Clauson shines in part-time role with Chip Ganassi Racing
By Amanda Brahler - Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Thursday, July 03, 2008
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This has not been a good year for Chip Ganassi Racing -- and it’s only the halfway point of the NASCAR season.
Thank goodness for Bryan Clauson.
During a season that bottomed out Tuesday when Ganassi Racing pulled the plug on one of its three Cup teams because of sponsorship troubles, the teen has been the lone bright spot.
Despite running a part-time schedule in the Nationwide Series, Clauson, 19, leads the Raybestos Rookie of The Year points standings.
To date, Clauson has been splitting seat-time in the No. 40 Fastenal Dodge with former Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, whose struggling Cup team was shut down. How the move will affect Clauson has yet to be determined. In a statement released by the team, Ganassi indicated Franchitti’s options could include running the balance of the 2008 Nationwide season in the No. 40 Dodge. Franchitti is second to Clauson in the rookie standings.
For this weekend at least, as the series returns to Daytona International Speedway for Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250, Clauson will be back behind the wheel of the 40 for the 13th time this year. He has two top-10 finishes – at the season-opener at Daytona and last month at Kentucky where he scored a career-best of fifth.
Remarkably, Clauson’s two best finishes came at tracks he raced on for the first time. In February at Daytona, he qualified and finished sixth and was the highest-finishing Nationwide-only driver.
“It’s tough to go to places for the first time, so when you get to come back to a place where you have seen the track, raced before and know the tendencies, the weekend just goes a lot smoother,” Clauson said.
Lorin Ranier, Ganassi’s director of driver development, signed Clauson in 2005 and also serves as his spotter. Clauson’s qualifying run and top-10 finish at Daytona caught him by surprise.
“I was because if you talk to the Cup drivers that were in the race, they were talking about how hard it was to drive those cars,” Ranier said. “He had a pretty good feel for the draft and the lines and he had never even seen Daytona.”
Though long-term plans for Clauson at Ganassi are unclear, Ranier says the team is satisfied with Clauson’s adjustment to stock cars and his performance.
“I think he’s doing a fine job as a developing teenage driver,” Ranier said. “He’s only getting to run sporadically. He’s running well, showing flashes of brilliance. The talent is there. He just needs to develop and gain the experience.”
Fast facts
What: Winn-Dixie 250
Where: Daytona International Speedway; Daytona Beach, Fla.
When: 8 p.m. EDT Friday
TV: ESPN2, 7:30 p.m. EDT
Radio: MRN/Sirius Satellite Ch. 128
Track layout: 2.5-mile tri-oval
Race distance: 200 laps/300 miles
2007 winner: Kyle Busch
2007 polesitter: Jason Leffler
Points leaders: 1. Clint Bowyer, 2,649; 2. David Reutimann, 2,467; 3. Carl Edwards, 2,461; 4. Brad Keselowski, 2,452; 5. David Ragan, 2,351; 6. Mike Bliss, 2,334; 7. Kyle Busch, 2,263; 8. Mike Wallace, 2,171; 9. David Stremme, 2,089; 10. Jason Keller, 2,048
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