Where are the 2010 Cup rookies?

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Where are the 2010 Cup rookies?

And your 2010 Rookie of the Year will be …. No one, at this point at least.

I’m sure some team will come forward at some point and qualify for the honor, but it will likely be a backmarker or even a start-and-park.

This is a weak situation, and the direct result of the Cup guys invading the Nationwide series is larger amounts each year. In short, fewer young drivers get a chance to develop anymore, because their seats are occupied by Cup drivers most of the time.

For example, perhaps instead of running Clint Bowyer and Jeff Burton in the #29 car most of the year, a young driver could have been given a shot to succeed in the quality ride, as a springboard to being a future Cup racer. I’m not picking on RCR, as that’s just one example of the all-too-common setup teams use, which leaves them not knowing who might be the next good driver at the Cup level.

Most of the successful NASCAR names of today … Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Treux Jr., Brian Vickers, Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte for example … got full-time experience driving in Nationwide on their way up to the top level, often earning championships in the process.

Nowadays, NASCAR is so worried about the big names from Cup drawing people to the stands on Saturday that they are failing to pay any attention to this issue of this lack of driver development. Simply put, if you only can squeeze in a young driver about 5 times a year, the weeks when the usual Cup driver can’t make it to the Nationwide track, it’s going to be very hard to develop talent. They need to run the whole year to truly get ready for the big time.

So congratulations, NASCAR! I’ll pulling for a guy like Dexter Bean to come up with enough money to run the season and earn the Rookie of the Year honor with a string of 38th place finishes, just to help reinforce how young talent is being left on the sideline in exchange for Cup drives in the developmental series.
http://beyondthetrack.blogspot.com/2009/12/where-are-2010-cup-rookies.html

I think this paragraph sums it up .....

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So congratulations, NASCAR! I’ll pulling for a guy like Dexter Bean to come up with enough money to run the season and earn the Rookie of the Year honor with a string of 38th place finishes, just to help reinforce how young talent is being left on the sideline in exchange for Cup drives in the developmental series.

I'm really not sure why Cup drivers in Nationwide can be blamed for this one?

There are just not any open rides. Drivers like David Gilliland, Travis Kvapil, Reed Sorenson, and likely Casey Mears are finding themselves ride-less because there are just no openings right now.

With this economy, teams that have sponsors are not going to be turning over drivers or spending large amounts to develop drivers when they have no where to put them.

The top teams such as Hendrick, Gibbs, Roush, RCR, Stewart Haas, Penske, RPM, etc. just don't have any openings. One driver did move up from the Nationwide Series this year, though, Brad Keselowski. He just doesn't count as a rookie because he ran so many races last year.

And, I know that some people don't like the fact that Carl Edwards runs both full schedules, but I think Jack Roush gets a thumbs up in this department. He is running full time cars for Ricky Stenhouse and Colin Braun even if they don't have full sponsorship. Even in these tough times, Jack is trying to keep developing drivers for his team.

DeeDee wrote:

I think this paragraph sums it up .....

Quote :

So congratulations, NASCAR! I’ll pulling for a guy like Dexter Bean to come up with enough money to run the season and earn the Rookie of the Year honor with a string of 38th place finishes, just to help reinforce how young talent is being left on the sideline in exchange for Cup drives in the developmental series.

I agree

and I want to add this

the ones that should be 2010 rookies were more like 2009 or 2008 rookies- there lies a big part of the problem

I know Keselowski would be a rookie next season, but he used up too many races in 2009. Who else would be competing for ROTY in 2010?

I think Dog is referring to drivers that were moved up too quickly, and SHOULD have waited until 2010 for their rookie seasons... Logano, Speed, etc.

yup Logano, Speed, Franchitti, Carpentier, Hornish, Smith, McDowell and so on

It will only be with a backmarker- whichever rookie can make the most races will win. Pretty sad situation- this year wasn't even a challenge.

Logano is lucky that he didn't have any competition for the award.

It's too bad Marcos wasn't able to run for ROTY

ya anyone with some talent doesn't want to run for ROTY- instead they run too many races early

Your 2010 Rookie of the Year: Kevin Conway, driver of the #37 Ford.