NASCAR's freshman class earning failing grades

Sam Hornish Jr. is the only NASCAR rookie guaranteed a car for next season. AP Tom Bowles's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

Joey Logano can't get to Sprint Cup fast enough.

The early favorite for 2009 Rookie of the Year announced on Monday he'll take over the No. 20 Home Depot ride next season -- a car that sits sixth in the standings with Tony Stewart. Armed with as much hype as any rookie in recent history, the 18-year-old will drive a handful of Cup races these next few months to prepare for the next phase of his career. And should Logano come close to expectations in any of those races -- he could make up to seven starts in 2008 -- I'm up for making him eligible to win top rookie honors this year.

That's how badly NASCAR is in desperate need of new blood.

To say the current rookie class has struggled would be the understatement of the year. The six-man contest for rookie honors has turned into a battle of survival, with half the field having already lost their full-time rides -- with 12 races still remaining.

Neither Patrick Carpentier, Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish, Jr., Michael McDowell, Regan Smith nor Jacques Villeneuve has scored a Top 10 finish this season. (Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose have finished as high as third, but they're limited part-timers and thus ineligible for the rookie award). If the trend holds, it would be the first rookie class in the sport's 60-year history to go without a Top-10. It's been so bad, only Hornish has attempted every race this season without being replaced.

With that type of track record, you can imagine job security might be a problem for this group -- and it's getting worse. Villeneuve's team was shut down after only one race, and sponsorship concerns have left the careers of Carpentier, McDowell, Smith and Franchitti in doubt. Once Reed Sorenson announced Tuesday he's signed with Carpentier's No. 10 car for 2009, that left Hornish as the only full-time freshman guaranteed a ride next season. And with Hornish's return to the IRL as simple as a phone call away, it's not a stretch to predict that none of these guys will show up with a full-time ride at Daytona in February -- which hasn't happened to a second-year class since 1992-93.

Where has it all gone wrong for this year's freshmen class -- and what makes Logano so different? A number of reasons come to mind, but here are a few that stand out:

Success in open-wheel doesn't automatically translate to stock cars. After Juan Pablo Montoya took NASCAR by storm in 2007 -- he won Infineon en route to Rookie of The Year honors in Cup -- hiring open-wheel superstars was suddenly the "chic" thing to do. Car owners went crazy, scooping up Carpentier, Franchitti, Hornish and Villeneuve to give us the most versatile freshmen class in modern history. Between them, the four had three Indy 500 wins, three IRL titles, and even a Formula One championship from Villeneuve in 1997.

But driving sleek, speedy open-wheel machines is completely different than driving slower, bulkier stock cars. "Montoya's been doing well, but it takes awhile to adapt," Villeneuve told me in an interview last year. "It's a heavier car." Of course, Villeneuve never even got a chance to figure things out -- forced to qualify on speed at Daytona, he crashed out during a 150-mile qualifier and was out of a job before the second race of the season.

But for those who have been able to stick it out, that same ugly word applies -- experience. They may have been driving race cars for decades, but all that knowledge gets wiped out when you're competing in a completely different type of machine -- with little or no preparation for that transition. Hornish just had a handful of starts at NASCAR's AAA level, the Nationwide Series, keeping him from acquiring the stock car background other racers accumulated before moving up to the Cup level. Ditto for Franchitti and Carpentier -- between them, they had just seven starts in a lower-tier division before being handed the keys to a full-time Cup ride.

Without question, the failure of these men will quickly bring the "open-wheel" era of NASCAR to a close. But what could have happened if these drivers were brought along the right way? In just the last few weeks, Franchitti's shown a world of promise after being dropped down to the Nationwide Series, scoring an outside pole at Bristol to go along with three consecutive Top 15 finishes. If each of these men had been given a full year to develop in the "minors," the outcome of their rookie seasons could have been completely different. Just look at Logano: by the end of the year he'll have made 19 Nationwide Series starts, which is more than those other four drivers had entering this year -- combined.