Last year Spade Racing took a look at the six drivers competing for Rookie of the Year. This year we continue to look at that vaunted class (sans John Hunter Nemechek and Brennan Poole) as they strive to establish themselves while avoiding the “sophomore slump”. Returning for 2021 is 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 Kansas:
1. Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing). Best finish: 1st (Daytona Road Course). PRETTY grade: A. A win, five top-tens, and a tenth-place standing in the points…uh, standings has C.Bell locked into first place yet again. Honestly, barring another driver here running a hot streak, he could stay first through the end of the season. And no, I will NOT be introducing a “Chase for the Sophomore Cup” playoff system to “maintain interest throughout the season”.
2. Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing). Best finish: 2nd (Homestead). PRETTY grade: B-. An uneven start to the year (five sub-20th place finishes and a runner-up in the first six races) has given way to some much-needed consistency, posting three top-tens in the past four races. And its kind of ironic that he ran an “I Am Second” paint scheme, but NOT during the race where he actually finished second. Not interesting to anyone but me, but ironic none the less.
3. Cole Custer (Stewart Haas Racing). Best finish: 10th (Talladega). PRETTY grade: B-. While Cole is well-behind Kevin Harvick, he’s still beating teammate Chase Briscoe and notched his first top-ten of the year at Talladega. So you get a little bit of everything out of this three-car team.
4. Quin Houff (StarCom Racing). Best finish: 24th (Martinsville). PRETTY grade: D-. Even by backmarker standards, Quin’s 2021 has been another disappointment. He’s the second-worst full-time driver in points and struggles to beat contemporaries at Rick Ware Racing and Spire Motorsports. But at least he has more than two dozen races left to turn it around…while he’s spinning on his own into the wall.