(By Greg Engle)
Posted: Wednesday,February 25th, 2009
(By Bill Marx,Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service)
Matt Kenseth has been the class of the Sprint Cup Series, but he isn’t the only driver off to a fast start. In fact, six drivers in the top 12 were not in the top 12 at the end of last year. Here’s a breakdown of the top 12 through Sunday’s Auto Club 500.
1. Matt Kenseth, 385 points. Let’s see … Kenseth won the first two races … eight of his 18 Cup victories have come in the first three races of a season … and he has two wins at this week’s stop, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I’d say he is a favorite to win Sunday.
2. Jeff Gordon, 304. Gordon was strong Sunday but not strong enough to catch Kenseth in the final laps. Still, Gordon was ecstatic after the race. “I’m fired up, man,” he said after finishing second. “I’ll tell you what, I can’t wait to get to Vegas. This car is awesome fast. We showed it at Daytona, and we showed it here today.”
3. Kurt Busch, 294. Last year, Busch finished second in the 500 and then didn’t finish in the top 10 again until June at Pocono, 13 races later. This season he is one of three drivers with top-10 finishes in each of the first two races. The third is •
4. Tony Stewart, 294. Here’s a interesting stat: Stewart didn’t have three consecutive top-10 finishes all last season. He also opened 2008 with two top 10s but crashed and finished last at Vegas. So far, half of Stewart-Haas Racing is doing just fine.
5. Greg Biffle, 268. What was that saying on that ’70s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter”? Up your nose with a rubber hose? Biffle gladly would have taken that over what he did Sunday: Park on the air hose in his pit stall late in the race. He was second when he pitted, 12th on the restart. And he had the fastest car. As happy as Gordon was to finish second, Biffle was crestfallen to finish fourth.
6. Clint Bowyer, 266. Bowyer was the highest-finishing Richard Childress Racing driver Sunday–and he finished 19th. That doesn’t bode well for Las Vegas.
7. Michael Waltrip, 264. Waltrip is in the top 10 after two races for the first time since 2003, when he won his second Daytona 500. By finishing 15th Sunday, Waltrip finished in the top 15 in the first two races of a season for the first time in his 25-year Cup career.
8. David Ragan, 262. A lot is expected of Ragan this year, and here he is in the top 12 after two races. Early? Of course. But better eighth than 18th. Speaking of ordinals in the teens … when Ragan finished 17th Sunday, it gave him finishes at Fontana of 16th, 12th, 14th, 13th and 17th in five Cup starts at the track.
9. Carl Edwards, 260. Edwards hasn’t started 2009 with quite the same panache he displayed in the Chase. Still, he’s sitting 10 spots better than three-time defending champ Jimmie Johnson. Edwards won at Las Vegas last year, and Roush Fenway cars have been dominant so far. That’s a good combo for Carl.
10. Juan Pablo Montoya, 256. Montoya and David Reutimann are the only drivers in the top 12 without a top-10 finish. Montoya had three top 10s all of last year after getting six, including his only win, as a rookie in 2007. The record for fewest top 10s by a driver making the Chase is nine by Jeremy Mayfield in 2005.
11. Elliott Sadler, 248. Sadler’s success at Daytona (fifth) didn’t transfer to Fontana (25th). Sadler, citing front-end problems with his Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge, said, “We tried some things that we learned at Rockingham during the offseason, but it didn’t transfer as well as we would have liked to California.” Not what I would call a ringing endorsement for testing.
12. David Reutimann, 248. Despite brake problems, Reutimann finished 14th for his second straight top-15 finish. Michael Waltrip Racing goes into Las Vegas with two cars in the top 12. Besides the folks at MWR, who would have thunk that?
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