SEASON PREVIEW: Scott Speed looking to make big strides in 2010
Scott Speed // Archive, NASCAR Illustrated
If Scott Speed is going to be around for the 2011 season previews, he’s going to have to finish better in 2010 than he did in his rookie season of 2009.
Speed was 35th in points last year with just one top-five finish, and that was at Talladega.
Speed was hindered for much of 2009 by falling outside the top 35 in owner points, forcing him to have to make races on speed each week (he didn’t compete at Texas after failing to qualify). But he also finished better than he started in only 14 of 35 events.
Red Bull Racing is keeping crew chief Jimmy Elledge paired with Speed this season in hopes that the continuity will help the former Formula One driver who turns 27 on Jan. 24.
“Ever since I came back over the pond and started racing these things, every time I get into it there’s something big that I learn,” Speed said. “And honestly, it’s been a lot more exciting having done that just because I physically can see so much more progress in myself from where I started out, say from my first Cup race to where I’m at now.
“It’s really fun and exciting for me to be able to make those improvements and be able to better myself as a race-car driver. That’s honestly the most rewarding. The thing about this type of racing is experience means so much.”
Speed averaged about a 31st-place finish over the first half of the season and a 27th-place finish over the second half.
“We’re going to look back at the last three months [of 2009] and say, ‘All right, obviously we got a lot better,’” Speed said.
With a little bit of experience, Speed hopes that going to tracks for the third and fourth time makes a big difference.
“No one is gonna do anything different,” Speed said. “I guess you’re gonna try to get more productive with how you analyze information, but for the most part there is nothing you can really do differently.
“I guess you can take the off-season to decide what you do differently. But if there was something we thought we could do that would be better, everyone would be doing it.”
THE SPEED FILE
- Best career finish: 5th (Talladega, 2009)
- Career top-10s: 1
- Laps led: 21
- Best track: Talladega (16.0 avg. fin.)
- Worst track: Sonoma (37.0 avg. fin.)
- Did You Know: Speed started his racing career in karts in 1993. He won his first national championship two years later at the age of 12.
Coming Sunday: No. 28 Sam Hornish Jr.
