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CUP: Another Upset Winner This Time?
Written by: Tom Jensen   
11/05/2009
Charlotte, NC
 
Juan Pablo Montoya is currently fourth in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points. (Photo: Getty Images) ยป More Photos

Last week in this space, I suggested the wildly unpredictable Talladega Superspeedway might produce an upset winner, which it did in Jamie McMurray, who on Sunday stunned the field to capture the AMP Energy 500.

Could we see a similar upset this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, site of the Dickies 500? Maybe, just maybe.

Texas Motor Speedway, after all, has produced its share of firsts. Jeff Burton won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup race here in 1997. A year later, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won his first NASCAR Nationwide Series race at TMS and two years after that, his first Cup race. And just this past April, Jeff Gordon finally won at TMS for the first time.

So for the second week in a row, this week’s 5 To Watch column will veer a bit off the beaten path in prognosticating just what might happen in the great state of Texas on Sunday afternoon.

Last week, I picked five guys outside the Chase for the Sprint Cup as my favorites, and a guy outside the Chase won, although he wasn’t one of my favorites. This week, I’m going to pick five guys who haven’t won a race yet this season.

1. JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates — Montoya has established himself as one of the breakout stories of 2009, finally clicking behind the wheel of a stock car after a long and lustrous open-wheel
career. In seven Chase races so far, Montoya has finished third or fourth five times. That’s stout.

There is absolutely no question that Montoya and his team are fast enough to win their first oval race together, and this just might be the weekend they put it all together and find victory lane.

2. CARL EDWARDS , Roush Fenway Racing — Calling Edwards an underdog at Texas would be a little like calling the New York Yankees an underdog in the Bronx. After all, Edwards has three Texas victories, including a Cup sweep in 2008 when he led a total of 335 laps. After McMurray’s Talladega triumph, the whole Roush Fenway organization has to have gotten a big lift.

And Edwards, crew chief Bob Osborne and the rest of the No. 99 Aflac-sponsored Ford Fusion crew are too damned good not to win at least once this season.

3. RYAN NEWMAN, Stewart-Haas Racing — Righteous indignation has always been a great motivator for race-car driver of all disciplines, and Newman is no exception. The Purdue University engineering student was livid after going airborne at Talladega, and who can blame him?

If Newman really wants to make a statement, winning is always the best revenge. He won here in 2003, and earned top-five finishes in both ’07 and ’08, so this is a track he knows his way around.


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