NASCAR 5-Hour ENERGY 301 2015: Preview and prediction
Who’s Not?
NASCAR can be a fickle sport. One week you’re on top and everyone is wondering if you can be stopped, and the next you’re losing your brakes and people are wondering what went wrong. That’s exactly what happened to Dale Earnhardt Jr. as his day at Kentucky had nothing go right.
It ended with him getting into the back of Danica Patrick, and in return her giving him an earful in the pits. The 1.5 mile tracks are usually good to the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, but it was not kind to Earnhardt Jr. As a result, he fell sharply in the points, but with two wins, that’s the least of his worries.
At New Hampshire, he has a chance to get back on the horse and make everyone forget about his run at Kentucky. The odds of that happening are probably pretty good as Hendrick Motorsports has the most wins of any team at the track.
Earnhardt Jr. may be the one driver on the team to have not won there, but now is as good a time as any for him to do so. He just won’t have any momentum to back him up.
This has not been a good season for Tony Stewart. Just about nothing has gone right for him and he is finishing down at the bottom of standings with drivers that he shouldn’t be finishing near.
Kentucky was another nightmare scenario for Stewart as a multi-car wreck ended his chances early, and any shot he had at entering “The Chase” on that fateful Saturday night’s eve, had come to an abrupt end. To say that Stewart is having a slump would be an understatement.
All season, the general thought would be that the multi-time champion would bust out eventually and finally pick up a win. However, he has shown no signs at all of being able to do that.
At New Hampshire, Stewart is a multi-time winner of the race. It appears that it was a different Stewart that was behind the wheel in those races, as this Stewart hasn’t looked like the one of old that was a yearly threat for a championship.
If you’re betting on Stewart busting out of his slump, it’s a guessing game at this point.
You sort of have to feel bad for AJ Allmendinger. His best shot to get into “The Chase” lies within the road races. At the Toyota-Save Mart 350, he was on the pole and should have been a contender to win the race. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t happen as he was back in the garage with car troubles.
Since then he hasn’t contended in a race for the win and at Kentucky finished 26th. At this point his best chance and probably last chance will come at the final road race of the season next month at Watkins Glen in New York.
If he can win there, he will get a chance to compete for the Sprint Cup Championship. If he doesn’t, you might as well stick a fork in his season.
He hasn’t won New Hampshire, and the safe money would be that he won’t win it this week. However, it would be nice to see him surprise everyone and walk away with a win or even just a good finish.
Next: Prediction