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Tag: NASCAR Cup Series

  • Nemechek’s addition to Front Row Motorsports a boon for both driver and organization

    Nemechek’s addition to Front Row Motorsports a boon for both driver and organization

    As it turns out, John Hunter Nemechek’s stint as a substitute driver for Front Row Motorsports turned out to be a tryout for a possible seat in 2020, to nobody’s surprise. His performance in the last three races of 2019 was enough to net him an average finish of 23.7 (a 21st-place finish at Texas, a 27th-place at ISM Raceway, and a 23rd-place finish at Homestead), which is quite strong for a driver in his position.

    It’s obvious that FRM might not be on the level with Joe Gibbs Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing, or even Hendrick Motorsports. They ended the 2019 season with two top-fives and three top-10s among their three Cup Series entries. But for being a solid midpack team, they have pulled off more than one upset. It’s difficult to pick which of their two victories was more memorable – rookie Chris Buescher’s fog-shortened win at Pocono in 2016, or the organization’s first 1-2 finish at Talladega in 2013 with longtime FRM staple David Ragan leading teammate David Gilliland to the finish.

    They’re a consistent team prone to the occasional strong finish, and Nemechek is a consistent driver, prone to bringing his car home in one piece and earning a strong run or two. While the NASCAR world will be focusing on the A-Lister rookies (Cole Custer, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell), Nemechek may very well be a dark horse when it comes to the rookie race.

    Nemechek seems to understand his position as a rookie and could be the only rookie to act accordingly in the education sense. He knows he’s there to learn and earn respect. Of course, he also knows what’s expected of him should the opportunity for strong run present itself to him.

    “That’s my goal,” said Nemechek regarding his expectations for 2020. “Take what the car will give us and if we can increase it by a few spots, then great, but we’re not going to go out there and try to run fifth and wreck it when we have a 10th-place car. Just something that I’ve had to learn the hard way over the past couple years, but overall the opportunity with Front Row is pretty special to put my name in the rookie class with the Big 3.”

    This isn’t unlike fellow Cup driver Buescher. When Buescher ran a limited schedule for FRM in 2015, he performed on an impressive level, with zero DNFs and a best finish of 20th in six starts. Buescher went on to pilot the No. 34 entry full-time in 2016, where he scored his lone win and a Playoff appearance.

    That doesn’t mean a win, Playoff appearance, or even a Rookie of the Year award is going to be a surefire thing. Nemechek’s work is going to be cut out for him, and he may come up short. But what sets him apart is that he’s aware of this as well and still knows what’s expected of him in the long run.

    For what it’s worth, the FRM cars have historically performed well at Daytona and Talladega, with a win at Pocono and a couple of top-10s at Martinsville and Bristol to boot. Nemechek could very well earn a superspeedway win in the No. 38 and make the Playoffs just like his predecessor Buescher if not capitalizing off of a strong run elsewhere. But if he doesn’t, that’s fine too. He knows that the bigger picture is about learning and growing.

    Whatever happens in 2020, Nemechek’s career is at a pivotal point. He’s now a NASCAR Cup Series driver. But instead of resting on his laurels, he has a chance to learn and grow in a big way. FRM could be a springboard for Nemechek to do great things in the sport, and if he continues to keep himself in check and use this opportunity to improve, there’s every reason to belief that he will accomplish those goals.

  • Opinion: Second XFINITY title for Reddick a harbinger of what’s to come in Cup career

    Opinion: Second XFINITY title for Reddick a harbinger of what’s to come in Cup career

    To be fair, two championships in a feeder division of NASCAR doesn’t guarantee success on a higher level, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. can tell you. It’s a monumental accomplishment, sure. Every driver wants the title “NASCAR Champion” next to their name for the rest of their lives, and it’s not an easy thing to accomplish.

    That said, with the rise of Tyler Reddick to two-time XFINITY Series champion, we may be witnessing the rise of something huge. Reddick’s ability behind the wheel may make him more than just a NASCAR star, it may just make him a legend in the sport.

    He’s shown an innate ability to run well at all types of tracks; in 2019 the only kind of track he didn’t win on was a road course. Even then, in the four road courses on the schedule (Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Charlotte Roval), he finished fifth, fourth, third, and second, respectively. In the meanwhile, he won on a wide array of tracks from Charlotte and Talladega to Bristol and Homestead. This after a successful Rookie of the Year/Championship campaign in 2018 where he won at Daytona in February and Homestead in November for his only two wins of the season.

    In 2020 he’ll be making his run for RotY in the same No. 8 Chevrolet that Daniel Hemric won the award in for Richard Childress Racing. Although Hemric’s campaign was both quiet and consistent, peppered with strong runs at places like Talladega and Pocono, it happened to be too quiet. Reddick’s limited two-run Cup campaign (Daytona 500 in February, Kansas Speedway in May) in the RCR No. 31 showed a little more promise with a top-10 at Kansas. However, that’s not to say that he wasn’t having a strong run at Daytona before being involved in two major incidents, not of his doing.

    If it says something that Reddick performed like he did in an entry that wasn’t even part-time, then what will it say when his Randall Burnett-led crew (2019 XFINITY Championship-winning crew, at that) makes the jump to Cup with him? Reddick and Burnett already seem to have the Knaus/Johnson chemistry of the early 00s’, so there’s reason to believe that strong results will be showing up. It isn’t a matter of where but when.

