Lally the only rookie left
 

Lally the only rookie left: #71-Andy Lally, unless something unforeseen occurs, will be the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year. Lally, a three-time GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series champion, is the only freshman left competing for the award since #92-Brian Keselowski and #50-T.J. Bell failed to meet the minimum competition requirements. Lally, a native of Northport, N.Y. on Long Island, has been able to expand his expertise in oval track racing without the additional pressure of a multiple driver rookie competition. He finished 25th in Saturday's IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, his fifth consecutive run in the top 30. More importantly, the 36-year-old Lally has been able to finish 20 of his 21 starts to keep Kevin Buckler's TRG Motorsports organization among the top 35 in the owners championship standings, and currently guarantee the team a starting position.(NASCAR)(8-31-2011)

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Andy Lally honored as Sprint Cup rookie of the year: Andy Lally was in an odd position this year as the only Sprint Cup driver eligible for NASCAR's annual rookie of the year award. Lally had a clear path to the title, yet that, he said, brought more pressure than if he had competed against other drivers. "It has been kind of an odd pressure this year of being the only rookie eligible for this deal," said Lally, who was honored Thursday as the Sunoco Rookie of the Year for the Sprint Cup Series. "I think it was actually more pressure doing it this way than having to beat two or three other guys because I knew we didn't have much to compare to and we were going to be compared to the other 42 superstars that compete week in and week out and trying to go for those top-10s, which were so far away, and try to qualify as good as we could every weekend so I could try to earn the respect of the 12 guys in this room and the others guys. [That] was a monumental task and something that I really wanted to achieve so I could earn their respect." Lally, who was driving for TRG Motorsports, didn't score any top-10 finishes and finished in the top 20 only once. He made 30 of the 36 races, failing to qualify three times and wasn't entered in three races. Lally, a three-time Grand-Am Rolex Series champion and former Nationwide and Truck Series driver, got his first opportunity to run in the Sprint Cup Series this year.(SceneDaily)(12-3-2011)

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Amazing! I guess if you're the only one they HAVE to give it to you! I'm just surprised that Nascar didn't bend the rules like they always do and give it to a Chevy driver!

I remember when Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 he was interviewed and he said he wanted to run for rookie of the year but JR wanted him to compete for the Nationwide championship. Obviously that didn't go as planned. He surely would've won rookie of the year.

Trevor Bayne ran only 18 races this year - he couldn't been a rookie of the year no matter what, even if he choose to drive for points in the Sprint series.

At the beginning of the year they had expectations for him to run more but he got sick and sponsorship wasn't there for a full season. I'm just going off of what I remember from an interview of his. Google it, I'm sure you'll find it

If I remember correctly, the plan at the beginning of the season was 17 races unless they can find sponsors for more races.

http://www.nascar.com/news/110120/tb...011/index.html

Relax buddy. I was just commenting on an interview I remembered.

Same here. :)

This was the article I was referring to.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor...or-cup21_N.htm

As much as I like Trevor, I don't think he's quite ready for the Sprint Cup, he should be kept in the Nationwide car for another year or two.
Sure, he won the Daytona, but that's the race where you just need to have somebody push you and you'll do fine. In 17 races this year he had only 5 Top 20 finishes.

I would like to see Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in that #21 in 2012. I think he earned it.

I agree with ya on that. Ricky's earned it.

Securing good loyal sponsers is the big issue for this coming season.

It seems in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series that the Ford teams have a harder time getting sponsors while Chevy and Toyota have plenty. Ever notice that the bottom 5 or 6 cars at each race have no worthwhile sponsors? And in the truck series there is usually only 1 Ford entered and the sponsor is like a kool-aide stand or something like that. WTF?

Ford pulled out from the Truck series few years ago.

I don't think its the performance of Ford teams that's pushing sponsors away. I read somewhere that it's the money issue and teams like Roush are asking for much more $$$ than other teams. Otherwise, I don't think DeWalt for an example would leave Kenseth and sponsor Ambrose for any other reason other than $$$. I mean, they're both driving Fords ...