It's been NASCAR’s season of surprises, though Carl Edwards’ win in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway wasn’t unexpected, given his recent performances on the intermediate tracks and Ford’s strength at Las Vegas.
Yet well down the finishing order at Las Vegas -- and the Sprint Cup points standings after three races -- unexpected names have appeared.
Among the biggest surprises is Paul Menard's strong start in his first year at Richard Childress Racing. Menard came to RCR with backing from his family’s home improvement company of the same name, but he’s proven to be much more than a driver with money behind him.
Menard is ahead of his fellow RCR drivers in the points standings in sixth place. He's 17 points behind leader Tony Stewart, who finished second at Las Vegas after leading the most laps but also drawing a penalty for removing equipment from his stall during a pit stop.
Menard also had the best Las Vegas finish of any of his teammates, coming in 12th, while Clint Bowyer was 15th, Kevin Harvick 17th and Jeff Burton 21st.
Menard told reporters at Las Vegas that one of the main keys to his recent success was he and his crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe have been welcomed by the RCR camp.
“Everybody has been good to work with, from all four crew chiefs working well together to all four of us drivers working well together,” he said. “I’ve been really well received in the whole group, and that’s neat for me personally and professionally.”
Another surprise is at Hendrick Motorsports, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. has moved from fourth to first among his teammates. He finished a Hendrick-best eighth at Las Vegas, and is a team-best 10th in the points standings. Mark Martin is 11th, Jimmie Johnson 12th and Jeff Gordon 19th.
In Las Vegas, Earnhardt said his success has been due in large part to his crew chief Steve Letarte and Letarte’s crew, which spent the last few years working with Jeff Gordon but took on Earnhardt in a big off-season shift at Hendrick.
“It’s a fun team, a great group of guys,” Earnhardt said. “I’m proud to be a part of it and hope I can keep working well and keep doing well.”
Although he qualified poorly at Las Vegas, placing 33rd, he said he wound up with a good car at the end of the race.
“I guess the best thing that we did all day long was the adjustments,” Earnhardt said. “I kept telling Stevie what I thought I needed and what the car felt like it was doing wrong, and he was hitting on it every time.
“We were kind of working together on some ideas and we hit on one idea that was really good, and it really woke the car up.”
Earnhardt said that it’s imperative for him to make things work with Letarte and to do it right away.
“Failure at this point is completely unacceptable, and I’ve got to put it all out on the line and do everything I can to make this work,” Earnhardt said. “If it doesn’t work with him, I got nowhere else to go. I got no other options, really other than just to race myself into oblivion with my own team and Tony [Eury] Jr. and those guys. But I want this to work."
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