2010 Progress Reports - Valedictorian, Joe Gibbs Racing
HUNTERSVILLE, NC - JANUARY 22: Team owner Joe Gibbs answers questions during an event at Joe Gibbs Racing January 22, 2007 in Huntersville, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
It’s the month of May and that means graduation time for students across the country. Race fans too have something to look forward to as the world’s fastest athletes are entering the apex of their 2010 season. The Indy 500, the Grand Prix of Monaco, the Coca Cola 600, and of course, All Star Weekend.
The All Star Race traditionally serves as a check point of sorts for the NASCAR season and with the many changes implemented so far, the grades are more important than ever. With one-thirds of the circuit complete and half of the regular season remaining, race teams and media are beginning to issue those grades for the 2010 season.
You can find Ranting and Raving’s grades beneath the jump.
Joe Gibbs Racing (A+)
Five Wins
Two Cars in Top 12
Cup Commander Rick Hendrick may have met his match this season. The nine-time Cup Championship-winning car owner even said so himself, last week, to media before the Pocono race.
“Looks like he passed me,” the owner of HMS said during Tuesday’s grand opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. “He didn’t [catch] me. He lapped me.”
Gibbs himself may disagree, just as he did postrace at Pocono but how can anyone disagree? What with five wins and the 11 and 18 cars in Chase contention, has any other owner been more poised to take over NASCAR’s top spot over the past two decades?
Remember that JGR has the second most championships since the Hendrick reign began in earnest in 1995, winning the 2000, 2003, and 20056 championships with Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart. If anyone has the muscle, resources and personnel to win in ‘010’, it’s Joe Gibbs Racing.
Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch are leading the Gibbs hit parade and currently rest fifth and second, respectively in Sprint Cup Standings. If the Chase were to begin today, Hamlin would lead the Chase entering the ten-race Sprint to the Cup. Hendricks’ Johnson also has three wins but if the 48 hasn’t won in six weeks and appears to have struggled since moving to the spoiler.
Even sophomore Joey Logano appears poised to challenge for legitimate checkered flags and rests 18th in points. Mark these words - a Joe Gibbs Toyota will win the Sprint Cup Championship in 2010.
The Progress Report will return tomorrow with saltatorians, Hendrick Motorsports.
Godspeed.
