After a very wet weekend in Chicago the NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads to Loudon, New Hampshire for the second race of the Chase.
Last week there was one driver who was barely talked about and when he was talked about it wasn’t because he was running up front.
Denny Hamlin had a race at Chicagoland Speedway that he would like to forget and very quickly. This team is 41 points behind current leader Kevin Harvick. That is nearly one race behind, that’s like not even showing up for the race. In the old points system that is about 120 point deficit to make up in nine weeks.
With as many races that are left this season I don’t see him being able to make up 41 points even if he finds the magic that propelled this team to the success they had last season.
It’s actually shocking how disappointing of a season this has been for Hamlin. Most expected him to challenge again for the title but instead they have suffered through mechanical failures and bad luck. Hamlin and his team have nothing to lose in the final races of the season.
The deficit could be too great so for Hamlin he can be as aggressive as he wants and that right there could make him the biggest threat of them all.
Don’t count them out…yet!
Unlike Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon might be sitting ninth, 10th and 11th in the standings but they are far from out it. Only 25 points separate the top 11 and with nine races left a lot can still happen.
This is not saying these guys have to be careful another bad finish basically eliminates them from contention. Still expect them to come out this weekend with guns flaring as they have something to prove.
Sleeper pick…
Last weekend, I said to watch for David Reutimann to come from out of nowhere and win the race. Although last week did prove that I am the absolute worse at picking winners I decided to give it a whirl again this weekend. So here we go I am going to give you the driver who could win this weekend.
Jeff Burton. It hasn’t been the season he expected but this team has been running better and I think this could be the weekend for them. Burton has always run well here and what a confidence boost for this team if they won on Sunday.
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