR Recap: The Best & Worst of the Season

2011 was certainly one of the more interesting years in recent NASCAR history. Here is my little recap of the season with the best and worst moments and drivers of the year. 1) sorry that it’s over a week late 2) I would’ve loved to have gone more in-depth on it, but just don’t have the time.

Best Driver:
Tony Stewart- It’s certainly debatable whether or not Tony Stewart actually had the best all around year in NASCAR, but what’s not debatable is that he showed he was the sport’s best driver during the 10-race playoff. That was simply put the greatest driving I’ve ever seen in 10 years as a NASCAR fan.


Best Achievement:
Tony Stewart winning career third championship after winning five of the 10 playoff races. Stewart didn’t win a single race during the NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season. His Chase performance will certainly go down as one of the greatest moments in NASCAR history.

Most Disappointing Driver:
Denny Hamlin- Denny Hamlin knocked on the door big time in 2010 and looked like he was primed to take the championship last year from Jimmie Johnson. He didn’t, but he certainly looked like he might be the biggest contender coming into the season. Despite making the Chase for the Championship he struggled for much of the season, winning only one race in the spring at Texas.

Best Crew Chief:
Bob Osborne- More often than not the best crew chief of the year will be the crew chief of the driver considered to have been the best driver, but not this year. Bob Osborne, the crew chief for Carl Edwards, was maybe the biggest reason why Edwards was the main contender from the start of the season to the finish. Edwards was the sport’s most consistent driver all year and the two have a great chemistry.

Best Season by a Non-Chase Driver:  
Kasey Kahne- This basically means you’re only the 13th best driver of the year, so congratulations to Kasey Kahne for being the best of the worst. If Kahne had been in the chase he would’ve scored very high as the last 10 races of the season were probably his best stretch that included a win at Phoenix to snap a long winless drought. Kahne likely won’t have any more droughts of that size again, as he goes to Hendrick Motorsports next season and will have the best equipment in the business.


Biggest Turnaround:
Brad Keselowski- I expected big things from Brad Keselowski in 2010 in his first full season in the Sprint Cup series. What we got from him in 2010 was a huge disappointment. In 2011, he was a different driver, winning three races at Pocono, Kansas and Bristol all after breaking his ankle in a horrific practice crash at Road Atlanta.

Worst Drop-off:
Denny Hamlin- See ‘biggest disappointment’

Worst Debut:
Andy Lally- This is really by default, just like the rookie of the year award he earned by being the only rookie of the year candidate. Lally is a very talented road course Gran-Am driver who had never had experience in NASCAR before. I’m pretty sure he just ran the full season this year as a favor to owner Kevin Buckland. Next year he returns to Grand-Am racing where he should once again be a star.

Driver to Watch for 2012:
Carl Edwards- This is basically my pick for who I think will win the championship in 2012. For the second year in a row I’m choosing Edwards. I was just off by a tiebreaker this year, so maybe next year will be the year.

Best Rising Star:
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. & Austin Dillon- this one is so close that I had to give it a tie between 2011 Nationwide Series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Camping World truck series champion Austin Dillon. I expect very big things out of these two going forward.

Best Race & Wildest Race:
Homestead- It looked all year like the best race of the season was going to be the first race of the season the Daytona 500, but it turned out to be the very last race of the season at Homestead thanks to the greatest championship fight in NASCAR history between eventual winner Tony Stewart and runner-up Carl Edwards.

Best Finish:
Daytona 500- It’s the biggest race of the season and it was the debut of the new tandem style racing at the restrictor plate tracks. On a final restart you basically had David Gilliland pushing Carl Edwards toward the win and Bobby Labonte pushing Trevor Bayne, in just his second career Sprint Cup race, toward the win. Bayne was the winner and many called it the biggest shock in NASCAR history. He was certainly the most improbable Daytona 500 winner in NASCAR history.

Best Fight:
Richard Childress vs. Kyle Busch- The best fight in NASCAR this year was actually one that wasn’t even captured on camera. Kyle Busch while driving in a truck series race got into a little bumping incident with Childress driver Joey Coulter, which in turned really pissed off owner Childress who reportedly took off his watch in the garage, handed it to his grandson/driver Austin Dillon and went to beating on Kyle Busch’s head with his fist. Everybody was pretty much in agreement that Busch deserved it.

Biggest Jerk:
Kyle Busch- Kyle Busch really should have a hold on this honor every year, but believe it or not Carl Edwards was my winner of this honor in 2010 and Kyle’s older brother Kurt could’ve easily won it or shared it with him this year. The incident in the second to last truck race of the season in which Kyle Busch intentionally wrecked Ron Hornaday under caution leading to his suspension from the fall Texas Nationwide and Sprint Cup races is the final straw that officially gave Kyle the honor.

