Homestead Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions – Ford EcoBoost 400

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: rain is threatening to mess up the NASCAR race once again. As of this post, the Weather Channel is calling for an 80% chance of rain on Sunday, so I guess we’ll see what happens. I just hope they race the full 400 miles. Denny Hamlin won the pole for this year’s Ford EcoBoost 400 and the full starting lineup can be found here. As far as those racing for the championship on Sunday, Kyle Busch starts the highest in 3rd, then Gordon in 5th, Truex in 11th, and Harvick 13th. Practice speeds can be found here: Practice #2 — Happy Hour. And don’t forget to read our notes: Practice #2 — Happy Hour.

As always, thank you for reading every week. I look forward to 2016–it will be here before we know it!

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Final Top 15 Ranking For The Ford EcoBoost 400:

1. Jeff Gordon – Starts 5th – Yahoo! A Group
Pre-Practice Rank: 7th
**Risk Factor: Low Risk**

Call it luck, call it talent, call it consistency. Whatever adjective you want to use to describe this #24 team’s Chase run, the fact of the matter is this: no driver in the garage has a better average finish than Gordon (6.2) over the last six Sprint Cup races, and the stars are aligning for him to walk away from this sport with another championship. Now, the real question is whether or not that will happen. Jeff qualified 5th for this year’s Ford EcoBoost 400, which is a definite positive because it tells me that this car has speed off the truck. You know that team owner Rick Hendrick brought his best possible car to the race track this weekend, too. Gordon typically uses practice to get the car comfortable but in Happy Hour he was 9th-fastest on the speed chart and had the best ten-lap average by quite a large margin. Who knows, maybe we’ll see the Jeff Gordon of 2014 who was blazing fast on the long runs week in and week out. Jeff won here at Homestead in 2012 and is probably going to need a similar effort here on Sunday if he wants to take home the crown. Good news for Gordon fans is the fact that he has finished 6th or better in five of the last eight races here at Homestead. Going into Sunday I think this #24 Chevrolet is a right on the edge of a top 5 car, so we’ll have to see how this race plays out.

2. Kevin Harvick – Starts 13th – Yahoo! A Group
Pre-Practice Rank: 1st
**Risk Factor: Low Risk**

This is really Kevin Harvick’s championship to lose. Statistically, Kevin Harvick has the best record at Homestead-Miami Speedway among active drivers, and this #4 Chevrolet has been the absolute best all season long. That’s not going to change on Sunday. Last year, Harvick cracked through and got his first win at Homestead while taking home the 2014 Sprint Cup championship, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that same thing happened again this year. Kevin has made 14 career starts at this track and has finished inside the top 3 on five separate occasions. On top of that, he’s currently on a 7-race streak of top 10s at this venue. I was a little surprised that Harvick didn’t make the final round during qualifying on Friday but that’s not overly concerning because this #4 team is probably mainly focused on race trim. At least I hope so. Harvick was 2nd-fastest overall in Practice #2 and had the 2nd-best ten-lap average as well. In Happy Hour, though, this #4 team struggled. It’s hard for me to bet against Kevin Harvick this weekend, although I will say that I would like to see any of the other three contenders take home the crown.

3. Kyle Busch – Starts 3rd – Yahoo! A Group
Pre-Practice Rank: 3rd
**Risk Factor: Medium Risk**

I’ve said it for the last month and I’ll say it one final time: Kyle Busch continues to conquer every task put in front of him, and now he has the biggest hurdle to clear as he fights for the 2015 Sprint Cup championship on Sunday. And honestly, I think the other three championship contenders should be worried, because this #18 Toyota has been SOLID on these intermediate tracks during the Chase and I don’t see that changing at Homestead. Rowdy got off to a good start on Friday by qualifying 3rd and I fully expect him to run inside the top 5 for much of the Ford EcoBoost 400. As far as his history at this track, Kyle has a very up and down record, as he does at many tracks. However, he’s never had much to be racing for, so it will be interesting to see if this team turns things up a notch on Sunday. Busch finished 39th in this race one year ago but had results of 7th and 4th in the two Homestead races prior. Kyle has four top 5s in the last five Sprint Cup races and should grab another one here on Sunday as he tries to take home the championship trophy. The #18 Toyota had the 4th-fastest ten-lap average in Happy Hour.