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 — Dover I:
Michael McDowell
Brian Scott
Michael Annett
Matt DiBenedetto
Josh Wise
Trevor Bayne
Landon Cassill
This week’s predictions: AAA 400 Benefiting Autism Speaks
Amy Henderson, Senior Editor: I’m going with Jimmie Johnson this week. I don’t love his starting spot, but he’s ridiculously good at the Monster Mile.
Mike Neff, Short Track Coordinator: Â Way to go out on a limb, Amy. I guess I’ll take Joey Logano.
Jeff Wolfe, Senior Writer: Burt Kusch … I mean Kurt Busch.
Huston Ladner, Senior Editor: Carl Edwards.
Tony Lumbis, Financial Manager: Matt DiBenedetto.
Dan Greene, Webmaster: Kurt Busch.
Zach Catanzareti, Contributor: 42Â Larson 42 Larson 42!
Joseph Wolkin, Assistant Editor: Kyle Busch.
Jason Schultz, Contributor: Carl Edwards.
Dustin Albino, Contributor: The No. 48.
Clayton Caldwell, Contributor: I’ll take a risk here and go Brian Scott. RPM is good here!
Sean Fesko, Staff Writer: Kevin Harvick.
Vito Pugliese, Senior Writer: Matt Kenseth.
Michael Finley, Contributor: Kevin Harvick.
Bryan Gable, Contributor: Matt Kenseth.
GoBowling.com 400
| Writer | Pick | Finishing Position | Points |
| Jeff Wolfe | Kyle Busch | 1st | 5 |
| Vito Pugliese | Kyle Busch | 1st | 5 |
| Joseph Wolkin | Kurt Busch | 3rd | 3 |
| Tony Lumbis | Matt Kenseth | 4th | 3 |
| Dustin Albino | Matt Kenseth | 4th | 3 |
| Bryan Gable | Chase Elliott | 9th | 1 |
| Huston Ladner | Carl Edwards | 11th | 0 |
| Jeff Meyer | Carl Edwards | 11th | 0 |
| Amy Henderson | Martin Truex, Jr. | 14th | 0 |
| Danny Peters | Martin Truex, Jr. | 14th | 0 |
| Dan Greene | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 15th | 0 |
| Jason Schultz | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | 15th | 0 |
| Sean Fesko | Jimmie Johnson | 17th | 0 |
| Clayton Caldwell | Jimmie Johnson | 17th | 0 |
| Phil Allaway | Kyle Larson | 35th | -2 |
Standings
| Â Writer | Points | Behind | Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 |
| Jeff Wolfe | 21 | — | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
| Bryan Gable | 18 | -3 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 8 |
| Dustin Albino | 18 | -3 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| Jeff Meyer | 17 | -4 | 11 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| Danny Peters | 11 | -10 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Tony Lumbis | 10 | -11 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| Clayton Caldwell | 10 | -11 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Jason Schultz | 9 | -12 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Huston Ladner | 8 | -13 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Sean Fesko | 8 | -13 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Aaron Bearden | 7 | -14 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Amy Henderson | 5 | -16 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Dan Greene | 4 | -17 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| Jerry Jordan | 4 | -17 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mike Neff | 4 | -17 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Mark Howell | 4 | -17 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Vito Pugliese | 4 | -17 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Tom Bowles | 3 | -18 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Joseph Wolkin | 3 | -18 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Phil Allaway | 2 | -19 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Summer Bedgood | 1 | -20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Greg Davis | -1 | -22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Stallknecht | -1 | -22 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Kevin Rutherford | -2 | -23 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zach Catanzareti | -3 | -24 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
About the author
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.
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Chase Elliott ;-)
I’m betting on Nyquist on Saturday in a race that matters. That probably means he’ll lose.