"Better safe than sorry" may have been the mindset of voters in the annual preseason
NASCARMedia.com poll that tapped five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion
Jimmie Johnson as the favorite to win the 2013 title.
Despite a two-year
championship drought – an eternity for the El Cajon, Calif. native – Johnson
has qualified for the “postseason” Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in each of
its nine seasons. His 22 Chase wins are more than any other driver.
So, as they say, you
have to be in it to win it.
Johnson, who will start
his 400th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in Sunday’s Daytona 500, finished third
last season behind champion Brad Keselowski and runner-up Clint Bowyer.
Possibly the biggest
surprise of this year’s media poll: The voters came out in full force for Kyle
Busch.
Busch tallied the
second-highest vote total, a somewhat surprising number considering he enters
2013 coming off a 2012 season he has called the worst of his career. Busch
opened the season with a flourish, winning his Duel at Daytona race on
Thursday.
Rounding out the top 12
were defending series champion Keselowski, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr.,
Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Matt Kenseth, Kevin
Harvick and Kasey Kahne.
Media members were also
tasked with predicting the final Top-5 for the NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR
Camping World Truck Series.
With two-time NASCAR
Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. moving to a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup
ride, the 2013 championship is wide open. But, voters feel that Austin Dillon
can duplicate the feat he accomplished in the NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series: follow up a Sunoco Rookie of the Year title with a series championship.
Voters picked Dillon to
win this year’s NASCAR Nationwide championship, with Elliott Sadler, Brian
Vickers, Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith rounding out the Top-5.
In the NASCAR Camping
World Truck Series poll, voters are predicting history. Never in the series’
18-year history has a driver won back-to-back titles, but voters think the
drought will end. They picked James Buescher to repeat in 2013, with Ty Dillon,
Ryan Blaney, Timothy Peters and Johnny Sauter rounding out the Top-5.
Photo: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images North America
Well there's a real shocker.... the 48 an easy pick for anyone. Heaven forebid they go out on a limb and pick someone else other than the chosen one.
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