I feel emboldened today. When one considers that predicting a winner for a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is a 1 in 43 proposition, I think I can feel good about the fact that my pick for Daytona- Tony Stewart- finished third. Daytona’s a real crap shoot with the need for drafting help, so I’m feeling confident going into Fontana.
Kasey Kahne looks primed for this race. The Enumclaw, Washington native was one of six Dodge drivers to make the top 10 at Daytona. On top of that, Kahne has tested well at the southern California track in the pre-season. Kahne has two wins at California with Cup victory, a Nationwide victory and a pole.
If you take a look at Kahne’s career numbers, you also can’t help but notice that the new face of Budweiser in NASCAR has had track record for running well on the intermediate tracks. At the Cup level, the driver of the #9 has wins at Atlanta, Texas, two at Lowe’s, Michigan and Richmond- for a career total of seven.
Kahne will receive some fierce competition. After a rough Daytona, HMS studs Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon will have something for Kahne. Gordon has won here three times and Johnson won here Labor Day weekend. Look for Matt Kenseth to be a factor and my second choice for winning. The #17 has won the last two February events at California. Kenseth also has 3 CS wins at the Nationwide level as does his Roush teammate Greg Biffle.
It will be interesting to see how the results here compare to the season opener. Because like the Larry Gatlin song says “it doesn’t matter at all where you’ve played before, California’s brand new game.” One has to wonder how the Toyotas that did so well at Daytona will do with the restrictor plates off. I’m also sure the Dodge boys want to prove their performance last week was no mirage. Again, it bears noting that a number of Dodge drivers proved quite competitive in testing- not that this means everything.
So we have a confluence of story lines here. You have the history of Roush performance in California, the rise of Toyota, and the recent dominance of of Hendrick Motor Sports- mojo that Dale Jr. would love to make work for him.
Still- at the end of the day- I say Kasey will be raising Kahne in California.
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Howdy! Just found your blog and am linking you.
KK looked good when the cuppers were vrooming Sunday, hopefully he’ll finish strong.