No Brainers
- #48 Jimmie Johnson. The championship hope for Chevrolet. He has no wins at Homestead, but at this point statistics don’t matter. He has the chance to run for seven championships. If he won a seventh, he would tie Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt for most championships ever. Another interesting point, Johnson would be the first to win seven championships with the same crew chief. Thirdly he’d have a chance to go for eight championships the next season, assuming he won.
- #18 Kyle Busch. Let’s not give everything over to Jimmie yet. Kyle is the defending series champion, he has a lot to defend and he will try his best. Toyota has two chances at a championship. Will that affect their performance? My guess is not likely, but I still have to ask the question.
- #19 Carl Edwards. Five years ago Carl almost won a championship. He was tied with Tony Stewart in points and the only reason he lost was because Tony had more wins. More wins is the tie breaker in that scenario. Now Carl has a chance to go for it again.
- #22 Joey Logano. The championship hope for Ford, and the fourth man in the chase. He has momentum on his side and has been in this position before. Can he spoil it for the others. I usually only have three no brainers, but this weekend is special. History, in this format, shows that you have to win this race in order to win the championship. Anyone with a shot at it is going to do their best
Guys to Watch
- #14 Tony Stewart. This is his last NASCAR race. He’ll be racing plenty of dirt races next season though. He’ll want to finish out this part of his career respectably.
- #41 Kurt Busch. He’ll want to win just to show that his team is back on the right track. Don’t count him out.
- #4 Kevin Harvick. (See #2).
Pick For The Championship
#48 Jimmie Johnson. Let’s see if I’m actually right.
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It’s always a bitter sweet time when I write my last Picks For The Win article of the season. Everyone has worked so hard and I’ve enjoyed watching it all. Yes I tend to have a Stewart Haas bias. The reason for that is I’ve been a Kurt Busch fan since the beginning of his career. However, it’s still fun for me to write these things and see if I can predict the outcome.
A special shout out to my friends who watch NASCAR. Please don’t tell me who won the race or championship this Sunday. I happen to have things going on that day so I’m taping it. The bonus to that is my season lasts longer than anyone who watches it live. I will definitely post the result and my reaction once I’ve seen it. Thanks a lot friends. You’re the best.
I will continue to write regularly about various things over the rest of the Fall and Winter as I do year round for those of you who are regular readers. Stay tuned. There’s more to come. As far as I know I’m not going anywhere.