NASCAR lends itself to superlatives. The words “greatest”, “best” and “most” are tossed about with absolute abandon.
Sometimes, they actually apply.
With Cup off this weekend before a final 12-week stretch, NASCAR America’s Marty Snider, Jeff Burton and Landon Cassill provided their lists of drivers who deserved unparalleled praise.
Most Impressive Driver?
• Kyle Busch: “This dude drove by me like 10 times Saturday night.” – Cassill
• Kevin Harvick: “This award is like the best coach. … They always give it to a team they didn’t think would do well.” – Burton
• Clint Bowyer: “I don’t think we expected him to have two wins at this point in the season.” – Snider
Most Hard-Luck Team?
• Daniel Suarez: “Every time they get momentum going, something happens to knock it out from under them.” – Burton
• Aric Almirola: “They’ve had bad fortune and in some cases they make their own luck.” – Cassill
• John Hunter Nemechek: “With under two laps to go and leading: They lost two races.” – Snider
Surprise of the Season
• Chevrolet: “I’m shocked that Chevrolet hasn’t run as well as they have. … To a man, to a woman, everybody I talked to in the off-season that was involved with Chevrolet, they were like ‘we’re gonna kick their butts.” – Burton
• Hendrick Motorsports: “I did not expect this from Hendrick Motorsports, to struggle this much in 2018.” – Snider
• Superspeedway carnage: “We’ve always seen big wrecks and we always expect big wrecks on superspeedways, but all three superspeedway races we’ve had have all been complete trashed racecars.” – Cassill
Best Strategy Call
• Cole Pearn at Sonoma: “Anytime Cole Pearn makes a strategy call, I’m like ‘that was so awesome.’ “ – Cassill
• Cole Pearn at Sonoma: “Anytime you can surprise this level of crew chief … that to me is really impressive.” – Burton
• Mike Bugarewicz at Michigan: “That was a big call to get them their second win of 2018.” – Snider
Superlatives were also handed out for the wildest wreck, best overall race, funniest moment, best post-race celebration and the championship favorite.
For more, watch the video above.