Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Ford currently on dominant streak in plate races.

Brad Keselowski has his stuff together at Talladega.
Talladega goes in cycles with manufacturers having dominant stages and right now it's all about Ford. Kurt Busch kept the restrictor-plate race streak going in the Daytona 500 with his first career plate win. Stewart Haas teammate Kevin Harvick led the most laps in that race. The final three plate races on 2016 saw Ford win behind team Penske. It's their time, so everyone step aside....Except I really do want to see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win this week.

"We haven’t done anything to make our fans too happy here lately," Earnhardt said, "so we’ll try to change that at Talladega. (No. 88 team crew chief) Greg (Ives) told me last week that we aren’t going to look at points anymore, we’re just going to try to go win a race. We had a great car in Daytona, just had some bad luck when we were leading, so we’re looking forward to Talladega

Ford and Team Penske has won the past three Talladega races and four of five with the only breakthrough from elsewhere being Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning in spring of 2015.

Ford has won six of the past nine Talladega races.

A Ford has won the past four plates races between Talladega and Daytona. Denny Hamlin won for Toyota in 2016 Daytona 500.

A Ford has been the lap leader in the past four plate races with Keselowski three times last season and Kevin Harvick leading six times for 50 laps in the 2017 Daytona 500.

Four Fords finished sixth or better in the Daytona 500 (Blaney 2nd, Almirola 4th, Logano 6th).

Brad Keselowski has a Talladega win in a Chevrolet (2009), Dodge (2012), and twice in a Ford (2014, 2016).

Chevrolet once won 13 straight from 1999 to 2005, then 17 of 18 and then 22 of 26. They've won twice since 2012.

Clint Bowyer, now a Ford driver, won both his plate races at Talladega. He's third-best in plate races with a 15.58 finish.

Austin Dillon's 14th-place average finish in plate races (15 starts) is the best among active drivers.
Kurt Busch's Daytona 500 win was his first plate race win in 64 starts. His 20 top-fives are second to Earnhardt Jr. (25) among active drivers. His 16.22 average finish in plate races in fifth among actives.

Why not Kurt Busch again, or Bowyer, or Harvick?

No comments: