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2023 is the sophomore year for NASCAR’s Next Gen Car to be hitting the tracks, and with a year to compare the cars performance to, it gets the predictions in the fanbase boiling. We are only six races into the season and Chevrolet has shown early signs of speed with a streak of 4 races having a Chevy bowtie in Victory Lane. Until Joey Logano in his #22 Ford Mustang won in Atlanta and the following week Tyler Reddick won his first race with new team 23XI in COTA.
Danny B’s part 1 in this series covers the first 6 points races in the 2023 season, as well as the L.A. Clash at the Colosseum.
Some of Danny B’s predictions are ridiculously close to what actually happened in these races this year. He predicted that Kyle Busch would finally get his Daytona 500 victory and on the 500-mile mark in the 2023 Daytona 500 Kyle Busch was in P1. Due to the overtime rule the race had resumed, and Kyle wasn’t able to hang onto the lead for the win. He also predicts that Chevy drivers Ross Chastain & Busch would have multiple victories by now. There is a Chevy driver showing dominance this season early, but it’s William Byron in the Hendrick #24 Chevy. Part 2 covers race 7 at Richmond to Kansas that will be in the first weekend of May.
To start this list out at Richmond, Danny B predicts that Virginia native driver Denny Hamlin will get his first victory of the 2023 season. Hamlin & Toyota has shown tremendous success at Richmond and was able to capture the win last season in the spring race.
Next comes up Dirt Bristol where last year we saw Tyler Reddick almost claim his first Cup Series win driving the #8 Chevrolet for RCR. On the last lap he and driver of the #14, Chase Briscoe, made contact and both spun, and Kyle Busch squeaked by to get the win. Danny B thinks that the guy with the most success on dirt currently in the Cup Series, Kyle Larson, will get his first dirt victory in a Cup car.
NASCAR heads to Martinsville after Dirt Bristol where last year’s spring race didn’t show a lot of action, but in the fall, we saw a spectacular moment that made history in the sport. Danny B makes note of the many attractions that Martinsville offers with the train track next to the back stretch, famous hotdogs, and the location of the famous Watermelon Wallride. Danny predicts that Martinsville will see a back-to-back winner in Christopher Bell getting his first win of 2023.
Going from one of NASCAR’s smallest tracks to their biggest high-banked oval, Talladega, last season’s spring Talladega race showed an exciting finish. Erik Jones threw a block coming to the checkered flag that let Ross Chastain sneak to the bottom lane and got his second win of 2022. This year Danny B thinks that Ryan Blaney will have a resurgence compared to a winless season last year, excluding his All-Star victory that was an exhibition race. Ryan Blaney has shown he is one to watch on the Superspeedways and Danny thinks no different this season.
Next on the schedule is the concrete oval of Dover where the Hendrick cars have shown dominance in the last couple of seasons. Alex Bowman won the spring race in 2021 and Chase Elliott won in 2022. Danny B predicts the Hendrick dominance to continue with Kyle Larson getting the Miles Monster trophy to have his second victory in 2023. Currently the 2021 Cup Champion is winless, but his teammate William Byron has 2 victories on the season.
The last race Danny covers in part 2 in his prediction series is race 12 at Kansas Speedway. The No. 45 car won both races last year with 2 different drivers, Kurt Busch & Bubba Wallace. Danny thinks that 23XI will get three in a row at Kansas, but not with the No. 45 car. He predicts that Bubba Wallace will get his third career victory in the No. 23 Toyota.
As we are getting ready for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond, we’ll see if some of the predictions that Danny B made came true or were far off. We don’t have as many multiple winners in the 2023 season at this point as what Danny thought, but he’s not far off on who has shown speed. Tomorrow we will see if his prediction that Denny Hamlin will get his first victory of 2023.
Here is Part 3 of Danny B’s 2023 Prediction Series where he covers race 13 at Darlington to race 17 at Sonoma.
This is Part 1 of the 2023 predictions from Danny B Talks that shows his race predictions for the first 7 events.
