NASCAR: 5 bold predictions for the final 5 races of the 2019 regular season
By Asher Fair
Kyle Busch doesn’t win
Kyle Busch surprisingly hasn’t won a race in more than two months, as he last won the June race at Pocono Raceway. He hasn’t been particularly cold since then, however. His average finish in the seven races that have taken place since then is actually a series-best 8.86, and that includes five top 10 finishes, three top five finishes and two runner-up finishes.
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But while this bodes well for the 34-year-old Las Vegas, Nevada native from a consistency standpoint, it doesn’t particularly bode well for him as it pertains to his chances of getting back to victory lane.
Everyone knows that on any given weekend, Busch is going to be the favorite to win, except in rare instances. But Busch is now on a seven-race win drought.
The last time he went on a win drought of at least seven races in a single season, more than one year went by between two of his victories.
Busch won the July race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 2016 season. He did not win any of the season’s remaining 16 races, and he did not win a race in the 2017 season until the season’s 21st race, the July race at Pocono Raceway.
It is worth noting that Busch being on his longest win drought in a single season since he opened up the 2017 season without winning any of the season’s first 20 races does not including his nine-race win drought that spanned from the final three races of the 2017 season to the first six races of the 2018 season.
But as far as not winning over the course of several races in a single season, as strange as it may seem, this is uncharted territory for Busch in recent years.
Several solid tracks for him do remain on the regular season schedule, most notably Bristol Motor Speedway, where he has secured eight career Cup Series victories and three in the last two years.
But as of late, there just always seems to be somebody better than him each weekend. That could very well continue for at least the final five races of the regular season.
What do you expect the final five races of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series regular season will produce? Will any of these five bold predictions come to fruition, or will we see a rather normal lead-in to this year’s playoffs?