NASCAR Quicken Loans 400: Preview and prediction
Who’s Not
Dale Earnhardt Jr. hasn’t been bad lately, but he hasn’t been great either. In fact, Pocono had to be a huge disappointment for him as he finished 11th. While for some that would be considered good, put in perspective that he swept Pocono last year and suddenly it doesn’t look so good.
He’s a consistent top-10 finisher, and has won Michigan more than any active driver. This would be a great week for a bounce back by Earnhardt Jr. as he knows the track better than anyone.
Every year, people have high expectations for Earnhardt Jr. and this could be his year, but right now, he isn’t as hot as he could be on the track. Momentum is a big thing, and right now he doesn’t have it.
If Ryan Newman isn’t going to pick up a win, he’s going to need to get into “The Chase” with points and the last two races haven’t helped much. At Dover, he finished in the late teens and this week he was back in the top-10 and it went downhill from there.
As Ryan Newman was battling for 7th with AJ Allmendinger, the two wrecked and Ryan Newman destroyed the back end of his car as he slammed into the wall. He still is barely hanging on in the top-16 in points, and more instances like the one at Pocono could have huge ramifications on his season.
He desperately needs a top-10 finish soon, or he is in very real danger of losing his season. A win could also change everything for the better, but there has been no indication of that yet.
Danica Patrick has a chance this season to get into “The Chase” and compete for a Sprint Cup Championship. She doesn’t sit very far out of the top-16 and has ran some great races consistently in the mid-teens. However, a great run was ended at Pocono.
As she sat in 11th, Patrick wrecked hard into the wall, and that sent her to the back of the pack. As a result she went several laps down and almost wrecked again but luckily saved her car down the pits.
It seems like every time something is going good for her, something ends up happening to cost her a chance at a great run. Still, she is improving vastly with each race and she is picking up important experience with each race on each track.
Michigan and the high speeds there might be better suited to her liking this week. A top-15 finish could go a long way for her.
While his teammate Joey Logano is starting to get it going again, Keselowski is struggling to meet him at the front after a strong start to the season. Keselowski, already with a win in his back pocket, has been struggling lately to finish up front week after week like he usually does.
In fact, the problem for Keselowski lately has been his aggressiveness in the pits as he has dragged equipment on multiple occasions. At Pocono, he ran over the air wrench hose of Martin Truex Jr.’s team and ended up dragging the hose with him and some of the crew members.
At Pocono, he finished 12th on the day, which is a far cry from the finishes that people are used to seeing him end up with. While he may not have the momentum currently, he has shown flashes these last few races to get toward the front, but not the consistency to stay there.
He’s going to get it going soon, it’s just a matter of when at this point.
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