NASCAR Coke Zero 400: Preview and Prediction
Who’s Hot
After winning Sonoma, “Rowdy” might be ready to hit his groove this season. Going into the road race in Northern California, it looked like the No. 18 had his season on ice. However, Busch would pass Johnson with not many laps to go and would hold on for his first win of the 2015 season.
With the win in his pocket, Busch now has a chance to get into “The Chase” if he can average a top-16 overall finish amongst all his races. With two wrecks, he’s going to need a lot of help, but that first place finish does wonders for him. Another win or top-5 would go along way in helping.
While most drivers play it safe after they finally pick up a win and a spot to compete for a Sprint Cup Championship, Busch is not in a position to do that. He’s on a roll right now, and he’s got nothing but wins in his sight. Just when it looked like it might be time to count him out this year, he has shown it’s not over just yet.
Another thing going for Kyle Busch, is that he has won the second Daytona race before. This is a track he is very comfortable at, and that will serve to his advantage on Sunday.
While his brother Kyle may have just picked up his first win of the season, Kurt has been the best driver on the track overall the last two weeks. After a rain-shortened win at Michigan, Busch followed it up with a second-place finish right behind his brother at Sonoma.
After the talk of the season was all about Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch is turning the tide and becoming the driver that people are talking about when it comes to potential Sprint Cup Champions this season.
His crew has been putting great cars on the track for him. He’s been great in qualifying and has started each race near the front. In NASCAR, it’s a recipe for success if you want to be successful. He might be two wins behind Jimmie Johnson for most wins this year, but if he keeps driving the way he is, he could pull within one at Daytona.
If there was ever a week to pick Jimmie Johnson to win a race, this week at Daytona might be a good time to do so. When Johnson loses a tough one, like last week at Sonoma, he has a knack for bouncing back and putting on an incredible performance.
Last week, he had the best car on the track, but strategy ultimately did him in as fresh cars passed him by with laps remaining. Still, he’s the best in the game for a reason, and he’s won the Coke Zero 400 before, so he should be a factor in the end of the race when this one is over.
It’s not often that crew chief Chad Knaus has a strategy that goes against him, but he always seems to get better when things don’t go to his favor. He should have a great strategy this week for the No. 48 team as they look to pick up their fifth win of the season.
Joey Logano is slowly rounding into form as one of the next elite drivers in NASCAR. His lone win on the year came at that the Daytona 500, the very first time that NASCAR ran there this season, and lately he’s been regaining the form he had at the beginning of the year.
For young drivers, road racing after several weeks of high speed racing can be difficult, but for Joey Logano it was no trouble at all as he finished fifth at the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Even more impressively was the way he avoided cars that were involved in wrecks or having issues on the road. These are things that take years of veteran experience to handle.
He’s maturing before everyone’s eyes on the track, and this week at Daytona, he is looking to complete the season sweep as he will go for his second victory on the season. While people will be and should be talking about Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. as favorites for the Sprint Cup Championship, Logano should be in that conversation too. He’s a dark horse for sure, but he has as just as much of a shot as the rest of them.
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