Ten races have come and gone in the 2018 Cup season and it’s time to assess the campaign so far, which has seen six different winners.
On NASCAR America, Parker Kligerman, Kelli Stavast and Steve Letarte gave their assessments of the year and the storylines that have stood out.
“I maybe expected a little bit more parity,” Kligerman said. “I didn’t expect Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick to have the wins that they had so quickly and to group so many together like they did. I look at guys like Ryan Blaney at Team Penske and Alex Bowman over there in the 88, Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones at JGR, I just expected some of these guys to rise up a little sooner and go out there and get some victories early in the season. ... If we don’t get all those winners I thought we’d see, I believe we’ll definitely end up with a very competitive points battle going into the playoffs.”
Letarte said “the more things change, the more they stay the same” when it comes to who is running up front.
“As much as everyone wants to make it an equipment advantage, I just think Kyle Busch is that good,” Letarte said. “The one thing that did surprise me though is I thought Chevrolet would have found an advantage with the new car. I really thought we would see more speed out of there.”
Stavast pointed to the performances of Aric Almirola and Darrell Wallace Jr. as pleasant surprises for her.
“Bubba Wallace in that 43, to move up to Cup, to see that Petty car back up leading laps,” Stavast said. “By the way, he’s led more laps than Jimmie Johnson. Which isn’t hard to do because Jimmie hasn’t led a lap.”
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