Contender Or Pretender: Las Vegas
Jeff Gordon (Contender) – Some fantasy NASCAR prognosticators will say some funny things this week like “I don’t think Jeff will race hard at Las Vegas because he’s afraid of hitting the inside wall again”. Come on guys, surely you can do better than that.
His big wreck at Las Vegas was in 2008. When you go around that year over the last five years his other finishes were 4th, 5th, 2nd & 6th. Not to bad. When he wrecked at Vegas in 2008 he was also running towards the front of the pack.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Pretender) – I don’t mean to sound like a cherry picker this early in this post but Earnhardt Jr has actually been pretty good at Las Vegas over the last three years. His average finish over that span is 7.6. Last year he finished 10th. I don’t want anyone looking at Dale Jr stats and thinking they’re going to be sneaky and get a good finish out of him this week. It might happen, but at Las Vegas I would take the gamble and say it won’t.
Jimmie Johnson (Contender) – Not to be a cherry picker here again but if you missed it Jimmie hasn’t been very good here lately. He swept this race from 2005 to 2007, but in the COT era he’s been pretty bad. How bad you may ask? Well 29th and 24th bad (those are uncompetitive numbers, not crash numbers). Forget all that because this weekend the Champ wants back his Las Vegas champions belt.
Denny Hamlin (Pretender) – Last year at California Denny Hamlin was a challenger for the victory. Last week at California he was a 20th place car. At this point in time the 11 car for the most part has looked lost in both races. I hate to throw it out there but is the foot a problem, or are they just not as competitive this year?
Kyle Busch (Contender) – This is Kyle’s home track and he’s also the defending champion of the race. Last year he won the pole, started at the back of the pack, and drove to victory. He definitely earned that one. Last year in the fall Texas race he smoked the field but was denied the win. Look for him to be a contender on Sunday.
Tony Stewart (Pretender) – Has he passed anyone on the track this year yet? Well the answer to that is yes. In 2010 he has a pass differential of 2. So far in both races this year I’ve been less than impressed with this teams performances. Despite his ninth place finish at California don’t be fooled, he’ll be a pretender at Vegas. Stewart scores a top ten at Vegas about fifty percent of the time and I know there’s better odds out there.
