When looking at a sport like NASCAR you can't do the normal breakdown like other sports, there really isn't positions in stock car racing where you can build a "team." Now I'm going to build a 4 car team of the drivers and their crew chiefs of the past decade with this post, but I'm also going to give some awards for the decade, a decade that saw a shift in NASCAR's playoff format, how they give points, they changed the overtime rules, the title sponsor for the Cup Series, and plenty of other changes to the sport. So let's get into it.
Drive of the Decade: Tony Stewart 2011 Chase
In 2011 Tony Stewart won his 3rd NASCAR Cup Series Championship. The beauty of that championship was how he won it. He went into the 10 Race Chase (NASCAR's old version of playoffs) with 0 wins and got in on points. Before the chase started,
Tony had informed Darian Grubb that he wouldn't be the crew chief for
Tony following the season, as Tony was ready to hire Steve Addington to
take over after not winning any races in the regular season. Once the Chase started Smoke took over the series and went on to win 5 of the 10 races including the final race at Homestead, and tied Carl Edwards in points for the year, but won the Championship based on a tiebreaker for winning 5 races to Edwards 1. This was the precursor to the current playoff format where if you win, you automatically move on to the next round, and then when Tony won the final race and everybody lost their minds, it made this idea of having the last race count for everything a reality for the sport.
Best change for the sport: The Championship Race
I'm gonna piss off some NASCAR purists, but I love the winner take all race at the end of the year. The NASCAR playoff format is something I really enjoy, it makes the racing more like other sports. Purists don't like that an entire year of racing comes down to 1 race, but I love it. Often in the past teams would open up such huge point leads the last race of the year didn't count, but in the new format you can't stop watching. This is how I spend my Sunday's in the fall, I watch the playoffs every week and love the points movements. The championship race has created great drama and since incorporating the format the winner of the championship has won the race and that's how it should be.
Worst change for the sport: Stage Racing
I don't hate stage racing but the implementation has been terrible. The idea of scoring points in the middle of the race is great, because not getting credit for what you've done in a race does suck. My problem with stages is the breaks and the laps they run. In a race that is 400 laps they'll have stages of 100, 100, and 200 laps each. The crappy part is after stage 1 they throw a yellow and have caution laps. so the 2nd stage maybe goes green with 94 laps left in the stage, so that stage isn't 100 laps anymore, that sucks. Forced cautions are dumb, stopping the race is dumb. To me the perfect answer is, have stages, and when a stage ends keep going under green, pay out the points and keep the race going.
Honorable mention the racing package for 2019, it ruined the good tracks and made the bad tracks racing better but enough to ruin the few good tracks where there is good racing like Martinsville, Phoenix, and Homestead for sure. We get 1 more year of this but hopefully the 2021 car gets the racing back to where we want it.
Biggest Loss(es): Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The decade also saw the 3 biggest giants of the 2000's leave racing full
time. No story of the 2010's would be complete without talking about
the retirements of Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
probably the 3 drivers who had 95% of the fan base. Their void has been
huge. All 3 are still active in the sport but they are missed on the track.
The Champions
2010 Jimmie Johnson (5th Championship) Chase format
2011 Tony Stewart (3rd Championship) Chase format
2012 Brad Keselowski (1st Championship) Chase format
2013 Jimmie Johnson (6th Championship) Chase format
2014 Kevin Harvick (1st Championship) Playoff format
2015 Kyle Busch (1st Championship) Playoff format
2016 Jimmie Johnson (7th Championship) Playoff format
2017 Martin Truex Jr. (1st Championship) Playoff format
2018 Joey Logano (1st Championship) Playoff format
2019 Kyle Busch (2nd Championship) Playoff format
Best Finish: 2016 Daytona 500
It took me this long to talk about my favorite driver, Denny Hamlin. Denny won the 2016 Daytona 500 on a last corner pass of teammate Matt Kenseth and then side drafted the hell out of Martin Truex Jr. to edge him at the line in the closest Daytona 500 ever. The set up was great the 5 Toyota cars stunk up the show and got in line all day and held the other cars behind them all day. Then on the last lap from 4th place Denny jumped in front of Kevin Harvick and got a huge push down the back stretch, he passed Kenseth, then Denny was in 2nd about 20ft before the line before edging past Truex by 4 inches at the line. It was a great finish and I still watch it about once a month, what a great moment.
Best Fight: Jeff Gordon vs Brad Keselowski
2014 was the first year of the playoff format, a year where Brad K tried to piss off everyone in the garage. At Charlotte he had Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin trying to hurt him, then at Texas his antics came to a boil. I'm not sure if the eliminations brought it out of everyone since they had never done it before or if Brad was just having a rough 3 months but the drivers were heated. Then after Texas, Jeff was pissed that Brad came down on him and cut a tire on the 24 car, so after the race they were discussing the incident and when Brad had enough he tried to walk away, enter Kevin Harvick. Harvick much like the rest of us had seen enough of the Brad show, so he gave Brad a gentle push back into the discussion and with that push Jeff Gordon pounced and started a brawl with rest of the 2 team. People were bloodied, including Brad K. and the fight was so awesome.
Best on Track Retaliation: Matt Kenseth on Joey Logano
In 2015 Matt Kenseth got maybe the loudest ovation I've heard a driver get. After Logano moved Kenseth for a win at Kansas (a win that Logano didn't exactly need) he got his retribution at Martinsville. After an incident on a restart knocked Kenseth out of contention for the race win, he decided it was time. Down a couple laps already and being lapped by JoLo Kenseth settled their beef by driving straight into the 22 heading into turn 1, he ended Logano's race and title shot. A move that earned Kenseth a 2 race suspension, it was a beautiful moment, go YouTube it.
To end I'm going to build my 4 car stable with a driver and crew chief of the decade. Why 4, because that's what NASCAR allows teams to field for races.
My Championship Team:
#1 Driver: Jimmie Johnson Crew Chief: Chad Knaus
The dynamic duo won 3 championships in the decade and are the only team to win in the 3 different points systems set by NASCAR, they've won the old way, the chase way, and the playoff way. Great duo and any list that talks about best driver and crew chief in the decade better include them.
#2 Driver: Kyle Busch Crew Chief: Adam Stevens
Stevens and Busch weren't together the entire decade but the last 5 years they were the best pair, they got 2 titles and 26 Cup wins. They have been a great team, and Kyle has made a case to be driver of the decade.
#3 Driver: Kevin Harvick Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
They joined forces in 2014 and haven't looked back. They won a championship in their first try. They also transitioned from Chevy to Ford together when SHR decided to switch manufacturers. They've won 22 races together and are considered a contender every year for the championship, something Harvick didn't have until they got together.
#4 Driver: Martin Truex Jr. Crew Chief: Cole Pearn
In the era of big money and big teams dominating the sport, these 2 caught everyone off guard. The 2 got together in 2015 and that was a boon for Truex's career. Joining forces at Denver based Furniture Row Racing, a single car team. They've got 17 wins and a championship. Pearn shocked the racing world announcing he's stepping away from NASCAR. Pearn and Truex were made for each other and how Truex competes next year will be interesting.
That's it for this week, it was a fun one. You can find everything I talked about on Youtube if you want to see some great moments. I'm sure I missed some great things but feel like I hit most of the high points. Next week it's college football, in the meantime hit me up on twitter @derekbredeson.
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