{"id":30080,"date":"2010-11-29T07:36:59","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T15:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/?p=30080"},"modified":"2010-11-29T07:36:59","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T15:36:59","slug":"handicapping-2010-season-in-review-291110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/nascar\/handicapping-2010-season-in-review-291110\/","title":{"rendered":"2010 NASCAR Season Handicapping Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series 2010 Season Recap<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For the third time in five years, the driver who won the most races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series did not win the championship. <\/p>\n

Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup title again this year, his fifth in a row, setting an all-time NASCAR record.\u00a0 But Johnson did not dominate the 2010 season as he has in some of his past championship years.\u00a0 Denny Hamlin won the most races this year with eight victories, while Kevin Harvick amassed a 200+ points lead during the first 26 races.\u00a0 Johnson was second in race wins with six.<\/p>\n

The Chase itself – the final ten-race “playoff” session – was widely billed as a wide-open competition with no clear favorite.\u00a0 But it was hard to argue against the three drivers noted above as favorites — Hamlin for winning the most races, Harvick for leading the points, and Johnson because, well, he’s Jimmie Johnson.<\/p>\n

The final race in Homestead-Miami did, in fact, come down a three-way battle between Hamlin, Harvick, and Johnson – the only drivers who still had a mathematical chance at the title.\u00a0 Although Hamlin had a 15-point lead heading into the race, Johnson took over the points lead the moment the green flag fell because he qualified much closer to the front than either Hamlin or Harvick.\u00a0 It was a deficit that the two competitors could not overcome, handing Johnson his fifth consecutive title.<\/p>\n

It was an interesting year in other respects for Johnson’s two closest competitors.\u00a0 Denny Hamlin injured his knee playing basketball just weeks before the start of the season and the 2010 Daytona 500.\u00a0 Initial reports were that he would wait until the post-season to have the torn ligament repaired, but the date was moved up to March when it was deemed to be in his best interest to have the surgery sooner.\u00a0 Hamlin only had the Easter week off to recover before resuming driver duties at Phoenix in April.\u00a0 In what was largely seen as a team-building moment, he opted to drive the entire race at PIR, despite excruciating pain. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The most compelling aspect of Kevin Harvick’s story this year was the degree to which his team improved from last season.\u00a0 Harvick missed the Chase in 2009 after failing to win a race and finished the season ranked 19th in points.\u00a0 This year, he won three races (the most since 2006) and finished the year ranked third, 41 points behind Johnson.\u00a0 He finished the season with an average finish of 8.7, compared to Johnson’s 12.2.<\/p>\n

Overall, the 12 Chase drivers, in order of their final ranking, were 1) Jimmie Johnson, 2) Denny Hamlin, 3) Kevin\u00a0 Harvick, 4) Carl Edwards, 5) Matt Kenseth, 6) Greg Biffle, 7) Tony Stewart, 8) Kyle Busch, 9) Jeff Gordon, 10) Clint Bowyer, 11) Kurt Busch, 12) Jeff Burton.<\/p>\n

As noted, Denny Hamlin won the most races with eight, Johnson, six, and Harvick, three.\u00a0 Kyle Busch also had three wins while Carl Edwards won the final two races of the year at Phoenix and Homestead.\u00a0 Biffle, Stewart, Bowyer, and Kurt Busch had two wins a piece.\u00a0 Three Chase contenders – Kenseth, Gordon, and Burton – went winless in 2010, while three non-Chasers each won a race, including Ryan Newman, David Reutimann, and Juan Pablo Montoya.<\/p>\n

Mark Martin finished the year in 13th place, the highest of the non-Chasers, but the more notable season among the non-Chase contenders belonged to Jamie McMurray, who ranked 14th.\u00a0\u00a0 Jamie Mac won three races in 2010 including two of the biggest – the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 – but three DNFs and seven finishes of 30th or worse counteracted those impressive victories.<\/p>\n

The 2010 season will likely be remembered as the year NASCAR told the drivers to “have at it” on the racetrack, although the edict was misappropriated as an excuse for all sorts of untoward aggressiveness.\u00a0 The original statement was made by Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president of competition, and referred only to the fact that NASCAR would not be policing bump drafting at Daytona and Talladega:\u00a0 “We will put it back in the hands of the drivers and we will say, ‘Boys, have at it and have a good time.'”<\/p>\n

If you’re missing NASCAR already, take heart.\u00a0 The Sprint Cup Awards Banquet is on Friday, December 3, and select drivers will be tire testing at Daytona December 15-16.\u00a0 Preseason Thunder follows in mid-January.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, you can find a Daytona 500 Countdown Clock here:\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.sunlink.org\/images\/testtime.html<\/p>\n

The 2011 Nascar Future Odds Will Be Online Shortly! Open A Nascar Betting Acct. @ Betus – Get up to 145% in bonuses, + qualify for yearly Nascar Contests – CLICK HERE!\u2026<\/a><\/h3>\n

<\/strong>
\nBecca Gladden is a freelance writer and race handicapper specializing in NASCAR.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmie Johnson won the Sprint Cup title again this year, we recap the 2010 season, and if you’re missing NASCAR already, take heart. The Sprint Cup Awards Banquet is on Friday, December 3…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":22745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[40010,24184,40014,24185,10364,184,32595,10643,723,14474,728,729,15486,40011,40013,40012,40015],"class_list":["post-30080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-2010-handicapping","tag-2010-nascar-picks","tag-2010-nascar-season-handicapping-review","tag-2010-sprint-cup","tag-becca-gladden-articles","tag-betus","tag-betus-nascar-odds","tag-free-nascar-predictions","tag-nascar-gambling","tag-nascar-gambling-online","tag-nascar-odds","tag-nascar-picks","tag-season-review","tag-season-summary","tag-sprint-cup-future-odds","tag-sprint-cup-handicapping","tag-sprint-cup-series-recap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30082,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions\/30082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}