Ten races into the Cup season, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s debut is starting to reach historic proportions.
Not since 1982 — before Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Austin Dillon were born — has Chevrolet failed to lead a lap in three races in the same season. It’s already happened this year. No Chevrolet paced the field at Las Vegas, Martinsville and Richmond.
Only 11 times in the 656 Cup races run since the beginning of the 2000 season has Chevrolet failed to lead at least a lap in a race.
A couple of other races nearly joined that list this season. Chevy teams led three of 200 laps at Auto Club Speedway and five of 334 laps at Texas Motor Speedway.
That Chevrolet didn’t lead a lap at Las Vegas and struggled to do so at Auto Club and Texas — tracks where aero plays a key role — is a concern.
The Camaro’s woes, though, are not surprising. There can be teething problems when working with a new car. Look back to last season when Toyota ran a new Camry body. Toyota won one of the first 10 races (same as Chevrolet this season with that victory by Dillon in the Daytona 500).
In the first 10 races of last season, Toyota teams won one race, had eight top-five finishes and 23 top 10s.
In the first 10 races this season, Chevrolet teams have won one race, had 12 top-five finishes and 28 top 10s.
Keep in mind that there are more Chevy teams than Toyota teams, so Chevy teams should have better numbers.
Take out the two restrictor-plate races, the Daytona 500 and the spring Talladega race, this year and last year and the numbers are closer between the models.
Toyota had one win, seven top-five finishes and 21 top 10s in the first eight non-plate races last year
Chevrolet has no wins, eight top-five finishes and 20 top 10s in those same events this year.
This doesn’t guarantee that Chevrolet will continue to struggle. Toyota won two of the first 17 races last year — both by Martin Truex Jr. — before winning 14 of the final 19 races.
One difference is that NASCAR employs the Optical Scanning Station this season to tech cars. The station has been credited with helping Ford, which has the oldest body among the manufacturers, remain competitive because of how closely the station can scan a car. More rigorous inspections can keep cars even. Of course, that also could make it more difficult for Chevrolet teams to find the speed in their cars to be more competitive.
The two Chevy drivers who have shown the most promise this season are Larson and Elliott.
Larson has been the top-finishing Chevy driver in four races and Elliott has held that honor three times.
Rookie Darrell Wallace Jr. finished second in the Daytona 500 and scored an eighth-place finish at Texas. He noted this week that his team has more work to do with refining his Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
“We need more raw speed out of our car,’’ he said. “I think we’re heading in the right direction.
“We’re finding some things, for sure. We look back at Richmond. We weren’t really a big factor, but our car drove really good. So, we’re still trying to figure out where we were so far off, but we had the handling down to a T. I felt like we were the best car there handling-wise but speed-wise we were one of the slowest.’’
Said Dillon on Friday at Dover: “We’ve been decent all year long, we haven’t had the speed and there are reasons for the speed not being there. As far as Chevy as a whole right now, we’re working to find the speed.’’
Here’s a look at the Cup races since 2000 where Chevrolet did not lead a lap in the event:
April 21, 2018 — Richmond
March 26, 2018 — Martinsville
March 4, 2018 — Las Vegas
July 24, 2016 — Indianapolis
Sept. 12, 2015 — Richmond
August 22, 2015 — Bristol
June 28, 2014 — Kentucky
October 20, 2002 — Martinsville
October 28, 2001 — Phoenix
August 19, 2001 — Michigan
September 17, 2000 — New Hampshire
2. Learning the way
Paul Menard, in his first season with the Wood Brothers, scored the team’s first stage win of the season last weekend at Talladega.
The Wood Brothers are aligned with Team Penske, so that means Menard takes part in competition meetings with Penske drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and their teams.
“We’re all very different people and we have different perspectives, which is interesting,’’ Menard said. “The way that Brad breaks down his car is much different than Joey and much different than Ryan.’’
Menard compares his time with the Wood Brothers with his early time at Richard Childress Racing.
“When I first went there, we had some really fast cars and then we got off,’’ said Menard, who drove for RCR from 2011-17. “So in the last couple of years, every week was trying to dig out of a hole basically. This year there’s really no hole to dig out of, kind of have a proven package and more fine-tuning than swinging for the fences.’’
3. Father vs. son
Today’s Camping World Truck Series race at Dover will pit David Gilliland against his son Todd in a race for only the second time.
The only other time they ran against each other was in July 2014 in a Super Late Model race at Irwindale Speedway. Also in that race was David’s father (Todd’s grandfather) Butch to make it a three-generation race.
David Gilliland said Thursday he’s excited about today’s race.
“I’ve got into a lot of races in my career,’’ David Gilliland said. “I’ve looked forward to a lot of them and nothing’s been like this.’’
Said Todd: “It’s cool. We’re hoping to beat each other, but also you just kind of focus on the real race out there. It’s going to be good.’’
4. A different driver each race
The Xfinity Series has had a different winner in each of the first nine races of the season.
Should there be a 10th different winner Saturday at Dover, it would tie the 1987 season for the second longest streak of different winners to open a season. The record for most different winners to start a season is 13 in 1988.
The winners this year have been: Tyler Reddick (Daytona), Kevin Harvick (Atlanta), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas), Brad Keselowski (Phoenix), Joey Logano (Auto Club), Ryan Blaney (Texas), Ryan Preece (Bristol), Christopher Bell (Richmond) and Spencer Gallagher (Talladega).
5. Soon …
A week from today Matt Kenseth will be back in a Cup car. He makes his return in Roush Fenway Racing’s No. 6 at Kansas Speedway in place of Trevor Bayne. Kenseth’s schedule hasn’t been released yet, but he will run at Kansas and the following week in the Monster Energy All-Star Race.
