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)

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.

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)

Even now that the schedule has belatedly been released, it is incomplete. Izod, the chief sponsor of the IndyCar title, mandates a minimum of 16 races on the tour. Only 15 were on the schedule released by IndyCar this week.

The schedule, as it is today, begins March 5th with the annual test runs at Sebring. The season begins for real March 25th in St. Petersburg – the IndyCar equivalent of the Daytona 500.

Many involved in the sport put at least partial blame for the Wheldon tragedy on the oval course at Las Vegas. That sentiment is probably reflected in the fact that only 4 of the 15 courses announced for 2012 are ovals.

In addition to the domestic stops at familiar tracks like Michigan, Fontana, Texas, Iowa, and – of course – Indianapolis, there are a number of international stops on the tour. IndyCar racing will travel to Canada (twice), Brazil, and – for the first time ever – China.

The other big announcement out of IndyCar is that there will be three engine-makers for the tour. In addition to Honda, who was the sole manufacturer last year, Chevrolet and Lotus will also participate. The influx of new technologies makes the tune-up in Sebring all the more important and the gap between test run and first race – less than three weeks – all the more challenging.

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)

Kurt Busch

Busch is one of those “love him or hate him” kind of drivers that seem to be everywhere in NASCAR. The haters will remember Busch’s 2011 season for the obscene words and gestures. The Lovers will remember only the two wins.

Coincidentally or not, Penske Racing also made a move this week, replacing Busch in the #22 car with A.J. Allmendinger. Unlike Busch, Allmendinger has never won a single race in the Sprint Cup Series, although Penske apparently sees a lot of upside potential in the 30-year-old from Los Gatos, CA. Allmendinger’s 15th place finish in 2011 was a career best in 5 years on the top circuit.

Allmendinger’s tenure at Richard Petty Motorsports came to an abrupt end when the team lost the main sponsor for the #43 car and, apparently, all interest in keeping Allmendinger around. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and one team’s unwanted driver is another team’s future.

It’s still only December, so we’ll have to wait two more months to see if and how these moves will pay off for their respective teams.

(U.S. Air Force photo)

Brad Keselowski

By 2010 Kes had earned himself a nickname and a full time gig on the Sprint circuit. Driving the #2 Miller Lite Dodge for Roger Penske Racing, the 26-year-old finished 25th in series points.

2011 was an even better year for Brad. His victory at Pocono, racing with a broken leg just days after the wreck that caused the injury, is already the stuff of legend… or legend in the making, at least. It was one of three wins on the season for Keselowski. He finished the year 5th in points, behind only Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, and Matt Kensethand ahead of such NASCAR luminaries as Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Jeff Gordon.

Brad is not the first Keselowski to get behind the wheel of a racecar. Both his father and his grandfather raced and his brother Brian is currently running on the Nationwide series. Keselowski is not only a legacy driver, he’s also an owner. Since 2008 Kes has owned a team on the Camping World Truck Series.
(U.S. Navy photo)