NASCAR: Both Ganassi Cars Will Make The 2016 Chase?

NASCAR has plenty of parity when it comes to the Chase given that 16 drivers make the playoffs. In 2016 Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson could be two of the drivers in that Chase field.

In what was a long time coming, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Jamie McMurray finally made his first Chase for the Sprint Cup appearance during the 2015 season. It was his first Chase appearance after several years of trying. However, he was easily eliminated in the first round after not making much of an impact during the first three races.

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Meanwhile, 2014 Rookie of the Year Kyle Larson, a surefire pick to make a Chase appearance in 2015, failed again to win a race let alone come within striking distance of making the Chase solely on merit. It was a letdown that could be credited to the sophomore slump some second-year drivers find themselves in, but not something that Larson should be beating himself in the head over.

With McMurray making a Chase appearance and Larson still knocking on the door of his first win, can an appearance by both cars in the 2016 be likely? Yes. They’re no Hendrick team, but they are one of the best Chevrolet organizations in NASCAR and could very well steal the show in 2016, more notably Larson.

Larson has been on the verge for quite some time to win his first Sprint Cup race. Since scoring a surprise runner-up finish at Fontana in the fifth race of 2014, Larson has sky-rocketed to the top of the charts in the Sprint Cup garage as the guy likeliest to score has first Cup win soon. Barring his embarrassing track record on the superspeedways, he’s been great on everything from short tracks to road courses.

He’s had fast cars time and again, including his Bristol run at the spring race in 2015 where he led 90 laps before finishing seventh. Also, until an untimely late-race caution at Homestead two weeks ago, Larson was fast catching Brad Keselowski for the lead and would have caught him otherwise. It’s not a matter of whether Larson will win as race; it’s a matter of when. He’s fast, consistent (scoring 10-top 10s in 2015, to couple with 17 top-10s in 2014), and as far as anyone is concerned, he’s a winning driver.

2015 wasn’t a breakout year for McMurray. But he still managed to make the Chase solely on consistency. That’s something that he can count on again in 2016. He matched Larson for top-10s this season despite scoring two more top-fives, but he’s run well on every type of track and could also be a threat for a superspeedway win, having won twice at Talladega and Daytona each.

However, he also showed signs of his old consistency that he once had when he was the original driver of the No. 42, from 2003 to 2005. He scored top-fives at tracks like Phoenix and Dover, and almost won the October Martinsville race. He’s an established veteran, and now that he’s been around awhile and finally established a comfort with his team he could be up for making more appearances in Victory Lane.

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They’ve got a long way to go before they’re ever championship contenders. There’s no skirting that issue. They still have a lot of effort and a lot of work to go before they make that leap to title favorite. But then again, this new Chase format is perfect for dark horse candidates. That being said, these two could very well be the perfect dark horses for a championship run. There’s a still a way to go before November 2016, so after what they showed us in 2015, it should be fun watching them in 2016.