Link to Part 1: https://zmiller82.blogspot.com/2026/06/trying-to-make-chase-with-most-average.html
By Zane Miller
Returning to where we left off at the end of the 2007 season, driver Floyd Parkhurst and Meh Motorsports began 2008 with a fitting 21st-place finish in the Daytona 500, which was won by Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his first in-universe victory in the event. After Ryan Newman took the checkered flag at Las Vegas, Parkhurst captured his first top-10 of the year a week later at Atlanta. However, the now fifth-year veteran would have to wait a few more weeks for another top-10 run.
Parkurst matched his Atlanta finishing position with a ninth at Talladega, a race preceded by Matt Kenseth taking the win at Martinsville. Just past the midway point in the regular season, Parkhurst would get his first top-five of the campaign, grabbing third at Dover with Newman claiming another win. Disaster would strike at the second Daytona race, however, as Parkhurst was presumably caught up in a crash and finished 42nd. Even with top-10 runs at New Hampshire, Watkins Glen and Bristol, it wasn’t enough to make it into the Chase.
Despite being eliminated from title contention, Parkhurst still wrapped up the last 10 races with strong results, getting four top-10s which included a fifth-place at Homestead for 15th in the final standings. Bucking the notorious curse of the Daytona 500 winner struggling for the rest of the season, Earnhardt Jr. took back-to-back championships by 72 points over Kevin Harvick. In a situation reminiscent of his outstanding 2020 season, Harvick won exactly half of the races with 17, including four in the Chase, yet somehow found a way to lose the title. Earnhardt Jr. scored six wins, as Jeff Gordon had somewhat of an off year with four.
Set to avenge his crushing defeat in the previous year’s Chase, Harvick came into 2009 swinging with a fifth triumph in the Great American Race, as Parkhurst finished a respectable 12th. An eighth-place run was right around the corner for the driver of the #150 at Las Vegas, but there would be a long drought afterwards with Parkhurst’s next top-10 not coming until the first Richmond race.
The latter portion of the regular season wouldn’t get much better for Parkhurst, who largely continued to place just outside of the top-10 most weeks as a Chase spot inched away from his grasp. He would score a season-best sixth at Chicagoland, but was left on the outside looking in after 24 races.
In the meantime, Harvick went on a generational run to both finish the regular season and start the postseason. Starting out with wins at California and Richmond, Harvick then grabbed the first five wins of the Chase for seven consecutive victories. This was not only the most wins strung together by a single driver this playthrough, but Harvick was also the first Cup Series driver to win five or more straight since Richard Petty in 1971.
As Parkhurst settled for 15th in the standings, Harvick would not be denied his second career championship, which he clinched a race early even with the points reset. The pride of Bakersfield, California ended 2009 with another 17-win season, while Gordon returned to his winning ways with seven victories, including his 100th career win at Infineon. Earnhardt Jr. added another six wins to his resume.
The 2010 season would start off with more of the same, as Harvick claimed his sixth Daytona 500 with Parkhurst trailing behind in 15th. Harvick rattled off a pair of wins to pull a 2026 Tyler Reddick by beginning the year on a three-race win streak, though it was a miserable start for Parkhurst. Aside from a 10th-place finish at Darlington, he would end up outside the top-30 during the span from Atlanta to Texas. However, Parkhurst would bounce back big time at Martinsville thanks to a third-place result.
The strong run at the Paper Clip seemed to reinvigorate the Meh Motorsports outfit, as Parkhurst scored 10th at Talladega before taking the runner-up spot at California. Coincidentally, he again finished second to Tony Stewart, the winner in his only other runner-up result at Homestead in 2006. Of course, the hot streak did not last long for Parkhurst, who found himself well outside of postseason contention by the cutoff race, though the team did get their wind back just before regular season’s end with back-to-back fourth-place finishes at California and Richmond.
Not much of note happened for Parkhurst in the Chase events outside of a seventh at Atlanta on the way to 15th in points, but this postseason would provide an exciting three-way battle for the championship. You’d think it would be between Harvick, Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. for the title, but only two of the three are correct. Despite collecting a pair of wins early in the Chase, Harvick completely fell off a cliff afterward and was over 400 points out of the lead by the season finale. Instead, 2004 champ Jimmie Johnson reemerged as a valid threat, a mere 26 points behind point leader Gordon, who himself was only 18 points ahead of Earnhardt Jr. going into Homestead. Here’s where I really wish I could break down the results of this race, but, as you’ll recall from part one, the simulation model for NASCAR 2005 doesn’t allow you to view the full race results. What we do know is that Gordon scored the clutch win at the South Florida track, holding off teammate Johnson by 28 points as Earnhardt Jr. settled for third, 61 markers back.
The 2010 season was also remembered as the season of milestones, with Earnhardt Jr. earning his 50th career win in the fall race at Lowe’s, though it was moderately overshadowed by Harvick’s 100th career victory at Talladega coming just two weeks prior. Not only that, Gordon was able to pass David Pearson for second on the all-time wins list after his 106th career victory at New Hampshire to start the postseason.
The 2011 Daytona 500, which in real life was won by Trevor Bayne in one of the biggest underdog wins in NASCAR history, instead put out a far less interesting result in-game as Earnhardt Jr. took his second Harley J. Earl Trophy. However, the Wood Brothers would get their time in the sun later on in the season.
An unspectacular 18th-place in the 500 was followed by an eighth-place at Rockingham for Parkhurst. Even though he was still primarily coming up short of stringing together top-10s, Parkhurst was keeping himself in the postseason conversation with several top-20 runs in the early going. He collected his third top-10 of the year with an eighth in the Coke 600, but would not be the main headline from this event. Sophomore driver Clay Dixon, who took over for a retired Ricky Rudd in the Wood Brothers #21 ride, pulled off easily the most shocking upset of the simulation by taking his first career victory in the crown jewel race. Dixon would ultimately finish 17th in the final standings, making his victory all the crazier.
Speaking of crazy, Parkhurst again secured back-to-back top-10s, getting seventh at Dover before being brought back to earth with a 36th-place finish at Michigan. He resumed his familiar theme of getting solid yet not-quite-good-enough results for the next couple of months, but broke through for his career best finish at a road course, grabbing third in Watkins Glen. Even with a top-10 in the return trip to California, Parkhurst would be shut out of the Chase yet again.
Johnson grabbed the early advantage in the postseason with the opening win at New Hampshire, but a new challenger to the big three was already rising to the occasion. Matt Kenseth, already having an excellent season with four wins including a sweep of Richmond, came in as the #1-seed and showed why by taking the checkers at Dover. After a typical Harvick win at Talladega, Kenseth nabbed the victory at Kansas before collecting his seventh win of the year at Atlanta. Despite the best efforts of Harvick, Gordon and even Johnson, who picked up another win at Phoenix, nobody had anything for Kenseth. The native Wisconsinite held a commanding 114-point lead at season’s end for his second career Cup title. Although Harvick still finished the year with the most wins for the fourth straight season, it was just barely as he had eight to Kenseth’s seven. Punctuating one of the wildest seasons of the playthrough, Kenseth actually managed to finish with more wins than two of the big three, as Gordon and Earnhardt Jr. ended up with six apiece. Is this season simply a fluke, or does Kenseth’s dominant season signal a major shakeup in the Cup Series hierarchy? Come back in part three to find out!
