Three Veterans Aiming for Career-Defining Seasons in 2012
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I realize that this is slightly taboo but I wasn’t that excited for Friday’s NASCAR Hall of Fame ceremony. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the inductees’ contributions to the sport, because I do.
It’s just that I’m beyond excited for the 2012 season to get under way.
We’re exactly one month away from dropping the green flag on the Daytona 500 and there’s a wealth of fantastic new stories to tell this year. There’s more energy toward writing these untold stories than reliving many of the old ones.
One such story to keep an eye on once we get to Speedweeks is several top-tier teams who are seeking rebound seasons following a winless 2011.
Read about these teams after the jump. Hint: All three were involved in the only accident of Daytona preseason testing.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing - Chip Ganassi hasn’t sugarcoated it. His teams have to rebound off a disastrous 2011 season that saw both the no. 1 and 42 cars struggle and miss the Chase for the Championship. McMurray’s three-win 2010 earns him a mulligan for what occurred in 2011.
But not Montoya.
The 2012 season will go a long way in determining the stock car legacy of Juan Pablo Montoya. The last four seasons have seen the former Indy 500 race winner add road courses, flat tracks and short tracks to his stock car skill set. He made a Chase for the Championship in 2009 and even proved himself a more-than-adequate drafter at plate tracks.
Chip Ganassi enhanced his race team during the offseason, hiring veteran car chief Chris Heroy from Hendrick Motorsports to serve as crew chief in hopes of returning Montoya to victory lane. Montoya is a proven commodity at Sonoma and Watkins Glen as well as flat tracks like Pocono and Indianapolis.
Montoya has even begun to tame intermediate tracks like Atlanta and Fontana . If some of that success begins to parlay over the remainder of the intermediate schedule, Montoya could be a championship contender in the second half of the season.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., Hendrick Motorsports - Junior is far from the hot seat but at 37 years old, he must dictate what type of career he’ll be remembered for.
From 1999-2006, Earnhardt averaged three wins a season peaking in a career-best 2006 where he grabbed six wins and finished fifth in the championship. His career ever since has been like night after the day.
Earnhardt’s final season at Dale Earnhardt Inc. resulted in no wins, 9 DNFs and just seven top 5s. His move to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 brought great anticipation and excitement but he’s won just one race for the organization, a fuel-mileage victory at Michigan in 2008. The next two seasons brought Earnhardt championship finishes of 25th and 21st before backing-into the Chase in 2011.
From engineering changes to crew chief swaps, Hendrick Motorsports has provided everything at their disposal to crown Dale Earnhardt Jr. a champion at the Sprint Cup level. Last season was a huge step forward for Junior, who was paired with veteran crew chief Steve Letarte on the way to 12 top-10s and a final ranking of seventh, ahead of championship-caliber drivers such as Gordon, Hamlin and both Busch brothers.
Earnhardt Jr. will be a superstar until the day he retires but 2012 may decide his legacy.
Jeff Burton, Richard Childress Racing - Jeff Burton never really found his footing in 2011. ‘The Mayor’ was involved in the big multi-car wreck in the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished that race in 33rd.
He would never recover.
He followed Daytona with a pair of 36th-place finishes and didn’t record a top-10 until the season’s 22nd race at Watkins Glen. He spent the entire season playing catch-up and ultimately finished the campaign ranked 20th.
Richard Childress Racing has a deep history of responding to difficult seasons with a successful follow-up. In 1992, Dale Earnhardt Sr. won just one race and recorded only six top-5s. He finished that season ranked 12th while the closest championship battle in NASCAR history unfolded above him.
The RCR no. 3 team took home 10 victories on the way to earning Earnhardt’s sixth and seventh Cup Series championships in 1993 and 1994.
Childress suffered a similar setback in 2009 when all three teams, including the flagship no. 29 team of Kevin Harvick failed to make the Chase for the Championship. Childress reorganized his teams and has seen a multitude of success ever since.
Harvick has recorded back-to-back third place championship finishes while Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard has visited victory lane on several combined occasions. With one less team to support in Bowyer’s departure to Michael Waltrip Racing, Burton’s renaissance is all but guaranteed.
But can it result in his first Sprint Cup championship? Tell us in the comments section below.
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