JOILET, Ill. – On the verge of making the NASCAR XFINITY Series playoffs in his series’ return, Michael Annett knows he must take a subpar season so far and elevate his JR Motorsports team to winning ways with a championship on the line.
Annett is one of four full-time entries at JR Motorsports and with all four cars likely secured a playoff berth for the eight-race stretch, Annett, 31, will barely squeeze in being the 11th seed overall.
With a concentration towards performance and better finishes, Annett left his tenure in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for an organization that could propel the Des Moines, Iowa native back into the spotlight.
While it hasn’t been all milk and cookies aboard the No. 5 Chevrolet, Annett believes his team can get better when it counts the most.
“I feel like we should be a lot better, shouldn’t be talking about the playoff bubble and securing our spot this weekend,” said Annett who earned a season-high second at Road America last month.
“It’s been subpar. We’ve shown flashes and then we’ve been consistently just a couple spots out of where I think we should be, especially looking at our teammates’ performances.”
Knowing that gains can be made in the playoffs with stage points if a win isn’t imminent, Annett’s says his nine stage points have hurt the team’s ability to be higher in the standings and his No. 5 Flying J Travel team must do a better job over the final stretch to earn as many stage points as possible.
“I was looking at it (stage points) and I think I have maybe nine for the entire year and that’s really hurt us. Even though our finishes are decent, not where we want them, we’ve struggled in qualifying and struggled during the first two stages week in and week out.
“If we get into the (playoffs), that’s something we’re going to have to focus on and get as many as of those as we can.”
All things on the table, Annett knows he had a lot of circumstances that have led to an average finish of 17 entering Saturday afternoon’s TheHouse.com 300.
Next weekend at Kentucky Speedway, the opening round of the playoffs, he says there are no (more) excuses.
“When you have three teammates that are consistently running the way they have been, you get can only point the finger one-way and I’m the first to look into the mirror.
“When we came on with a team starting late, a first-time crew chief. We had a lot of things stacked against us and I think the reason we’ve had the success we have had is because of the foundation at JR Motorsports and what they’ve built there.
“We need to get ourselves through this weekend, put ourselves into the playoffs and then just no excuses, take everything we’ve learned this year and go back to the (stage) points and qualify better, fire-off better and start accumulating those.”
Championship or not, Annett says he’ll be disappointed in his XFINITY return if he leaves Homestead in November winless.
“We need to go get a win,” Annett sounded. “I’m not going to be happy with our season if we finish out the year and don’t have a win yet. I definitely think it will be a disappointment without that.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
