This may be the week that we see another Toyota driver celebrating in victory lane. See, it wouldn’t be much of a shock either in seeing how Toyota has taken seven checkered flags first in the opening 12 races to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Plus, Toyota has won this race in three of the last four years too.
So, if either of the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers wins Sunday’s Coca Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET/FOX/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) we wouldn’t really be too surprised.
Ford hasn’t won this race since 2002 with Roush Fenway Racing. Chevrolet does have five wins in the last eight years of this event, but they’ve won just once all season and only have one victory in the last 16 overall Cup Series races.
Plus, in terms of the Ford camp, their drivers have kind of struggled in this race lately.
Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski are really their best bets to do so. Harvick, dominated the last points paying race at Kansas two weeks ago but had an unscheduled pit stop that ruined it. At Charlotte on the oval, Harvick has three top eight finishes in his last five tries including finishes of first, eighth, first, second, ninth, second, eighth and 40th respectively in his last eight ‘600 starts.
Keselowski, struggled heading into Kansas two weeks ago with five straight races without a top five, but, he still won the race that night. At Charlotte, he has five top 10 finishes in his last seven oval starts to go along with two top five’s in his last three there overall.
The others are just meh.
Joey Logano leads the points standings but since his last top five finish in the fall race of 2016 at Charlotte, he’s finished ninth, 36th, 21st, 26th and 22nd respectively. Plus, he was only 15th on the last points paying race at Kansas two weeks ago.
Ryan Blaney has struggled too. He’s never finished in the top five on the Charlotte oval and has five finishes of 20th or worse in seven tries on the 1.5-mile track. Also on the season, Blaney has four finishes of 15th or worse including five of his last six starts on the season.
What about the other Stewart Haas Racing drivers?
Almirola, has just one top 10 finish before at Charlotte. He was 24th and 13th respectively in his last two oval starts on the 1.5-mile track. He had six top 10 finishes in his first seven races on the season but has scored just one over the last five. His last top five in fact came nine races ago in Phoenix.
Bowyer, has six top 10 finishes in his last seven starts on the season, but he hasn’t scored a top five at Charlotte since 2012. In fact, that’s his only top five on the track since 2008. His last top 10 at that was back in 2013.
Suarez, has never finished in the top five at Charlotte before and has a best finish of sixth. He does have three straight top 15’s on the oval but he hasn’t been a top five contender much of this season yet.
Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. have had some good success at Charlotte lately, but do you trust they’ll win?, especially with how well Toyota has done?
Denny Hamlin has three straight finishes of 15th or worse on the year, hence these odds, but prior to that, he had nine straight top 11’s. On 1.5-mile track this year, Hamlin has finished 11th (Atlanta), 10th (Vegas), first (Texas) and 15th (Kansas). At Charlotte, the site of this weekend’s race Hamlin has 14 top 10 finishes in his last 16 tries on the oval including three straight top five results and five in his last six tries.
Erik Jones finished seventh in this race in 2017 and enters with two straight top six finishes on the season.
Martin Truex Jr. is at his best on 1.5-mile tracks too. Plus, he’s finished fifth, first, third and second respectively in his last four ‘600 starts including leading 393 laps in his win in the race in 2016 and 233 more in a third place run in 2017.
Kyle Busch had a top 10 finish in literally every race run this year minus Kansas. He also is tied with Brad Keselowski for the most wins this season at three. In Charlotte, Busch has 16 top 10 finishes in his last 22 starts including leading 377 laps in this race last year in his win. He finished second in the fall oval race at Charlotte in 2017 too.
Do you take Toyota or the field? I’d go with Toyota.
