Browse > Home / ARCA Remax Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Richard Childress Racing, Roush Racing, Scott Speed, The Rock, Tony Stewart / The Growth Potential of ARCA’s Young Drivers

The Growth Potential of ARCA’s Young Drivers

User Avatar

by Matt Mercer, Special To Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie

I'm the writer of The Catfish Show NASCAR Blog, which you can access through the links on the right. Follow me on Twitter: @mattmercer

May 9, 2008 1:10 pm CDT 4 Comments

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!


Joey Logano burnout

Yours truly made the journey to Rockingham last Sunday to witness history, the return of racing to the rechristened Rockingham Speedway. While I hope the race is shortened a bit heading into future years (312 laps is too many for these cars, 250 would be excellent – and still longer that most) I hope it will still attract this sort of young gun all-star field it did this year. In that light, based on my own personal observations from the infield, the garage, and pit road (hey, this new gig is awesome!) I am ranking the top young drivers in the race that I see going on to bigger opportunities down the road. Given that this race was contested on a track that hadn’t seen official racing in years, I feel it was a good measure to see who could withstand the pressure and who can manage a race the best. Here we go:

Honorable mentions: Matt Carter, Billy Leslie, Scott Speed, John Wes Townley

Each of the four had circumstances that kept them from my top 5 list, be it accidents (Speed) or early trouble (Leslie), or simply not running as well as the top 5 (Carter, Townley). Speed may have a Cup ride in his future, but he went out early, so he isn’t on my top 5. Leslie and Carter ran well early in the race, but faded as the race went on. Townley, in my opinion, is Todd Kluever with three names. He may get pushed beyond his talent level, and won’t last.

5. Matt Hawkins – I didn’t know much about Hawkins before the race Sunday, but he looked like a driver who can make the most out his equipment during this race. He seemed to be driving a smart race, and didn’t bang up his car so that he would fall late in the race. Hawkins looks like he may need a little more seasoning, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him advance within the next year.

4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Stenhouse is a talent, but the fact he drives for Roush could hurt his growth potential unless he signs with another team. He is making a solid transition to stock car racing, and I believe he will be going Truck racing for Roush at some point soon. But I don’t see him sticking with Roush long-term, simply because Colin Braun is ahead of him and a Cup ride may be out of the question. Here’s an interesting scenario, how about Stenhouse ending up with his open-wheel owner, Tony Stewart, in a few years?

3. Michael Annett – I’ll be the first to admit, I wasn’t sure Annett was everything he was billed to be simply because I hadn’t seen enough of him to make a judgment. That’s out the window now, as I became very impressed with him during the race, particularly how he worked his way into the top 5 and really got better as the race progressed. I think Annett could step into a Truck right now and compete for top 10s.

2. Austin Dillon – What gives Dillon the tiebreaker over Annett in my mind is Dillon just turned 18 days before the Rockingham race. I had done a bit of research into Dillon prior to the race, most of his notoriety had been his use of the #3 – some don’t like it, but those people never believe anyone except Dale Earnhardt drove with that number. I think it’s cool that he is using it, as a way to honor his grandfather’s underappreciated career as a driver. Dillon won at Greenville Pickens Speedway in the Camping World East Series a few weeks ago, and has been a force on the dirt tracks in the southeast as well. I would be interested to see if he drives an RCR Nationwide car next season, once he gets a little more experience. He’ll be hard-pressed to rise as fast as the number one driver, but certainly has the opportunity if he possesses the talent. I think he just might.

1. Joey Logano – Seriously, you expected anything else? The kid’s the real deal. Leading 257 of the 312 laps was insane, and it felt like he led even more. Visually, that car was flying around the track… prompting a running joke between myself and my buddy to wave bye periodically. I got my trusty cell phone and used the stopwatch function, and almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Logano at some points was running almost a second faster than second place, and the top lead I clocked him with was 20.6 seconds… when he nearly lapped the field. Of course, it helped that Denny Hamlin’s Cup team was on hand to pit the car, the #20 Nationwide team was on hand to lend moral support, the Venturini team was looking like they just won the lottery. An interesting side note to that is seeing Wendy Venturini not stray far from that pit stall. Still, bringing this back to Logano, Gibbs has to run this kid in every Nationwide race from Dover through Homestead. I know I’ve heard something about 18 races, but if at all possible, it needs to be more. If it becomes a legitimate possibility that he steps up to Cup for 2009, that will only help. I’ll go out on a further limb, and says Gibbs brings out an R&D car this year for Logano to run, most likely at Richmond, as he has done before. It’s easy to see what Mark Martin saw years ago, and why Gibbs pushed so hard to sign him. Soon, the rest of the racing world will see as well.

So, there is my list. Agree? Disagree?

Photo credit: ARCARacing.com

Filed under: ARCA Remax Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Dale Earnhardt, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing, Joey Logano, Mark Martin, NASCAR, Nationwide Series, Richard Childress Racing, Roush Racing, Scott Speed, The Rock, Tony Stewart 

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

Comments

4 Responses to “The Growth Potential of ARCA’s Young Drivers”

  1. RevJim on May 10th, 2008 6:37 am

    Hawkins won his first ARCA race at Iowa Speedway a few weeks ago, and that was his first time in an ARCA car. He is impressive.
    Stenhouse driving for Stewart in NASCAR isn’t too far fetched. Reading between the lines of what Smoke, and the Gibbs’ have been saying, it is very likely that Smoke will have a Truck Series team as early as next year. It will be supported by JGR as part of the deal to keep Stewart with that team until he retires. Stewart has also expressed interest in getting another of his open wheel drivers, Kraig Kinser into a NASCAR ride. It would make sense for him to have a Truck series team with Stenhouse and Kinser as drivers, then work up from there.
    Gibbs should have a fourth Cup team next year to develop Logano, but they will let him have a full year in Nationwide before they start him as a full time rookie in Cup. They will share the ride with somebody like Leffler, and put Logano in it for less than seven races next year.
    Okay, I’m not psychic, this is just what makes sense to me, and I do not think it is too far-fetched. It’s pure speculation, but that is what Tom Bowles does and he gets paid for it.

  2. User Avatar Charlie Turner on May 10th, 2008 2:11 pm

    He didn’t show it much at The Rock, but Justin Allgaier would be at least an honorable mention. Winner at Salem. Near winner the following week at Iowa Speedway. Justin is tough. Nice post about the ARCA young guns Matt. The ARCA Re/MAX Series is under rated and under publicized. Run-a-ways like the C 500 are the exception, not the rule.

  3. RevJim on May 12th, 2008 4:24 am

    I know what you mean Charlie. I was reading about Saturday’s race at Kentucky Speedway, and it looked like it was an incredible race. The ARCA young guns are being developed the right way, and when they hit NASCAR it could topple the starus quo.

  4. Joey Logano a Real Gamer at Nasville Superspeedway | Bench Racing With Steve and Charlie on April 13th, 2009 9:33 am

    [...] Logano won in the ARCA series in 2008 on his way to NASCAR’s top series in 2009, but the road has been rocky at best throughout his rookie series.  The season started with a crash out at Daytona and has never righted itself since. [...]

Got something to say?

Did you know you can log in with your Thunder Lounge account, and have your personal avatar and site link available when you comment at On Pit Row?

Don't have an account yet? Sign-up for free.





Powered by WP Hashcash

March Madness

Play the Rattles from the Catch Can contest

Blogroll

Fantasy Sports Partners

Racing Websites

ON PIT ROW at RaceTalkRadio
Backstretch Boys: 30% Off New CD!
Jayski's: See what the buzz is about.

We've got your game.

Advertisement