Best NASCAR Decision:
Parking Kyle Busch at Texas for Nationwide & Sprint Cup races after intentionally wrecking Ron Hornaday in truck series. It was way past due for NASCAR to try to straighten this punk out.

Worst NASCAR Decision:
NASCAR not finding a way to do away with the tandem racing at Daytona & Talladega which effectively turned four of the most exciting races of the year into less exciting races … but they were still pretty exciting.

Worst Wreck:
David Reutimann at Watkins Glen- still hoping that someday NASCARs will stay on all four wheels during every wreck. Reutimann is very lucky to have walked away from this one. David Ragan also had an extremely hard hit during the wreck.

Best Rivalry:
Tony Stewart vs. Carl Edwards- For most of the season the best rivalry was Kevin Harvick vs. Kyle Busch, but that all changed during the final 10 races of the season.

Best Moment:
Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500- If you want a storybook ending to the biggest event in the sport, this was it. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer kid.

Biggest Bonehead Moment:
David Ragan switching lanes on final restart of Daytona 500- We won’t ever know if Ragan would’ve won the Daytona 500 for sure and he did sort of redeem himself by winning his first career race at the Daytona July race, but that was the moment that could forever have us remembering David Ragan as a driver who didn’t win the sport’s biggest race.

Worst Performance:
Jeff Gordon during the Chase- Jeff Gordon had a great regular season winning three races at Phoenix, Pocono and Atlanta and looked like he was maybe the guy to beat going into the Chase … just one problem, he forgot to show up in the Chase. A potential fifth championship quickly turned into an eighth place finish on the season.

Most Embarrassing Moment/Most Unsportsmanlike Moment:
Paul Menard’s intentional wreck at Richmond to help teammate Kevin Harvick win … I lost all respect for Paul Menard at Richmond win he did that to help Kevin Harvick gain insurmountable lead on race leader and probable winner Jeff Gordon leading to Harvick’s win.

Best Silly Season Move:
Clint Bowyer to Michael Waltrip Racing- This was the biggest NASCAR move going into next season. Clint Bowyer is a huge pickup for Michael Waltrip Racing as he instantly becomes the face of that team. However, while it’s a huge move for Waltrip, I’m not sure it is for Bowyer who probably would’ve been better off staying with Richard Childress Racing.

Best Soundbite:
Boris Said at Watkins Glen about Greg Biffle – This is an honor that didn’t appear on my 2010 NASCAR recap last year, but just had to add it this year thanks to Boris Said. It’s the funniest driver postrace interview I’ve ever heard, bar none.

Biggest Surprise:
Regan Smith winning at Darlington – This might be the most arguable one of my entire recap, because most would say it’s Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500, but it’s not. You could teach a monkey to drive a car to victory at Daytona because the style of racing. But, Regan Smith had to earn his first career victory at Darlington with some hard driving to hold off Carl Edwards and a great call by his crew chief on pit road to put him out front on a late race caution.

Best Resurgence:
Jeff Gordon- Jeff Gordon’s 2011 season was probably the biggest up and down season of the year (note that I said up and down, if I had said down and up that’d be Tony Stewart). Fantastic regular season, atrocious playoffs. However, his three wins at Phoenix, Pocono and Atlanta were among the most dominant and best driven races of the year, especially the final laps at Atlanta where he held off teammate Jimmie Johnson ... those laps were the best of the season as far as sheer driving talent goes.

Worst Moment: 

This was not a NASCAR moment, but a motorsports moment and it's the day we lost the great Dan Wheldon at Las Vegas in the IndyCar season finale.

Why the BCS Might Not Be So Bad ...

I'm a fan of playoff systems (and am just playing devil's advocate here as I'm not a fan of the BCS system), but the Green Bay Packers winning the Super Bowl as the sixth seed (worst in the NFC), the St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series as the worst team to make the playoffs, Tony Stewart the 10th place driving during the regular season winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship with a hot chase, Virginia Commonwealth making the Final Four when they shouldn't have even made the NCAA tournament to begin with and the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA title as the third seed in a tough Western Conference could mean that the BCS System is the most accurate system. 

None of these teams mentioned were the best in their leagues or even close to it and all had success and all but VCU have championships. They all got hot and rode it to the end and that makes you really have to sit back and ask yourself is that really a better way to determine a champion than the BCS system. 

If the BCS championship game were to be decided today it would be a rematch between LSU and Alabama and that is the right choice, at least in my opinion, because those two teams are clearly the two best teams in college football this season. 

If things go the way they are supposed to in sports the two best teams in each sport would match up against each other for the championship. In a playoff system that doesn’t always happen, in fact it probably happens less than more, but the BCS system is typically pretty accurate as it is this year. 

