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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
HEMBREE: Some Folks Were Very Good, Indeed
Over the long Sprint Cup season, some drivers stood out on the “good” list…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted December 23, 2011   Charlotte, NC
SPEED.com NASCAR Editor Mike Hembree is a veteran, award-winning motorsports journalist. (File Photo)
One of the most popular Christmas T-shirts (not to be confused with Christmas sweaters and sweatshirts, which are universally awful) of the season is the red and green one that reads: Dear Santa, Define Good.

We’re here just before Christmas to define it in the Sprint Cup context, for it should be noted, Mr. Nicholas, that some folks in NASCAR circles were very, very good this year.

Making that list and checking it twice:

TONY STEWART – Five wins in the Chase. No one does that, Santa. Not even Jimmie Johnson (who should be familiar to you from Very Good Lists of seasons past).

BRAD KESELOWSKI – Three wins, two of them scored after a brutal Road Atlanta crash that would have rattled the best of your reindeer. A fifth-place finish in the standings from a driver most predicted wouldn’t see the top 12.

KEVIN HARVICK – Four victories and some of the best late-race driving of the season. He wasn’t as good as he wanted to be, falling short of the championship again, but he was very, very good nonetheless.

CARL EDWARDS – Cousin Carl lost the championship because he didn’t win enough races, but, in every other department, he was ultra good – seasonal highs in top fives (19) and top 10s (26).

MATT KENSETH – Three wins and – this is rare for Ol’ Cheesehead – three poles. Kenseth was very, very good in qualifying for a change.

JEFF GORDON – After some seasons of less-than-excellent performance, Gordon rallied this year with three victories and regained some of his stature.

KYLE BUSCH – OK, OK, there were some areas in which Rowdy wasn’t very good (check your Naughty List). He drove in only 35 races, while everyone else raced 36 (ask No. 1 Elf Mike Helton about that discrepancy). But Busch racked up four more wins in a still-young career that now totals 23.

TREVOR BAYNE – All the kid did was win the Daytona 500, and only a day after his 20th birthday. And he was a class act before and after.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED
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