2015 Reviews: JTG-Daugherty Racing and Germain Racing
Welcome to our 2015 reviews. Instead of going driver-by-driver we’re going to review teams this year. We’re starting from the bottom of the standings and working our way up. Let’s pair up two single-car teams with Richard Childress Racing alliances.
Germain Racing
Driver (standings in parenthesis): Casey Mears (23rd)
Highlights: Mears had one top-10 finish in 2015 and it came in the Daytona 500. He finished sixth and led a lap after starting 41st. Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Daytona’s summer race was his next-best effort. He finished 11th there in July.
Mears had 14 top-20 finishes and had a nice run during the summer. He had finishes of 16th and 13th at the first Pocono and Michigan races.
Lowlights: In between Michigan and the second Daytona race came Sonoma. And this mishap.
Mears finished 38th there. He also finished 42nd at Michigan in August and in the season finale at Homestead.
Overview: Mears seems to have found a secure spot at Germain. The team has a Richard Childress Racing alliance and he had more consistent speed than drivers from bigger teams.
But unless Germain has more resources – and RCR becomes as fast as Hendrick Motorsports – this may be the ceiling for the team. A good start to breaking through the ceiling would be turning some of those top-20 finishes into top 10s.
JTG-Daugherty Racing
Driver (standings in parenthesis): AJ Allmendinger (22nd)
Highlights: Allmendinger had three top-10 finishes in 2015. Two of them came in the first three races as he was seventh at Atlanta and sixth at Las Vegas. The two finishes, coupled with a 20th in the Daytona 500, meant Allmendinger was fifth in the points standings after four weeks.
His other top-10 finish came at Pocono in August. Allmendinger had two poles in 2015 and both of them came at the road courses.
Lowlights: Let’s continue talking about the road courses. Allmendinger won at Watkins Glen in 2014 to make the Chase and after starting first at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen, was considered the heavy favorite at both tracks.
Neither race went well at all. Allmendinger finished 37th at Sonoma and 24th at Watkins Glen. Without consistent Chase-level speed at ovals, he was helpless to qualify for the Chase for a second-straight season.
Overview: Allmendinger signed a five-year extension with the team in May, so he’s not going anywhere. However, there’s nothing to indicate he’ll be more than just a contender at Sonoma and Watkins Glen for the foreseeable future.
Allmendinger may be one of the most talented drivers in the garage, and that talent is on display whenever there are right turns involved. But until the team has great equipment where speed and aerodynamics matter, Allmendinger will be reduced to vying for a Chase berth twice a year barring a restrictor plate miracle.
Previous Reviews: HScott Motorsports, Front Row Motorsports, BK Racing and Tommy Baldwin Racing.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
