What a great preview

If the Bud Shootout is any indicator of how the season is going to go, it is going to be filled with close races, Toyota will get their first win and Dale Jr. will win the championship.
Even though the COT is not liked by many, it made the Shootout very interesting. The COT allowed for door-to-door racing the entire race. Throughout the race no one seemed to have a particular advantage, besides Jr. leading for 40 something laps. No one car could pull away and leave the pack. It also handled well in crisis mode.
When Kurt Busch got a little loose, his car stuck to the ground instead of going airborne like the old car would have. This is due to the side plates on the spoiler. When the car steps out in the rear, the spoiler side plates put added down force and allow the car to straighten out.
Alright I'm getting way off topic.
Toyota had a great run with Tony Stewert and Dave Blaney. Yesterday I wrote that Stewert would give Toyota their first win. But seeing Blaney man-handle that Toyota up front all night he may be the man for the job. He performed well last year but I think this year he may be a force in the Toyota camp.
And now for the topic everyone has been waiting for, Dale Jr. will battle for the championship this year. I know that Jr. is very good at plate racing, but I think he will show his true potential with Hendrick. Jr. showed an excellent display of team work, which they are all about at Hendrick. Close to the end he didn't leave Jimmie Johnson to block Stewert like he would have before and it cost him a position to Stewert, but ended up giving him the win.
I think Jr. will show his true potential as a driver at Hendrick. Not just because Hendrick has the COT down, but because Jr. is a great driver. He will learn a lot from the hated but very talented Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson. He didn't have a role model to learn from at DEI so if he wanted to win a championship he had to make the move to another team and he knew it.
Can't wait until the 500

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