Truex, Bowyer prove successul beyond their years

Lost in the spotlights surrounding teammates Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer quietly made history by reaching the Chase. Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

As the Nextel Cup series heads to Richmond this weekend, the drama to make this year's Chase for the Championship is over for all but a select few. Eight of 12 spots are already clinched, and two more need merely to start their engines in order to punch their own playoff ticket. Those men -- Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer -- will each be making history with the accomplishment, snagging their first Chase appearances in just their second seasons driving at NASCAR's top level.

In the process, they'll officially blow my predictions to smithereens.

One month ago, I wrote a column handicapping which contending drivers stood the highest chance of missing the Chase -- and these two sophomores were my primary targets to fall apart. At the time, it seemed an easy choice to make, if only because history was on my side; at no time in the last 25 years have three second-year drivers finished the year in the top 12 in Nextel Cup points. With Denny Hamlin enjoying a second straight larger-than-life season, it didn't seem like there was room at the top for two more sophomores, both of whom appeared to need just a little more seasoning before taking a step to the next level.

But predictions are a funny thing; you just never know until the green flag drops what's actually going to happen. One month later, both men have withstood the pressure of talented veterans Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman, and Kurt Busch coming up behind them, remaining consistent while igniting talk of how the rookie class of 2006 may turn out to be the best group to come up together in NASCAR's modern era since the Terry Labonte-Dale Earnhardt duo of 1979. Those two collected nine Cup championships throughout the course of their careers, setting the gold standard for future rookie classes to match.

With that in mind, it's only fitting that these Truex and Bowyer enter the playoffs at exactly the same time. But the familiarity doesn't stop there for two drivers who fought tooth and nail for the Busch Series title just two short years ago. Both young men have spent the year creating mirror images of growth and success within their own organizations, growing up at a steady pace right before our eyes.

For Truex, it's been a year in which he's had to live up to the No. 1 title emblazoned on the side of his Chevrolet. Once Earnhardt Jr. shocked the world -- and Truex -- by announcing he'd leave the team his father built at the end of this season, it left the sophomore standing alone. No more would his mentor and good friend be the shining light through which DEI's success would be judged. If Truex didn't step up, the luster of his organization would be lost. It was a new role Truex adapted to quickly; most everyone at DEI will tell you he took an altogether different role in the shop after that day, making a transition to driver to leader he was struggling to make just months before.

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