Mon Apr 7 12:53:33 2008

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Sprint Cup rookies starting slowly

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Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - We are one quarter of the way through the NASCAR Sprint Cup "regular" season and so far, the highly-publicized rookie class has been disappointing.

The 2008 rookies came in with much fanfare. There was 2007 IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti, three-time IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr., open-wheel veteran Patrick Carpentier, 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and Regan Smith. Among them they own 20 CART wins, 27 IndyCar wins, 11 F1 wins and five championships.

Yet none have distinguished themselves in the their first two months on the Sprint Cup Circuit.

Franchitti, driving the No.40 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge, has a best finish of 22nd (at Martinsville) and five finishes of 32nd or worse. He failed to even qualify for this Sunday's race in Texas after being guaranteed a starting spot in the first five events.

"It's tough to be learning everything that we're learning racing against these type of people," said Franchitti after Bristol. "These guys know what they're doing so it's very difficult for us to even stay in the top-35 right now. But hopefully by the middle to the end of the season we'll have figured it out."

Hornish Jr. started the season with a very respectable 15th-place finish at Daytona, but has struggled since.

Villeneuve, the former F1 World Champion, has failed to qualify for a race.

Possibly the best of the open-wheel guys has been Carpentier. Without being guaranteed a qualifying position like Franchitti and Hornish Jr., the Canadian has made it into four races (two events had qualifying cancelled due to rain). He has shown in the qualifying sessions that when he had to step it up, he had the ability to get it done. A respectable 29th at Martinsville and a 28th- place result on Sunday could be the start of a solid rookie season.

"Both Patrick and his team have risen to the challenge," said co-owner George Gillett Jr. on the team's website.

The only full-time rookie who didn't come through the open-wheel ranks is Smith. He started seven Sprint Cup races in 2007 (best finish of 24th at Talladega), so already had his feet wet. Yet through the first seven races of 2008, only a 14th-place finish at Martinsville has shown any signs of life (overall average finish 30.7).

One other rookie has gotten some publicity of late - Michael McDowell. Stepping into the No.00 for David Reutimann in week six, he finished 26th at Martinsville, but created a bit of controversy when he slowed Jeff Burton while the No.31 Chevrolet driver was fighting for the win. Burton, usually mild-mannered, went off on McDowell after the race. Then in qualifying on Friday, McDowell crashed in such spectacular fashion so that he overshadowed a pole win for Dale Earnhardt Jr., not easy to do to the most popular driver in NASCAR.

Maybe I was spoiled by Juan Pablo Montoya's rookie season which saw the Colombian win a race (Sonoma), collect six top-10s, finish 20th overall and be very competitive all season, but this year's crop of rookies seems timid and not ready for "prime time" by comparison. Hopefully, over the rest of the year, they will prove me wrong.