When the checkered flag falls Sunday night at Kentucky Speedway, the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season will reach the halfway point.
Which makes it a perfect time to issue my Dirty Dozen Midterm Awards.
Here you go:
MOST IMPROVED -- Give a shout-out to Austin Dillon, who is 12th in points, despite not leading a lap since Las Vegas. The Richard Childress Racing cars haven't had a lot of speed in them, but Dillon has been consistent.
BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF TIMES -- Kyle Busch won three of the first 11 races and then didn't finish better than 30th in any of the next four. Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets an honorable mention for finishing second in four races but failing to make the top 10 in eight of the last nine.
BIGGEST SURPRISE -- You figured Chase Elliott would be good. I doubt very many people -- myself included -- figured he'd be this good.
TOTAL DOMINATION AWARD -- Martin Truex Jr. led 392 of 400 laps in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In 17 races, Hendrick Motorsports drivers Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Kasey Kahne have combined to lead just 399 laps all season.
MOST DISAPPOINTING -- This one is tough. Richard Petty Motorsports has underachieved and Clint Bowyer is having a miserable one-and-done season at HScott Motorsports. But I give it to Kasey Kahne, who has not led even one lap this year and is back in 19th in points.
BEST TEAM -- Team Penske has been great, but the nod has to go to Joe Gibbs Racing simply because they have four great driver-crew chief combos to two for Penske.
MR. CONSISTENCY -- Kurt Busch has 14 top 10s in 17 races. And he'd have had 15 if hadn't got dumped by Joey Logano coming to the checkered flag at Daytona on Saturday night.
BEST DRIVER -- There are a ton of talented drivers out there, for sure. But it's Kevin Harvick who leads the points in a year where some of his competitors seem to have more speed in their cars week in and week out than he does.
STRANGEST NEWS -- All we talked about for weeks was lug nuts. Now, nobody's talking about lug nuts. Thank goodness.
BEST CHANGE -- NASCAR's decision to go in the direction of low downforce has made the quality of racing so much better.
MOST THRILLING RACE -- The Phoenix race was a nail-biter and so were several others, but the Daytona 500 was the race of the year so far, with the Toyotas putting together a brilliant display of teamwork as Denny Hamlin beat Martin Truex Jr. to the checkered flag by just 0.010 seconds.
FEEL GOOD STORY OF THE YEAR -- This one is easy: Tony Stewart's improbable victory at Sonoma broke a more than three-year losing streak and made "Smoke" relevant in this, his final season of Sprint Cup racing. And it's all the more remarkable given that the three-time champion broke his back in the off-season.
