Mike's Musings, Sprint Cup

Only 1 out of 3. . . who is it gonna be?

Thursday, November 18, 2010 84 reads
Mike Irwin

I don’t think it’s an understatement at all to say that there is a lot of anticipation from teams, fans, and media alike going into the last Sprint Cup race of the 2010 season.

Only 46 points separate Kevin Harvick from current points leader Denny Hamlin, with Jimmie Johnson only 15 back from Hamlin.

Only one can be crowned the Sprint Cup champion. Jimmie, Denny, or Kevinie… who’s it gonna be?

All three drivers have the desire and motivation to make this happen.

For Jimmie, it’s the “Drive for Five”… the chance to become the first person ever in NASCAR’s main series to win 5 championships in a row. Jimmie has his detractors… they say, “He’s too vanilla”, or “He’s too this or that”. Like him or not, you can not deny that the #48 team is a potent combination. Can they close the deal for the 5th time?

Kevin Harvick will always be known as the guy who took over Dale Earnhardt’s ride after his untimely death at Daytona in 2001. I read a column where it was said that any time anything good happens to Harvick and the #29 team, that Dale was watching out for them, or something like that. I don’t know about that. What I do know is that you won’t find a fiercer competitor than Kevin Harvick. He is passionate about racing. This looks like his best chance in his career so far to be able to win a championship. Can he do it?

Denny Hamlin could almost be called the “comeback kid”. Early season knee surgery had the nay-sayers writing Denny off as a non-entity in the Sprint Cup championship chase for 2010. Boy, did he prove them wrong. And in the past three races at Homestead-Miami, Denny Hamlin has two top-fives including a win. Denny’s the defending champion of this race from 2009. Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson each have two top-10s. Watching Denny after an unexpectedly poor finish at Phoenix, no one can say that Denny is not totally focused (aside from some birthday carrying-on detailed on Twitter recently) on the goal of a Sprint Cup championship in 2010. Can he make it happen?

So… 1 out of 3… who’s it gonna be? Who’s YOUR pick? (and why) Leave it below in the comments!

Images courtesy of ICON Sports Media