The NASCAR Sprint Cup series is headed back to Daytona this week for the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola.
America will be celebrating the birth of the greatest Nation in the world this weekend and it is likely that the NASCAR Sprint Cup teams will help by providing some “fireworks” of their own on the 2.5-mile track.
The long track and high banking (31 degrees) in the turns at Daytona allow for speeds of 200mph. The problem with that is typically that leads to what is called “pack racing.” The cars get in a group two and three-wide and many rows deep.
All it takes is one car losing control in the middle or near the front of that pack and suddenly there are cars spinning in all directions, smashing into each other as they go.
The teams, as always, will need to be mistake free on pit stops to keep their driver near the front and out of harm’s way on the track.
Here is a look at the top ten in driver rating at Daytona International Speedway among active drivers, compiled from the last 21 races (2005-2015) at the track.
#1 – Kyle Busch – 96.2 driver rating with 1 win
#2 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 91.9 driver rating with 3 wins
#3 – Kurt Busch – 90.5 driver rating with 0 wins
#4 – Matt Kenseth – 89.9 driver rating with 2 wins
#5 – Jeff Gordon – 88.0 driver rating with 6 wins
#6 – Jimmie Johnson – 87.9 driver rating with 3 wins
#7 – Denny Hamlin – 87.7 driver rating with 0 wins
#8 – Tony Stewart – 86.6 driver rating with 4 wins
#9 – Joey Logano – 85.8 driver rating with 1 win
#10 – Clint Bowyer – 84.0 driver rating with 0 wins
With six wins at Daytona (three of them in the July race) Jeff Gordon has to be a favorite heading into his final race at Daytona as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. Jeff needs a win to lock himself into his final Chase for a chance at the Championship, so you know he will be doing everything he can to make this a career highlight for himself.
Tony Stewart can’t be counted out when NASCAR heads to Daytona in July. He has won four races at the track in his career and all of them have been in this race. However, the owner-driver has not been having a great year and this could be his chance to get his team heading in the right direction with his first win of 2015.
Daytona and Talladega are considered “Earnhardt Country” in the NASCAR garage. Dale Sr. dominated on the tracks and Dale Jr. has done a better than good job of continuing that legacy. His only win so far this year came at Dega. With three wins and the second highest driver rating at the track among active drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has to be a potential favorite in the Coke Zero 400.
Joey Logano won the Daytona 500 to start the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. However, he has struggled to close a race with a win since then. Add to that the fact that only five times in NASCAR history has a driver been able to sweep both Daytona races in a single year (Fireball Robert in 1962, Cale Yarborough in 1968, LeeRoy Yarborough in 1969, Bobbie Allison in 1982, Jimmie Johnson in 2013) and you that creates a steep hill for Joey to climb to get a win this week.
This week my dark horse pick is going to be Clint Bowyer. Clint doesn’t have a win at Daytona in a Sprint Cup car. However, he is sitting at tenth place for driver ratings at the track. Last week in Sonoma he could have challenged for the win had a couple of things played out differently near the end of the road course race. His driver rating shows Clint can get around Daytona and avoid the wrecks and I believe he will be extra motivated after being close enough to a win last week to touch it.
The other great thing about racing on a super speedway is that just about any driver CAN win the race. It can be a driver on one of the mega-teams or it can be a driver on a small, single car team. Recent proof of that was Trevor Bayne’s 2011 Daytona 500 win and Aric Almirola’s win last year in the Coke Zero 400. Those two wins show that any driver from any team can driver to Victory Lane at the end of the race this week.
We will find out which driver gets to celebrate from what is arguably the most famous track in motor sports, the Daytona International Speedway this Sunday, July 5th following 160 laps of racing when the green flag waives to start the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola starting at 6:45pm central time.
By: Buck Stevens
