Ah, yes. Variety is the spice of life. If the wild and wooly restrictor plate racing of Talladega isn’t your cup of sunshine, then chances are the old school, short track Saturday night action of Richmond is more your speed. They call it the action track- and that’s what we all like.
Talladega proved once again to be a good “opportunity track” for the less familiar faces of winner Brad Keselowski and fellow top 5ers Scott Speed and Marcos Ambrose. For most of the Chase contenders- the Aaron’s 499 proved to be a bit of, well, the word “cluster” comes to mind.
Richmond will provide the opportunity the contenders to right the ship. Among active drivers, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lead the way with 3 career wins. Smoke says Richmond is his favorite track, and the way he’s been going lately it’s not a reach to think that Stewart- Haas Racing could get their first win here. A resurgent Ryan Newman has been running better as of late- plus the Hoosier has a top-10 starting position. A good dark horse pick? Sure. Why not?
With his improving fortunes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. could hardly be classified as
a dark horse. Don’t forget Junior was well on his way to victory lane in this race last year, before the infamous donnybrook with Kyle Busch. About the only concern here is the fact that Junior is starting mid-pack and his practice efforts have been pretty ordinary- and when you consider that 84 of 105 races run at Richmond have been won from the top 10- you get the feeling the deck stacked a bit against the “88.”
Along with Newman, David Reutimann and Brian Vickers are looking solid dark horse picks. “The Franchise” has run top 10 here before and has the look of NASCAR’s next first-time winner. Vickers will have a decided advantage starting from the pole. There will be plenty of room to run, but this track is not know for its passing. Mike Bliss also has a nice starting spot and no doubt he’d love to keep the good times rollin’ for the “09″ piloted by Brad Keselowski last week. I also think Martin Truex Jr. is showing signs of life.
In terms of forecasting a winner- Denny Hamlin has to be figured in the mix. He’s a hometown (well, close to) dude, a second row starting position. Jeff Gordon’s no stranger to victory lane with a pair of wins at RIR, and a victory here would get him turned around after experiencing some hard luck in Phoenix and Talladega. Ditto for Mark Martin- who was the second racer this season after Matt Kenseth to go from first one week to worst the next.
Points leader Kurt Busch has never been one to be shy about contact. Neither is Clint Bowyer- who capitalized on the Junior- Kyle incident to win last spring.
It takes a wheelman to steer clear of trouble for 400 laps and display the patience to keep from using up the car at a place where the brakes are a serious factor. On top of a track record for displaying these qualities, Jeff Burton has often had to overcome less than great qualifying efforts to run the gauntlet to victory.
No such trouble for Burton this week. J.B. starts 5th this week rang up good speeds on the Happy Hour chart.
His name is not one I’m hearing when it comes to forecasting a winner for this race, but I really think it’s no leap in logic to say he’s got the car up front and has what it takes to keep it there. It may be fitting that Burton has the Prilosec logo on his car this week, because I think it’s very possible he’ll be giving the opposition heartburn this week.
So- for this week’s edition of the Fearless Forecast- I’m going with Jeff Burton.
PHOTO CREDITS- Burton by side hike. Junior burnout by CalifDreama. To see more of their work, visit flickr.com, or click on the hyper links.
