Thursday, April 02, 2009

In The Rearview: M'Ville

Martinsville is such a unique race track, however, I think it can tell us a lot about the season to come. First off, Jimmie Johnson won, he's been dubbed "Mr. Martinsville". On the contrary, Kyle Busch has never really done a great job at the small track in the hills of Virginia, and that continued as well. My point being, is that with a few exceptions, the guys that did well in years past, should continue to do well at the tracks they run well at.
I am by no means saying Johnson will win a 4th consecutive Cup. I am not saying Carl Edwards will end the season with the most wins. What I am saying is the teams that ran well last season will be your winners this year. With notable exceptions. I expect David Ragan to break into a win, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Marcos Ambrose and/or Scott Speed collecting wins.

Ok, I'm still trying to figure out a format for everything, so let's review how I did in my predictions

  1. #24 - Jeff Gordon - Actually finished 4th. A difference of 3
  2. #48 - Jimmie Johnson - Won the event a difference of 1
  3. #33 - Clint Bowyer - Pulled off another top 5, off by 1
  4. 18 - Kyle Busch - Don't want to talk about it and neither does Busch, I took a risk on Kyle who finished 24th a difference of 20
  5. #29 - Kevin Harvick - had a decent day and finished 11th, off by 6
  6. #11 - Denny Hamlin - Finished second after a late bump from Johnson, off by 4
  7. #88 - Dale Earnhardt Jr - Jr likes the number 8, off by 1
  8. #14 - Tony Stewart - had a great day and reminded everyone not to count out SHR, finishing 3rd, off by 5
  9. #42 - Juan Montoya - originally I took him as a dark horse, but tooka risk, finished 12th, off by 3
  10. #1 - Martin Truex Jr - had some problems early, I don't expect him to be with that team this time next season, he finished 29th, 19 off
Dark Horses
  • #16 - Greg Biffle - 28th
  • # 6 - David Ragan - 27th
  • #31 - Jeff Burton - 15th

So, overall, you could say I was off by 63 total positions, but, if you think about it, this is why, in general, you don't want to bet on races. Not including Truex and Busch, I was off only by 24 among what then would be 8 drivers. Or 3 positions per driver.
I'll have my Texas predictions up later tonight.
As always,
Thanks for Reading!
-DT
From DT'S Garage at 4:05 PM