Sprint Cup 2012: Race 21 - Time to Step Up or Step Out

Juan Pablo Montoya won the poll for tomorrow’s running of the Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway. Montoya’s accomplishment is a much needed bright spot for a driver and team that have had virtually nothing to cheer about in the 2012 season. Montoya sits outside the top 20 in points, 21^st position with only two top tens so far this season. Meanwhile his teammate, Jaime McMurray, is only slightly more fortunate standing in 19^th position with three top tens. It’s pretty embarrassing when the Earnhardt/Ganassi team’s one highlight is that of Juan Pablo Montoya’s car zooming out of control smashing into a jet dryer at the beginning of a caution period in February’s Daytona 500, not the kind of explosive results a team is proud to display.

A story line worth pursuing as the season has reached the decisive stretch for chase contenders for the season is the mediocre performance of Jack Roush’s Ford entries. Last week, departing senior Ford driver, Matt Kenseth, fell from leading the points and has not been a factor late in races recently. Greg Biffle is in the top ten with a victory, but Carl Edwards, last year’s championship prospect needs wins languishing outside the top ten in points for this most tepid season. Ford has two victories, Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 win and Greg Biffle’s win way back on April 14^th in Texas. While Kenseth holds 2^nd place and Biffle 3^rd with both having achieved nine top 5’s, points racing does not yield championships in the Chase Era.

Move away from the front line teams, it sadly looks like quality Sprint Cup teams are dying of attrition as there are at least ten entries that simply have no place in the top tier of the sport. Tomorrow’s race could set the record for the most entries who are showing up for nothing more than a casual Sunday ride and at least a $60,000 pay day. From 30^th on down, there are only four entries that who can be counted on to at least try to finish the race no matter how marginal their entry is. Brad Keselowski (31^st), David Ragan (32^nd), Travis Kvapil (37^th) and Bobby Labonte (39^th) are there to EARN a payout. The others should just as well not even pull up to the starting line and play Rock/Paper/Scissors for taking home their NASCAR Welfare awards.

HEY NASCAR, YOU WANT TO ADD SOME EXCITEMENT???

Reduce the starting field to around thirty cars. Have teams compete like hell to get in the show, and require all teams to be resourced with adequate crew and other necessities to run the whole race.

STARTING LINE UP:

POS		CAR		DRIVER	MAKE		SPONSOR		SPEED
1		42		Juan Montoya	Chevrolet		Target		176.043
2		11		Denny Hamlin	Toyota		FedEx Ground		175.795
3		27		Paul Menard	Chevrolet		Menards / Serta		175.627
4		5		Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet		Farmers Insurance		175.439
5		9		Marcos Ambrose	Ford		Stanley		175.432
6		51		Kurt Busch	Chevrolet		Phoenix Construction Services		175.339
7		17		Matt Kenseth	Ford		Zest		175.169
8		88		Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet		Diet Mountain Dew / AMP Energy		175.131
9		39		Ryan Newman	Chevrolet		Haas Automation / Quicken Loans		175.097
10		48		Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet		Lowe's		175.067
11		78		Regan Smith	Chevrolet		Furniture Row / Farm American		175.036
12		16		Greg Biffle	Ford		3M		174.964
13		43		Aric Almirola	Ford		Automotive Lift Institute		174.805
14		20		Joey Logano	Toyota		The Home Depot		174.795
15		56		Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota		NAPA Auto Parts		174.618
16		1		Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet		Bass Pro Shops / Allstate		174.561
17		99		Carl Edwards	Ford		Fastenal		174.432
18		55		Mark Martin	Toyota		Aaron's Dream Machine		174.419
19		15		Clint Bowyer	Toyota		5-hour Energy		174.314
20		18		Kyle Busch	Toyota		M&M's		174.277
21		29		Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet		Budweiser		174.213
22		83		Landon Cassill	Toyota		Burger King / Dr Pepper		174.162
23		31		Jeff Burton	Chevrolet		Enersys / Odyssey Battery		173.92
24		10		David Reutimann	Chevrolet		TMone.com		173.571
25		22		Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge		Shell / Pennzoil		173.524
26		38		David Gilliland	Ford		ModSpace		173.41
27		24		Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet		Drive to End Hunger		173.3
28		14		Tony Stewart	Chevrolet		Office Depot "Back to School"		173.197
29		13		Casey Mears	Ford		GEICO		172.864
30		119		Mike Bliss	Toyota		Plinker Tactical		172.619
31		2		Brad Keselowski	Dodge		Miller Lite		172.371
32		34		David Ragan	Ford		Taco Bell		172.038
33		23		Scott Riggs	Chevrolet		North Texas Pipe		171.917
34		26		Josh Wise*	Ford		MDS Transport		171.913
35		37		J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet		Max Q Motorsports		171.808
36		30		David Stremme	Toyota		Inception Motorsports		171.638
37		93		Travis Kvapil	Toyota		Burger King / Dr Pepper		171.246
38		87		Joe Nemechek	Toyota		AM / FM Energy Stoves		170.804
39		47		Bobby Labonte	Toyota		Scott Products		170.658
40		191		Reed Sorenson	Ford		Plinker Tactical		170.581
41		32		Jason White+	Ford		Zaxby's		167.876
42		36		Tony Raines+	Chevrolet		@TMone / CRM Hiring Veterans		-
43		98		Mike Skinner	Ford		TRAQM.com		170.516
Did Not Qualify
44		33		Stephen Leicht*	Chevrolet		Little Joes A		170.487
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