Welcome to the 11th season of the Frontstretch Cup, a year-long competition in which the Frontstretch staff and guests from around the NASCAR world attempt to predict the winner of each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race.
This season, we are joined by driver Corey LaJoie.
Think you can do better? Leave your picks in the comments.
How it works
Each week, Cup drivers will be ranked in order of their respective FanDuel price. With 40 drivers on the Indianapolis entry list, competitors select one driver ranked from 1-10 and one driver from 11-40. They choose the two drivers they believe will either win the race or finish well.
2018 Scoring System
Each driver will receive points on an inverted finishing position system. For example:
1st = 40
2nd = 39
3rd = 38
4th = 37
and so on.
There will be a five-point bonus for the winning driver.
There will be a 10-point bonus if both drivers finish first/second.
There will be a five-point deduction per driver for DNFs.
There will also be no limit to the number of times a driver can be picked throughout the season.
Without further ado, here are this week’s rankings.
Big Machine Vodka 400 picks
| Writer/Guest | Driver 1 | Driver 2 |
| Ava Ladner | Kyle Busch | Ryan Blaney |
| Bryan Gable | Kyle Busch | Ryan Newman |
| Bryan Keith | Kyle Larson | Jimmie Johnson |
| Christian Koelle | Brad Keselowski | Paul Menard |
| Clayton Caldwell | Kyle Busch | Ryan Blaney |
| Corey Brewer | Kevin Harvick | Daniel Suarez |
| Dan Greene | Kyle Busch | Jimmie Johnson |
| Davey Segal | Kyle Busch | Jimmie Johnson |
| Dustin Albino | Martin Truex Jr. | Aric Almirola |
| John Haverlin | Brad Keselowski | William Byron |
| Joseph Wolkin | Kevin Harvick | Paul Menard |
| Mark Howell | Kurt Busch | Jimmie Johnson |
| Matt Mclaughlin | Kyle Busch | Ryan Blaney |
| Wesley Coburn | Kyle Busch | Ryan Newman |
| Zach Gillispie | Kyle Busch | Erik Jones |
Standings following Darlington
| Rank | Change | Writer/Guest | Points | Behind | Races | Wins | Top 5 | Top 10 | DNF |
| 1 | – | Bryan Gable | 1540 | – | 25 | 8 | 24 | 33 | 5 |
| 2 | +1 | Dustin Albino | 1475 | -65 | 25 | 9 | 20 | 30 | 6 |
| 3 | +1 | Michael Massie | 1474 | -66 | 25 | 5 | 18 | 31 | 4 |
| 4 | -2 | Wesley Coburn | 1472 | -68 | 25 | 5 | 18 | 29 | 5 |
| 5 | +1 | Matt Mclaughlin | 1424 | -116 | 25 | 5 | 22 | 30 | 7 |
| 6 | -1 | Corey Brewer | 1417 | -123 | 25 | 5 | 19 | 29 | 5 |
| 7 | – | Mark Howell | 1397 | -143 | 25 | 2 | 17 | 26 | 4 |
| 8 | +2 | Clayton Caldwell | 1366 | -174 | 24 | 5 | 19 | 30 | 5 |
| 9 | – | Amy Henderson | 1360 | -180 | 25 | 3 | 19 | 24 | 7 |
| 10 | -2 | Dan Greene | 1350 | -190 | 23 | 6 | 17 | 26 | 6 |
| 11 | – | Davey Segal | 1325 | -215 | 25 | 6 | 18 | 27 | 9 |
| 12 | – | Christian Koelle | 1314 | -226 | 24 | 2 | 12 | 28 | 4 |
| 13 | – | Ava Ladner | 1303 | -237 | 22 | 7 | 19 | 23 | 5 |
| 14 | – | Vito Pugliese | 1270 | -270 | 24 | 8 | 16 | 25 | 4 |
| 15 | – | Bryan Keith | 1212 | -328 | 20 | 5 | 17 | 26 | 5 |
| 16 | – | John Haverlin | 1186 | -354 | 21 | 4 | 13 | 22 | 3 |
| 17 | – | Joseph Wolkin | 1123 | -417 | 22 | 4 | 12 | 22 | 6 |
| 18 | – | Mike Neff | 999 | -541 | 18 | 4 | 14 | 19 | 3 |
| 19 | – | Frank Velat | 911 | -629 | 17 | 1 | 10 | 17 | 4 |
| 20 | – | Greg Davis | 731 | -809 | 13 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 4 |
| 21 | – | Corey LaJoie | 519 | -1021 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| 22 | – | Tom Bowles | 505 | -1035 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 9 | – |
| 23 | – | Drew Mongiello | 347 | -1193 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| 24 | +2 | Zach Gillispie | 57 | -1483 | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| 25 | -1 | Michael Finley | 39 | -1501 | 1 | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| 26 | -1 | Rick Lunkenheimer | 39 | -1501 | 1 | – | 1 | 1 | – |
Martin Truex Jr. (starting third) and Daniel Suarez (20th) will have to drop to the rear for the start of the Brickyard 400 and each had his car chief ejected for failing prerace tech three times. Suarez’s car failed four times, which will be a 10-point penalty.
Competition cautions (nudge nudge wink wink for more NBCSn commercial breaks) lat lap 10 and 30.
Still chuckling!!!!!!