NASCAR at Charlotte 2016: Preview, Prediction for the Sprint Showdown
Skim off the cream line from milk in its purest form and you get the Sprint Showdown—a shootout of the also-rans from the Sprint Cup series.
This gives them a fair shot at the All-Star Race, which follows on Saturday night, and it also gives these drivers a chance to compete, not just gum up traffic.
Drivers like Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson would argue against that, but other drivers like Danica Patrick, Cole Whitt and Reed Sorenson can use the reps around Charlotte Motor Speedway to improve, maybe even sneak into the race in one of the three flights.
The winners of the three showdowns (20 laps, 20 laps, 10 laps) earn spots in the All-Star Race with one driver earning a spot based on a fan vote.
Let’s get moving on this preview of NASCAR’s Sprint Showdown.
By the Numbers: Charlotte Motor Speedway
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NASCAR Sprint Showdown
Place: Charlotte Motor Speedway; Charlotte, North Carolina
Date: Friday, May 20
TV Coverage: 7 p.m. (ET), FS1
Distance: 20 laps, 20 laps, 10 laps
Defending champions: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer
Fan-Vote Breakdown: Danica Patrick
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Best Finish of the 2016 Season: 13th, Dover
Average Finish: 23.2
Sprint Cup Standings: 23rd
Patrick, a two-time fan-vote winner, hasn't had the best season, but she did turn in her best effort this past weekend at Dover.
“Today’s race is a perfect example of why you should never ever give up,” Patrick said in Lee Spencer’s Motorsports.com story. “We were stuck two laps down for what seemed like forever. Then at the end, things finally worked out so that we could get back on the lead lap.”
It’s a momentum-builder for Patrick.
It does look like she’ll need the same kind of luck she had at Dover to race into the All-Star field.
Hopefully Patrick gets good voter turnout among the yoga elite.
Fan-Vote Breakdown: Ryan Blaney
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Best Finish of the 2016 Season: Fifth, Kansas
Average Finish: 17.0
Sprint Cup Standings: 15th
Blaney has been the surprise rookie of the 2016 season to date.
Most people knew he was good, but not quite this good this soon.
He has five top 10s, with an average finish of 7.33 in his last three races—all top 10s.
Blaney will fall short of votes, so he must win one of the three flights for all-star-level clearance.
Fan-Vote Breakdown: Chase Elliott
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Best Finish of the 2016 Season: Third, Dover
Average Finish: 12.9
Sprint Cup Standings: Seventh
Chase Elliott is as good as advertised.
His rookie year has been a spectacular showcase of his ability and his potential. With two poles and eight top 10s, he is without question carving out his own legacy in the No. 24 car.
No one has spoken a word about it being Jeff Gordon’s former car. That likely has more to do with the fact Gordon has been in the booth all season, and that would be one of the more awkward conversations to have, not to mention myopic and lazy.
After some ugly crashes at Daytona and Las Vegas, Elliott has settled in and driven a car as well as anyone in the entire Sprint Cup. He has five top 10s from his last seven starts and nearly got up for second at Dover this past weekend.
Elliott said in Tom Jensen’s FoxSports.com story:
"Doesn't really matter what I say. Until you go get it done, it really is irrelevant. For me, I think I have a team that's capable of doing it. The way I see today, we had our shot, we had a chance to do it today, I didn't do it. It's as simple as that. Either you do or you don't, and we haven't yet.
"
Fan Vote Breakdown: Matt DiBenedetto
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Best Finish of the 2016 Season: Sixth, Bristol
Average Finish: 29.3
Sprint Cup Standings: 33rd
Matt DiBenedetto has the DiBurrito Nation on his side.
He’ll even change his name on his car if he gets voted into the All-Star Race.
The Internet has its moments, and this is it.
Taco Bell or Chipotle needs to jump on this bandwagon, maybe even sponsor that car in the coming years because DiBenedetto "DiBurrito" could be a driver with a cult following, you know, in the making.
He plucked a few heartstrings when he finished sixth at Bristol, showing another side of NASCAR you rarely see: the little guy ascending the leaderboard.
Carl Edwards, who won the race at Bristol, said what DiBurrito did was far harder than what he (Edwards) did.
Vote for the "Grilled Stuft DiBurrito"!
Fan-Vote Breakdown: Kyle Larson
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Best Finish of the 2016 Season: Second, Dover
Average Finish: 20.9
Sprint Cup Standings: 21st
Larson is the third driver on this list whose best finish of the 2016 season came at Dover.
That No. 42 car hauled at the Monster Mile and nearly eclipsed Matt Kenseth for the win.
It must have taken all of Larson’s discipline not to bump Kenseth out of the way to reach Victory Lane—and the Chase—for the first time in his career.
Larson could have said, “Kenseth has his titles, has his wins, what harm could be done if I ‘move’ him out of the way?’”
First, who wants their first win to be a controversial one—a driver-defining win?
Second, don’t do this to Kenseth. He may be cool on the outside, but that temper of his is something right out of Greek tragedy.
USA Today’s Jeff Gluck writes, “There are so many repercussions, not the least of which involves potentially negative attention for a team and sponsor. Plus, there's the formation of rivalries that can drag on for much longer than a couple races.”
So Larson, like Elliott and Patrick, has a ton of momentum on his side heading into the Showdown. If he can get out front in one of these flights, there’s no keeping him from racing Saturday night.
And the Winners Are...
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Clint Bowyer
Clint Bowyer has won two of these in a row, and he, like so many drivers in the fan vote, comes off a solid performance at Dover—12th to be precise. Given his average finish of 23.4 this year, that’s a great effort.
He said in Lee Spencer’s Motorsports.com story:
"I’m pretty miserable right now and I don’t aim to be that way for a year. It’s hard. Here’s the thing, in the situation you’re in, yes, you want to rip the leather off the steering wheel and get mad and everything else but it doesn’t do any good. And you know these guys are working their asses off to get you to where you’re even at.
It’s just they don’t have the tools that these other teams have. They don’t flat have them.
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Spencer noted Bowyer’s former team, Michael Waltrip Racing, had 28 engineers. Bowyers current team, HS Motosports, has one.
If Bowyer can keep his streak alive for his gap-year team, this could go a long way toward boosting team morale, even if it's for just this one weekend.
Austin Dillon
Austin Dillon’s emergence on the competitive scene means more to the sport of NASCAR than it does for the No. 3 team in the short term.
NASCAR’s stars are getting old. They’re still dominant, but with drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. all in their 40s, drivers like Larson, Elliott and now Dillon need to slide in and prove they can inherit the throne.
This weekend, expect Dillon to further cement himself as a top contender.
Kyle Larson
When Larson gets out front he’s tough to catch. His problem is getting out front.
He led a number of laps at Dover, more in that one race than he had in his entire Sprint Cup career to date, according the FS1 broadcast last Sunday.
Winning a flight in the Showdown isn’t like hoisting an actual trophy, though it could do wonders for the team’s momentum and goodwill for the rest of 2016.
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