Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. If you aren’t Christian, then I hope you had a nice weekend in any case.
This week things heat up with the Sprint Cup boys heading to Texas Motor Speedway after a rare week off.
We are entering an important stretch of the final five races before the All-Star break. The top ten coming out of that week traditionally doesn’t change all that much before the end of the season. Places 11 and 12, the wild card spots, are the two final spots that will have drivers scrambling for.
Jimmie Johnson avoided the points loss for “C-Postgate” which has helped propel him into the top ten. A late caution and wreck ended his bid for a victory last week and there will be a lot more room to drive around at Texas. Look for Johnson to post a top five if not grab his first win of the season. Johnson only has one trip to Victory Lane at Texas in his career, so another would be awesome for his team.
Joe Gibbs Racing needs to do way better this weekend. Hamlin is relatively secure in the top ten but Kyle Busch has not had a Kyle Busch kind of season. Heck, Joey Logano is sitting three places and 16 points higher than Kyle. But even Denny Hamlin needs a good run here this week to not get leap frogged by guys who are running pretty well right now. Kyle hasn’t won here and this would be a good time to start -- but he’ll have to beat the Fords and Denny to the checkers.
Jeff Gordon needs a good race on Saturday. Gordon also lost a chance for a win at Martinsville and is mired in 21st place right now. Gordon also has but one win at Texas and he needs to step up his program in order to qualify as a wild card this year. He can do it, but he has a lot of points to make up. Fortunately for him, there are only a handful of top drivers in positions 13-20, so he needs some racing luck and some really good finishes. He could get a top ten run, but a top five is what he really needs.
Carl Edwards has to be salivating over returning to Texas. Sitting in 11th place at this point in the season is probably as big a surprise to his team as it is to me. Carl has three wins at Texas but he also has three DNFs. Texas is nice to the Fords, so he needs to start making up ground now. Needs a top ten.
Juan Pablo Montoya has only two top ten finishes at Texas so it is safe to say that he struggles here. Montoya is in 17th place right now and he may mot make a lot of movement up the standings this weekend unless he can stay out of trouble and several drivers in front of him have early trouble. Montoya had a dismal year last year and he has yet to make a move in the standings. Sonoma is a long ways away… Top 25 if he is lucky.
Kasey Kahne needs a good run. He has had fast cars but has been the victim of wrecks and mechanical failures. But Texas is not his best track and he has three DNFs here. But he also has one win, so there is hope. A top 12 would be a good thing.
Smoke (Tony Stewart) has been on a roll this season and has two wins at Texas. He has as good a chance as anyone this week and he could take over the points lead if Greg Biffle or Dale Jr. have issues. Top five.
Kurt Busch needs a good run. Mark Martin is one place and 13 points better in the standings and he is only running a partial season. Texas has been good to Kurt but he is not running in top equipment any more. He won’t win but a top 15 would be a boost to his team.
Martin Truex, Jr. could use a good race -- and a top ten would be plenty. Sitting in sixth place right now, I don’t think many fans think he will stay there. The way MWR is running right now though, Truex may have finally gotten the best cars he has been in since his days at DEI.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. needs a strong finish to prove to all the haters that he is the real deal this year. He has a win at Texas but that was a long time ago. A top five run would be great but a win would be better.
Greg Biffle may need a top five run to stay on top. In his favor, Texas is kind to Fords. On the other side, we know how streaky Biffle can be. He has a win at Texas but he also has four DNFs. He might be the dark horse of the Roush stable this weekend.
Brad Keselowski really needs to run well at Texas since it has not been that great of a track for him. He has been moving up in the points by leaps and bounds and he needs to keep that momentum going or find himself fighting for 12th place all over again. A top 15 would be OK as long as those guys right behind him don’t have a career day.
That’s my take. How will your favorite driver fare this weekend?
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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