Another Year, More Surprises, Stars Who Rise and Fall
by Monte Dutton
Gazette Sports Writer
To one extent or another, every season begins with issues that, by year’s end, are virtually forgotten.
The 2005 Nextel Cup season began with new rules that made the cars more difficult to drive. Some liked the presence of shorter spoilers; others didn’t. Still others were undoubtedly reluctant to complain.
The new rules probably contributed to the fact that no NASCAR season was ever as full of crashes and caution flags, though veteran hands like Martin scoffed at the notion. Martin suggested that the problem was that too many drivers had never had to fix the cars they tore up. He cited a certain callous lack of regard for preserving the equipment.
The changes played right into the hands of certain drivers, most notably Tony Stewart, who wound up winning the championship; and Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, the Ford drivers who ended up tied, 35 points behind Stewart.
The driver of the year was undoubtedly Stewart, and not just because he won the title. Stewart wound up with 6,533 points, 27 more than Kurt Busch’s total in winning the championship the previous year.
But a full appreciation of Stewart’s performance can only be achieved by abandoning the point system in place, weighted as it is in favor of the final 10 races, and converting Stewart’s total to the system used before 2004.
Based on adding up Stewart’s points in all 36 of the season’s races, the total comes to 5,199. In 2004, the race-by-race allotments had been adjusted to award the winner of each race five additional points.
Stewart won five times, so he got an additional 25 points. Take those away and he would’ve wound up with 5,174. That would’ve been the most points by a champion since the turn of the century.
The last champion to accumulate more was Dale Jarrett, who ended up with 5,262 in 1999.
When Stewart won his first championship, in 2002, he compiled only 4,800 points. Stewart made many friends in 2005, attributable in part to the fact that he began the year with so many enemies.
The 34-year-old champion entered peace negotiations with the media and fans but more notably seemed to find peace with himself and his team. It was almost as if he discovered a long-lost first name.
Unofficially, he became New Tony Stewart. For the first time since he enrolled in NASCAR in 1999, Stewart spent practically no time in detention. Stewart didn’t win any of the 10 Chase races. Busch had won only one the previous year.
In the Chase, only Jimmie Johnson and Edwards won more than once. In the summer months, though, Stewart reeled off a streak of 13 consecutive races in which he finished eighth or better. In a span of seven races, he won five.
That streak of seven races, beginning with a victory on one road course, Infineon Raceway, and ending with another victory in the other, Watkins Glen International, bracketed Stewart’s victory total for the entire year. He also won in Daytona, Loudon and Indianapolis.
The leader in victories actually wound up being Biffle, who collected his sixth in the final race. Edwards, Johnson and Jeff Gordon all won four. Kurt Busch won three. Younger brother — and Raybestos Rookie of the Year — Kyle Busch won twice.
The single-race winners were Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Jeremy Mayfield, Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne. Notably absent from victory lane were Rusty Wallace, Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler, Joe Nemechek, Ricky Rudd, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Robby Gordon and Sterling Marlin. Casey Mears, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton came reasonably close.
Amazingly, Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. failed to finish in the top 10. If Stewart was the driver of the year, then certainly Edwards was the season’s biggest surprise. The 26-year-old began the season with only 13 previous Cup appearances. When he won for the first time, in the season’s fourth race, it was considered a surprise. When he made the Chase, it seemed a miracle. By the time he closed in on Stewart at the end, the astonishing had become commonplace.
Jack Roush fell short of a third straight championship with his extraordinary team, but his Ford drivers – Biffle, Edwards, Martin, Kenseth and Kurt Busch — combined to win 15 of the season’s 36 races.
Rick Hendrick’s Chevy powerhouse placed only Johnson in the Chase but piled up 10 victories. Stewart stood virtually alone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Former champion Bobby Labonte endured his second straight winless season and departed at season’s end. Next year Stewart’s teammates, Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley, will both be rookies.
Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd both retired at season’s end. Mark Martin had been scheduled to join them but didn’t. Roush asked the driver who has been with since 1988 to stick it out for another year, and Martin reluctantly agreed.
The season was also notable for the elimination of one familiar track, North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, and the diminution of another, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, from two annual races to one. The beneficiaries were Phoenix and Texas, both of which hosted second races for the first time.
Jeff Gordon won his fourth Daytona 500. Stewart realized a lifelong dream by winning at Indianapolis and filled out his resume by winning for the first time at a so-called “restrictor-plate race,” the second Daytona event. Those two, both of whom honed their skills racing open-wheeled cars on the short tracks of the Midwest, are now the sport’s only full-time drivers with more than one championship.
What’s next?
No drastic changes seem likely until 2007, when NASCAR plans to switch to a new race-car design and perhaps welcome a fourth manufacturer, Toyota. A new tire-lease program and limits on testing will be hot topics in the weeks leading up to next year’s Daytona 500. Wallace and Rudd will be absent.
Kurt Busch, McMurray, Bobby Labonte, Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Jeff Green, Marlin, Ken Schrader and Scott Riggs will all be with different teams. Gordon and Earnhardt will blaze the comeback trail. The rookie crop appears strong, suggesting that there may be another Carl Edwards out there. Undoubtedly there will be plenty to write about.
Gazette Sports Writer
To one extent or another, every season begins with issues that, by year’s end, are virtually forgotten.
