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. Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing). Best finish: 2nd (Homestead). PRETTY grade: A. A shake-up up top! Reddick swaps places with Christopher Bell with consistency—eight top-ten finishes in his last ten races. Granted, it helps to have a Chevy this season, but Reddick is developing into a fine racer. Now if he can only get a Cup win…and possibly a cool nickname.
2. Christopher Bell (Joe Gibbs Racing). Best finish: 1st (Daytona Road Course). PRETTY grade: A-. C.Bell has slid in the Cup standings (all the way down to 16th) having gone five races without a top-ten finish. The PRETTY grade only gets a slight ding, however, as JGR outside of Martin Truex Jr. seems to be having a bit of a slump. For those of you new to the sport, this is the first slump JGR has been in in which JJ Yeley isn’t prominently involved.
3. Cole Custer (Stewart Haas Racing). Best finish: 10th (Talladega/Dover). PRETTY grade: C+. This has…not been a good year for Cole Custer. Mired in 27th place in the Cup standings and without a top-five race finish, he might just be focusing on the new 2022 car regulations. After all, that would explain the relatively poor performances of both his other teammates.
4. Quin Houff (StarCom Racing). Best finish: 24th (Martinsville). PRETTY grade: D-. Quit has Josh Bilicki to thank for keeping him out of last place in the Cup points standings so far. Lead-lap finishes are a struggle, top-twenty finishes off of plate tracks are a dream. But at least he’s not sitting in an apartment in Delaware creating rankings.