Trouble in Turn2

If you watch NASCAR on TV, you might think there are only 12 cars in the race. Not true, there are actually 43 stories to follow. Check out what happened to the non-Chasers at the season’s final race.

• 9. Mark Martin Martin had 11 top tens in 24 races. Last season he had 15 top 10’s with a full schedule.

• 10. David Ragan Not a bad way to end the year. A Busch pole, a strong Busch run before wrecking and a top ten in Cup. Watch out in ‘08.

• 11. David Stremme Hey, nice run kid. Now clean out your locker and find a new Cup team. Stremme isn’t an elite driving prospect, but he wasn’t given much of a chance either.

• 12. Dave Blaney Another strong run for Blaney (95.8 driver rating), Toyota’s best driver all year. He’s the only driver that raced a Camry in 2007 that’s locked inside the top 35 for 2008.

• 13. Greg Biffle Apparently Jack Roush gave Biffle’s Homestead car to Matt Kenseth. Greg’s been Punked!

• 14. Jamie McMurray “Get me a bunny… Or a top five.”

• 15. Juan Pablo Montoya When Montoya and Newman were running 4th and 5th, who else was waiting for a wreck? Alas.

• 16. Casey Mears The final race for the #25 car that some believe is cursed. True or not, Mears had his best season to date.

• 17. Dale Jarrett A nice finish for Jarrett, his best effort of the season. He scored his best two finishes in the last four races.

• 18. Ryan Newman Spun out after running in the top 10 the majority of the night. His winless drought is now 2+ seasons.

• 21. Ricky Rudd One of the quietest exits in NASCAR history. For a veteran with 906 career starts they could have at least given him 5 minutes prior to the race.

• 22. Reed Sorenson An anonymous result to cap a disappointing season. Sure it was a sophomore slump, but remember that he’ll only turn 22 in February.

• 23. Bobby Labonte On the track, it was a disappointment, but Labonte is class off the track. It seems like he and Betty Crocker have a new charity effort every week. Check out his latest one.

• 24. Kasey Kahne As the ancient proverb suggests, “if you can’t get attention on the track, shove a security guard.”

• 25. David Reuttimann I hope BK doesn’t return to the car, because I struggled all season to associate Burger King with the gold and black paint scheme. Domino’s was simple.

• 26. Jeremy Mayfield, 27. Robby Gordon Can anyone confirm that Mayfield and Gordon actually ran in the race? I think they kicked in Gordon’s trailer and then hopped into line during the last caution. Prove me wrong.

• 28. Bill Elliott I hope Elliott can get the #21 car into the top 35 next year just so Marcos Ambrose can race at the Cup level.

• 29. Tony Raines Hall of Fame Racing finished 26th in the points last year, 25th this year. Ladies and Gentleman, your 2031 Winston Cup Champion (yeah, they switch back to Winston in 2029).

• 31. JJ Yeley The #18 car apparently had a slow leak on a tire. That’s a pretty good illustration of their season too.

• 32. David Gilliland Had a nice run going until he got loose and wrecked. A nice run was desperately needed for Yates and the #38 team.

• 33. Sterling Marlin Not the final season Marlin likely envisioned. I think we’ll see him back in 2008 for at least Daytona if not more races.

• 34. Kyle Petty The good news is Petty is locked into the top 35 again. Will that begin a transition out of the driver’s seat?

• 35. Paul Menard Menard was the only driver with at least 30 starts to not score a top ten.

• 36. Dale Earnhardt Jr Sometimes you just have to throw your hands up and say whatever.

• 37. Sam Hornish Jr For the first 100 laps Hornish must have been thinking, “This isn’t too bad.” Then he scraped the wall four times. Yes it’s a tough transition to stock cars.

• 38. Elliott Sadler Post race quote, “It’s been a long season for everyone and not the kind of season we expected when we went to Daytona in February. We have work to do this winter. We just have to put this year behind us and get to work on 2008. “

• 40. Patrick Carpentier At least Carpentier qualified for all three of his Cup entries. He is replacing Scott Riggs, who had 5 DNQ’s in 2007.

• 41. Johnny Sauter Sauter got loose and wrecked in his final start for Haas-CNC Music Factory. He might have to settle for Nationwide action in 2008.

• 42. Brian Vickers Checked up to avoid Sauter and wound up in Carpentier’s nose.

• 43. Johnny Benson Blew an engine so he could continue celebrating his Truck Series win.

Coming tomorrow, awards for the best and worst of the 2007 season.