Burton was part of a 10-man group of rookies in 1994 — the most ever. Among them were Jeremy Mayfield, Joe Nemechek, John Andretti, Steve Grissom, Mike Wallace, Ward Burton, Loy Allen Jr., Billy Standridge and Curtis Markham. Jeff Burton wound up Rookie of the Year despite only three top 10s and finishing 24th in points.

“It seemed like a lot of people, but we all drove junk,” said Burton, who raced that year for the Stavola Brothers team. “We didn’t drive for Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick. We drove for people that didn’t have the finances that it took to be competitive. The expectation was very low.

“Some of these rookies won’t make it. Somebody will give up on some of them. The difference is, though, when I was a rookie, no one expected success. You just had to prove you weren’t a dummy.”

Rookie of the Year candidates may have driven up to seven Cup events in any previous season. And each of this year’s rookies has driven in at least one Cup race with the exception of Sherman. His NASCAR credentials include a total of 27 Busch races over the last two years, with one top 10.

Truex, with nine Cup races, including seven last year, has the most experience.

“It’s important to at least got to get the feel of a Cup car and work with the team,” Truex said. “It’s a big learning curve and I don’t know how well we’ll do this year, but the goal is certainly to make the Chase and be the top rookie.”

Hamlin has had the most success among the Cup neophytes. In seven races last year in a Gibbs Chevrolet, he won a pole, had three top 10 finishes and an average finish of 17.1.

“If we can just have the same average finish this year, we can make the Chase,” Hamlin said. “Finishing races is so important. That’s how we got that top five finish in the Busch Series. We really weren’t a top-five team, but we did it by consistency. That’s what we want to do this year.”

Looking at the rookie chase, he added, “It’s going to be very difficult to beat out all these guys. But, the way I look at it, we’ve got the most momentum of any of them. If we don’t back up what we did in those first seven (races), I’d consider it a waste.”

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