The 2005 Nextel Cup season began with new rules that made the cars more difficult to drive. Some liked the presence of shorter spoilers; others didn’t. Still others were undoubtedly reluctant to complain.
The new rules probably contributed to the fact that no NASCAR season was ever as full of crashes and caution flags, though veteran hands like Martin scoffed at the notion. Martin suggested that the problem was that too many drivers had never had to fix the cars they tore up. He cited a certain callous lack of regard for preserving the equipment.
The changes played right into the hands of certain drivers, most notably Tony Stewart, who wound up winning the championship; and Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards, the Ford drivers who ended up tied, 35 points behind Stewart.
The driver of the year was undoubtedly Stewart, and not just because he won the title. Stewart wound up with 6,533 points, 27 more than Kurt Busch’s total in winning the championship the previous year.
But a full appreciation of Stewart’s performance can only be achieved by abandoning the point system in place, weighted as it is in favor of the final 10 races, and converting Stewart’s total to the system used before 2004.
Based on adding up Stewart’s points in all 36 of the season’s races, the total comes to 5,199. In 2004, the race-by-race allotments had been adjusted to award the winner of each race five additional points.
Stewart won five times, so he got an additional 25 points. Take those away and he would’ve wound up with 5,174. That would’ve been the most points by a champion since the turn of the century.
The last champion to accumulate more was Dale Jarrett, who ended up with 5,262 in 1999.
When Stewart won his first championship, in 2002, he compiled only 4,800 points. Stewart made many friends in 2005, attributable in part to the fact that he began the year with so many enemies.
The 34-year-old champion entered peace negotiations with the media and fans but more notably seemed to find peace with himself and his team. It was almost as if he discovered a long-lost first name.
Unofficially, he became New Tony Stewart. For the first time since he enrolled in NASCAR in 1999, Stewart spent practically no time in detention. Stewart didn’t win any of the 10 Chase races. Busch had won only one the previous year.
In the Chase, only Jimmie Johnson and Edwards won more than once. In the summer months, though, Stewart reeled off a streak of 13 consecutive races in which he finished eighth or better. In a span of seven races, he won five.
That streak of seven races, beginning with a victory on one road course, Infineon Raceway, and ending with another victory in the other, Watkins Glen International, bracketed Stewart’s victory total for the entire year. He also won in Daytona, Loudon and Indianapolis.
The leader in victories actually wound up being Biffle, who collected his sixth in the final race. Edwards, Johnson and Jeff Gordon all won four. Kurt Busch won three. Younger brother — and Raybestos Rookie of the Year — Kyle Busch won twice.
The single-race winners were Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Jeremy Mayfield, Kevin Harvick, Dale Jarrett, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne. Notably absent from victory lane were Rusty Wallace, Jamie McMurray, Elliott Sadler, Joe Nemechek, Ricky Rudd, Bobby Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Robby Gordon and Sterling Marlin. Casey Mears, Brian Vickers and Jeff Burton came reasonably close.
Amazingly, Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. failed to finish in the top 10. If Stewart was the driver of the year, then certainly Edwards was the season’s biggest surprise. The 26-year-old began the season with only 13 previous Cup appearances. When he won for the first time, in the season’s fourth race, it was considered a surprise. When he made the Chase, it seemed a miracle. By the time he closed in on Stewart at the end, the astonishing had become commonplace.
Jack Roush fell short of a third straight championship with his extraordinary team, but his Ford drivers – Biffle, Edwards, Martin, Kenseth and Kurt Busch — combined to win 15 of the season’s 36 races.
Rick Hendrick’s Chevy powerhouse placed only Johnson in the Chase but piled up 10 victories. Stewart stood virtually alone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Former champion Bobby Labonte endured his second straight winless season and departed at season’s end. Next year Stewart’s teammates, Denny Hamlin and J.J. Yeley, will both be rookies.
Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd both retired at season’s end. Mark Martin had been scheduled to join them but didn’t. Roush asked the driver who has been with since 1988 to stick it out for another year, and Martin reluctantly agreed.
The season was also notable for the elimination of one familiar track, North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, and the diminution of another, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina, from two annual races to one. The beneficiaries were Phoenix and Texas, both of which hosted second races for the first time.
Jeff Gordon won his fourth Daytona 500. Stewart realized a lifelong dream by winning at Indianapolis and filled out his resume by winning for the first time at a so-called “restrictor-plate race,” the second Daytona event. Those two, both of whom honed their skills racing open-wheeled cars on the short tracks of the Midwest, are now the sport’s only full-time drivers with more than one championship.
What’s next?
No drastic changes seem likely until 2007, when NASCAR plans to switch to a new race-car design and perhaps welcome a fourth manufacturer, Toyota. A new tire-lease program and limits on testing will be hot topics in the weeks leading up to next year’s Daytona 500. Wallace and Rudd will be absent.
Kurt Busch, McMurray, Bobby Labonte, Waltrip, Dave Blaney, Jeff Green, Marlin, Ken Schrader and Scott Riggs will all be with different teams. Gordon and Earnhardt will blaze the comeback trail. The rookie crop appears strong, suggesting that there may be another Carl Edwards out there. Undoubtedly there will be plenty to write about.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home