Poll Position: Edwards, Gordon are so close, they can taste wins
CBSSports.com editor Brian De Los Santos, writer Pete Pistone and a chosen member of the community (for a pure fan perspective) share their thoughts on this week's poll question.
Tony Stewart became the latest driver to end a winless skid of more than 30 races this season, joining Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle and Juan Pablo Montoya. Who do you think will be the next driver to end his lengthy slump?
PETE PISTONE: Jeff Gordon is in the longest drought of his Sprint Cup Series career dating back to his win in April of 2009 at Texas Motor Speedway. But he is in the middle of one of his best seasons in terms of consistency and finishes. The four-time champ is second in the point standings behind Kevin Harvick on the strength of 10 top fives and 13 top-10 finishes.
At the end of the day, that probably doesn't matter much because of the Chase format and the way the playoff portion of the season is seeded Which, as we all know, is based on wins. But what makes me believe Gordon will be the next driver to knock down the door to Victory Lane -- and by the way challenge for a fifth Cup title -- is just how close he's come to winning races this season.
Gordon and crew chief Steve Letarte have taken a "winning-is-everything" approach this season from the drop of the first green flag at Daytona and haven't wavered from that plan at all. Their philosophy has been to go for victories and let the point situation take care of itself, which based on where Gordon sits in the standings has worked. The dice have been rolled and different strategies put into play on several occasions to get Gordon that elusive win but they haven't panned out. Eventually being in contention every week has to pay off and I believe Gordon will finally put together all the breaks necessary to win very soon, with the potential for multiple victories once he can finally break through.
BRIAN DE LOS SANTOS: Had I been posed this question a couple months ago, Jeff Gordon would have been at the top of my list. Coming off five straight top five finishes, I thought for sure he was about to knock out a win. But in six races since that streak, he has no top fives and just two top 10s. That's not to say the No. 24 team can't get things turned around -- maybe as soon as this weekend at Richmond, where he finished second back in May -- but I'm not inclined to make him my top choice.
Right now I'm liking Carl Edwards, basically for the same reason I would have chosen Gordon two months ago -- he's riding a hot streak. As Gordon's recent slump showed us, momentum can be fleeting, but I believe if a driver puts himself in position to win consistently, eventually he'll pull one out. And right now, Edwards is the hottest driver in the series. He has seven top 10s in his past eight races and four top fives in the past five. He also has some of his better tracks coming up such as Dover, Kansas and California.
mikeyfan1599: So many names for this list -- Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, and the list goes on to lesser drivers. All the drivers I mentioned are considered part of the best of the best and all except Earnhardt Jr., Martin and Kahne are in the Chase.
So which driver do I think will be the next to break the winless streak? I think it will be Carl Edwards. Carl and the entire Ford program seems to have gotten things straightened out. It wasn't but a couple of years ago that Edwards dominated the regular season and was a favorite to win the championship, but it seems that after the 2008 season when he won nine races, things went downhill real fast. Last season he was winless, and so far this year, he is winless. However, his last few races he has been a frontrunner and had a chance to win. So I look for Edwards to snap that streak real quick, and where? I think his best bet will probably be Kansas or Fontana as I think he is more suited to win on the 1 1/2 mile tracks than he is on the mile-and-less tracks coming up on the schedule.
Another sleeper could be Jeff Gordon. But he faces one question: Is he willing to put himself into those compromising positions now that he has two babies to think about? It appears the last couple of years Gordon has been more willing to back down in situations, where in the past he would force the issue. Marriage and children can do that to a body.
My top 5 of breaking their streak this year would be:
1. Carl Edwards
2. Matt Kenseth
3. Jeff Gordon
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Jeff Burton
The others, I just don't know if they have the equipment to pull it off or not.
