Gavin Lawrence / Getty Images file

Jimmie Johnson is off to a strong start this season.

These guys are struggling
Greg Biffle
I am quite aware that Biffle led 336 of the 500 miles at the California race. There’s no question he had the dominant car.  Here’s the rub:  Racing is a performance business, with performance measured in wins, finishes and points.  You can lead all the laps you want, but if you’re not around at the finish it doesn’t amount to much.  Biffle was the class of the field at California, but his car’s engine failed just 20 laps shy of a sure win, leaving him 42nd in the final rundown, pretty grim. 

Similarly, Biffle was competitive at Daytona in the 500, but was involved in a crash off the final corner of the race and was only credited with a 31st place finish.  Was he competitive? Yes, but Biffle has precious little to show for it where points are concerned.

Jeff Gordon
Gordon has not cracked the top 10 of either race this year. At Daytona Gordon was running well early in the event, but then contact between he and Tony Stewart knocked the handling of Gordon’s Chevy askew, and he never contended for the front again, winding up 26th at the finish. Like Dale Earnhardt Jr., the intermediate tracks, including the 1.5 and 2-mile speedways, were sources of difficulty for Gordon through most of 2005.  While his 13th place finish at California is not overly impressive, it did seem to provide hope that progress has been made towards being more competitive on those type tracks this time around.

Joe Nemechek
If you want to find a driver and team down on their collective luck, Nemechek and his team would qualify. Nemechek has had early difficulties in both of the opening races this year based on silly things such as having debris from another crashing car land in his path, damaging his car and leaving him with an uphill fight at Daytona and California. Nemechek’s two finishes this year have been 27th at California at 33rd at Daytona.

Jeremy Mayfield
Mayfield is Kasey Kahne’s teammate, and he went through the same off-season shakeup that owner Ray Evernham put Kahne’s team through, with new people leading the way. Things haven’t started off as well as hoped, with finishes of 36th and 22nd to open the year.

Kurt Busch
While Busch was the fastest qualifier at California, his race ended in a 16th place finish, which is sub par for him. That followed a 38th-place result in the Daytona 500 when Busch was taken out in a crash by the car he drove last season. I still feel confident, however, that Busch can rebound and be in the hunt for the Chase for the Championship later in the season.