2010 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.
Best Achievement: Jimmie Johnson wins 5th consecutive Sprint Cup championship
What? You didn’t think I’d give this to Kevin Conway for winning Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year did you? Jimmie Johnson winning his record fifth consecutive Sprint Cup championship is really the only thing that could take this award. Johnson constantly leaves NASCAR fans wondering: “When is anybody going to beat this guy?” Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick showed it could be next year, but then again Johnson showed it might be a while yet. The drive for six begins in February.
Best Driver: Denny Hamlin
Well, you’d think that winning a championship would mean that Jimmie Johnson was the best driver of the year wouldn’t you? Sometimes though the champion isn’t the best of the entire season … for instance the 2007-2008 New England Patriots were clearly better than the New York Giants. In a year that Johnson and his #48 Lowe’s Chevy team showed some weaknesses here and there, Hamlin looked like the truly dominant driver the entire season. Hamlin won more races than any driver during the season with eight; oftentimes number of wins is indicative of who really had the best season. Hamlin’s eight wins were two more than Johnson’s season total. Hamlin also finished two more races during the season than Johnson did.
Most Disappointing Driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We might as well rename the disappointing driver of the year honor the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Award. He seems to be earning this dubious honor year-in-and-year-out. Earnhardt Jr. isn’t even one of the 20 best drivers in the Sprint Cup anymore, he finished 21st in the season points standings this year and frankly seems like a lost driver who doesn't have his heart in it. He didn’t win a race this year for the second straight season in the Sprint Cup and only compiled three top five finishes and a horrible eight top 10s. It’s getting to the point where you really can’t even consider Earnhardt Jr. to be disappointing, but instead the norm for him. So, maybe this honor would be better suited for a guy like Earnhardt Jr.’s teammate Mark Martin who had the biggest downfall of any driver in the sport from 2009.
Best Crew Chief: Chad Knaus
We certainly should just rename this honor the Chad Knaus Award because there isn’t a crew chief in all of NASCAR that even comes close. In fact, Knaus might have passed longtime Richard Petty crew chief Dale Inman as the greatest crew chief that the sport has ever seen. Knaus is the man behind Jimmie Johnson’s greatness and frankly for the last few years people have wondered exactly how successful Johnson would be with a crew chief other than Knaus … we certainly won’t see that scenario anytime soon, as team owner Rick Hendrick won’t even think about breaking this great duo up. Late in the Chase for the Championship many, including me, questioned Knaus’ decision to switch pit crews with teammate Jeff Gordon, whose crew performed better throughout the season. I feared it would cause chemistry problems for the last two races of the season, but it didn’t … why? Because Knaus is a genius.
Best Season by a Non-Chase Driver: Jamie McMurray
Jamie McMurray had a career changing season in 2010 and there is no doubt about it. The only flaw in the season was that he didn’t make the Chase for the Championship. McMurray came into the 2010 Sprint Cup season with three career wins in a little over seven seasons. All he did in 2010 was double his career total with three wins at the sports’ two biggest races and three of the sports’ most iconic tracks. McMurray started the season with a new team in the #1 Bass Pro/McDonald’s Earnhardt-Ganassi Chevy and immediately got off on the right foot winning the season’s first and biggest race, the Daytona 500. In August, McMurray would win the sports’ second biggest race of the season, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’d also win a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the fall, one of the sports’ biggest and most storied tracks.
Biggest Turnaround: Jamie McMurray
When you enter a season only having won three career races in almost seven and a half seasons and then win three in one season that’s a pretty big turnaround. McMurray also made a big jump in the points standings gaining eight positions between 2009 when he finished 22nd to finishing 14th in 2010. McMurray is one of the nicest guys in NASCAR; I just hope that his career year in 2010 doesn’t turn out to be a fluke.
Worst Drop-off: Mark Martin
Mark Martin, the senior citizen of the Sprint Cup Series, clearly had the biggest drop-off from the 2009 season to the 2010. In 2009, Martin won five races and finished second in the points standings, which extended his record of second place championship finishes to five … Martin might be the biggest bridesmaid in sports history. In 2010, Martin didn’t win a single race and fell 11 spots in the points standings to 13th. Martin wasn’t the only driver though with a drastic drop-off. Both Kasey Kahne and Juan Pablo Montoya found themselves falling the wrong direction in 2010.
Worst Debut: Danica Patrick
Well, I can definitely say I saw this one coming. In 2010, Danica Patrick who has been a career failure in the IndyRacing League decided that she would try her hand at being a part-time failure in the NASCAR Nationwide Series as well. Patrick competed in 13 Nationwide races in 2010 and it seems like she must have wrecked in most of them. It took Patrick until her 13th and final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway for her to finally finish a race on the lead lap. Patrick will run another part time Nationwide Series schedule in 2011.
