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Four NASCAR drivers you think should win, but don’t

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by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

March 21, 2008 2:23 pm UTC 6 Comments

Jamie McMurray at 2008 Food City 500The pressure is off for NASCAR fantasy players this week.  If you participate in a Sprint Cup Series fantasy game, you get an extra week to figure out your best picks to win your NASCAR fantasy league since the Cup Series is on Easter break. 

Perhaps now is the time to plot your ultimate winning strategy.  Or line up your latest wild ass guesses, which is what I’m planning to do.  For me, putting too much thought into this whole thing hurts my head.  But that doesn’t stop me.  In fact it got me to thinking about why certain drivers – having all of the requisite tools and pedigree – just can’t close the deal.  At least not as often as it seems they should.

Of the current crop of Cup competitors, Casey Mears and Jamie McMurray are the two that jump out at me.  Both drivers are approaching 200 starts in Cup rides ranging from pretty good to top-shelf.

McMurray won in his second start ever after taking over for an injured Sterling Marlin- who could very well make this list too  – and then went win-less, through the rest of his Ganassi career and high profile drives for Roush Racing, until 2007′s summer Daytona race. 

Mears broke the ice last year with his first win, but had nothing to show for his Ganassi seat time and, I’m betting, not enough to keep the Hendrick franchise happy much longer.

Those are winning percentages along the lines of .5 to 1%.  If that criteria is followed, I hate it but I have to put Kyle Petty in here too.  Eight wins in 819 starts makes winning a rare enough occurrence for someone who, at times has been in top equipment.  Sorry Kyle, it just seems like you should have been first more than this.

Picking four was tougher that I thought it would be.  I keep wanting to go back to New Zealander and 60′s-70′s F1 driver Chris Amon.  Amon drove for the best teams and was acknowledged by peers and journalist’s alike as  one of the best for more than a decade.  But he never won a race.   If I pick him, I’ll never hear the end of it from Steve – who thinks I live totally in the past – or Marc, who actually does.

No, unfortunately I’ll have to call recent ON PIT ROW guest and genuine good guy, Jeremy Mayfield out as my fourth enigma.  Big contracts with top teams (allegedly at least) Penske Racing and Evernham Motorsports produced just 5 wins in 425 Cup starts.  Mayfield did qualify for the Chase a couple times though, which ought to count for something.

Luke has an interesting take at the Thunder Lounge on the current crop of Rookie of the Year candidates, and how NASCAR’s goofy qualifying rules can screw with that race.  I just wonder if any of the four ROY favorites will make a list like mine in five or ten years.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Filed under: Casey Mears, Chip Ganassi Racing, Evernham Motorsports, Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Jeremy Mayfield, NASCAR Fantasy Gaming, On Pit Row The Fastest Two Hours on Radio, Roush Racing, Sprint Cup Series, The Pettys 

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Comments

6 Responses to “Four NASCAR drivers you think should win, but don’t”

  1. mike on March 21st, 2008 5:29 pm

    I would also add JJ Yeley to the list. 83 Cup starts, 117 Busch/Nationwide starts, 1 truck start and zero NASCAR wins. Of course he probably won’t make it near 200 Cup starts without an upturn in production.

  2. User Avatar Charlie Turner on March 21st, 2008 7:55 pm

    Mike, I did consider JJ. I didn’t look at Busch/Nationwide/Truck stats in making my choices, but doing so certainly is valid. Had I looked at those other NASCAR series, the four that I chose, it wouldn’t have helped my four to look much better. But if you look at total racing resumes of all five of these guys, Yeley at least DOMINATED at something – USAC sprint and midget racing – and won a bunch of races somewhere. I don’t have the stats in front of me for Petty in Busch, but I don’t remember a bunch of wins. I’ll check it out. I know that neither Mears nor McMurray won much before their big breakthroughs into Cup. I’d have to check on Mayfield too, but I don’t believe he was dominant in any series. JJ was.

  3. User Avatar Marc on March 21st, 2008 8:12 pm

    “or Marc, who actually does.”

    So what’s wrong with living in the past?! My DSL bill here in the outskirts of the modern world is in the past at about $2.50 a month.

  4. Joshua Lobdell on March 22nd, 2008 11:08 am

    I have always thought off Jamie McMurray and Casey Mears as overrated. I don’t know why they just get a lot of hype for really below average results.

    Somethins curios just came to my mind of these four three of them drove the #42 car for Felix Sabbates or/and Chip Ganassi. that is kind of weird. They were all okdrivers in that car as well and in fact Kyle’s last win came in that car. Very weird.

    The thing with Maayfield is his attitude gets in his way. He had a flap with penske over at the 12 car, ran his mouth far to often while in #19 car. I thought last season with Bill Davis would have checked his ego and attitude but i don’t see any evidence of that. Haas has the formula and probably the drivers to win races, but I don’t see that happening at the moment. Hopefully I am wrong since more winners makes the sport more exciting to watch.

  5. Tim Zaegel on March 23rd, 2008 8:59 pm

    Charlie, for the most part, I can agree with the four drivers you’ve selected. McMurray looked very promising early on when he was with Ganassi, but it’s no big secret that the chemistry just hasn’t been there with him & Roush. Mears will get a few wins eventually, I’m sure, but right now I can’t imagine that it’s easy to do that when you’re the clear cut number four team in your organization, even if it is Hendrick. Mayfield’s a genuine prick off the track, so I’m more than happy to lump him into this category, and I always thought he was overrated.

    The problem with Petty is that I think it’s been a very, very long time since anyone thought that Kyle might win races. For years now, his big focus has been to stay inside the top-35. I would have actually selected Elliott Sadler (3 wins in 384 Cup starts) or Michael Waltrip (4 wins in 845 Cup starts) as drivers that I actually EXPECT to win that don’t.

  6. Joshua Lobdell on March 23rd, 2008 10:09 pm

    Wow Tim Elliott Sadler is a great pick I thought for sure when I seen that cat go 100 plus laps on them tires to win at Bristol that he was the next choosen one.

    I guess a big part of that is the implosion of Robert Yates racing, I cannot remember a time when a premier team fell so quickly, or relatively quickly.

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