Clint Bowyer

Bowyer finished 17th in his rookie campaign, which was his worst year to date. In his subsequent season, Bowyer made the Chase and finished 3rd. In 2008 he paired up a 5th place finish in the Sprint Cup series with a Nationwide Series championship title. He fell off somewhat after that with a still-respectable 15th place campaign in 2009. A big penalty in 2010 cost Bowyer 150 points and a couple of places in the standings. He still came in 10th that year.

As we’ve seen with so many of the NASCAR champions, Bowyer caught the racing bug at a very young age. He started racing motocross at age 5 and piled up over 200 victories over a nine-year career there.

Twenty-seven years after he started racing, Bowyer is poised for a run in 2012. He will no longer be driving the familiar #33 Cheerios / Hamburger Helper car for Richard Childress Racing. His new car will be the #15 of Michael Waltrip Racing, a Toyota sponsored by 5-Hour Energy.

(U.S. Army photo)

There was also Dale Inman, a crew chief for the legendary Richard Petty. Inman, with eight championships under his belt, became the first crew chief inducted into the Hall. That impressive championship total is one less than fellow inductee, the late modified-car driver Richie Evans, achieved in his career. Glen Wood, a great competitor as both an owner and a driver rounded out the third class inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

NASCAR officials used the Hall of Fame Ceremony as a backdrop for the State of the Sport Address. The gist of the speeches amounted to this: “Everything we did in 2011 was awesome. We rule. 2012 will be more of the same and you will love it.” The only significant change that was discussed for 2012 is old news by now – NASCAR wants to cut down on tandem racing. Other than that, NASCAR just wants to duplicate and build on a successful 2011 campaign.

Hall of Fame and State of the Sport hoopla aside, the biggest news from NASCAR this week is that we are one week closer to the Daytona 500 and the start of the 2012 NASCAR season.

(Photo: Air National Guard)

Kurt Busch (pictured) began his racing career at 14, which would make him a late bloomer by NASCAR champion standards. After successful stints in Dwarf Cars, Legend Cars, the Southwest Series, and the NASCAR Truck Series, Kurt made his Sprint Cup debut in 2000 and went full-time the following year.

Beginning in 2002, Busch went on an impressive run in the top tier of the racing world. He has at least one win in each of the last ten seasons, which would include all but the first two (one partial, one full) of his Sprint Cup career. He has finished 18th or better every year during that run, with eight years at 11th or better. And, of course, the one series championship in 2004.

Younger brother Kyle Busch followed in his older sibling’s footsteps and got to start his racing career at age 13. He took a different route to the top, spending a lot of time in the Legend Cars series and winning two championships there. He was racing in the NASCAR Truck series before he finished high school. In his first full season on the Busch Series, he finished second in points and won the Rookie of the Year honors.

Kyle started on the Cup series in 2004 – big brother Kurt’s championship year – and went full-time the following year, finishing 20th in series points. In the six years since he has never finished lower than 13th in the points standings. Even though Busch is only eligible for points in the Sprint Cup series under the new NASCAR rules, he continues to race, with great success, in both the Nationwide and Truck series.

The two brothers have announced that they will be joining forces for the 2012 season, sharing driving duties in the #54 Toyota sponsored by Monster Energy in the Nationwide Series. Each will continue to drive a full slate on the Sprint Cup series where they are points-eligible.

(NASA photo)

Also this week, David Ragan (pictured) signed with Front Row Motorsports to drive the #34 car on the Sprint Cup circuit. David Gilliland, who drove the #34 last year, will stay with Front Row and move to the #38. Ragan scored the first victory of his six-year career in the Sprint Cup last season and should significantly improve Front Row’s chances in 2012.

It was a slow week in NASCAR’s offseason, but hope is on the horizon. We’re now less than a month away from the Shootout on February 18th.  Soon, my friends, soon the waiting will be over.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

Ryan Newman

As is the case with many of the top drivers in NASCAR, Newman started his racing career young, although Newman was even younger than most.  His first recorded quarter midget race was at the age of four.  He’s not only been successful at every level of racing along the way since then, but he’s started strong each time he moved up a notch.  Newman has won Rookie of the Year honors five different time in his career, including edging out another pretty good driver, Jimmie Johnson, for the honor at the Cup level in 2002.

Newman finished that rookie year sixth in series points, and hovered at sixth or seventh place each of the following three seasons.  He’s had the peculiar distinction of being better on the qualifying than race day.  Newman actually led the Sprint Cup series with the most poles four years in a row from 2002-2005.  This qualifying track success is what earned him his nickname, “Rocketman”.

In 2009, Newman joined Stewart-Haas Racing and jumped back into the top 10 after a three-year absence.  His strong qualifying continued with his new team.  It is now 11 straight seasons in which Newman has captured the pole position at least once.

Carl Edwards Picks a Lane
Carl Edwards is getting serious now. The co-leader in Sprint Cup Series points who lost the Championship to Tony Stewart by tie-breaker wants the title in 2012. To that end, he announced this week that he will not be competing in the Nationwide Series this year.

