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.

Chase this, Chase that. What about the other 72% of the field? What are they, David Gilliland’s occasional sponsor Pedigree brand chopped liver?

• 3. Reed Sorenson: Sorenson ran in the top most of the day and kept inching forward. By the end he was positioned in the top five to capitalize on the frenzied finish.

• 9. Kasey Kahne: After qualifying 4th, it looked like he might go backwards quickly, but he stayed in the top ten all day.

• 10. Brian Vickers: Avoided the carnage to score his fifth top ten. Imagine if he could make more than 60% of the races.

• 11. Michael Waltrip: Mikey is getting the last laugh this year. In the last four races he has a pole, a top ten and an average finish of 16.

• 12. Casey Mears: He could finish 43rd every week and his stock would probably still rise in the eyes of incoming crew chief Alan Gustafson. Compared to the exiting Kyle Busch, Mears looks pretty rosy.

• 13. Kyle Petty: Petty has finished in the top 20 in three of the last four Atlanta races. Leading a lap also helped build a little cushion on the other cars near the top 35 mark.

• 14. Elliott Sadler: The progress is slower than the #9 car, but the team is coming around. I think Sadler will win the pole at Texas. No reason, but why not?

• 16. AJ Allmendinger: As the rookie with the steepest challenge entering 2007, Allmendinger has come a long way. Not only did he score his third lead lap finish, but he also led the first lap of his career.

• 17. Ricky Rudd: I don’t think his car was on camera all day, but in typical, anonymous, workmanlike fashion, Rudd finished on the lead lap.

• 18. Bill Elliott: Elliott has done a good job to stretch his past champion provisionals to last the whole year. He has three left, ensuring the Wood Brothers will make the remaining races in 2007.

• 19. Dale Jarrett: Best qualifying effort (3rd) leads to his best finish in 2007. It took 33 races to score his first top 20. That means he’s on pace to win a race sometime in 2010.

• 21. Robby Gordon: Padding works better when it stays inside the car.

• 22. Greg Biffle: Biffle radioed on lap 28 that they were done, implying a blown engine. It was obviously something else (water in the fuel was one theory) as he stayed on the lead lap until the end .

• 23. Tony Raines: It’s DLP, it’s the mirrors. For Raines, JJ Yeley is in the mirror, and come Homestead probably his Cup career too.

• 25. Jr’s car sputtered at the drop of the green flag, setting the table for a long strange race. Going from the front to the back three times is hard work; he made 91 passes under green.

• 26. Imaginary radio chatter on lap 8: “We haven’t been great today, but we could steal a top ten by taking two tires.” Imaginary radio chatter on lap 7, “Nevermind”. McMurray is very similar to Truex in that they have a knack for catching other people’s misery.

• 27. Paul Menard: The only DEI car coming home in one piece. At least he’ll be popular with the body shop guys.

• 28. John Andretti: John Andretti raced? (come on, you were thinking it too.)

• 29. Scott Riggs: Lost a lap, got it back. Got a vibration, lost two laps. Oh how his season has gone.

• 32. Johnny Sauter: Who knew he had the power to single-handedly change the entire complexion of a race?

• 33. David Ragan: Every time I think he’s going to have a good race he cuts a tire, wrecks or in the case of Atlanta, both. For next week I think he will finish 43rd after he hits the kill switch during the pace laps. Right, David?

• 34. Juan Pablo Montoya: Murphy’s Law: As soon as the announcers marveled at how well Montoya conserved his tires in the spring Atlanta race, he blew a tire.

• 35. JJ Yeley: The common belief on Yeley is that sometime he will put it all together and run really well. What if he never does? After 75 Cup starts in top equipment I thought he would be further along.

• 36. Joe Nemechek: The finishes will never be great with Furniture Row, but at least Nemechek is getting the car in the field almost every week. He has made 7 of the last 9 races.

• 37. Ryan Newman: DEI-RCR has received plenty of attention for the massive engine failures this year, but what has happened to Penske? Ryan Newman suffered his fifth blown engine of the season at Atlanta. Prior to 2007, Penske hadn’t lost an engine since 2004.

• 38. Dave Blaney: Water in the fuel system sinks his top 35 hopes.

• 39. David Stremme: Two spins and a blown tire. Curious to know if Stremme and Montoya had similar setups that caused the failures.

• 40. Jeremy Mayfield: Jeff Green must have been watching the race, see Mayfield spin and wreck, and think, “I can do that.”

• 41. Bobby Labonte: It seems like the same story every week: Labonte runs well and cuts a tire or gets caught in a wreck. Texas and Phoenix still offer the chance of a top ten for Labonte.

• 42. David Gilliland: Ran really well until his wreck. Of course he wrecked which counts against him.

• 43. Mark Martin: Q-THAT WAS A VICIOUS HIT. HOW MUCH OF THAT DID YOUR BODY ABSORB? A-”I don’t know. What kind of question is that? (laughs)”