Tough sleddin this week gents. Top 10 cars 11, 48, 5, 42, 2, 29, 24, 14, 88, 9. Yes, you saw correctly, i’m picking Dale Earnhardt Jr. for my top 10. The Ford’s do not look good this week. The good thing for them is that Edwards and Biffle both qualified well and have track position in their favor.
Gordon and Stewart’s practice speeds are not pretty but they are very hard to read and that’s why they still make the top 10. Newman looks to be better than Stewart but we’ve seen this before. He rolls off 37th and has had trouble in the past coming up through the field. If Newman had any track position he’d make my top 10 list. Also Casey Mears just missed my top 10 picks.
Johnson looks to be a top 5 car at worse on his home track. If i had Mark the kid Martin i’d heavily consider saving Jimmie but i don’t. Gordon’s practice times are just bad so i can’t justify starting him over the 48.
Montoya is fast again and as usual didn’t run that many laps. I’m guessing the team is playing it safe with their engine. In the short time he was out there he looked like a top 5 car, top 10 worse case.
Kurt Busch looks to be pretty stout and should be a good bet to finish in the top 10. He was really fast early but slowed a bit as practice rolled on. His lap times after 20 laps were mediocre
Kasey Kahne again is not fast on a short run but looks like a solid long run car. He outperformed Kurt Busch on long runs but i’d rate Kurt ahead of Kasey slightly.
Brian Vickers looks like a top 15 car, nothing special and with his recent struggles might be a good week to stay away until he has a good run.
Hornish and Allmendinger both look to be top 20 or top 25 cars. AJ could suprise because i think he ran all of Happy Hour on the same set of tires. I lean slightly towards Allmendinger, he has track position going for him as well. AJ tends to like slick tracks as well and California definitely fits the bill there as tires fall off dramatically.
Ok my pick to win the race is Denny Hamlin but i think Jimmie Johnson will have something to say about that before the race is over.
Sleeper B picks of the week are the 88 and 07. C list looks to be a crap shoot this week between 44, 43, 77, and 47. Sorenson actually looked the best in practice between these guys.
Hope that helps FNPers, good luck this week.
Kyle Wiseman
