2008 NASCAR Driver Review: Patrick Carpentier
Hoping for a breakout year for this promising rookie, both Gillett Evernham and Patrick Carpentier were disappointed by the No. 10’s performance throughout the 2008 season.
Hoping for a breakout year for this promising rookie, both Gillett Evernham and Patrick Carpentier were disappointed by the No. 10’s performance throughout the 2008 season.
Welcome to Mirror Driving. Every week, your favorite columnists sit down and give their opinion about the latest NASCAR news and rumors. Love us or hate us, make a comment below and tell us how you feel about what we’ve said! This Week’s Participants: Tom Bowles (Editor-In-Chief; Mondays/Bowles-Eye View & Wednesdays/Did You Notice?) Mike Neff (Wednesdays/Power Rankings …
The 2008 season was one of more downs than ups for the Cat No. 22 crew. Although Dave Blaney was locked-in with a qualifying exemption for the first five events of the season, a crash in the Daytona 500 and a string of subpar finishes saw the No. 22 car quickly fall out of the Top 35 after Bristol.
In a rollercoaster season for AJ Allmendinger, one could make an argument for several different highs. There was the 10th-place finish at the Brickyard in July – but that race will be forever remembered as the Goodyear tire debacle that no one is really proud of or wants to remember.
Matt Kenseth has 16 wins in 328 starts for Roush Fenway Racing. The bar has been set so high for the No. 17 team, though, that just a Chase berth is considered a disappointment for 2008.
It was a rebound year for Greg Biffle and the No. 16 team. Having failed to qualify for the Chase the two previous campaigns (after finishing second in 2005), Biffle flexed his muscles late in the year, preserving a now six-year streak with at least one win on the Cup circuit.
Everyone who thought Clint Bowyer’s surge in 2007 was a fluke was left drinking a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.
Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 team struggled all year long to get a handle on the new car at intermediate tracks, an issue that proved to be their downfall just one year after collecting six wins and a modern-era record 30 top-10 finishes.
Kyle Busch was stomping on the competition so hard for the first 26 races of 2008 that the big question before the Chase was whether Carl Edwards or Jimmie Johnson could even mount a serious challenge.
2008 Bubble Review The 2008 Sprint Cup tour is now officially in the books. And as with all sports, there were many surprises as well as disappointment throughout the year. So, as the holiday season descends upon us and the thundering of NASCAR’s engines fades away for another offseason, let’s take a moment and look …
When a few of the Frontstretch gang get together for Mirror Driving on Monday nights, what happens in that room gets chopped and mangled and edited before its airing on Wednesday. Conversations are stitched together for coherence, off-topic rants are removed, and a sincere effort is made to ensure that at least most of the …
Let’s start with Jimmie Johnson. While I refuse to compare Jimmie to Cale Yarborough, for the two are incomparable, it is at this time that I formally congratulate Johnson for winning three Cups in a row. Sprint Cups that is, not Winston Cups, for they too are incomparable. Recently, at a meeting of some highly …
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