Week 19 — New Hampshire
The second half of the season starts this week. It's crunch time for the championship chase, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is (quite literally) on fire, but are we about to see his season go up in smoke?
New Hampshire seems like it should be a pretty dull race as far as gNA$hCAR's tracks go, given its flat banking an mile-long configuration, but it has produced some excellent racing since it was repaved last year. Gone is the crumbling asphalt, and now we have two racing grooves that will allow guys like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to pass to their hearts' content. This one's a mere 300 miles, so the only thing that will slow the pace might be Mother Nature and the dozen or so caution flags we'll get for spinouts in the turns.
Glenn's Ten:
* Jimmie Johnson (winner) -- J.J. all but owns this place. In four previous races he has run well here, including his win last fall after bouncing back from a pit road incident with his teammate/owner, Jeff Gordon. He's got a good spot on the grid (2nd) and has the team that will get him to Victory Lane on Sunday.
The rest of the top 10 (in no particular order):
* Ryan Newman -- four top 10s in four starts, and the pole!
* Martin Truex/Dale Earnhart Juniors. -- Say what? Dale will sit in the car long enough to start the race, but the pressure will be on his young protege to nail down a good finish and pick up points for Driver 8 -- not that it will matter much since he only has to make the top 10 by the end of the Richmond race in September to preserve his shot at a championship, and he'd have to crap out of a lot more races to suffer that monumental a collapse... Don't underestimate Truex, who salvaged a good finish in Saturday's Busch race and will have a good crew behind him on Sunday. The kid can race and could even win. But he'll have to come from the back of the pack, thanks to the driver swap. If there is any better argument that the Cup drivers should take advantage of their bye weeks for R&R instead of moonlight driving gigs, Dale Jr. is this week's poster boy. His fiery crash at Sonoma last weekend was nothing short of frightening. He was lucky he only suffered a few second-degree burns.
* Kasey Kahne -- Oh yeah, back to the picks... Kasey finished in the top 5 Saturday and should do well at a track that seems to be friendly to young guns. Will this be the week for his first win???
* Jeff Gordon -- Don't let the 24th-place start fool you, he'll get the car dialed in on race day. This was once one of his best tracks, and with Johnson running strong here you can bet there will be some sharing of setup notes.
* Tony Stewart -- He's got a one-race winning streak going.
* Ward Burton -- Will the Zero be a hero this week? One of the few places Ward has won. As long as he doesn't get spun out...
* Greg Biffle -- OK, I'm flying on a wing and a prayer here, but Greg
can run well when he wants to. He didn't on Saturday. Maybe he's over the bad luck.
* Matt Kenseth -- Saturday's Busch winner. Always finds a way...
* Dale Jarrett -- He's starting to make the competition sit up and take notice again.
Sleeper picks: Jeff Burton, who used to run well here every visit, and Casey Mears, who is still looking for that first top 5.
