Clint Bowyer's championship run was surprising to many.
1. 07-Clint Bowyer:
Several times throughout the 2006 season Clint Bowyer displayed flashes of unlimited potential. So it came as a surprise to no one when he won a race and qualified for the Chase for the Championship in his sophomore season. What was staggering was the fact that Bowyer was the only driver within the same zip code as Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon with only a handful of races left in the 2007 season. Not Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, nor Jeff Burton could keep up with the Hendrick Motorsports dynamic duo. However, the 28 year old driver from Emporia, Kansas kept Johnson and Gordon within reach until a loose wheel at Texas knocked him out of striking distance.
Bowyer’s sheer dominance at New Hampshire in September only verified that his Chase for the Championship berth was warranted. What a way to win your first Nextel Cup race. Many will argue that Bowyer should have won at Kansas as well when race leader Greg Biffle ran out of gas and slowed considerably while the field was crossing the finish line under caution.
2006- 0 wins, 17th in the Nextel Cup championship standings
2007- 1 win, 3rd in the Nextel Cup championship standings
2. 1-Martin Truex Jr:
It is not as if Martin Truex Jr was a total flop in his rookie season in NASCAR, but he did underachieve following his two successive Busch Series championships in 2004 and 2005. Like Bowyer, Truex Jr showed steady improvement as the 2006 Nextel Cup season drew to a close. Still, very few expected Truex Jr to be one of the twelve drivers competing in the Chase for the Championship while established drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle, and Kasey Kahne stood on the outside looking in. And with the impending departure of Dale Earnhardt Jr from DEI, Truex Jr is now the flagship driver in that organization.
Truex Jr won his first Cup race at Dover in June by spanking the field of 43. He pulled away from Ryan Newman and won by some 7-plus seconds.
2006- 0 wins, 19th in Nextel Cup championship standings
2007- 1 win, 11th in Nextel Cup championship standings
3. 42-Juan Pablo Montoya:
When Juan Pablo Montoya opted for the open wheel to stock car conversion, it was sure to be an arduous task. Only the naïve fans believed that Montoya would become an instant star in NASCAR. However, the Colombian native was not too bad for a guy who had driven strictly open wheel cars his entire professional racing career. Montoya beat out Paul Menard, David Ragan, and David Reutimann, all drivers with much more stock car experience, for the Rookie of the Year honors. And he did not just beat them, he won by a comfortable margin; 24 points over Ragan to be precise.
Montoya may have ruffled a few feathers along the way, none more so than Kevin Harvick, but his rookie season was relatively impressive. He won the Busch Series event at Mexico City and the Cup race at Infineon four months later. Montoya finished the year with three top fives, and six top tens. Perhaps if he would have been a tad less aggressive on several occasions, those numbers may have been beefed up a little more. Montoya finished 20th in the final Nextel Cup championship standings.
4. Hendrick Motorsports:
It was not surprising that a Hendrick Motorsports driver won the championship and that the organization won an abundance of races, but to win 18 of 36 races was astonishing indeed. In baseball terminology, they batted .500. Jimmie Johnson reeled off ten wins, Jeff Gordon won six, and Kyle Busch and Casey Mears recorded one win a piece. With so many competitive teams such as Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Penske Racing, dominance to that magnitude was certainly not anticipated. Hendrick Motorsports poured more resources and testing into the Car of Tomorrow and were clearly several steps ahead of the competition once the new cars rolled on to the track. As a group, Hendrick Motorsports won the first five races in which the Car of Tomorrow was used. And to add to the unambiguous ascendancy, Hendrick Motorsports boasted three drivers in the top five of the final Nextel Cup championship standings.
Overall, Hendrick Motorsports posted 18 wins, 57 top fives, 94 top tens, and 12 poles.
5. 01-Mark Martin:
When Mark Martin announced that he was reducing his workload for the 2007 season, and to drive for an organization (Ginn Racing, formerly MB2 Motorsports) that had not won a race since 2004, most of us assumed that he would perform at mid-pack level at best. Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte were competitive when they decided to run a partial schedule; however, the competitiveness quickly faded once they entered into part-time duty. Additionally, Elliott and Labonte drove cars fielded by Evernham Motorsports and Hendrick Motorsports.
Martin began the season by nearly winning the Daytona 500, only losing by inches to Kevin Harvick, and followed that up with four consecutive top ten finishes. In fact, Martin was leading the championship standings after five races. Still, Martin kept his word and did not run for the championship. As the season progressed, Martin’s performance slowed a little; however, he recorded 5 top fives, and 11 top tens in only 24 starts. Despite sitting out twelve races, Martin finished 27th in the championship standings, which happened to be higher than seven drivers that had 30 or more starts.
In August, Ginn Racing was absorbed by Dale Earnhardt Inc, hence, Martin was added to the DEI driver roster.
honorable mention: Casey Mears, Jamie McMurray
