Now that veteran driver Tony Raines has been named to replace Kevin Conway in the #34 Extenze Ford NASCAR finds itself in a weird place.
Already in sports such as NASCAR and Baseball awarding a rookie of the year has more to do with when you are called up to the top level and against who then your actual overall talent.
This year Kevin Conway was competing for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award and with the exception of a few qualifying attempts and runs by truck series veteran Terry Cook was doing it unopposed.
Already this season team owner Bob Jenkins has had to do some number switching to make sure that that all three of his cars have made the race. While Conway has driven the Extenze sponsored car all season he has done so with different numbers. In addition to the current #34 he has raced with the other Front Row Motorsports #38 and #37 as well.
Conway has constantly been running slower then the rest of the field and has made his way into recent races based solely on being in the top 35 in owner points.
With Conway’s departure there is now the chance that the winner of the award may go to a guy who isn’t even racing at seasons end.
Now that is funny. One has to wonder had he used more Extenze would he still be in the throttle?