Who’s Got It Figured Out?
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Ever since NASCAR unleashed the dreaded “Car of Tomorrow” last year in the Sprint Cup Series, it’s always seemed like a lop-sided battle in our minds as to which teams were able to get the car figured out. In 2007, the mighty duo of Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon over at Hendrick Motorsports not only ran away with the Sprint Cup season, but also dominated the COT races as well, at it appeared as though there wasn’t a single worthy contender in sight.
HMS’ average finish of 10.8 in the COT races last season was far and away the best in NASCAR, well ahead of Richard Childress Racing who came in with a respectable 14.1 finish. Now, that was in only 16 of the races last year, though. The other twenty races were all run in the old car, in which the HMS average finish dropped down to 14.4, just barely nipping RCR who had an average of 14.8. Yet, Johnson and Gordon ran away from their challengers in the standings by the end of the year.
This year, NASCAR has decided to go full-time with the Car of Tomorrow, and things seem to have changed quite a bit. Hendrick Motorsports now stands with an average finish of only 16.2 in the eleven races run so far in 2008, while RCR has improved to 11.03, though they still are not tops in the series. Additionally, Childress has two wins on the year, and Hendrick has only one.
Meanwhile, Joe Gibbs Racing leads the series in wins in 2008 with 4 to their credit, and it’s Roush-Fenway Racing whom boasts the best average finish amongst the teams. Their combined average finish this year of 10.98 is an improvement of nearly 8 spots, despite two of their drivers, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray, currently on pace for the worst seasons of their career.
The majority of the season has seen the points lead held by either an RCR or a Joe Gibbs driver, and both teams have also seen all three of their drivers ranked inside of the top-12 in the standings for most of the year. Roush-Fenway has experienced some success, as Carl Edwards has absolutely dominated the 1.5 mile tracks. They also seem to have gotten Greg Biffle back on track this year - though, he’s still not the dominant driver he was back in 2005 - and, David Ragan has recently made it into the top-12 for the first time in his career.
Meanwhile, Hendrick Motorsports appears to have rejuvenated the career of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he has sat in the top-five in points almost all season long, but the organization just now has been able to land three of its drivers inside the top-12 at the same time for the first time this season. That’s quite a drop-off from last season when HMS cars finished 1st, 2nd, and 4th in points. They’ve also seen their average COT finish drop by nearly six positions.
Other teams such as Penske Racing, Dale Earnhardt Inc, Chip Ganassi Racing, and Gillett Evernham Motorsports have all struggled to find consistent success in the new car, but then again, these teams also had their share of struggles in the old car as well.
| COT Races | 2008 | 2007 | COT Total |
| Richard Childress Racing | 11.03 | 11 | 14.1 | 16 | 27 | 12.8 |
| Hendrick Motorsports | 16.2 | 11 | 10.8 | 16 | 27 | 13.0 |
| Joe Gibbs Racing | 11.5 | 11 | 14.2 | 16 | 27 | 13.1 |
| Roush-Fenway Racing | 10.98 | 11 | 18.4 | 16 | 27 | 15.4 |
| Penske Racing | 23.2 | 11 | 16.2 | 16 | 27 | 19.8 |
| Dale Earhnardt, Inc. | 22 | 11 | 19.8 | 16 | 27 | 20.7 |
| Chip Ganassi Racing | 23.5 | 11 | 24.1 | 16 | 27 | 23.9 |
| Gillett-Evernham Motorsports | 24.8 | 11 | 24.8 | 16 | 27 | 24.8 |
DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You NASCAR also asks its readers …1) RCR currently has the best overall finish in the COT races. Are they now the team to beat?
2) Not basing it solely on stats, which team has engineered the best turnaround this year with the Car of Tomorrow program?
3) Of Penske, DEI, Ganassi, and Evernham, which of those teams is likely to turn things around and get locked on with their COT program the fastest?
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4 opinions for Who’s Got It Figured Out?
Bruce Simmons
May 21, 2008 at 6:08 pm
RCR may be the team to beat, but only in as much as they appear to be taking the quietly consistent approach to finishing their races. I hope they pull off a Kenseth* victory. (*The act of winning it all while not winning at all.) That would be cool and it would bring the whole chase thing back into question for us to beat on in the media!
Ryan Newman's #1
May 21, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Though we haven’t seen too much of Penske Racing, I think they will have more success this year. It’s still to early to tell how well this team’s gonna do, but I feel Ryan and Kurt will do better in the last couple of races. Sam will eventually get himself up there too. Other than that, they’ll do good overall.
Tim Zaegel
May 22, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Bruce, if a Childress car did happen to win the Chase this year with the team as a whole only winning a couple of races, I don’t think it would really bring the “Chase” back into question … it would, however, validate the need for even more emphasis to be placed on actual wins. They made an effort with the 5 bonus points for the Chase, but I still think it needs to be a little bit more than that.
Tim Zaegel
May 22, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Newman’s #1, this season’s starting to go by quick. I think we’re starting to get a little deeper into the year than most people realize, and if the Penske cars are going to try and make a statement, they need to do it now. We’re almost halfway through the “regular season” now.
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