Then we got back to normal with Tyler Reddick winning last week.
Who will be the NEXT Cup driver to post their first-ever Cup series win? Well, lets take a look:
The Most Likely: Connor Zilisch—even though it’s a down year for Trackhouse, The Z-man’s shown his mettle on road courses already. And its not like he has any pressure in the Rookie of the Year battle.
The Popular Option: Carson Hocevar—people have been saying everything from Hocevar being the next race winner to having him taking over the 48. But while a win wouldn’t be all THAT surprising, the 48 seems to be earmarked for Corey Day and/or, y’know, Alex Bowman.
The Drafting Track Trio: Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland, or Zane Smith—but hey, isn’t Nascar rigging races for the lawsuit winners?
The “He 'Only' Has an Exhibition Race Win”: Ryan Preece—while I still don’t know how “good” of a Cup driver Preece is (he’s never really run for a top-flight team), I can see him being pushed to a drafting track win by Keselowski (as long as his car doesn’t take flight again).
The Wild Card: John Hunter Nemechek—Legacy isn’t exactly a great team, or even a good team. But with a postseason berth almost completely out of the question, I can totally see them making some wild strategy calls late in a race for The Man With Three Names.
The “Y’all Better Do It Quick”: Riley Herbst—Corey Heim is all but a lock for the 35 car next year, especially with Rockstar becoming a sponsor of 23XI. So unless the Monster money can work miracles at Legacy MC, Riley needs to get it done this year somehow.
The REALLY Long Shot: Ty Dillon—500 races in the three national touring series and four wins. Yeah, we might need a random rainstorm for this to happen.
The “No”: Cody Ware—yeah, I just don’t see it happening.
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