Again, I’m not a fan of the BCS system and would prefer to see a playoff installed in college football, but in a year where seemingly every champion came from the back of the pack to win it’s got to make you think.

It's Time to Put an End to NASCAR Stereotypes

I’m very frequently disappointed in people. It’s probably something that I should get over or learn to live with, but I have high standards for everybody (and shouldn’t we all?). Generally I’m disappointed in things that fall on one side of a spectrum. For example, I’m disappointed in those who oppose certain rights, such as gay marriage and I side with the supporters of such rights. However, on Sunday came an issue in which both sides equally disappointed me. It’s not an important issue overall by any means (like gay marriage), but it’s something that means quite a deal to me.

By the way, this is a topic in which some people might not be interested in from the start, but please bare with me and hear me out.

Before Sunday’s season-finale NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and the Second Lady of the United States Jill Biden were on hand to give the command for drivers to start their engines. Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden were also at the racetrack to support their charitable campaign to support military veterans and their families.

As Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden were being introduced for the command to fire engines the two were booed by some throughout the crowd. Based on the noise level I would say that the booing was done by the minority of people attending the race.

The booing of the First Lady and the Second Lady is honestly not surprising too me because the majority of NASCAR fans are conservative, though I myself being a huge NASCAR fan am not. I can understand why some in the audience would want to boo the First Lady because of differing politics, but I’m thoroughly disappointed that they chose to do so, especially giving the fact that Mrs. Obama was there to support military vets, something that the majority of conservative NASCAR fans should seemingly be approving of.

It’s not appropriate to boo a First Lady of the United States under any circumstance – no matter what their political affiliations are. The booing of the First Lady at Sunday’s race, and I reiterate that it seemed to be a minority of the crowd, was 100 percent classless and uncalled for. Some people might argue that, but when it comes down to it I think you have got to be respectful to the First Lady under all circumstances.

For the individuals at Sunday’s race to boo Mrs. Obama does more than just make themselves (faceless individuals) look shameful and like complete idiots, it also casts that image upon all NASCAR fans (the majority of them being fine, upstanding people) and furthers the negative stereotypes of the sport.

I am disappointed in those NASCAR fans who made the rest of us look like idiots.

I am also disappointed in many (and believe me there were many) of the people who took to social media sites, like Twitter, following the booing of the First Lady on Sunday to lay down the boom on NASCAR fans.

As I’ve previously stated, those fans were idiots. It’s easy to see that they are idiots and I agree with the many people who said as much. The only problem is that many of those people didn’t stop there. On Sunday following the incident I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of disparaging remarks aimed toward NASCAR fans on Twitter. Because I’m a NASCAR fan it frankly and obviously was upsetting to me. 

Among the terms used for us were: rednecks, hillbillies, methheads, racists, bigots and right-wingers. There were many more epithets hurled toward us, but most of the others were too disgusting and vile to print. The one that bothered me the most was equating all NASCAR fans to racists. That’s the equivalent of equating all Catholics to child molesters. It’s not accurate, and not even close to being so.

Everybody reading this already knows who I am, so there really isn’t a reason for stating this, but here it is anyway … I’m not a redneck. I’m not a hillbilly. I’m not a methhead. I’m not a racist or a bigot. I’m not a right-winger. I probably lean farther left than anybody I know and I’m a hardcore NASCAR fan.

Once again, I understand the disappointment these posters had in the actions from some of these fans, but they fail to see that their statements are just as flagrant. They are calling NASCAR fans bigots because a few people chose to boo the First Lady, but they are in fact themselves being bigots in calling all NASCAR fans rednecks, hillbillies, etc.

Over the years I’ve had people – frequently people who I consider to be friends – use some of these disparaging terms toward me (almost always they use “redneck”) for being a NASCAR fan. Generally when this happens I either completely ignore them or laugh it off and joke back and forth with them. In all truthfulness it hurts me (and until now I don’t think anybody but my girlfriend has known this). Some people are honored to be called “rednecks” and they wear it as a badge of honor. However, “redneck” is a derogatory term and when someone calls me that because I’m a NASCAR fan (even if they mean it in jest) it bothers me, because the very last thing I ever want to be considered is ignorant.  

Surely some of you will think this is making mountains out of molehills, but I take it to heart because for me the things I love, like, admire, respect make up who I am. It might be idiotic on my part, but knocking something so beloved by me and important to me (and this certainly goes for other topics than just NASCAR) is taken by me as a personal slight. I know some of you will understand this, because I’ve seen how much some of you identify with the things you love and adore. What we like and love really does make up a lot of who we are.   

