Junior isn't the only driver who needs to step up in '08

Editor's note: This is a two-part series examining the need to step up in 2008. Part I focuses on individual drivers. Part II features groups and various NASCAR entities.

This is Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s year, the year he moves from good equipment to great equipment. Now the pressure is on for Junior to take that next step, from becoming a good driver to a great driver.

Yet Junior isn't alone in 2008 when it comes to personal stakes. Several drivers have something to prove this year, whether it be to continue making strides, solidify their status as a top-notch driver, re-establish themselves or simply establish themselves. The category in which each of the following eight drivers, listed in alphabetical order only, falls will become evident.

• Aric Almirola: How could a driver who has only made six career starts in the Cup Series and never finished better than 26th (2007 season-finale at Homestead) possibly be in a situation that requires a need to step up in 2008? Because of the car he steps into -- the No. 8 Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt Inc., vacated after nine years by NASCAR's most popular driver, the aforementioned Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Almirola will share driving duties in the 8 on a part-time basis with Mark Martin. Almirola, who doesn't turn 24 until two days before the fifth race of the '08 season, at Bristol, has limited experience in any of NASCAR's top three series. He made his debut in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2005, and raced a full NCTS schedule in 2006 when he finished with three top-10s and a final driver ranking of 18.

Almirola made starts in all three series in '07, the majority of which were in the Busch Series. He posted his six top-10s in the final 10 races in which he ran, including his first victory, at Milwaukee, unusual because Almirola was pulled during the race in favor of a late-arriving Denny Hamlin.

The former developmental driver left Joe Gibbs Racing shortly thereafter and inked a deal with Ginn Racing, which has since thrust him into the spotlight at DEI.

• Greg Biffle: After leading the Cup Series with six victories and finishing runner-up in 2005, Biffle was a preseason favorite of many heading into 2006. He failed to even make the Chase that year, winning but twice and finishing 13th in points.

After Mark Martin ended his long and successful association with Jack Roush, the owner anointed Biffle the leader of his five-car organization. He was even paired with Martin's longtime crew chief, Pat Tryson. Yet the combination didn't work, and Tryson eventually moved on to Penske Racing and Kurt Busch. Meanwhile, Biffle floundered again, winning but once and finishing 14th in points.

Biffle enters a critical year, his free-agent year, as it were. No longer the leader of Roush Fenway Racing -- not with the success last year of Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards -- Biffle needs to regain what he had in '05. Or is it that 2005 was the aberration, and the driver of the No. 16 Ford we have seen the past two years is the true Biffle?

Consider this: Half of Biffle's career 12 wins came in that one year, and he has never won more than two races in any other full Cup season. In addition, or in this case subtraction, both his top-five and top-10 totals have both decreased the past two years. In 186 starts, Biffle's average finish is 18.0. The question is, is Biffle just average?

• Kyle Busch: The anti-Dale Jr. in 2008, Busch must prove that he can succeed apart from the Hendrick Motorsports domain. It's not as if Busch is going from the penthouse to the outhouse, but there remains a trace of uncertainty with Joe Gibbs Racing's switch from powerhouse Chevrolet to second-year upstart Toyota.

However, it's not as if Gibbs' No. 18 car has had much success in the Chase era, having not won a race since 2003. After winning 21 races in a nine-year span which included a driver championship in 2000, Bobby Labonte struggled in his final two years in the 18. And J.J. Yeley proved even less successful the past two seasons.

Busch has four victories in the past three years, and in the past two has been a Chase participant, finishing fifth in points in 2007. Last year alone Busch posted 20 top-10s, nine fewer than Labonte the past four seasons combined and 14 more than Yeley has in his career.

Remember, JGR's 11 car was the worst of the bunch until Denny Hamlin stepped into the driver's seat. This is Busch's chance to show he's more than just a product of the system.

• Kasey Kahne: While Kahne will never match Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s level of popularity, he nonetheless has captured the fancy of the NASCAR marketers and in 2008 will assume Junior's identity as the sport's new face of Budweiser.

Kahne did match Earnhardt's level of frustration in 2007, finishing on the lead lap in just half of his races. Kahne is the 10-years-younger version of Greg Biffle. After a breakthrough 2006, in which he won a series-high six races, Kahne struggled mightily last season. He had only one top-five and went through a 16-race stretch -- beginning the second week of the season -- without a top-10.

