NASCAR Cup Rookie Update: Montoya Who?

"RJ Turnbull" (rodrant64) 04/10/2014 at 03:22 • Filed to: NASCAR

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Well, it's been a little while since I've written about this year's Sprint Cup Series rookies. And I haven't even gotten to talking about the Nationwide (just as loaded as Cup!) or Camping World Truck (congrats on ROTY, Ben Kennedy!) crops.

We're already 7 races into the Cup season and we've already seen most of the rookies post some impressive results and some have some immense struggles, so let's run them all down from worst to first in the ROTY standings to see how they've been coming along.

8. Ryan Truex (31 points)

The two best things to say about Ryan's rookie season is that he posted his best career finish of 30th at Martinsville, and that he probably wouldn't be last in the rookie standings if he'd qualified for every race. As it stands, he's failed to qualify for both Daytona and this past weekend's race at Texas Motor Speedway and has just a 34.6 average finish in the 5 races he's started. He hasn't qualified his way in on time in any of the 7 races this year and his #83 BK Racing team is only 42nd in owners points, so they're going to be hard pressed to qualify for any more with 46-47 cars like there were at Texas. The performance hasn't been there, but at least he's finished 4 of the 5 races so the luck hasn't been bad.

7. Parker Kligerman (34 points)

Speaking of luck, Kligerman's had about as bad a start to a season as any driver, let alone a rookie, could possible have. 4 DNF's, 5 finishes in the 40's and just completing 83.8% of the laps, he's sporting a 38.3 average finish that would belie a S&P driver more than a full time competitive one. The #30's even worse off than the #83 in owners points down on 43rd, and while Kligerman's qualified in on time in 4 of the last 6 races it's only going to be a matter of time before the awful start catches up to them and they miss a race. It's hard to believe that this is the #30 team that Swan was fielding last year and not their new entry, and that this is the same driver that was running in the top 20 in both of his starts for them last year.

6. Alex Bowman (45 points)

Both Swan Racing and BK Racing have had a Jekyll and Hyde start to their seasons with their pairs of rookies. The bright spot for BK Racing is Alex Bowman, who's not only managed to qualify for every race this year but was even the top qualifying rookie at Martinsville with a 19th place effort. He was the 2nd highest finishing rookie at Daytona in 23rd and his best finish of the season was a 22nd at Fontana. His average finish of 31.9 isn't far off from BK Racing's efforts last year with veteran, if not inspiring, drivers Travis Kvapil and David Reutimann (30.8). For a 20 year old driver just two years removed from being an ARCA driver and who was a NNS rookie last year, it's not bad at all given his equipment.

T-4. Michael Annett (52 points)

One rookie I didn't give very much credit going into the season was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , given he bought his ride with Tommy Baldwin Racing and had only one commendable season (5th in points in 2012) in 5 years of Nationwide. It looks like that 2012 season was actually pretty indicative of his true form, because he's right in the hunt for Best of The Rest rookie honors with Cole Whitt and Justin Allgaier while keeping the #7 team's performance on par with Dave Blaney's from last year. His season best of 19th at Fontana and his 4 top 30 finishes translate to a 29.3 average finish that ranks 4th among rookies and, so far, is right with both what Blaney did in the #7 in 2013 (29.0) and what his teammate and also-new TBR driver Reed Sorenson's doing this year (28.1). Going younger has TBR on track for their best season since forming in 2009, and Annett's a big contributor to that.

T-4. Cole Whitt (52 points)

Whitt was the only rookie who came into the year with a brand new team that had no owners points from 2013 to fall back on in qualifying. He responded by racing his way into the Daytona 500, qualifying for Phoenix and Las Vegas and posting a 30.1 average start that ranks 3rd among the rookies. He's one of the 4 rookies that're averaging better than a 30th place finish (29.9), with his best finish coming at Fontana (it was a very good place to the rookies!) in 18th. Familiarity might be the biggest reason for Whitt and the #26 being by far the best of the two Swan teams; crew chief Randy Cox has worked with Whitt dating back to K&N East in 2010 (4th in points), Whitt's first two Cup starts in 2011 with Red Bull Racing (finished 25th and 37th) and last year in Nationwide with TriStar Motorsports (4 top 10's, 15.7 average finish in 12 races together).

3. Justin Allgaier (59 points)

Allgaier came into 2014 with both the most Nationwide starts (174) and wins (3) among the rookie class, so he should be at least leading the Best of the Rest. Mission accomplished so far, thanks to a best of 17th at Bristol, only a worst finish of 31st at Las Vegas and a 25.7 average finish for an HScott Motorsports, formerly Phoenix Racing, organization whose best prior efforts with a (mostly) full time driver was Kurt Busch in 2012 at a 25.0. He's one of only 3 rookies ranking in the top 30 in points in 28th and is only 22 points out of the top 25. Great efforts from both a rookie driver and a team that underwent an ownership change over the past year, but both of which may have provided a spark.

2. Austin Dillon (75 points)

The highest ranking rookie in the drivers standings in T-11th, Austin Dillon's rookie season has resembled his 2013 Nationwide championship campaign: steady finishes that get the job done and could make him just the 2nd rookie to make the Chase since it's inception on points alone. His lone top 10 came at Daytona, a career best 9th place finish, but he's finished 16th or better in 5 of the 7 races to sport a 15.3 average finish that has him ahead of the likes of Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and Kasey Kahne in the standings. He's also been in the top 2 among rookies in every race, 1st three times and 2nd four times, but it's the lack of top 5's and top 10's that has him 2nd in the ROTY standings even if his overall results are better. Right now he looks like he's on track for a season similar to what 2013 ROTY Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had (3 top 10's, 18.9 average finish), but which might not be enough to topple...

1. Kyle Larson (84 points)

The current ROTY points leader, Kyle Larson, who has already posted 2 top 5's through 7 races this year to put him equal with Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch and ahead of Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin (1 top 5 each). He's the first driver with 2 top 5's through their first 11 Cup starts since Kasey Kahne (4 in his first 7 starts in 2004), and his runner-up finish in just his 9th career start at Fontana (See!? Good for rookies!) is the best for a rookie since Joey Logano won at Loudon in 2009. Larson's the only Cup rookie who's also driving most of the Nationwide schedule and his results in 2014 have been just as spectacular there, getting his first Nationwide win at Fontana (yep) and posting a 3.8 average finish through 6 races. It's been a long while since Cup has had a true quality rookie season, like Denny Hamlin in 2006, Kyle Busch in 2005, Kasey Kahne in 2004, Jamie McMurray in 2003, Ryan Newman & Jimmie Johnson in 2002, Kevin Harvick in 2001, Matt Kenseth & Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2000 and Tony Stewart in 1999. Larson's right on track to joining those names, and it seems like a win's only a matter of time for him. A win he might need to make the Chase, since he's T-15th in points with a 17.3 average finish despite some of the strong finishes he's had. But that T-15th in points is already better than Juan Pablo Montoya ranked at any point since July of 2011 in the #42 Chip Ganassi Racing car (4 top 5's, 19.3 average finish), so I don't think they're missing him too much right now.