So Silly Season has officially ended for David Stremme with the “surprise” announcement that he is taking over the Penske 12 car in 2009.
While Stremme has a few top five finishes in the Nationwide series, he has produced little in his Cup series career. Since he began racing in Cup in 2005, he has no wins, no poles, top fives and only three top ten finishes. He has led only 11 laps. His average start has been 26th and his average finish… also 26th.
His Busch/Nationwide career has been much better with 20 top fives, 46 top tens, 2 poles but once again, no win.
Despite those stellar numbers, Penske Racing has deemed him the next great thing. He must really be tearing up the testing circuit for them.
Nothing against Stremme, I am sure he is a nice guy and he is a capable driver. But what is Roger Penske thinking? Are there no better drivers out there than Stremme? Let’s see… Dave Blaney comes to mind. Joe Nemechek. Scott Riggs. Perhaps even Patrick Carpentier.
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So is this a reward for his loyalty as a test driver or has Penske seen something in Stremme that his career to this point has not shown?
No matter. Stremme is in the 12 to show what he can do until he runs out of talent or Penske Racing runs out of patience. Penske is obviously struggling this year with the new car, as many others are, and that is never a good thing as an organization. Kurt Busch is getting pretty fed up and Dodge is on the ropes again. Penske is not the organization it once was and they are trying to get back to their winning ways.
Dario Franchitti was not the savior for Ganassi and Stremme will not be savior for Penske… in my opinion. I am sure you have yours, so let me know!
