Dickies 500 Preview
Don’t mess with Texas.
Ask Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon, the top 2 drivers in The Chase for The Nextel Cup how they like Texas Motor Speedway and they will tell you not so much. Gordon and Johnson will most likely be holding their breath much of the afternoon Sunday for the Dickies 500 as they try to get around what isn’t the most successful track for either of them.
If you have to give the nod to one of them in the Lone Star state it would have to be Johnson. Although neither has won here and Johnson has less starts than Gordon at Texas his average finish is a little better. Texas is one of only two tracks on the entire Cup circuit where Gordon hasn’t scored a victory.
Despite the race within the race, there is an actual race going on today that only sort of involves Johnson and Gordon. There are 41 other drivers out there racing for a win in the Dickies 500 at Texas and could care less about who is in The Chase. With only 3 races left to go in the 2007 Nextel Cup Season time is running out for a lot of drivers who have yet to visit victory lane this year.
Last week made it two weeks in a row we cashed in on the winner of the race. However last week had more to do with “Fuel Gate” than it did with our handicapping prowess. Still, a win is a win and our wallets don’t know if our pick led from flag to flag or if he made a last lap pass in the final turn. Here is who we like this week at Texas.
Fresh off the heels of his Busch Series Championship Saturday, Edwards is in a great position to win on Sunday. He is a previous winner here and although he didn’t practice towards the top of the chart he has a crew in place that can wrench on the car all day and make the appropriate adjustments to be there at the end.
The new face of Budweiser is hungry to get back to victory lane in the worst way. Kahne was running in the top 10 last week at Atlanta in the final laps before all hell broke loose and he ended up finishing mid-pack. Kahne is also a previous winner here and was in the top 10 in the final two practices.
I guess you could call Tony Stewart our favorite pick this week. We haven’t heard much out of Tony since the first weeks of the Chase where he dug himself a Texas sized hole. He has a strong team though and it’s hard to keep a tough team down for too long. Stewart found some success in practice that hopefully will translate on to the race.
by Michael Cash – Email Us
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