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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPENCER: ‘A’ for Improvement
While Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch dominated the series last year, it’s certainly refreshing to have some “dark horses” to watch for a change...
Jimmy Spencer  |  Posted March 04, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)

While Jimmie Johnson struggles to find his footing or at least some luck, we’re seeing improvement in leaps and bounds from some teams and drivers this year.

Michael Waltrip Racing is a prime example. David Reutimann scored his career-first top-five finish last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and sits fifth in points, and his car owner and fellow driver Michael Waltrip is 12th. Waltrip is in his third year as a car owner and we all remember how disastrous his first year was, beginning with NASCAR discovering the infamous illegal fuel additive in his car on qualifying day at Daytona.

But the difference this year is people. In addition to more time under their belts as a team, Waltrip has moved employees around and hired Bootie Barker as his crew chief. Waltrip took a big risk with these bold moves but the fact he’s not afraid to shake things up has been the biggest catalyst in that organization’s emergence. Jack Roush is the same way – he switched people around until he hit on the right combination. Just look at Drew Blickensderfer and Matt Kenseth.

This is a critical building year for Waltrip and he even came out at the beginning of the season and said if he can’t get the job done as a driver in 2009, he will retire. So far, the team is on an upswing, so Mikey isn’t staring retirement in the face, and Reutimann has really impressed me as a terrific driver and a very nice guy.

I don’t think the first three weeks are a fluke for MWR and I expect them to continue to contend this season. Once a team tastes top-five and top-10 runs, they tend to rally and ride the momentum from those finishes. A good run motivates a team more than anything and their hard work is paying off.

An offshoot of Michael Waltrip Racing is Marcos Ambrose’s team, with whom MWR shares a technical alliance. Ambrose, 20th in points now with the JTG-Daugherty team, is an under-the-radar surprise this season. The Australian is a down-to-earth breath of fresh air in the Cup garage and is never too busy for media interviews or autographs. We need more Marcos Ambroses because there are too many new drivers in the sport who aren’t good with people and don’t care to be, but I suspect we’ll see those guys weed themselves out down the road.

Joey Logano did a great job last weekend at Las Vegas and had a quiet finish inside the top 15, but subtlety is key for a young rookie. The poor kid got off to a horrendous start at Daytona and struggled mightily the first two weekends but maybe things are starting to fall into place for him. I’ve said from the beginning and still believe it was a mistake to move him up to the Cup Series so quickly, but he handled the pressure beautifully at Vegas. Kyle Busch has also served as Logano’s mentor, which has sped up his progress.



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Jimmy Spencer

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