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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.
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