Driver to Watch for 2011: Carl Edwards
Using the Denny Hamlin scale from the end of the 2009 season that led everybody to believe he’d be a huge threat in 2010 because of a hot finish to end the season, I conclude that Carl Edwards will be a force to be reckon with in 2011. Edwards nearly went two full Sprint Cup seasons without winning a race and then he went on hot tear winning the final two races of 2010 at Phoenix and Homestead. This is a hot streak that I definitely see him carrying into 2011. I also think that the upcoming rule that will keep Sprint Cup regulars from winning the Nationwide Series championship will help to keep Edwards’ mind where it belongs, in the Cup series.
Best Rising Star: Brad Keselowski
Brad Keselowski frankly had a pretty disappointing first full season in the Sprint Cup Series in 2010, but I think his mind, heart and soul were focused on capturing the 2010 Nationwide Series championship, which he did rather easily, I might say. Now that he’s accomplished that the only thing for him to set his mind toward is great success in the Sprint Cup. Keselowski is a tough, aggressive driver in the mold of a Kyle Busch and I think this will lead to many wins, but also a lot of enemies. I expect Keselowski to have a pretty nice sophomore season in the Sprint Cup in 2011.
Best Race/Best Finish: Talladega- Spring Race
The spring Talladega race was the most competitive race in the long and great history of NASCAR. There was an incredible and record breaking 88 lead changes in the race among a record 29 different drivers in this 180-MPH chess match that is big time restrictor plate racing. This wonderful race led into what became the best finish of the 2010 season. Jamie McMurray led the race with two laps remaining with Kevin Harvick tucked in close on his bumper to draft. The two formed a team that drove off from the rest of the field, which is something that doesn’t happen often in plate racing. On the final lap it looked like Harvick would stay tucked up under McMurray until the end, but at the last possible second Harvick ducked to the inside and made the old school slingshot pass around McMurray in a photo finish. The finish was the eighth closest in NASCAR history, since electrical timing began in 1993. It was a classic duel between two masterful restrictor plate drivers. The win for Harvick also broke an amazing winless drought of 115 races.
Wildest Race: Texas- Chase Race
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Best Fight: Jeff Gordon vs. Jeff Burton- Texas Chase Race
The race at Texas Motor Speedway in the Chase for the Championship wasn’t just the wildest race of 2010, but quite possibly the wildest one ever. To be honest the racing wasn’t even really anything that special, it’s just a bunch of circumstances that led to the wild event. Early on during the race Kyle Busch was involved in a spin and sped down pit road to beat the pace car back out on the track and thus avoid being lapped. Because of this infraction, Busch was held a lap in the pits. Busch, always the hothead that he is, flipped off the NASCAR official in his pit box and NASCAR assessed him another two-lap penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. It wouldn’t be the last unsportsmanlike conduct that this race would see by any means. Later in the race under caution for a Martin Truex Jr. wreck another wreck would occur when normally low-key Jeff Burton took offense to the way Jeff Gordon was racing him and Burton put Gordon into the wall, effectively ending both of their days. Gordon took big time exception to the intentional wreck and met Burton on the track for some old time NASCAR fisticuffs. Following Gordon’s wreck came perhaps the most startling moment in the race when Jimmie Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus benched Johnson’s entire pit crew and replaced them with Gordon’s pit crew, because the #48 pit crew just wasn’t getting the job done. This was an unprecedented and controversial move at the time that would later prove crucial in Johnson winning his fifth consecutive championship. This was certainly the wildest NASCAR race I can ever remember seeing. Oh by the way, did I mention Denny Hamlin won the race with a late pass over Greg Biffle?
Biggest Jerk: Carl Edwards
Honestly this award could easily be named the Kyle Busch Award, but I’m actually going to give it to Carl Edwards for 2010. Don’t get me wrong, Kyle Busch is a huge jerk, but in my opinion Edwards essentially attempted to murder Brad Keselowski on two different occasions this year. Edwards feels that Keselowski is an aggressive driver and he is, but Keselowski has never taken a racing action as aggressive and dangerous as Edwards did this season against him. Edwards could’ve very easily killed or extremely injured Keselowski this year when he spun him out and sent him airborne at Atlanta Motor Speedway and then later in the season intentionally wrecked him in front of fast, oncoming traffic in a Nationwide Series race at Gateway.
Worst NASCAR Decision: NASCAR’s lack of punishment for Carl Edwards
This award could’ve easily gone to NASCAR’s overkill of a punishment to Clint Bowyer in the Chase, but NASCAR’s lack of punishment for Carl Edwards in the two times that he tried to kill Brad Keselowski was their most appalling decision of the 2010 season. The problem is that at the beginning of the 2010 season NASCAR painted themselves into a corner by announcing the new “Boys, Have At It” policy that let the drivers take policing races back into their own hands. It’s a good move on NASCAR’s part to let the drivers police themselves like in the glory days of the sport and for the most part it turned out great. However, Edwards went overkill on his policing and NASCAR should have called him on it and punished him severely by deducting points and/or suspending him for a race or so. NASCAR didn’t do either after Edwards’ dangerous dumping of Keselowski at Atlanta in the spring. They merely put him on probation for three races, which isn’t even a slap on the wrist. They even had the opportunity to correct themselves later in the season when Edwards dangerously dumped Keselowski again at Gateway, but they simply put him on probation again, this time until the end of the season.
