Three Cup teams that deserve tip of the hat
No matter what happens from here to the end of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Stewart-Haas Racing, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports deserve a proverbial tip of the hat.
The same is true for their respective drivers in the Chase For The Sprint Cup.
Stewart-Haas, with co-owner/driver Tony Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman, bore little resemblance to its current organizational structure while competing with different drivers and crew chiefs last season under the Haas CNC Racing banner.
But Stewart and Newman are both in the Chase, and Stewart has three points wins and led the standings for much of the season.
Juan Pablo Montoya’s Earnhardt Ganassi outfit and Kasey Kahne’s Richard Petty Motorsports both underwent significant offseason changes as well.
The changes were arguably more drastic for Montoya (fourth in points), who is actually positioned better than Kahne (12th).
Montoya’s EGR team didn’t exist in its current form prior to the offseason merger of Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Chip Ganassi Racing.
Montoya also switched to a Chevrolet this season after running a Dodge for team owner Chip Ganassi in 2008.
Richard Petty Motorsports, likewise, didn’t exist in its present-day structure before Petty Holdings merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports in January. As part of the merger, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Richard Petty became a co-owner of the organization and the operation expanded from three to four full-time Cup teams.
Kahne’s No. 9 team stayed largely intact, however, despite the changes all around him.
In any case, I still find it remarkable that three organizations that looked so different just a season ago have enjoyed so much success in 2009.
