The 2011 Sprint Showdown Fantasy Rundown
This year in the Sprint Showdown the field is full of big names who need to race their way into the All-Star race. Some of the big names looking to get into the big pay-day race are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Jeff Burton, Brian Vickers, Martin Truex Jr, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski and Marcos Ambrose (complete list of drivers).
In this years race only two finishing positions matter, first and second. Third place, fourth place, and 23rd place all go home. Look for these drivers to get really wild in the last few laps of the 2011 Sprint Showdown. Desperate drivers have been known to do desperate things. In the 2005 Sprint Showdown Brian Vickers drove through Mike Bliss for the win.
Here’s my rankings for the Sprint Showdown
1) Marcos Ambrose – I’m not being a prisoner of the moment after what I seen out of him at Dover by rating him here. Remember I told you to expect good things out of him because AJ was so good last fall. The reason why you should be high on Ambrose for the Showdown is because of how strong he’s been on similar tracks this season. In the two 1.5 mile tri-oval races this year he’s finished 6th and 4th in RPM equipment.
2) Martin Truex Jr. – Truex Jr. has problems almost every week and he’ll have problems during All-Star weekend also but I don’t see them coming until the million dollar race. Last year Truex won the Sprint Showdown and led 8 laps.
3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Don’t worry fans because he’ll be making an appearance in the All-Star race no matter what. I can make that prediction right now with 99.99999% accuracy because he’ll win the fan vote. In 2000 Earnhardt Jr. won the All-Star race.
4) Brian Vickers – As I mentioned earlier Brian Vickers won the Sprint Showdown in 2005. He’s willing to do anything for the win so don’t overlook him. The stats really don’t show it but Charlotte is a very good track for Vickers. In four out of the last five regular non-All Star weekend Charlotte races that Vickers has participated in he’s led 33 laps or more.
5) AJ Allmendinger – In 2008 after his disastrous rookie year AJ Allmendinger won the Sprint Showdown and led 21 of 40 laps. In the last two All-Star race preliminaries he’s finished 7th and 8th.
6) Paul Menard – There’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic in Paul Menard this week but I’ll refrain my excitement. On high-speed intermediates in 2011 he’s finished 12th (Las Vegas), 16th (Auto Club), and 5th (Texas). Last year Menard finished 4th.
7) Jeff Burton – This teams finally starting to get into gear (sort of) and last year in the Sprint Showdown he finished 3rd behind Truex and Greg Biffle. This year Biffle isn’t in this race so by logical deduction he’s looking better already. He hasn’t had much success during All-Star weekend but he has won the Coca Cola 600 and the fall Charlotte race.
8 ) Joey Logano – I think the only way we’ll see Joey Logano in the All-Star race is if NASCAR declares there’s a voting tie between him and Junior. His luck has been terrible this year. Last year in the All-Star race Logano finished 3rd. Statistically speaking this is actually Logano’s best track. In all of his Sprint Cup races combined he’s never finished worse than 13th here. This year on tri-oval tracks he’s finished 23rd and 24th.
9) Brad Keselowski – Keselowski’s not had a lot of success on this style of track during his tenure with Penske. Luckily for him the big guns aren’t in this race. This will be Keselowski’s first Showdown because in 2009 and 2010 he was in the All-Star race. Last year he finished 7th in the big race. Don’t forget that last year teammate Kurt Busch swept Charlotte in the month of May.
10) David Ragan – Like many of his counterparts in this race he’s had his share of problems this season. Last year Ragan found some success at Charlotte. In the 2010 Sprint Showdown he finished 6th and led half the laps. In the fall Chase race Ragan finished 10th.
Sprint Showdown Loop Data (right-click, save as)