Worst Wreck: Elliott Sadler at Pocono
Some NASCAR fans love bad wrecks. Those fans disgust me. Wrecks are a part of the sport and always will be, but the fact is that they are always dangerous and until that driver exits the car they are something that should be feared. There were a lot of bad wrecks this year as in every year … these included Brad Keselowski’s airborne wreck after Carl Edwards dumped him at Atlanta, Keselowski’s hard wreck after Edwards dumped him in the Nationwide Series at Gateway, Dennis Setzer getting airborne and into the catchfence in a Nationwide Series wreck at Talladega, Ron Hornaday’s airborne wreck at Talladega in the Camping World Truck Series, A.J. Allmendinger’s wild ride at Talladega in the Chase and Kasey Kahne almost leaving the track in the first Pocono track. However, there is no question in my mind that Elliott Sadler’s wreck in the second Pocono race of the summer was the worst wreck of the season and one of the worst I’ve ever seen. A few years ago NASCAR started keeping track of how hard the crashes are and said that Sadler’s Pocono wreck was the hardest wreck ever recorded. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sadler would have lost his life in that wreck had NASCAR not improved in safety in the last decade.
Best Moment: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Winning at Daytona in #3
This was a moment so good that it almost seemed scripted. Some fans even believed that it had to have been “fixed.” But, let me tell you that restrictor plate racing most certainly can’t be “fixed.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would run his father’s old #3 Wrangler blue and yellow paint scheme at the Daytona Nationwide Series race in July. In the one and only race that he would ever run in this scheme he dominated and won. This didn’t surprise me at all for two reasons 1) It’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. in a restrictor plate race 2) I believe that Earnhardt Jr. can be a big time driver when he puts his mind to it (which doesn’t appear to happen often) and that he did so on this night in tribute to his father.
Biggest Bonehead Moment: Marcos Ambrose at Infineon
Marcos Ambrose had his first ever NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in his grasp at the Infineon road course in Sonoma, California during the summer … and then he made one of the dumbest mistakes a driver could ever make. Under a late caution while attempting to conserve fuel Ambrose cut his engine off while going up a hill on the track. The car was unable to start initially after Ambrose shut it off and thus didn’t maintain the pace speed; This allowed second place driver Jimmie Johnson and three or four others to move in front of Ambrose. Johnson went on to win the race that felt as if Ambrose had it in his pocket.
Worst Performance: Denny Hamlin’s qualifying run at Homestead-Miami
Denny Hamlin entered the final race of the Sprint Cup season at Homestead-Miami Speedway 15 points ahead of Jimmie Johnson in the points standings. We all know that Johnson would go on to win his fifth consecutive championship, but I actually don’t think Hamlin lost the championship in the final race. Instead Hamlin lost the championship on Friday when a poor qualifying effort forced him to start 32 spots behind Johnson on the starting grid. It was a move that essentially gave Johnson a big lead from the beginning and he never looked back.
Most Embarrassing Moment: Kasey Kahne quits on Richard Petty
It had been determined earlier in the season that 2010 would be Kasey Kahne’s last season with Richard Petty Motorsports and that he would drive next season for Red Bull Racing while waiting for a spot to open up at Hendrick Motorsports for 2012. Kahne had struggled all season long at RPM and when his brakes failed at Charlotte in the Chase Kahne finally decided that he had enough. When the team fixed the car enough for it to return to the track to gain as many points as possible Kahne faked illness and the team was forced to put JJ Yeley in the car to finish the race. I’d known for some time that Kahne was one of the most overrated drivers in NASCAR, but he proved that night that he was also a quitter. That would turn out to be his final race for RPM. He went to Red Bull racing for the remainder of the 2010 season was replaced in the #9 Budweiser car by Aric Almirola.
Best Silly Season Move: Elliott Sadler to run full time 2011 Nationwide Series
For those who aren’t big NASCAR buffs, silly season is basically NASCAR’s equivalent of free agency with drivers switching teams. Most would say that the biggest move of silly season is Kasey Kahne going to Red Bull Racing for a year; but, as previously mentioned Kahne is overrated. Personally I think the biggest silly season move is Elliott Sadler’s decision to run for the Nationwide Series championship for car owner Kevin Harvick. Sadler is one of the nicest guys in NASCAR and one of my personal favorites. I know that he’s making the right decision to run full time in the Nationwide Series, because his Sprint Cup career has gone under. Sadler will be a big time threat for the Nationwide championship next season, especially with the upcoming rule that will state that Sprint Cup regulars won’t be eligible to win the Nationwide championship in 2011.
