NASCAR: 3 candidates to drive the #48 car in 2022

Candidates to drive the #48 Chevrolet: No. 2 – Alex Bowman

If you watched Sunday’s race, you know exactly where I’m going with this.

So much for that CreditOne Ones To Watch prediction, right? Where ever single member of the Fox Sports team — Jeff Gordon, Larry McReynolds, Clint Bowyer, Regan Smith and Mike Joy — picked Kyle Larson to win and said there was no way that anybody could think differently?

In every race, as the laps wind down, they all pick different drivers they feel have a shot to win; they aren’t allowed to select repeats, and there are usually a few jokes about who gets to pick first, who stole who’s pick, who passed up the easy option, who took the easy way out, etc.

But as this week’s joke, when the outcome seemingly looked clear, they played off of the idea that Larson had it in the bag, and given how he was dominating the race, they all picked him and “explained” why he was their choice.

The joke ended up being on them for putting all of their eggs in one basket.

The race just had that Larson runner-up vibe to it, given how he has historically struggled to close the door after dominating races. Sure enough, he ended up finishing in second place behind Alex Bowman, though it was a faster pit stop that did the trick for the driver of the #48 Chevrolet, not an on-track pass.

Larson led 263 of the 400-lap race’s first 303 laps around the four-turn, 1.0-mile (1.609-kilometer) high-banked “Monster Mile” oval in Dover, Delaware. Bowman led one of those 303 laps plus the final 97 after his amazing lap 304 pit stop.

Larson hung on to second place behind Bowman and still played a part in the Hendrick Motorsports 1-2-3-4 sweep ahead of Chase Elliott and William Byron in third and fourth, respectively.

So as for the second possible candidate to drive the #48 car next year, I’m going with Alex Bowman. But aside from Alex Bowman and Alex Bowman, who might end up here in 2022?