Some NASCAR fans are ignorant, rednecks, racists, etc., but you know what, so are some football fans, basketball fans, baseball fans, etc. However, only NASCAR is so closely affiliated with those terms. Maybe if some of you have previously thought these thoughts you should ask yourselves why?  You’ll probably see that it doesn’t make a lick of sense. 

I’m completely sick of all the negative stereotypes that surround one of my favorite sports and it’s long past time for these horrible stereotypes to stop. Please open up your minds a little and put an end to it.  

    

Cardinals Hiring Matheny is Big Question Mark

 On Nov. 13, the St. Louis Cardinals announced that their former catcher Mike Matheny, who played with the ballclub from 2000 through 2004 and won three Gold Glove awards with them, had been hired as their new manager. 

Thus in the span of three weeks the Cardinals went from having the manager with the most experience in the entire league and likely one of the best greatest managers in baseball history to boot in Tony La Russa to having the manager with the least amount of experience in coaching. In fact, Matheny has zero managerial or coaching experience at any level in baseball, majors or minors.

To say the least, the St. Louis Cardinals are taking a gigantic risk with Matheny. It’s a risk that could work, it’s seemingly worked well for Joe Girardi with the New York Yankees and the Florida Marlins before that. But, I’d say the odds are against it. Matheny is beloved by Cardinals nation and many Cardinals fans seem to be happy or at least OK with the hiring for that reason, but hiring Mike Matheny over such candidates as two-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox Terry Francona and Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo doesn’t seem to make a whole heckuva lot of sense to me. I think that Francona would have given the Cardinals the best opportunity to win and keep a championship-caliber team at that level. I think that Oquendo would’ve given the Cardinals the best shot at re-singing free agent and franchise player Albert Pujols.

The Cardinals are likely enjoying their championship right now, but in my opinion they’re going to be starting off their next season with a big question mark.

Reutimann Gets Screwed by Waltrip, NASCAR System

Michael Waltrip, co-owner of the NASCAR team Waltrip Pastrana Racing, announced last week that veteran driver Mark Martin would be driving the #00 Toyota Camry for a part-time schedule in 2012 and 2013. Any time you’re able to put a living legend like Martin in a car it’s a good thing, but unfortunately it means that the three-car team had to drop a driver. That driver was David Reutimann and in my opinion Reutimann got screwed. 

David Reutimann was screwed for multiple reasons. The first reason is probably the biggest reason. Reutimann is one of the older drivers on the circuit at 41-years old and Reutimann is also not one of the more attractive drivers. You’re probably thinking to yourself that that shouldn’t matter over driving ability and you’re absolutely right, but in a sport that relies on sponsors for success the better looking you are the easier it is to find sponsors … this is why Kasey Kahne will never have a problem securing a ride.

The second reason why Reutimann got screwed is that there is a worse driver on his team … Martin Truex Jr. Over the last four seasons, Reutimann has outperformed Truex. Reutimann has won twice in the last four seasons (both wins are the only two wins that Waltrip’s team has ever had in the Sprint Cup Series) compared to Truex’s big goose egg, nada, zero wins. Reutimann has 12 top 5s over that span, which is five more than Truex. The two drivers have the exact same average finish in the points standings over the last four seasons averaging a 21^st place finish, but Reutimann has one more top 20 finish in the standings than Truex over that span. I will admit, just to be fair, that Truex does have more top 10 finishes over the four-year span than Reutimann.

All of these stats, in my opinion, prove that Truex should be the driver looking for a new ride in 2012 and not Reutimann, but fortunately for Truex he’s got the looks and is a full decade younger and evidently that matters more than skill. As for Michael Waltrip, you’d think he’d have more respect and loyalty toward the only man who’s ever won races in his cars, but I guess it’s the money that truly speaks.   

LSU/Alabama Could Be Sporting Event of the Year

In sports you never can truly guarantee things before they happen, the greatest of matchups on paper can turn into blowouts or snoozers and a matchup that might not seem worth watching to begin with could turn out to be one of the year’s best games or events.

Despite knowing this, there is a matchup this weekend that could set up to potentially be an epic matchup and possibly the best sporting event of 2011. That matchup of course is between the #1 ranked college football team in the country the LSU Tigers and the #2 ranked college football team in the country the Alabama Crimson Tide. This game is not only a matchup of the two clearly best college teams in the nation, but it could also possibly be 1) a matchup of the BCS title game in January or 2) better than the BCS title game in January will be. It will also be a game that brings to an end the potential undefeated season of one of these two powerhouses (which unfortunately could keep one of these two teams out of the BCS title game if it’s determined that an undefeated Oklahoma State or Stanford or some other team deserves it more.)

All of the season’s marbles are potentially on the table for this great matchup that will be broadcast on CBS at 7 on Saturday night. If you’re not going to be tuning in for this matchup, I simply have to ask … what kind of sports fan are you?