NASCAR Quaker State 400: Preview and Prediction
Who’s Not?
Two weeks in a row, David Gilliland has lost control on the track and ended up off of it. At Sonoma, he hit a large mound of tires and at Daytona he spun out and caused a wreck from trying to go low on the track.
It just has not been a good season overall for Gilliland, and he hasn’t shown any signs yet of putting together a good race. The last two weeks have been a solid reminder that it can always get worse.
This week at Kentucky, Gilliland needs to put together a solid race to reestablish some confidence. At this point, just finishing a race might go a long way for him as he tries to build some consistency in the Sprint Cup Series. If he wrecks again, then it will be a sad reminder of the slumps that some drivers face.
It has not been a good last couple of weeks for drivers named David.
If the plight of David Gilliland wasn’t enough, David Ragan has been suffering an almost equal fate himself. At Sonoma, Ragan was involved in two dust ups. The first with Martin Truex Jr. which sent Truex Jr. into the tire barrier. Ragan was actually running a good race too.
Then as fate would have it, he and Carl Edwards touched up and both ended up wrecking. At Daytona, Ragan hit the grass infield and lost all control of his vehicle and spun repeatedly. With two weeks of bad luck, Ragan is definitely not having his best run of the season.
Something has got to give for the two Davids as they continue to wreck their way right down the points standings. Their break will eventually come, but right now the only break they’re getting is something on their vehicle breaking.
The two Davids aren’t the only ones that have been involved in wrecks the last couple of weeks.
At one time this season, it looked like Martin Truex Jr. was unstoppable on the track as he finished top-10 in 14 of 15 races and had a win to show for it. Suddenly he came back down to earth. That actually might be an understatement. He has come crashing down to earth faster than he drives on the track.
At Sonoma, he wrecked into the tire barrier and that would be it. At Daytona, he would be involved in a wreck during practice and then would be involved in another during the race. He would head back to the garage, but the disappointment was evident as the No. 78 team has once again found themselves in a slump.
Truex Jr. is fortunately heading back to some tracks soon that he has had success at and will likely rebound. However, he’s paid a price in the points standings as he has taken a steep fall.
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