However, a trend of success in even-numbered years is a reason for optimism in '08. In '04, 13 of Kahne's 14 top-10s were top-fives, a promising start for the then-rookie. But he slumped in '05 despite posting his first career victory. His numbers from that year mirror his '07 results, sans the victory.

Kahne can't quite yet put behind his troubles of 2007. Before he can focus on being the flagship of Gillett Evernham Motorsports, Kahne will begin 2008 in court after a run-in with a track security guard at Homestead. So he needs things to go well in Miami before they can go well in Daytona.

• Casey Mears: Unlike many of the drivers on this list, Mears hasn't experienced sustained success at the Cup level. But as a member of the vaunted Hendrick Motorsports stable, he needs to.

Mears, with his close relationships with team owner Rick Hendrick and star drivers Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, was a logical choice to join the organization and his first year produced his first Cup Series win, in May at Charlotte. And when the smoke cleared from Johnson's championship burnout at Homestead, Mears had personal highs in top-fives (nearly doubling his career output of six with five in '07), top-10s (10) and lead-lap finishes (24).

Still, Mears finished 15th in points, one spot worse than his last year with Chip Ganassi Racing. In '08 he switches from the 25 to the 5, which Kyle Busch piloted to consecutive Chase runs.

But Mears' biggest challenge comes from within his own garage. With Dale Earnhardt Jr. joining the organization, HMS boasts two of the most popular drivers in the history of NASCAR and the reigning back-to-back champion. Earnhardt, Gordon and Johnson hold their own; Mears not so much. Not yet, anyway.

• Juan Montoya: The driver who elicited the open-wheel faze to NASCAR certainly made the transition plausible in '07. Montoya won a race -- albeit on the road course at Sonoma -- had three top-fives and six top-wins to secure top rookie honors.

But that transition wasn't always smooth. He finished 21st or worse 20 times -- with 11 finishes of 30th or higher -- and finished on the lead lap in just 15 races. Also, his driving style at times was brought into question by those around him on the track.

Montoya's first year in the Cup Series was far less successful than that of a driver with a more comparable background -- Tony Stewart, who, like Montoya, is a former open-wheel champion. Stewart's first season in Cup (1999) produced four victories and 21 top-10s in 34 races. He had even greater success the following year, winning six times with 23 top-10s and has since gone on to win two Cup titles.

Montoya's open-wheel career was much longer than Stewart's, thus the greater learning curve. But the Colombian is everything NASCAR is craving -- a driver with international flair who can open untapped boundaries. But most important, he is the face, for better or worse, of the open-wheel invasion. He needs to lead by example.

• Ryan Newman: Of the full-time drivers with double-digit wins in their careers, only Bobby Labonte is in a longer victory funk than Newman. Eighty-one races have passed since Newman was in Victory Lane, in '05 at New Hampshire (the Chase opener).

A Chase participant the first two years, Newman has failed to make NASCAR's playoffs in each of the following winless seasons. He suffered through his worst full-time season in '06 with just seven top-10s but at times in '07 showed signs of the driver who finished seventh or better in points four consecutive years.

Still, eight of Newman's 12 career victories came in one season (2003) and he hasn't since come close to matching his top-five (17) and top-10 (22) totals from that year. In '06 he finished on the lead lap just 19 times and in '07 had nine DNFs.

Much like Biffle, Newman is in the final year of a contract and needs to prove he is more than a one-year wonder. His numbers across the board suggest he is, but getting back to Victory Lane would confirm it.

• Michael Waltrip: Last season was a disaster for Waltrip, the owner of a first-year Toyota organization. It was even worse for Waltrip the driver, a veteran now of 23 NASCAR seasons with nearly 700 Cup starts to his credit.

In fact, Waltrip already would have surpassed the 700-start mark had it not been for his Toyota team, which had no points from the previous year in which to fall back. Thus, Waltrip qualified his way into just 14 races in '07. That was far less than his other two drivers -- Dale Jarrett, minus his six provisional's, and David Reutimann.

Waltrip overcame an inspection scandal at Daytona to race his way into the season-opening 500, but didn't make another race until the first week of June, at Dover. When he did qualify he was much better than his teammates. Waltrip had the team's only two top-10s and his 25.0 average finish was five places better than his closest teammate.

Waltrip's No. 55 finished 41st in owner points, meaning he'll have to be at his qualifying best to begin '08. That's where his '07 season was lost. And why he's on this list.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.