NASCAR is California Dreaming

This week marks the first week i'll be posting my predictions for each upcoming Sprint Cup event. I'll be choosing the Top 3 drivers to win and the underdog of the race. I wonder how close i'm gonna get...

This week NASCAR heads out west as they make the first of two stops at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Historicly, California Speedway has been owned by two teams. Hendrick Motorsports (which has 6 wins with 4 drivers) and Roush-Fenway Racing (5 wins, 4 drivers). So two of my three choices will come from the Hendrick and Roush-Fenway camps. The third is a driver I feel like has a ton of momentum coming out of Daytona. With that being said, my picks to win this week at California are:

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 DEWALT Ford (Roush-Fenway Racing)
Last Week: 36th place finish in the Daytona 500
Career at California: 10.3 Avg. Finish, 2 wins, 4 Top 5's, 8 Top 10's
Why he could win: Matt is the two-time defending champion of this race at California, not to mention his career stats at California are outstanding.

Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Toyota (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Last Week: 4th place finish in the Daytona 500
Career at California: 11.1 Avg. Finish, 1 win, 2 Top 5's, 5 Top 10's
Why he could win: The momentum Kyle has going for him after such a dominating run at Daytona could very well prepel him to victory this week at California, where he picked up his first career win.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24, DuPont Chevrolet (Hendrick Motorsports)
Last Week: 39th place finish at Daytona 500
Career at California: 11.8 Avg. Finish, 3 wins, 7 Top 5's, 7 Top 10's
Why he could win: Well, besides the fact that he is Jeff Gordon, he's won this race three times in his career, which gives him the most wins at California by any driver. Need I say more?

So who is the underdog this week? Let's go with a "Go or Go Home" driver...



Brian Vickers, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota (Red Bull Racing)
Last Week: 13th place finish at Daytona 500
Career at California: 17.9 Avg. Finish, 1 Top 5, 3 Top 10's
Why he could win: Last year after he missed the Daytona 500 he came out and picked up Toyota's first Top 10 in Sprint Cup history. I wouldn't be surprised to see him do even better this year.

So that's it, those are my predictions for this week's Auto Club 500 at California Speedway. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know!