To be completely accurate — Edwards didn’t really “compete” in the series last year, thanks to NASCAR’s decision to limit drivers to collecting points in only one series. Edwards drove in and won races. He collected big checks. But he couldn’t compete for the Nationwide Series title. This year, he’ll turn that unrewarded energy toward the Sprint Series and another shot at the championship.

Busch Brothers Go Fast
The Busch Brothers are clearly ready to go in 2012. They turned in two of the three fastest times at Preseason Thunder. Kurt took the top spot with a hair over 206 MPH, which just barely edged out Regan Smith‘s time. Kyle was a fraction of a second behind in third place. Look for the Busch Boys to make some serious noise this season.

Danica Sighting
The NASCAR driver everyone loves to talk about made a solid showing at Preseason Thunder this week. Danica Patrick never broke into the top 10, but she hovered around in the low teens all weekend.  That’s not at all shabby for a rookie driver.  We’ll see how her performance on the test track translates into actual racing in just a few weeks. The Daytona 500 is now a little more than a month away. Is it too soon to let out a “boogedy boogedy boogedy”?

(U.S. Army photo)

In what could later be viewed as a symbolic changing of the guard, Gordon’s first race on the Cup circuit was also the final race of NASCAR legend Richard Petty’s career. Gordon ran a full slate on the top series in 1993. He won rookie of the year honors – the first time a driver had won that honor on both the Busch Series and the Cup Series.

Gordon got his first victory midway through his second season. He finished eighth in series points that year. In 1995 – his third season in the Cup series – Gordon won the title.

Gordon would go on to win the title in three out of four seasons from 1995-1998. He finished second to Bobby Labonte in 1996. His on-track success has continued for more than a decade since. He has finished in the top 10 in series’ points in every season except one since 1994 and in the top five an astounding 10 times. He won a fourth series championship in 2001.

Off track, Gordon is renowned for his charitable work. He runs The Jeff Gordon Foundation with supports a number of other charitable foundations that provide support for children in need.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

In other NASCAR news, Rusty Wallace Racing is closing up shop for 2012. Wallace, the 1989 Cup Series champion, has been a car owner for the last 25 years, but the current incarnation of Rusty Wallace Racing has been fielding two to three cars on the Nationwide tour since 2004. In the seven seasons of its existence, RWR has had 15 drivers starting at a total of 411 races and finishing 343 of them. During that time, according to Wallace, he’s never made any money. None. As the saying goes, all work and no money makes Rusty … call it quits.

For now, anyway. Wallace didn’t rule out fielding a team in 2012, but he certainly didn’t rule it in, either. Reading between the lines – if the $6.5 million he’d need to do the job right falls into his lap, he’ll compete in 2012. If not, well, there’s always next year. Maybe.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

Dale Earnhardt Jr

Earnhardt drives the iconic #88 National Guard / Amp Energy Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. You may have heard that Earnhardt’s father, Dale Sr., was a pretty good racecar driver himself. Earnhardt’s championship pedigree goes back even farther. Less well-known is his grandfather, Ralph, who was also a champion in his own right. Ralph won the NASCAR Sportsman Division title way back in 1956.

Junior’s first full year on the Nationwide Series was in 1998. He won the Series championship as a rookie and went on to repeat in his sophomore season. In 2000 he moved up to the Cup Series and became the first rookie to ever win the All-Star Race. He finished 16th that first year and would go on to finish 11th or better in five of his next six campaigns.

After that solid run, Earnhardt’s success trailed off significantly. He finished 16th in 2007, 12th in 2008, then dropped to 25th in 2009 and 21st in 2010. Although he went winless — again — in 2011, he had a solid year and hovered around the top of the pack all season. He had four Top 5 finishes and 12 times finished 10th or better. Junior made the Chase for the Cup and finished the year seventh in series points, his best since 2006.

(National Guard photo)

Long before Jimmie Johnson became the winner of 5 consecutive Sprint Cup championships, he started his racing career riding motocross at the age of 5.  He went on to Superlite Class, off-road racing, the AC Delco Challenge Series, and the Nationwide Series before joining the Sprint Cup series, earning honors at every step along the way.

Johnson drives the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet owned by Jeff Gordon for Hendrick Motorsports.  His Sprint Cup career began inauspiciously in 2001.  He started just three races that year, never finishing above 25^th.  But the next year, his first full year on the Sprint Cup, everyone in NASCAR Nation took notice of the 26-year-old rookie.

He started the year off in the pole position at the Daytona 500.  He won at Fontana two months later in his 10^th start of the season.  He won three races in his rookie season and finished fifth in series points.

A year later Johnson would finish second in series points behind champion Matt Kenseth.  The next year, 2004, Johnson finished 2^nd again, this time behind nemesis Kurt Busch.  He would drop back to 5^th in 2005.

Then came 2006 and the reign of Jimmie Johnson.  He won the Daytona 500 along with 4 other races and the Sprint Cup Championship.  He won again in 2007 and 2008.  In 2009 he became the only driver in NASCAR history to win 4 consecutive titles and was the first driver ever to win the Associated Press Athlete of the Year award.  He went on to win a fifth straight Sprint Cup title in 2010, cementing his name in the NASCAR record books.

Off the track Johnson is active in his charity, the Jimmie Johnson Foundation, which provides assistance to children and families in need.

(White House photo)