NASCAR: 5 Predictions For The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 At Texas

Matt Kenseth Will Stand-Out Above His Teammates

Joe Gibbs Racing is still searching for their first win of the 2017 season and came very close with Kyle Busch last week at Martinsville. Busch would have to settle for second as Brad Keselowski was just too fast to catch, but this weekend was looking promising for the 18 team.

Busch is the defending winner of this race after all, as he won here a year ago. But there have been early problems for the 18 team. The repaved surface of Texas Motor Speedway proved to be a little too much for Busch and he spun during the first practice session.

The 18 team almost decided to go to a back up car but instead went with trying to fix the damage on the main car.

Denny Hamlin has preformed well at Texas and is one of the only active drivers to win both races at this speedway in one year.

Even with his experience at Texas though, Hamlin also suffered a similar fate to his teammate Kyle Busch and went for a spin during the first round of practice. He may have had the old surface mastered, but Hamlin looks to already be struggling with the new look at Texas.

Daniel Suarez didn’t spin out at practice, but with the way this rookie driver has run this season there is no telling how well he will finish on Sunday.

And lastly there’s Matt Kenseth, the veteran of the group. Kenseth was able to avoid spinning out at practice, but he hasn’t had the success of some of his teammates so far this season. He ran well at Martinsville last week, finishing in ninth, but hit the wall at Fontana the week before.

So why will the driver of the 20 car out-perform his teammates? Matt Kenseth has two wins at Texas and an average finish of 9.43. He was an expert on the older surface. And while the new surface has changed a bit, Kenseth has been around long enough to know how to adapt to something like this, and his veteran experience will show on Sunday.

Luck could also play a factor into his success, as he will be riding in a car that wasn’t damaged during the first round of practice. Hamlin and Busch both have fast cars, but if they spun during practice, they may easily face the same issues when the race goes green this weekend.

Matt Kenseth has been good at Texas in the past and a new surface won’t stop him from keeping that momentum going.