Week three has arrived, and pardon my French, but it takes us to my least favorite track on the circuit: Las Vegas. The only good thing about Nascar racing in Vegas is the publicity. Nascar just isn’t a Las Vegas type sport, in my opinion. But on to predictions.

Las Vegas has one unique feature that not many other tracks have. It is never dominated several years in a row by one driver in particular. If you look at recent stats, no driver has repeated here since Jimmie Johnson in 2006-07. No driver has won here more than once since 2009. If this continues, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keslowski, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, and Carl Edwards all fall under the ‘will not win’ category.

I think the streak will continue. A new winner will rise in Vegas. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a good candidate. He ran well last week in Atlanta, and he has run well at Vegas as of late. So he is good pick.

But I am actually inclined to believe that a rookie or young gun will win this weekend. Hang with me. No, I’m not crazy. Yes, I have eaten today. And yes, I’m fully hydrated. I’m basing this prediction off of what I saw last weekend. While veterans and champions failed to get the hang of the new low-downforce package, several young guns and rookies drove like they had been racing for twenty years.

The three drivers in particular stood out. Chase Elliot most of all. Chase started in the mid-twenties, and without the help of cautions or restarts, he worked his way up into the top-ten, and he stayed on the lead lap all day. While Blaney and Dillon didn’t manage the lead lap part, both were in the top-15 almost all-day, and on the lead lap most of the day. And had any of these three had a few more restarts to work with, anyone of them could have won their first career race.

I get that my predictions sound crazy, but they are what I think. So here’s my final prediction: If there is a repeat winner, either Kevin Harvick or Kyle Busch will win. but if the streak holds out, either Chase, Ryan, or Austin will be standing in the winners circle.