The 43 Days of Daytona - 33rd Place in 2005
Over the 43 days leading up to the Daytona 500, I'll be doing a short review/preview of the Top 43 Drivers of 2005.
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Travis Kvapil
#32 - Tide
Kvapil ran a full season last year in the #77-Penske Racing-Kodak Dodge. All 36 starts coming in the same car. He pulled 2 Tops 10's. No Top 5's. No poles. No wins. His average start was 25.9. His average finish was 26.2. He finished 33rd in points. Despite this, he still posted winnings of $3,293,450.
This season he will run in the Cal Wells-PPI Motorsports-Tide Chevy #32. How going from a team like Penske with all that factory support and teammates like Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman,...though I'm betting Rusty was a better teammate than Ryan Newman was, will impact him remains to be seen.
Will sponsorship be big enough to allow the team to field a car every week? Yes. This has been one of the most successful one car operations recently, even with the blip of the last couple of seasons with Bobby Hamilton Jr. behind the wheel.
Do I think he could go win a championship? No. The era when a single car team could win a championship is over.
Do I think he could win a race or two and have a good season? Absolutely. He is just a few season removed from winning a Craftsman Truck Series Championship. If he manages to apply things he learned at Penske and bring that experience forward, he has potential. I think his winning a race this season is entirely possible. Ricky Craven won twice with this team. The equipment is there. Kvapil skill set is there. It just needs to reach critical mass.
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Travis Kvapil
#32 - Tide
Kvapil ran a full season last year in the #77-Penske Racing-Kodak Dodge. All 36 starts coming in the same car. He pulled 2 Tops 10's. No Top 5's. No poles. No wins. His average start was 25.9. His average finish was 26.2. He finished 33rd in points. Despite this, he still posted winnings of $3,293,450.
This season he will run in the Cal Wells-PPI Motorsports-Tide Chevy #32. How going from a team like Penske with all that factory support and teammates like Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman,...though I'm betting Rusty was a better teammate than Ryan Newman was, will impact him remains to be seen.
Will sponsorship be big enough to allow the team to field a car every week? Yes. This has been one of the most successful one car operations recently, even with the blip of the last couple of seasons with Bobby Hamilton Jr. behind the wheel.
Do I think he could go win a championship? No. The era when a single car team could win a championship is over.
Do I think he could win a race or two and have a good season? Absolutely. He is just a few season removed from winning a Craftsman Truck Series Championship. If he manages to apply things he learned at Penske and bring that experience forward, he has potential. I think his winning a race this season is entirely possible. Ricky Craven won twice with this team. The equipment is there. Kvapil skill set is there. It just needs to reach critical mass.
posted by Mark "Puff" Anderson | 10:21 AM
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