New for 2020, Spade Racing will take a monthly look at the heralded Cup Series rookie class to determine who’s hot and who’s not. The PRETTY grade: Performance Relative to Equating Team’s Typical Year (its pretty much how well each driver is doing considering their equipment). Here’s how things look going into today’s Daytona Road Course race:
1. Cole Custer (Stewart Haas Racing). Best race finish: 1st (Kentucky). PRETTY grade: A. Cole’s Kentucky win looks less and less like a fluke, being followed up by a pair of top-tens. He gets slightly downgraded (from an A+ due to a terrible Michigan doubleheader weekend, not due to sky-high expectations (aka The Kasey Kahne Rule).
2. Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing). Best race finish: 2nd (Texas). PRETTY grade: A. Reddick continues to outperform his equipment, adding a runner-up finish at Texas to an impressive rookie resume. While a win would be nice, a win based on something other than pit strategy would be even nicer.
3. Christopher Bell (Leavine Family Racing). Best race finish: 4th (Pocono). PRETTY grade: C+. C.Bell’s disappointing rookie season continues—since a seventh-place finish at Kentucky he has had a five race stretch without a top-ten. On the plus-side he’s been confirmed for the 20 JGR car in 2021—yeah, we’re ALREADY into the 2021 Silly Season.
4. John Hunter Nemechek (Front Row Motorsports). Best race finish: 8th (Talladega). PRETTY grade: C+. It continues to be a mildly impressive up-and-down rookie season for Nemechek, although lately there’s been far more downs than ups. With no top-tens since Talladega, it remains to be seen if he can be a threat anywhere other than plate-tracks. OK, fine—anywhere other than tapered-spacer tracks.
5. Brennan Poole (Premium Motorsports). Best race finish: 16th (Daytona). PRETTY grade: C. Premium Motorsports is far from, well, premium. So for “The Bull” (yeah, that’s his nickname) simply finishing is probably the best he can hope for. That and getting a better nickname than “The Bull”.
6. Quin Houff (StarCom Racing). Best race finish: 23rd (Indianapolis). PRETTY grade: D. As bad as the StarCom cars typically are, its NEVER a good thing when your driving is used as an argument for a relegation system.