The 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series season is officially one-fourth of the way complete. Nine races are in the books with 27 left on the calendar and 17 left until the Playoffs. The beginning of this season has been full of excitement with seven different drivers emerging victorious, clinching their tickets into the playoffs. So here's a couple thoughts on the first few months of the NASCAR season.
STAGE RACING
First off, you're still whining about the switch to stage racing. Please shut up. There's no doubt that the new format has added some excitement to parts of the race that would generally be pretty damn boring. The implementation of stage racing has also led to the development of new strategies by teams, because it gives them an incentive to be in the top ten at certain points during the race. I'm going to go ahead and make the bold prediction that a playoff spot will be decided by a matter of a few points. It's added to the excitement, which is exactly what NASCAR leads.
DALE JR'S RETIREMENT
14 time most popular driver (the most meaningless award in sports) Dale Earnhardt. Jr. recently announced that he would retire following the 2017 season. While Dale. Jr attracts a wide fan base, his retirement means virtually nothing to the competitive status of NASCAR right now. Dale Jr. has really done a whole lot since about 2004. Junior has won just 6 races since 2008 and has missed 21 races during that span due to two separate concussions. Junior's retirement does leave many fans without their favorite driver, but they will just find a new one. That's how they became Junior fans in the first place.
THESE RECENT RETIREMENTS ARE JUST PART OF THE CYCLE
There's a contingent of NASCAR fans that seem to think the recent retirements of stars Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will lead to the death of NASCAR because these guys all walked away ages that are considered "young" to retire. However, there's no need to worry or think this is the end of NASCAR. It's just the change of the guard. All of these guys, with the exception of Carl Edwards walked away when they were at a level of competing that was not quite where they used to be. People retire, why would Dale. Jr want to finish in 26th two laps down every week when he can just hang it up and be a successful car owner? In the span of one year in 1992 and 1993, NASCAR survived the retirement of legend Richard Petty along with the tragic deaths of rising stars Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki. They survived the death of Dale Earnhardt. Guys retire. The sport will live on, so just relax.
THE FUTURE
NASCAR is just fine because there's lots of young talent flourishing and competing at a high level. Seven of the top twenty drivers in the points are under the age of 30. Rising stars like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones have ran really well at the start of the season. Roush Fenway has also shown signs of improvement with drivers Ricky Stenhouse. Jr and Trevor Bayne. The two youngsters have combined for two top fives and five top tens. Bayne has only finished outside the top 20 once. Add in the young talent in the Xfinity Series level such as William Byron, Cole Custer and John Hunter Nemechek and you will see that the future of NASCAR is just fine.
"THE BEST RACE"
There really hasn't been a bad race this season, but to me it's hard to top what a fantastic race the 59th running of the Daytona 500. It had everything. It showed us that the new stage format could add excitement, there was a lot of suspense in the closing laps with Martin Truex. Jr., Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney all coming very close to the biggest win of their life, but instead Kurt Busch became the surprise winner coming from out of no-where on the final lap to finally win the Daytona 500 on his 16th try. Can't top that.
"THE TOP ROOKIE"
The top rookies of this class; Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez and Ty Dillon have all struggled this year, and while Jones is currently top rookie in the points, I give the nod to Daniel Suarez for a handful reasons. Suarez was practically thrown into the the number 19 car at JGR, being promoted to the Cup series just six weeks before Daytona due to the shocking retirement of Carl Edwards. Saurez struggled in his first three races, but then rattled off two top ten finishes along with another top 15 finish at Richmond. Suarez currently finds himself 22nd in points, just 32 points outside of the final playoff spot. Consistency for Suarez could certainly change that.
I know, I know. How original to pick the current points leader as the championship favorite, but I've seen this coming for awhile. A lot of people were real high on Kyle Larson when came onto the scene in 2014, I figured it might take him a few years to get adjusted. It did take Larson a few years to adapt, but he's adapted quite well. He's harnessed his aggressiveness this season and it's helped him. So far Larson has one win, four second place finishes and hasn't finished worse than 17th in nine races. I've said all along that this kid reminds me of Jeff Gordon. It could be his year.
"THE MOST IMPRESSIVE DRIVER"
Clint Bowyer has resurrected his career in his first nine races at Stewart-Haas Racing. Bowyer spent the 2016 season at HScott Motorsports where he was absolutely awful last year. Bowyer only had three top tens all season, none of them coming in the final 17 races of the 2016 season. Bowyer already has more top tens this year then he did all of last year. The Kansas native has amassed four top tens and two top fives and currently finds himself ninth in the points standings. One can assume that it's only a matter of time before he finds victory lane for the first time since 2012.
"THE MOST DISAPPOINTING DRIVER"
Matt Kenseth starts off slow basically every year, so this isn't really all that surprising and probably not even that concerning. Kenseth does have four top tens in nine starts, but it's how bad he's been in these other starts that "earned" him this honor. In the other five starts Kenseth has finished 40th, 37th, 36th and 23rd. To be fair, none of the JGR cars have ran as well as many thought they would. Kenseth currently finds himself 18th in the points standings and needs to find some consistency to put himself in the hunt for a championship. It's also worth noting that this is the last year of his current contract with Joe Gibbs Racing, so his performance could potentially dictate his market.
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