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2017 NASCAR Playoff Picks

Here are my picks for the 2017 NASCAR Cup playoffs (alphabetical order):

  • Clint Bowyer
  • Kurt Busch
  • Kyle Busch
  • Austin Dillon
  • Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  • Chase Elliott
  • Denny Hamlin
  • Kevin Harvick
  • Jimmie Johnson
  • Kasey Kahne
  • Matt Kenseth
  • Brad Keselowski
  • Kyle Larson
  • Joey Logano
  • Jamie McMurray
  • Martin Truex Jr.

A few expanded predictions:

— Clint Bowyer will get back to his old competitive self after joining Stewart-Haas Racing. By September, any hiccups SHR has in the transition to Ford will be forgotten.

— Four Toyotas will make it, but rookies Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez will barely miss out because of a few late-race mistakes.

— All four Hendrick drivers will be in the playoff, including Kasey Kahne after his best season in several years. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will finish the regular season within the top 10 in points.

— Both Chip Ganassi Racing drivers will be in and Kyle Larson will win two times in the regular season.

— Austin Dillon will win his first Cup race by late August.

— Overall, Hendrick Motorsports will be the best team in the regular season (with Jimmie Johnson having the most wins), followed by Team Penske. Joe Gibbs Racing will experience a slight drop-off after two great years, just part of the usual cycle in racing.

— I hate leaving Ryan Blaney out, but I’m not a Blaney detractor. I picked him to make it last year, and it’s certainly possible he could have a great year.

— Joey Logano will win his first championship in 2017.

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A NASCAR social media experiment with Instagram


Social media often asks people to CLICK HERE! or VOTE! or REPLY! It’s a call to action, whether asking a question (“What do you think about this?”) or just showing off good seats at a concert (“Check out my picture!”).

People retweet and favorite and like and share — but they’re often prompted to do so.

So what happens when content is presented without any call to action? I tried a small social media experiment last week on my Instagram account just for fun (certainly not scientific in any way).

During the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour, I took virtually the same pictures over and over again — a different driver each time, but in the same location — and posted them with a generic caption. In order to avoid a fan base trying to influence the results, I didn’t mention I planned to track the amount of “likes” for each Instagram photo.

The photos were spread out over several days, so I let them sit on the account for a week before writing down the final totals. Here they are:

  1. Kasey Kahne — 173 likes
  2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. — 168
  3. Kyle Larson — 136
  4. Clint Bowyer — 135
  5. Tony Stewart — 132
  6. Denny Hamlin — 127
  7. Brian Vickers — 125
  8. Jeff Gordon — 114
  9. Jamie McMurray — 111
  10. Brad Keselowski — 110
  11. Carl Edwards — 107
  12. Jimmie Johnson — 106
  13. Kevin Harvick — 98
  14. Ryan Newman — 94
  15. Kurt Busch — 93
  16. Joey Logano — 92
  17. Austin Dillon — 89
  18. Danica Patrick — 88
  19. Matt Kenseth — 81
  20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — 79
  21. Kyle Busch — 78
  22. Greg Biffle — 69
  23. Paul Menard — 64
  24. Michael Waltrip — 63

I’m certainly not suggesting this list reflects the current popularity of Sprint Cup Series drivers, but I was surprised to see some drivers so high on the list (check out Kyle Larson in third!) and others lower than expected (Matt Kenseth 19th?).

Any theories as to why the list shook out this way?