    Talk of being legendary in the sport isn’t so far-fetched, either. Reddick isn’t flashy, he isn’t boisterous, he doesn’t really have much of a brand. He isn’t making cameo appearances on NBC sitcoms and he doesn’t have a funny podcast on Apple Podcasts. He’s got an energetic smile and an easygoing personality, though, and he’s got the ability to wheel the fire out of a race car.

    He’s much like Matt Kenseth or David Pearson in that sense. He’s not big on big talk. Instead, he prefers to let his driving speak for him, which is why he’s found so much success in NASCAR’s feeder divisions. He won in the K&N Pro Series, he won in the Gander Outdoors Truck Series, and he’s won two XFINITY Series championships.

    Now he’s facing down a full-time ride with Richard Childress Racing in their No. 8 Caterpillar Chevy, and the pieces are in place for Reddick and Burnett to make the most of their rookie year. If Reddick’s performance in the XFINITY Series is any indicator, we may be looking at the rise of some of the rawest talent in years to ever strap into a Cup Series stock car.

  • Finley Factor: Is This What We Really Want?

    Finley Factor: Is This What We Really Want?

    On Monday evening, NASCAR held a press conference that announced dramatic changes to its race and points format.

    Races will now be split into three different segments, with the top 10 drivers in the running order receiving regular season points at the end of the first two segments. There are now playoff points, which will carry through to the playoffs. No more Chase name, now it’s just “the playoffs” (Which, granted, is a good thing).

    Brian France said at the beginning of the press conference, “I’m proud of the unprecedented collaboration from our industry stakeholders, each of whom had a common goal – strengthening the sport for our fans.”

    Is this what we really want as NASCAR fans?

    It wasn’t a desperately needed change. No current race fans were clamoring for scheduled cautions and points being rewarded mid-race, but that’s what they got. Regular season points have become more irrelevant to the season at large due to how many are awarded now, and adding in playoff points just makes a convoluted system even more convoluted.

    The saddest part of Monday evening’s press conference was that the goal of these “enhancements,” appealing to a younger, casual audience, will not succeed because of constant fundamental changes to the sport.

    Casual fans like to sit down on any given Sunday and watch fast cars go around in circles. They don’t want to listen to commentators try and calculate where their favorite needs to finish at in this segment relative to another driver in order to make it to the next round of the playoffs. Simplicity is the key of the game.

    One thing I like about the current playoff system is that simplicity. You win a race, you’re (practically) in the playoffs. You win a race in the playoffs, you advance to the next round. You make it through and win at Homestead, you win the championship. It’s that simple. If NASCAR could have held off from fundamentally changing the sport, in a few years fans would grow accustomed to the change and the fan base would more than likely be on the upswing again.

    But coming together every couple of years and fundamentally changing aspects of the sport has probably done more harm to NASCAR than just about any other factor. It reaches a point where a NASCAR fan has to really be involved and study the sport to get the maximum enjoyment out of it instead of just tuning in on Sunday.

    By the time most fans have figured out the sport, a change in the points system, car template, whatever, here comes NASCAR making a huge change to the fundamentals of the sport. If a fan of football in the 1970s went into a coma and came out of it last week to watch Sunday’s NFL games, the game may have changed dramatically (as far as the action on the field), but the fundamentals of the sport would still be intact enough to where said fan could keep up. Every game has four quarters for 15 minutes apiece, the basic team make-up is the exact same, the best team in the NFC faces the best team in the AFC to determine the world champion in the Super Bowl, etc. If the same were to occur to a NASCAR fan from the ’80s, it would be so substantially different to where said fan would have to spend hours online trying to make heads or tails of it.

    NASCAR brass will point to all manner of excuses as to why the ratings are falling and grandstands are being torn down, such as the weather or the wide assortment of entertainment options or the economy or whatever. The reality of the situation is that if a product is good enough and familiar enough, there will be fan demand regardless of the situation. I’m a big Green Bay Packers fan. The NFL routinely sells out games in the snow or in single digit degree weather at Lambeau Field because there is still a demand for the product. There was never a noticeable problem for the NFL during the 2008 financial collapse like there was for NASCAR. Part of that may be due to the over-reliance on corporate sponsorship, but that wouldn’t explain declining attendance and TV rating numbers in the years since.

    Some may say I’m comparing NASCAR too much to the NFL or other prominent stick-and-ball leagues. NASCAR itself has been trying to evolve into a variation of these sports for years now. If they want to make NASCAR like these other leagues, they need to be compared to them. It isn’t a one-way street.

    These changes aren’t going to change much in the grand scheme of things due to the Chase structure. The best teams will rise and perform in the Chase as they have for the last four years. But these “enhancements” serve as a quintessential example of unneeded NASCAR change. If these are the last major changes for the next 10 or so years, that would be great. But at the rate NASCAR constantly changes its structure, I wouldn’t bet on it.

    Watering a plant five times a day or moving it out of its pot isn’t going to make a flower bloom. It takes time, patience, and stability for it to bloom. Let’s hope NASCAR figures this out someday.