Watkins Glen Picks

My Picks for the Centurion Boats at the Glen Nextel Cup race to be held on Sunday:

20- Stewart- winner- The jackass in the orange car has three wins at Watkins Glen, and nearly beat Kevin Harvick last year. He will get his fourth win here on Sunday.

7- Robby Gordon- Lunatic, but good at road courses. He is better at the Glen than at Infineon. He will get a top ten. Parenthetical note: after acting like an absolute psychotic last weekend in Canada, he is trying to play nice. He has given his Villeneuve rival Marcos Ambrose a ride for the race.

24- Jeff Gordon- He has four wins at the Glen. He has not been contending for wins in the last couple of months, but has been in the top ten (and usually top five) every single week. He'll be there.

12- Newman- Ryan has been pretty good in the Finger Lakes...15.0 average finish and three top tens in five starts. Could be a great day for the 12 team. They need it.

42- Montoya- Juan Pablo will follow up his Infineon win with a stong finish at the Glen.

48- Johnson- not a good road racer, but he seems to usually (not always) eke out good finishes. His 15.2 average finish at WG is not that bad.

8- Earnhardt- He has three top tens at WG in 7 starts. Currently on the outside of the chase looking in, he needs to do well. I predict he will get a top ten, but will probably be closer to tenth than first.

29-Harvick- Last year's winner. He will be strong again. Kevin Harvick has become a really good road course racer.

60- Said- Boris Said will be in the top 10 this weekend. He lives for these races, and is the most popular road courser out there. He is also, by the way, a native New Yorker. ***see below

2- Ku Busch- I will go out on a limb (with fingers crossed) and hope that he proves me right. He is better at Infineon than WG, but he could turn in a top ten. He has two in six starts. He needs it now worse than ever. He's looking at historical performance at this track and realizes that it is a greater liklihood than not that Earnhardt will take the 12th spot away from him again this weekend. He is hungry and doesn't want that to happen.

UPDATE 8/10/07: Scratch my Said pick. Qualifying was rained out. Field set by top 43 in owners' points. Said almost would have certainly qualified well, but since he rarely is in Cup races, he will not be in the show.

Top 10 substitute pick: 11 - Hamlin - 10th last year at this race. Could repeat that performance.