Nationwide points battle heats up at Memphis Motorsports Park
K-Automotive Motorsports' Michael McDowell is 10th in the NASCAR Nationwide Series standings heading into Saturday's race at Memphis Motorsports Park.
// Sam Cranston, NASCAR Scene
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch likely will win the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship this year, but the battle to finish in the top 10 is fierce.
Michael McDowell, who has raced for a handful of teams after leaving JTG Daugherty Racing earlier in the season, currently holds down 10th and is 218 points behind ninth-place Brendan Gaughan.
But there’s several drivers close behind McDowell. Raybestos Rookie of the Year Michael Annett has been running well lately with his Germain Racing team and has closed to within seven points of McDowell.
Front Row Motorsports’ Tony Raines is 12th, 51 points behind Annett. Joey Logano, who isn’t running the full schedule, is 13th, 12 points behind Raines, and Jay Robinson Racing’s Kenny Wallace is 11 points behind Logano in 14th.
The three drivers chasing McDowell – Annett, Raines and Wallace – all say getting in the top 10 would be a solid accomplishment for themselves and their teams.
“It’d be amazing,” Annett said.
Annett likely won’t win the Raybestos rookie award this year, for Justin Allgaier is currently fifth in the point standings. But Annett has four top-10 finishes since the team made a crew chief change in June, and his sixth-place finish at Auto Club Speedway in California was the best result of his career.
“This past summer, we started off kind of slow,” Annett said. “It took awhile for me to get used to the cars and we made some changes throughout the team. It seems like this summer we’ve really got on a roll and got a lot of momentum.”
Raines said half-jokingly that he’s gotten to 12th in points by “showing up every week.” He does have three top-10 finishes this year, including a 10th last week at Charlotte.
“Being 10th means a lot to me personally and the team,” Raines said. “The biggest thing is 10th place pays a lot more than 11th, so that’s what this is about.”
For Raines and Wallace, finishing 10th would be a boost to their smaller, independent teams. Neither Front Row nor JRR has a lot of resources or employees, so competing against the bigger teams is sometimes impossible.
“We both ran for teams that had big sponsorships,” Raines said. “We know what we’re missing. It’s frustrating, but a the same time it’s a challenge when we can go out and run as well against the so-called super teams, the Cup teams. We take a little extra pride in that.
“But it’s frustrating, because we’re both racers and we know we can run as good as they can. We just don’t have all the right stuff all the time.”
Wallace said he and Raines have commiserated over each other’s plight this season, wishing their teams had the money to do more.
“We’re not crying over spilled milk,” Wallace said. “I’m thrilled to death to be racing for Jay Robinson, to stay in the sport and compete. … Everybody’s faced with it. It’s not just race drivers and race teams.
“It’s like trying to get something that costs a lot of money for half price. We shouldn’t run in the top 10, but, dammit, we’re going to try.”
