Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR
Patience was the key going into the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup season for rookie driver, Andy Lally and his TRG Motorsports team. It was almost certainly going to be a tough road to hoe as Lally was jumping straight into the deep end of the pool basically without knowing how to swim. Lally had virtually no oval track experience at the start of the year making him a rookie among rookies.
One of the positive things Lally and his shoe-string budgeted team had going for them all season long was that they were almost certainly ensured the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Rookie of the Year awards. Lally's only competition came in the form of Brian Keselowski and later T.J. Bell. Both drivers were racing for teams with even less financing than TRG's #71 and ended up posing no challenge for the award.
2011 was most definitely a challenge for Lally. He averaged a 37.6 starting position on the year and an average finishing position of 30.8 with his best finish of 19th coming at Talladega in the Aaron's 499. In spite of those numbers, Lally did a good job keeping the 71 in the top 35 for most of the season, qualifying for 30 of the 36 events, only DNQing for three events while the other three he missed were due to having a different driver in the car. Unfortunately for Lally, he was replaced just before the season finale at Homestead and will not be returning to NASCAR's Sprint Cup series in 2012.
Lally did a good job early in the season avoiding getting penalties in the pits in spite of his lack of experience pitting in NASCAR Sprint Cup series' conditions. Lally only had two speeding penalties in the first half of the season, both coming in the third race of the season at Las Vegas. However Lally was exceptionally mistake prone in the second half of the season, getting black flagged five times for speeding in the pits. The TRG pit crew did their job all year long without getting a penalty from NASCAR.
2011 Statistics For Andy Lally
33rd in Sprint Cup standings
0 top 5s
0 top 10s
Best Finish: 19th in the Aaron's 499
8 laps led
2011 Penalty Report For Andy Lally
Race 1 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 2 - Pitting before pit road is open, Garage
Race 3 - Speed-Exiting pits, tail end; Speed-Exiting pits, pass thru
Race 15 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 16 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end
Race 25 - Pitting before pit road is open, Tail of Field; Speed-Entering pits, Tail of Field; Speed-Exiting pits, Pass Thru; Speed-Entering pits, Stop & Go, Sped while doing pass thru
Race 26 - Pitting before pit road is open, tail end garage; Speed-Exiting pits, tail end; Speed-Exiting pits, tail end
Race 28 - Speed-Entering pits, pass thru