Kyle Busch came pretty close to his first win of the season last time out in Phoenix, but he came up just short. He’ll get another shot for that elusive win with the Sprint Cup’s next stop in Fontana, a track in which Busch has a healthy habit of winning.
See whether some of the top NASCAR experts around think that Busch will finally score the big win in California with their 2016 Auto Club 400 picks below. And for more top NASCAR coverage, check out our complete preview of that race here.
Expert Picks and Predictions for the 2016 Auto Club 400
Bleacher Report
EXPERT
WINNER
Brendan O’Meara
Kyle Busch
Bleacher Report’s Brendan O’Meara had the right idea with last week’s pick, Kyle Busch. Busch grabbed poll in the Good Sam 500, but a costly error saw him only finish fourth. However, O’Meara isn’t deterred by that result, and has once again gone with Busch to emerge victorious in the Auto Club 400.
Busch still hasn’t won a race this season, but the current Sprint Cup points leader is generously priced at +550 to finally get on the board in California.
O’Meara has been impressed with the form of Joe Gibbs Racing this season, with all four of its drivers currently in the Chase grid. And he especially likes the fact that Busch has won the Auto Club 400 two out of the past three years. (He didn’t start last season’s race due to injury.)
Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
Jeff Gutowski’s Top 5
Jimmie Johnson
Kyle Busch
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Matt Kenseth
Carl Edwards
By the slimmest of margins, Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet’s Jeff Gutowski called last week’s Good Sam 500 correctly with his pick of Kevin Harvick to win. This week, he’s got Jimmie Johnson taking the checkered flag in Fontana.
That’s not exactly going out on a limb, seeing as Johnson is the all-time leader in wins on the track with five, and laps led with 955. (Although, his last win came all the way back in 2010.)
Nevertheless, Gutowski cites that Johnson’s team has looked good on mile-and-a-half tracks thus far, and is going with the 48 – the race’s co-favorite at +450 – to become the season’s first two-time winner. He has Kyle Busch, the other experts’ favorite to win, as a close second.
Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR experts
PLACE
Robert Walsh
Marlon Clark
Jed Henson
Chase Lupton
Kyle Wiseman
FRCS Group
1st
Ky Busch
Ky Busch
Harvick
Ky Busch
Ky Busch
Ky Busch
2nd
Ku Busch
Kenseth
Ky Busch
Ku Busch
Johnson
Johnson
3rd
Harvick
Ku Busch
Johnson
Earnhardt Jr
Earnhardt Jr
Kenseth
The experts from Yahoo’s Fantasy NASCAR are going all in on Busch, but not just Kyle. Three of them also have Kurt making an appearance in the top three. Kurt’s priced at +1,200 to win, and has win pole four times on the track. But four out of the five experts, as well as the aggregated consensus public pick see his brother getting the win.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who made it to two experts’ top three. Since his crash in Daytona, Junior has finished inside the top eight in each of his last three races, and in the top five in two of those races. He’s priced at +1,000 to win his first race of the season in sunny California.
