Three Most Improved

November 26, 2008 3:16pm CST

In its second season, Toyota made a lot of noise. Kyle Busch grabbed eight wins, while his teammates Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart added one more apiece to give the manufacturer 10 victories in a season when it was predicted they would be winless.

It was certainly a pleasant surprise that Joe Gibbs Racing did not struggle, but the salary cap of those drivers was largely unaffected by the switch from Chevrolet and so they weren't the most improved teams in the field. When he was clicking on all cylinders, Busch was a "must have" driver, but largely because of a late-season slump, he ended the 2008 season almost precisely where he ran in 2007 with an average finish of 12.4 that was only a position and a half better than he logged with Hendrick Motorsports. Likewise, Stewart and Hamlin were within two spots of their 2007 average, although they were slightly down.

Still, Toyota showed the most advancement as witnessed by the three most improved drivers.

A.J. Allmendinger 2008 average finish*: 26.00; 2007 average finish 39.21

In case there were any lingering doubts about who is running the sport, the marketing men at Red Bull Racing put an end to that speculation during the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup. Allmendinger was consistently one of the best dark horses in the field all year and he showed the greatest improvement among all fulltime drivers at +13.21. Early season rains kept the No. 84 from qualifying for races he might have otherwise made and he spent the entire season clawing his way up the grid. It took most of the year, but he finally made his way inside the top 35 in owner points well past the halfway mark. Despite that, he found himself out of a ride with only a handful of weeks remaining in favor of an unproven Scott Speed.

After being forced from the car once in the first half of the year, Allmendinger returned to Talladega and regained his confidence. Four races into his personal season, he scored a top-20 at Lowe's Motor Speedway; two weeks later, he earned his career-best result of 12th on the triangular Pocono Raceway, and he kept getting better. A 10th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the summer was followed by an 11th on the road course of Watkins Glen International, but the handwriting was on the wall. Allmendinger ended his Red Bull career in style by posting a ninth at Kansas Speedway.

Even in unfamiliar equipment, however, Allmendinger excelled as a part timer. His last five races of 2008 were spent with Gillett-Evernham Motorsports, where four of his results were 16th or better. That never made him your anchor, but it consistently made him a great value.

Brian Vickers 2008 average finish: 20.72; 2007 average finish 33.14

With a +12.42, Vickers was the second most improved driver in the game and Red Bull would like to point to his success as proof that it was the organization's effort and not Allmendinger's exertion that made the difference. They may be close to the truth, and if so, it bodes well for Speed's efforts in 2009.

Vickers started the season on fire. He placed 12th in the Daytona 500, was 11th one week later on the two-mile unrestricted, intermediate speedway in Fontana, Calif., 24th at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and ninth at Atlanta Motor Speedway. While the entire season did not go smoothly, he placed in the top five three times before the halfway point of the year with a second at Pocono to nearly get him in victory lane. After the summer heated up, however, things started to go awry and Vickers' average finish dropped six positions from 17.7 in the first 18 races to 23.7 in the second 18 with no top-fives and two top-10s.

Perhaps it was the distraction caused by the driver change in the No. 84 or a series of unfortunate events, but Vickers ended the season with three sub-20th-place results in his last four attempts and five results worse than 30th during the Chase. Whether or not he highlights your roster at Daytona in February will depend on how much value you place on the first versus second half of the season, but overall, he deserves attention.

David Reutimann 2008 average finish: 23.31; 2007 average finish 33.82

The third most improved driver in the field—excepting Sam Hornish Jr. with his myriad of failures to qualify in 2007—was another Toyota pilot. Reutimann was the shining star of Michael Waltrip Racing and he firmly established his familiar No. 00 in the top 35 in owner points before turning the wheel over to rookie Michael McDowell. Other than a 37th in at Las Vegas, Reutimann had swept the top 25 in those races and then struggled in his first two outings in the No. 44.

Like most of the dark horses last year, he couldn't be counted on to anchor your roster as a place-and-hold driver, but if you were lucky enough to pick him on the right weekend, he was an exceptional value. He only scored four top-10s during the season with a best result of ninth twice (at Richmond International Raceway and Auto Club Speedway), but he was in the top 20 on 18 occasions in the 36-race schedule. That meant the downside of starting him was never very great.

With Marcos Ambrose joining the organization in 2009, Reutimann has a stronger teammate than he did with McDowell, and just as the rising Toyota tide helped these three drivers float higher, the addition of resources from JTG-Daugherty Racing should also provide slightly improved results. Mark this organization down as one to watch during Daytona's Speedweeks.