On Friday, the Sprint Cup Series will unload 850 ruthless horsepower onto Michigan International Speedway’s 2 mile surface with speeds averaging over 200mph. The first practice session is scheduled to take place at 11:00am (EST) which will be followed by qualifying on Friday afternoon at 3:40pm (EST). So far this season, we have done an excellent job with our qualifying bets and we hope to keep things going with another solid pick tomorrow. Take a look as we break down our Quicken Loans 400 qualifying picks:
Jimmie Johnson -140 over Jeff Gordon (2 units)
It is never really smart to lay a lot of juice on qualifying wagers, but we are going to make an exception this week. From the most consistent qualifying angles, Johnson appears to be in the pilot seat for Friday’s qualifying run against the #24. Gordon has been solid in qualifying this season and is running a chassis that has raced at Fontana, Darlington, and Charlotte. In those races, Gordon qualified 6th, 9th, and 27th. Johnson on the other hand will be running chassis no. 48-797 which he won the pole with at Charlotte a few weeks ago while going on to win the Coca Cola 600. At Kansas on similar tire compounds, Gordon and Johnson qualified 13th and 14th respectively. Therefore with similar compound notes, the same Hendrick horsepower, it really just comes down to the driver and chassis. In the last 4 starts, Johnson has an average starting spot of 8.3 while Gordon has posted a 20.3 average starting position. This week we are going to ride Johnson and that chassis that has already proved pole worthy just a few weeks back at Charlotte.
Ryan Newman -115 over Kyle Busch (2 units)
We were hoping to get the Kenseth vs. Busch matchup that is normally offered for qualifying but this one will have to do. Over the last 4 races at Michigan, both Rocketman and Rowdy have posted the same exact average starting position of 19th. However, Newman qualified well at Kansas on a similar tire compound and the same chassis (no. 462) that he will be running again this weekend. Newman qualified 7th with this chassis back at Kansas and it is simply too hard to ignore the horsepower all Chevrolet engines have been showing recently in qualifying type runs. Newman let us down two weeks ago in a qualifying match-up against Kevin Harvick at Dover but we think he gets it back for us this week.