As you may have noticed, I’ve been making race picks against AI all season long. I wanted to do the same for this year’s Chase, but here’s what ChatGPT spat out:
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Ryan Blaney
3. William Byron
4. Christopher Bell
5. Kyle Larson
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Chase Elliott
8. Tyler Reddick
9. Chase Briscoe
10. Joey Logano
11. Chris Buescher
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Bubba Wallace
14. Daniel Suárez
15. Austin Cindric
16. Ryan Preece
…so basically William Byron having a great run, but everything else stays the same? Gee, way to go out on a limb, water-guzzling super computers.
Now, here’s MY picks for the Chase, in reverse order:
NO SHOT AT ALL:
16. Austin Cindric—pretty bad when you’re not even the best “guaranteed ride based on family relations” driver in the Chase, but he’s still better than the Dillon brothers.
15. Daniel Suarez—if TWG DOES collapse, it could put Suarez on a pace to break Ryan Newman’s record for Most Teams Raced For.
14. Ryan Preece—I’m sure he’s more than “just glad to be here”, but RFK is likely the weakest team to make the Chase again.
13. Chris Buescher—I’m sure he’s more than “just glad to be here”, but RFK is likely the weakest team to make the Chase again.
LONGSHOTS:
12. Carson Hocevar—he’s the new Kasey Kahne, in that he regularly outperforms his equipment, has lots of female fans, and gets his last name misspelled all the time.
11. Bubba Wallace—still, an impressive run for this two-car team. Oh wait, right, they have three teams, but the 67 only runs part-time.
10. Kyle Larson—he’s just NOT had it this year, but it’s not like he has to worry about his sponsor arguing with his team owner.
9. Chase Briscoe—every year there’s one front-runner who falters in the playoffs/Chase, and ironically it’s one of the two drivers named Chase this year.
DECENT SHOTS:
8. Tyler Reddick—what happened after his amazing start to the year? Well, the other teams have crew chiefs and strategists too.
7. Chase Elliott—(INSERT “they named it after him and he couldn’t even win it” JOKE HERE).
6. Christopher Bell—maybe it’s that he doesn’t go by “Chris” that’s keeping him from making The Leap.
5. William Byron—fast becoming the next Denny Hamlin. Unless…
BEST SHOTS:
4. Ty Gibbs—it’s not his year quite yet, but I’m sure we’ll all be sick of him by, oh, I’d say, the Daytona 500 pre-show next year.
3. Joey Logano—Team Penske remains the ONLY team that knows how to “turn it on” for the playoffs/Chase. And sorry to mention anything being turned on in the vicinity of Joey Logano.
2. Ryan Blaney—HEY MAYBE IF HE JUST LOSES OUT WE CAN SAY HIS MUSTACHE WON BECAUSE ITS IN FRONT OF HIM LOL OH GOD I NEED A GIRLFRIEND.
SURE SHOT:
1. Denny Hamlin—He can’t? He won’t? But he don’t stop. The penultimate year is the sure shot.
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