The one thing that every fan has counted on this year in NASCAR has been that there has not been one dominant driver. For that matter, there hasn't been one dominant team.
Through the first six races of the year, five different drivers saw victory lane. Not only that, it came from five different teams. The last time NASCAR saw that kind of wide-spread success by multiple teams was back in 2000 when over the first nine races, nine different drivers won. That streak was broken by Dale Earnhardt Jr. when he won his second career race at Richmond.
Now, that kind of parody among teams has continued.
Saturday night, Matt Kenseth showcased the strength of Roush-Fenway Racing, and the power of the new Ford FR-9 engine. He led the most laps in the race and brought home his first victory in 77 races.
It is also the second victory for Roush-Fenway Racing of the season, with the first coming at Las Vegas. But, at the same time, the entire organization saw major success. Every Roush driver finished in the top-10.
The ironic part about this...no one in the pool elected to go with Kenseth. In fact, for many writers, it was a rough week.
Only two writers finished in the top-10, and that was even a struggle, with a little bit of luck as well. The highest-finishing driver picked was Jimmie Johnson, who finished eighth after spending the first part of the race outside the top-20.
Not only that, had it not been for the fact that both Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon ran out of gas on the last lap, Kurt Busch would have finished outside the top-10 for just the second time this season.
What the drastic change in positions did do was jumble up the points, and brought them much closer together.
Here's where everyone stands after the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas:
Sal Sigala Jr. (245) Kyle Busch finished 16th (1)
Kelly Crandall (239) Jimmie Johnson finished eighth (0)
Ryan O'Hara (216) Jeff Gordon finished 23rd (1)
Rob Tiongson (213) Kevin Harvick finished 20th (1)
Billy Fellin (212) Kevin Harvick finished 20th (1)
Misan Ayuka (211) Carl Edwards finished third (0)
Kara Martin (203) Kyle Busch finished 16th (0)
Christopher Leone (201) Kevin Harvick finished 20th (1)
Michael Hirshbein (195) Kyle Busch finished 16th (1)
Dustin Parks (194) Kurt Busch finished 10th (0)
James Broomhead (188) Kyle Busch finished 16th (0)
Summer Dreyer (185) Tony Stewart finished 12th (0)
NEXT RACE: You ever walk into a store and buy that lottery ticket, scratch off the winning numbers and hope you have the winner, then you realize you ended up with nothing?
That's in essence what everyone is doing come next week. It's the next "lotto" race of the season as NASCAR heads to the deep south. It is a monster track, sitting 2.66 miles in length. Banking at a staggering 33 degrees makes it scary just as a fan looking down from the stands.
Simply put...this is Talladega.
This race is out of the hands of the writers, and is so far out of the hands of the drivers because everything is unpredictable. But, the question is...who will pick the winning number, or in this case driver, for this race.
Writers, picks for the Aaron's 499 from the Talladega Superspeedway are due by Thursday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET.
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