In like a lion, out like a lamb was perhaps the best way to describe Newman’s season. In the first four weeks, Newman scored his first Cup victory since Loudon in September of 2005, then followed that up by posting three consecutive top 15s on intermediate ovals that had long been the No. 12 team’s Achilles’ heel.
Between sponsorship issues affecting his teammates and personnel changes on his own crew – including three different crew chiefs in one month – this was quite a challenging season for Juan Pablo Montoya.
Joe Nemechek got off to a rocky start, finishing 41st and 34th in the season’s first two events. He failed to live up to the “Front Row Joe” moniker from there.
After a year in the former No. 25, Casey Mears took over the driver’s seat in the No. 5 car for HMS, replacing Kyle Busch.
Paul Menard’s sophomore season provided some slight improvement. After the struggles that marked the early part of his rookie campaign, 2008 brought continued steadiness for him that marked his second half of 2007.
From the outset, Jamie McMurray’s tenure with Roush was supposed to be a match made in heaven.
As MWR continued to fight to find its footing in the Sprint Cup Series, Michael McDowell found himself the odd man out.
There isn’t a whole lot to summarize for Chad McCumbee’s season, making it a difficult one to put a viable grade on. While the Pettys hoped to put a full-time Nationwide Series deal together for the young driver, nothing materialized, and that forced him to again run the Truck Series in the No. 8 Malcolmson Construction Chevrolet.
Johnny Sauter’s solid 2007 efforts with the No. 70 team proved that the car was certainly more competitive than the results Jeremy Mayfield was posting on the track through the first seven races of 2008.
On the surface, it may seem like this year’s part-time gig was not as successful as Mark Martin’s 2007 campaign, which saw him nearly win NASCAR’s crown jewel event and step out of the driver’s seat with the points lead four races in.