Drivers to Fade Following Charlotte
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Betting Preview
by NASCARWagers.com, NASCAR Handicapping Service
The past two weekends at Charlotte provided some great racing from the All-Star Race to last Sunday’s Coca Cola 600 that come down to a fuel mileage race. We witnessed some surprising winners with Denny Hamlin holding off Kevin Harvick in the All-Star Race and then Carl Edwards saved enough fuel to win the Coca Cola 600 to give Joe Gibbs Racing a surprising sweep. Joe Gibbs Racing, as a team, has definitely turned the corner and appears to be headed in the right direction. However, we take this time to highlight a few drivers that have seemingly faded from the lights of Charlotte Motor Speedway and are heading in the wrong direction from a performance standpoint. These drivers are currently struggling in big ways and made be worth consideration as fades in H2H action until they can get things turned around. Take a look at our drivers to fade following Charlotte.
#42 Kyle Larson
Remember last year when the Chase started and the buzz surrounding Kyle Larson? The rookie was the hottest driver through the first half of the Chase despite not even being a Chase contender. The way Larson ended 2014, you would have expected a great sophomore campaign from the youngster. Instead, Larson is currently 22nd in the points and has just two top 10 finishes on the entire year. At the 1.5 mile tracks where he ran so strong at in 2014, he has finishes of 26th (Atlanta), 8th (Las Vegas), 25th (Texas), and 25th in last Sunday’s Coca Cola 600. These results are even more surprising considering teammate Jamie McMurray has had several strong runs this year and currently sits 11th in the standings. Last week at Charlotte, Larson faded the entire night despite several adjustments by the #42 team to improve the car on each stop. For whatever reason, this #42 team is struggling as an entire group and they are looking as if they could miss the Chase again in 2015.
#15 Clint Bowyer
Clint Bowyer thought that Michael Waltrip Racing was going to revolutionize his career when he joined the organization in 2012 and from the start it appeared it would as Bowyer scored 3 wins in his first season with MWR. Since 2012, Bowyer has not visited victory lane once and it almost appears that the #15 team is regressing which each season instead of progressing. Last Sunday’s race at Charlotte was just another glimpse of how irrelevant the #15 car has become this season. To make matters worse, Bowyer’s 20th place finish at Charlotte last week was actually his best finish on a 1.5 mile track all season. This team is not competing at the level they should be and have yet to score their first top 5 of the season. Bowyer may be a threat when the road races roll back around and maybe even the restrictor plate tracks. However, on the conventional ovals the #15 car has become an afterthought when it comes to winning races.
#14 Tony Stewart
Tony Stewart is a driver that most have already been fading over the last year or more. However, I am truly shocked that Stewart has not returned to competitive form after all the events away from the track surely had effected his 2014 finishes. I mean we are talking about a 3 time Sprint Cup Champion and probably one of the best drivers in the world in any type of car. However, Smoke has just two top 15 finishes this season and last week’s 21st place finish at Charlotte appeared to be the new norm for the #14 machine. Considering the speed of the #4 and #41 machines at Stewart-Haas Racing, we know it is not an organizational problem. After all Stewart-Haas Racing gets their engines from Hendrick Motorsports and those guys are doing pretty well. Therefore the problem lies somewhere within the #14 team and the teams has yet to show any signs of showing they can get back to competitive form.
#17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr
Consider this harsh but I wonder how long Stenhouse is going to keep a ride at Roush Fenway Racing? Unfortunately the young driver has not shown any potential since he was in the Xfinity Series. Since making the jump to the Sprint Cup Series, Stenhouse has just 3 top 5 finishes in nearly 100 starts. In recent weeks, the #17 car is struggling so bad that they are not even finishing in the top 20. Stenhouse’s last finish inside the top 20 come back in mid-April at Bristol which just so happened to be his best run of the year. Stenhouse has never won in the Sprint Cup Series so saying he is not in winning form is rather extraneous. However, the #17 team seems to be going backwards and they are not even performing at their norm. To make matters worse, Stenhouse has been beaten by his girlfriend in 4 of the last 5 races.
