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—Watkins Glen
Michael McDowell
Landon Cassill
Danica Patrick
Casey Mears
Aric Almirola
David Ragan
Paul Menard
This week’s predictions: Cheez-It 355 at the Glen
Amy Henderson, Senior Editor: I’m going with Kyle Busch this week. As always, I apologize in advance for that. Sorry, Rowdy fans.
Aaron Bearden, Assistant Editor: Simon Pagenaud. Crap, wrong week….I guess I’ll stick with the 22 team. Give me Logano.
Dan Greene, Webmaster: Martin Truex, Jr. He just extended his contract; as a thank you to Barney Visser, he’ll win the race.
Tony Lumbis, Financial Manager: Casey Mears taps into his Indy roots and has a solid day at the road course.
Jeff Meyer, Sorta-kinda Retired: I’m going with Jeff Gordon! That would be so cool.
Jeff Wolfe, Senior Writer: Had some Nature’s Bakery bars at Pocono on Sunday and Monday. Loved them. So picking Danica Patrick.
Bryan Gable, Contributor: Brad Keselowski.
Clayton Caldwell, Contributor: I’ll take A.J. Allmendinger please!
Dustin Albino, Contributor: Kyle Larson.
Sean Fesko, Staff Writer: Tony Stewart.
Mike Neff, Short Tracks Editor: Joey Logano, please.
Phil Allaway, Newsletter Editor: I noticed a Neon Warrior in the High-risk group.  I suppose you don’t remember that Paul Menard ran a full season of Trans-Am before moving to the then-Busch Series and made his Cup debut at Watkins Glen. If it’s not obvious, I’m going with the sideburned Menard this week.
Vito Pugliese, Senior Writer: Â I’ll take No. 2.
Corey Brewer, Contributor: Carl Edwards.
Joseph Wolkin, Assistant Editor: AJ Allmendinger.
Pennsylvania 400
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| Writer | Pick | Finishing Position | Points |
| Dan Greene | Tony Stewart | 5th | 3 |
| Jeff Meyer | Tony Stewart | 5th | 3 |
| Tony Lumbis | Denny Hamlin | 7th | 1 |
| Joseph Wolkin | Denny Hamlin | 7th | 1 |
| Dustin Albino | Carl Edwards | 8th | 1 |
| Corey Brewer | Carl Edwards | 8th | 1 |
| Huston Ladner | Kyle Busch | 9th | 1 |
| Danny Peters | Kurt Busch | 10th | 1 |
| Vito Pugliese | Austin Dillon | 13th | 0 |
| Sean Fesko | Matt Kenseth | 17th | 0 |
| Zach Catanzareti | Jeff Gordon | 27th | -1 |
| Michael Finley | Jeff Gordon | 27th | -1 |
| Bryan Gable | Chase Elliott | 33rd | -2 |
| Clayton Caldwell | Chase Elliott | 33rd | -2 |
| Mark Howell | Paul Menard | 35th | -2 |
| Amy Henderson | Martin Truex, Jr. | 38th | -3 |
| Jeff Wolfe | Martin Truex, Jr. | 38th | -3 |
Standings
| Â Writer | Points | Behind | Starts | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 |
| Bryan Gable | 31 | — | 19 | 2 | 9 | 13 |
| Jeff Wolfe | 29 | -2 | 21 | 3 | 9 | 12 |
| Dustin Albino | 28 | -3 | 18 | 3 | 6 | 12 |
| Tony Lumbis | 28 | -3 | 20 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
| Jeff Meyer | 26 | -5 | 18 | 1 | 8 | 10 |
| Danny Peters | 25 | -6 | 18 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
| Dan Greene | 24 | -7 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 13 |
| Clayton Caldwell | 24 | -7 | 20 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| Vito Pugliese | 21 | -10 | 21 | 2 | 5 | 12 |
| Jason Schultz | 16 | -15 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| Huston Ladner | 14 | -17 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Mark Howell | 10 | -21 | 19 | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| Zach Catanzareti | 10 | -21 | 20 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Corey Brewer | 10 | -21 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Amy Henderson | 8 | -23 | 21 | 3 | 6 | 9 |
| Aaron Bearden | 8 | -23 | 12 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Sean Fesko | 7 | -24 | 20 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| Phil Allaway | 6 | -25 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Jerry Jordan | 4 | -27 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Mike Neff | 3 | -28 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Tom Bowles | 3 | -28 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Summer Bedgood | 1 | -30 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Matt Stallknecht | -1 | -32 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Joseph Wolkin | -1 | -32 | 21 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Greg Davis | -2 | -33 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kevin Rutherford | -2 | -33 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael Finley | -5 | -36 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
#47 AJ Allmendinger