Three Biggest Disappointments

November 29, 2008 3:52pm CST

The criteria for determining the most disappointing drivers of 2008 are a little different than employed for the most improved. Tony Raines had the biggest drop in average finishes, slipping from 25.82 in 2007 to 35.53 in 2008 (including his failures to qualify), but he went from a fulltime, dark horse contender to scrambling for rides with two different owners who could never find the right combination for their teams.

Reed Sorenson finished his lame duck season with an average result of nearly 28th, but not much was expected from him or teammate Juan Montoya after Chip Ganassi was forced to shutter one-third of his operation for a lack of sponsorship, so the three most disappointing drivers of 2008 are marquee names who fantasy owners had a right to expect more from.

Jeff Gordon 2008 average finish: 14.53; 2007 average finish 7.33

No matter the criteria, Gordon was the biggest disappointment of 2008. Picked by many to battle for the championship last year, he never came close. He backed his way into the Chase with a series of uneven efforts and during the final stretch was lucky to earn a pair of top-fives at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. With a high salary cap to start the season, it took nearly all year to self-correct so that his all too frequent results in the teens were fiscally acceptable.

Gordon was also one of the most frustrating drivers of the season—especially in the second half. When he ran well, something unforeseen would happen like his accident at Talladega SuperSpeedway and a rare engine failure at Phoenix International Raceway in the next to last race of the season. On the other hand, two of his best results in the last month came after he struggled through most of the evening and relied on fuel mileage to carry the day at Texas Motor Speedway in the Dickies 500 and Homestead-Miami in the Ford 400. Fantasy owners simply couldn't bet on him for most of the season.

The biggest disappointment of all, however, came when he ended the year without a single victory. He currently stands at 0-for-41, which matches his longest winless streak ever posted at the start of his career. From his sophomore season until 2008, he could be counted on the win at least two races per year; now fans wonder if he'll ever win again.

Kurt Busch 2008 average finish: 21.89; 2007 average finish 15.25

The year started with so much promise as teammate Ryan Newman was pushed across the finish line of the Daytona 500 by Busch, which gave "The Captain" Roger Penske his first victory in that famed race. Buoyed by the win, Newman logged another top-10 and two more top-15s in the following weeks. Meanwhile Busch failed to crack the top 10 again for 12 weeks and he would not have another legitimate top-five until the series rolled back into Daytona during the summer.

With an average finish of 22.8 in 15 races following the 500, no one paid Busch much attention when the series rolled into New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first of their two races, but he played the weather game successfully and actually won the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 when every genuine contender pitted for fuel—but those were his first top-10 laps of that race.

The No. 2 team started to show a glimmer of promise at the very end of the year when Dodge rolled out their new engine. Busch crossed the line third at Lowe's Motor Speedway with six races remaining, was sixth at Atlanta Motor Speedway two weeks after that and finished runner-up to the champion Johnson at Phoenix, but even those shining moments were sullied by a 36th at Martinsville Speedway, a 41st at Texas and his 43rd at Phoenix in alternating weeks.

Matt Kenseth 2008 average finish: 16.44; 2007 average finish 12.97

Kenseth gets the distinction of being the third biggest disappointment of the year largely because he failed to win in 2008, which snapped a six-year streak and he was never in contention for the victory at Homestead in the finale on a track that has been dominated by team owner Jack Roush. In the end, a 25th-place finish in the Ford 400 could partly be explained by the fuel mileage game played by many of the contenders, but along the way, he spent only 145 laps among the top five.

Kenseth also gets this distinction because he fizzled at the end. In the last regular season race at Richmond International Raceway, he finished 39th and carried that malaise with him into New Hampshire where crash damage relegated him to 40th in the running order. When he was hitting on all cylinders, he posted back-to-back top-fives in the next two races, only to seal his fate as a Chase "also ran" with a 26th at Talladega (after getting swept into a crash his teammate Carl Edwards triggered) and also a 41st at Lowe's.

Kenseth's struggles are all the more noticeable because every other Roushketeer improved in 2008. From Jamie McMurray, with a +2.11 to David Ragan with a +8.94, Roush-Fenway Racing may have been one of the best overall organizations of the season. Unfortunately, the No. 17 spoiled the curve.