August 16th, 2010 
Journo Kevin Conway doesn’t have a ride. And his season up to this point has been… well not good. Despite the less than impressive stats and a now unclear future, Conway will very likely go into the NASCAR record books as the best rookie of 2010 – the Raybestos Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, the winner by default.
Conway started 2010 driving the #37 for Front Row Motorsports – his home until last week. His competition through the first 10 races of this season for the ROY was Terry Cook. Cook qualified for just three of ten races he attempted in a very underfunded Whitney Motorsports ride before he and the team parted ways.
That left just Conway, the only full-time competitor, competing for ROY honors this season. For his part, Conway has said he is excited about winning his race of one.
Nevermind it was clever maneuvering of points, and start-and-parks that kept Conway going for as long as he did. Through 21 races he had an average start of 40th, and average finish of 31.6 – he finished on the lead lap in just three of those races at Daytona, Watkins Glen and Sonoma.
For all intents and purposes though Conway is the best rookie of this season. Though I don’t know if I’d be too stoked about winning a competition where I was the only competitor, I guess it’s something.
Going back to late last season the talk was how there might not even be a rookie class in the Cup Series. While that didn’t occur, we did end up with the weakest class since perhaps 1958 (I say that only because the winner, Shorty Rollins, was the lone competitor).
Now thanks to a bad economy, an increasing lack of sponsor interest in funding development drivers and plethora of other reasons, we now find ourselves in the same situation we were in last year – the prospect of a season without a ROY participant in the Cup Series.
While it really isn’t that big of a deal, it’s kind of sad to not see a competition for an award whose winners include the sport’s greatest drivers. The award deserves better than this. The sport deserves better than this. But it is what it is.
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I seem to recall that Johnny Benson had minimal, if any, competition for the Cup rookie honors in 1996. He was the only one who ran the whole season.
It’s a sad day when we accept Start and parkers as legit competitors,rained shortened victories,and the sole rookie candidate by default.
with all due respect, BS.
MEANINGLESS? That is being disrepectful to the sport and being very rude to a working member of the sport of which you are a member.
“winner” is the wrong word.
“EARNER” IS THE RIGHT WORD.
If anything…..
Kevin being the only person in the running shows just how hard it is to be in a position be rookie of the year. I dont know much about Kevin…. and as I have posted many times…. I despise the fact that NASCAR is so broken that they are forced to allow S&Pers.
NASCAR NEEDS TO REPAIR IT SELF.
They need to fix this … maybe allocate ALL THAT FREEKIN MONEY THEY MAKE in a fair manner that allows all the cars and drivers and teams who want to REALLY race (NOT S&P) to compete as opposed to this “TICK TOCK THE GAME IS LOCKED” BS that is NASCAR today. The whole “reserve 35 spots for teachers pets” crap is just part of a bigger problem.
THE FASTEST CAR SHOULD BE ON POLE…
and so on…. NO RESERVED BS!! NO S&P.
NEW RULE IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE MORE THAN 50% OF THE RACE…. YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO RACE NEXT WEEK.
We are seeeing MORE sympthoms of a sickness, but the patient (NASCAR) refuses to accept that something is wrong. Having only one driver in the running for Rookie of the year is just another sympthom…..
IF Kevin Conway kid did his part….. and IF he is the only one who did his part to be eligible THEN dont you dare belittle his efforts OR AWARD, just because NASCAR runs a rigged system.
CONGRATS KEVIN CONWAY, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR.
YOU DID GOOD KID….. AND DONT LET ANYONE TELL YOU OTHERWISE !!!
Kevin did not “WIN” this …HE EARNED IT.
BRAVO!! BRAVO!!! BRAVO!! KEVIN
If a tree falls in the middle of a dense forest, does it make a sound?
Maybe NASCAR can trade in the ROTY award for the “Start & Parker of the Year Award”?
Shouldn’t we all just give it to BK? If not for only a couple races too many last season, he’d be in the ROTY running and sitting inside the top 30 points the entire season. It hasn’t been a “great” season, but its better than what COnway has done.
Garry, you want Nascar to allow the fastest 43 to race and not allow start and parks? That’s simply not possible. Cars like the PRISM cars will always be in the top 43 in qualifying and they will always start and park. In fact, the top 35 rule is probably the best way to help prevent start and parks. In 2009, there were 36 cars that ran the full season and they made up every spot in the top 35 in points(Scott Speed was the only non-S&P outside the top 35 finishing 36th in points).
As for the idea of not allowing people finishing half the race to race the next week, is that fair to a driver in the top 12 in points if he gets taken out 1 lap before halfway or blows a motor 5 laps short of half? So how about just saying no points if you start and park? That won’t work either. You think these teams come out and say we start and park? no, they don’t. They just happen to have 36 “suspension failures” or “brake failures” or “overheating issues” over the course of the season. Actually, they probably do have these issues they claim they have. But, so does every other team in the garage, the others just race through the condition though. If you looked hard enough for a problem with a part, you’ll find one.
S&P teams are nothing new in Nascar, people just choose now days to make a big deal of them because ESPN makes a deal out of them. Also fans got spoiled by years like 2007 where there were so many full time cars that the S&P teams didn’t stand a chance of making the show.