Welcome to our ninth year of staff predictions! Each week, our experts attempt to tell you who the winner of each Cup race will be. Take a look to see who your favorite writers think will win it all (or at least score some points) this week!
Think you can out-prognosticate our staff? Leave your picks in the comments and see how they stack up!
How we roll:
Each driver can be picked only twice each week. We can’t pick the same driver two weeks in a row. And if anyone is daring enough to pick from a pool of higher-risk drivers…well, he or she reaps some serious bonus points!
Prediction Scoring
+5 – Win
+3 – 2nd-5th
+1 – 6th-10th
0 – 11th-20th
-1 – 21st-30th
-2 – 31st-36th
-3 – 37th-40th
*High-risk bonus: Win: +3; 2nd-5th: +2; 6th-10th: +1
High-Risk Drivers—Kansas I:
Michael McDowell
Reed Sorenson
Michael Annett
Matt DiBenedetto
Josh Wise
Cole Whitt
Landon Cassill
This week’s predictions: GoBowling.com 400
Amy Henderson, Senior Editor: I’m going with Martin Truex, Jr.–fast in practice, led the most laps a year ago.
Jeff Wolfe, Senior Writer: Kyle Busch.
Huston Ladner, Senior Editor: Carl Edwards.
Jeff Meyer, Semi-retired Contributor: I want Carl too!
Tony Lumbis, Financial Manager: Matt Kenseth.
Dan Greene, Webmaster: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Zach Catanzareti, Contributor: Aric Almirola will bring bacon.
Joseph Wolkin, Assistant Editor: Kurt Busch.
Jason Schultz, Contributor: Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Danny Peters, Senior Writer: Martin Truex, Jr.
Dustin Albino, Contributor: Matt Kenseth.
Clayton Caldwell, Contributor: I’ll take the 48 please.
Sean Fesko, Staff Writer: Jimmie Johnson.
Vito Pugliese, Senior Writer: Kyle Busch.
Phil Allaway, Newsletter Editor: I’m going with Kyle Larson. He’s got a good average finish there.
Bryan Gable, Contributor: Chase Elliott.
GEICO 500
| Writer | Pick | Finishing Position | Points |
| Phil Allaway | Jamie McMurray | 4th | 3 |
| Jeff Wolfe | Tony Stewart | 6th | 1 |
| Dustin Albino | Ryan Blaney | 9th | 1 |
| Clayton Caldwell | Trevor Bayne* | 10th | 2 |
| Jason Schultz | Martin Truex, Jr. | 13th | 0 |
| Zach Catanzareti | Michael McDowell | 21st | -1 |
| Aaron Bearden | Matt Kenseth | 23rd | -1 |
| Vito Pugliese | Matt Kenseth | 23rd | -1 |
| Greg Davis | Danica Patrick | 24th | -1 |
| Joseph Wolkin | Danica Patrick | 24th | -1 |
| Danny Peters | Joey Logano | 35th | -1 |
| Tony Lumbis | Aric Almirola | 27th | -1 |
| Jeff Meyer | Kyle Larson | 29th | -1 |
| Dan Greene | Denny Hamlin | 31st | -2 |
| Amy Henderson | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 40th | -3 |
| Sean Fesko | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 40th | -3 |
Standings
| Writer | Points | Behind | Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 |
| Jeff Meyer | 17 | — | 10 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Jeff Wolfe | 16 | -1 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Bryan Gable | 15 | -2 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| Dustin Albino | 15 | -2 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 6 |
| Danny Peters | 11 | -6 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Clayton Caldwell | 10 | -7 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Jason Schultz | 9 | -8 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Huston Ladner | 8 | -9 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Sean Fesko | 8 | -9 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Tony Lumbis | 7 | -10 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Aaron Bearden | 7 | -10 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Amy Henderson | 5 | -12 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Dan Greene | 4 | -13 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Jerry Jordan | 4 | -13 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mike Neff | 4 | -13 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mark Howell | 4 | -13 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Phil Allaway | 4 | -13 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Tom Bowles | 3 | -14 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Summer Bedgood | 1 | -16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Joseph Wolkin | -1 | -18 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Vito Pugliese | -1 | -18 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Greg Davis | -1 | -18 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Stallknecht | -1 | -18 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Kevin Rutherford | -2 | -19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zach Catanzareti | -3 | -20 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
The Frontstretch Staff is made up of a group of talented men and women spread out all over the United States and Canada. Residing in 15 states throughout the country, plus Ontario, and widely ranging in age, the staff showcases a wide variety of diverse opinions that will keep you coming back for more week in and week out.
Even it isn’t originally – that #78 car
You people are pathetic at this! DO NOT ever go to Vegas! I see nobody picked 1, 2, 3 or 5 last week. How about a blind draw for blind writers who could not pick a winner if there were one car in the race? But it is heartwarming to know how little you know about racing and yet make a living pretending to write about it!
I see what you did there. Pist on everyone else’s pick without making a prediction of your own. You can’t lose! So what driver was so obvious to you that everyone else missed.
I have no idea who will win and don’t really care who wins so I won’t make a prediction but I won’t ridicule the picks of those that did.
Of course, I picked Kyle Busch. I pick him every week. That should be obvious by my lonely posts in defense of NASCAR’s best driver!
Well two of the FS staff picked Kyle Busch. If you read the rules you will see that “Each driver can be picked only twice each week”. So maybe they all wanted to pick KB but they can’t so perhaps they aren’t as “blind” as you think.
I was referring to last week when nobody picked Keselowski or Kyle Busch at Dega. And if you read my comments to Huston Ladner’s article of May 4, I posted the advice for anyone who is actually betting real money to take the 8-1 odds on Kyle at Kansas, since you will likely not see that good a price on him for the rest of the season. I am not playing the FS game; I am playing it as if I were actually betting in Vegas.
And I also admit I made a mistake in calling Kyle an underlay at Kansas. I should have said overlay. Always go with the overlay. The underlay (Joonyer, for example) is always a sucker bet. I haven’t been to Vegas or the track in awhile, so my terminology is rusty. But the principle is clear: bet when the odds are worse on the board than they should be based on performance and trend.
Broken Record…. You have convinced me of your overwhelmingly vast knowledge of all things Nascar. No doubt a man of your intellect has invested his Nascar gambling winnings wisely. When does the Kyle Busch shrine open?