In today’s tough racing environment, where the competition is so tight, some drivers are seeing the clock winding down on their chances to win a championship.
Unfortunately Mark Martin is the poster child of the “Close, but no cigar” category. To put it into NFL on FOX terms, Mark Martin is the Dan Marino of NASCAR. Mark has had a Hall of Fame career, yet like Marino, was never able to clear that last hurdle and win it all.
I probably see Jeff Burton at the top of that list of the current drivers. While there have been a lot of offseason changes at Richard Childress Racing, which hopefully will be a positive for Jeff, trust me, he knows the sands of the hourglass are slowly getting fewer on securing a championship this late in his career.
Greg Biffle over at Roush Fenway Racing is another driver I believe is in that same boat. Greg is a race-winning driver. He’s also won championships in the other NASCAR touring series. However, he has not been able to latch onto that elusive NASCAR Sprint Cup crown.
Another guy is Martin Truex Jr. He needs to make it happen. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to be as successful as he had hoped once he joined Michael Waltrip Racing. Now he has the added pressure of Clint Bowyer coming over there and ramping things up. Additionally, with the departure of David Reutimann, Mark Martin is there now in a limited driving role in 2012. So I really think if Martin Truex Jr. is ever going to make a statement, this coming year is it.
So those are a few of the guys who are feeling the pressure of the clock. Guys like Carl Edwards and even Kasey Kahne are different because they have to feel they still have time on their side to secure a championship or multiple ones before they hang up the helmet.
Looking past the championship angle, as we just witnessed, 2011 put the spotlight clearly back on winning races. So that is another added pressure for some of these guys out there. The way these organizations are realigning themselves and putting race-winning drivers in place, the pressure to keep up in that category is even greater.
Getting to Victory Lane and doing it quickly will be priority No. 1 for a lot of these drivers to show their sponsors and their owners that they are still winners. You have guys like David Reutimann, Brian Vickers and David Ragan who have shown they can win races, and all still searching for a job in 2012. With that said, somebody’s chances improved greatly when Kurt Busch’s seat opened up.
The other really cool dynamic was all the new winners this past year. They now have that taste of success and trust me, they love it. Believe me, they are singing that Tim McGraw song right now – “I Like It, I Love It, I Want Some More Of It.” If you can’t challenge for a championship, you at least have to show everyone you can get to Victory Lane.
In today’s tough economic environment, sponsors are rightly demanding more return on their investment. They and the team owners don’t have the patience to wait for success in the same way that they did, say, five years ago.
So the bar for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season has been set really high. It will be an interesting storyline to see who can reach it and, even more so, those that don’t.
