After the Easter break in NASCAR, the top 5 list of “who’s hot and not” in Sprint cup returns for week 15. (JS)
Feel free to comment or post your own list. 🙂
Top 5 Hot teams week 15
1. Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chevrolet #4 – Kevin Harvick. Nothing has changed at the top of this list. The #4 team is keeping up it’s top performance race after race. 5 out of 6 races have been top 2 finishes. Crew Chief Rodney Childers adjusts the car excellent under the races and the communication with Harvick is so far perfect.
Stats after 6 races; 2 W, 5 Top 5, 1 pole, 0 DNF, AVG start: 8.5, AVG finish: 2.7. Total laps led: 670. Position 1 in Sprint Cup total.
2. Furniture Row Racing’s Chevrolet #78 – Martin Truex Jr. Well, I have to leave the no.2 spot unchanged as well from w.12. For a single car team as this is, I would say the performance from #78 team is as good as it possible can get. Truex Jr, age 35, really shows what a good race car driver he his. My mind just “dreamed away” thinking of Truex Jr in a Hendricks car? What are you thinking about that? Just waiting for #78 to take the checkered flag also…
Stats after 6 races; 0 W, 1 Top 5, 6 top 10, AVG start: 10.3, AVG finish: 6.2. Total laps led: 32. Position 3 in Sprint Cup total.
3. Team Penske’s Ford #22 – Joey Logano. Still a copy/paste from week 12 list. Logano, age 25, still driving hard with top performance every race. A 2015 Sprint Cup champion contender that every other race driver needs to keep an extra eye at.
Stats after 6 races: 1 W, 3 Top 5, 6 Top 10, 2 Poles, AVG start: 4.0, AVG finish: 5.5. Total laps led: 305. Position 2 i Sprint Cup total.
4. Team Penske’s Ford #2 – Brad Keselowski. New to this list, Keselowski, age 31, has after a bad finish at Daytona (41), started to get good finishes again. The rest of the 5 races, after Daytona, has been solid top 10 finishes with a remarkable win at Fontana (led the last lap).
Stats after 6 races: 1 W, 2 Top 2, 5 Top 10, 0 Poles, 1 DNF, AVG start:14.7, AVG finish:11.0. Total laps led: 82. Position 4 in Sprint Cup total.
5. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Toyota – #11 Denny Hamlin. Also new to the list, Hamlin, age 34, has shuffled the results so far. At Martinsville, Hamlin took the checkered flag, starting P15, and lead 91 laps – that’s impressing. Â I think team #11 with crew chief Dave Rogers are going at the right direction.
Stats after 6 races: 1 W, 3 Top 5, 3 Top 10, 0 Poles, 0 DNF, AVG start: 18.5, AVG finish: 16.5. Total laps led: 165. Position 7 in Sprint Cup total.
Top 5 Cold teams week 15
1. The Motorsports Group’s #30 Chevrolet – Ron Hornaday Jr. Sorry to say, but Hornaday Jr, age 57, still top the cold list after week 12. My feeling was right about this Motorsport Group venture. I think team #30 with crew chief Pat Tryson, will not make many starts in 2015 Sprint Cup. After 3 DNQ/WD and only 1 start (finished 42) it’s looking really dark for Hornaday Jr comeback in Sprint Cup.
Stats after 6 races: 1 start, AVG start: 34.0, AVG finish: 42.0. Total laps run: 187. Position 45 in Sprint Cup total.
2. Stewart-Haas Racing’s #14 Chevrolet – Tony Stewart. Another team that still holds the runner-up spot on this list from week 12. Stewart, age 44, is still struggling bad. The best finish was at Fontana with a P14 finish. Even led some laps (8) at Martinsville. With an avg. finish of 29.7 is just really bad. The #14 team is the worst Stewart-Haas performing team. Is the co-operation with crew chief Chad Johnston not working for Stewart? Is Tony still thinking too much about the past?
Stats after 6 races: 0 W, 0 Top 5, 0 Top 10, 0 Poles, 2 DNF, AVG start: 16.8, AVG finish: 29.7. Total laps led: 8. Position 32 in Sprint Cup total.
3. Richard Petty Motorsports #9 Ford – Sam Hornish Jr. New to the cold list, Hornish Jr, age 36, is not having a good start of the season. Only 1 leap lap finish of 6 starts is telling us that something isn’t right at team #9. Considering that the other RPM car #43 is running very well, there must be something that crew chief Drew Blickensderfer can adjust. After finishing 12 at Daytona, the results has just gone downhills.
Stats after 6 races: 0 W, 0 Top 5, 0 Top 10, 0 Poles, 0 DNF, AVG start: 26.0, AVG finish: 28.7. Total laps led: 0. Position 31 in Sprint Cup total.
4. H Scott Motorsports Chevrolet #46 – Michael Annett. Still holding on the 4th spot at this list, Annett, age 29, do not improve the car starting position at all. With a low funding team, crew chief Jay Guy has a tough job to keep up the car in the races. But nothing happens. Last 4 races the #46 team finished in position 38-42, after starting at a better position. I do not see anything that can improve the #46 car in the future.
Stats after 6 races: 0 W, 0 Top 5, 0 Top 10, 0 Poles, 0 DNF, AVG start: 29.2, AVG finish: 33.3. Laps led: 1. Position 33 in Sprint Cup total.
5. Roush Fenway Racing’s Ford #17 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Well, Stenhouse Jr, age 27, moves from spot 3 to 5 on the cold list this week. That isn’t because he is performing better, but others are performing even worse. After a few decent finishes at Fontana (15) and Phoenix (12), it was back to finishing 40 at Martinsville. It doesn’t look like that crew chief Nick Sandler can get the car to run good for more than a couple of races.
Stats after 6 races: 0 W, 0 Top 5, 0 Top 10, 0 Poles, 1 DNF, AVG start: 24.5, AVG finish: 26.8. Laps led: 0. Position 28 in Sprint Cup total.
Here is the the list from week 12. For more detail – see blog archive (2015-03-19)
Hot Top 5 w.12
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Joey Logano
4. AJ Allmendinger
5. Kasey Kahne
Cold Top 5 w.12
1. Ron Hornaday Jr
2. Tony Stewart
3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
4. Michael Annett
5. Jeff Gordon