Hits - and misses - from RACER's NASCAR pre-season predictions

Shane van Gisbergen almost proved the pre-season predictions wrong.

Almost. It came down to the wire at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday night, but van Gisbergen did miss making the Chase field. Despite two wins on road courses and continued improvements to his oval skillset, which put van Gisbergen inside the top 16 in points for 13 of the 14 races leading into Daytona, he ended up on the wrong side of a point battle when rival Ryan Preece won.

However, van Gisbergen deserves credit not only for improving in his sophomore Cup Series season, but also for being the best Trackhouse racing driver all year. In fact, he has more top-five (five) and top-10 finishes (seven) than teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch have combined.

The No. 97 team has been the organization’s bright spot, and van Gisbergen was the only driver eligible to make the Chase in the final week of the regular season. The predictors certainly wouldn’t have had that marked down.

And on the note of how those predictions from here on RACER played out, it wasn’t pretty. Of the predicted Chase grid, four drivers did not make it.

Chastain was one of them, along with Alex Bowman. Bowman missed four races in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet due to vertigo early in the year, and without the win-and-in variable, it was impossible for a team that is already way too inconsistent to get into the top 16 points.

Brad Keselowski was another one. Keselowski had a summer slump that made it mathematically possible to make the Chase going into Daytona – but not realistic.

The other driver was the late Kyle Busch. We will never know how the season would have progressed for him and his Richard Childress Racing team, but there were signs of some improvement. Richard Childress revealed that Busch had told him before his death in May that if they kept bringing cars as he had in those last few weeks, he would make the Chase.

Shane van Gisbergen narrowly missed out on a spot in the Chase, but he was still Trackhouse's best performer over the balance of the regular season. James Gilbert/Getty Images

Here was the pre-season predicted Chase field (alphabetically):

1. Christopher Bell
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Alex Bowman
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Chris Buescher
6. Kyle Busch
7. William Byron
8. Ross Chastain
9. Chase Elliott
10. Denny Hamlin
11. Brad Keselowski
12. Kyle Larson
13. Joey Logano
14. Ryan Preece
15. Tyler Reddick
16. Bubba Wallace

And the final Chase field turned out to be:

1. Christopher Bell
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Chase Briscoe
4. Chris Buescher
5. William Byron
6. Austin Cindric
7. Chase Elliott
8. Ty Gibbs
9. Denny Hamlin
10. Carson Hocevar
11. Kyle Larson
12. Joey Logano
13. Ryan Preece
14. Tyler Reddick
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Bubba Wallace

To make things simple, the four who were not predicted were Cindric, Gibbs, Hocevar, and Suarez. All four drivers have had markedly improved performances from a year ago.

As for some of the other predictions …

Ryan Blaney wins the Daytona 500.

Blaney did not win the Daytona 500: He crashed out of the event and was listed in 27th place. The Penske driver remains one of the best superspeedway racers in the series with one of the fastest cars, but Daytona is fickle and hasn’t picked him to go to victory lane.

Kyle Busch returns to victory lane.

Busch did not win a race this year prior to his death. There was optimism coming into the year that Jim Pohlman taking the reins as crew chief would help bring a spark, but the pairing didn’t last. Andy Street was put back atop the pit box after the race at Talladega Superspeedway.

And there were Childress’s aforementioned comments. The organization continues to strive to improve, and one would have thought that Busch’s talent would have helped them grab a checkered flag somewhere along the way.

Chicagoland Speedway will be the best race.

Was it? That is always subjective, but the track’s return was met with enthusiasm and some good racing. The expectation was that an aged racetrack with the Next Gen car would be worth the watch, and it certainly delivered twists and turns, with drivers like Kyle Larson spinning on his own, multiple racing grooves, and good side-by-side racing.

It came down to a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 finish, with Chase Briscoe getting his first win of the season. It was one of the races where Christopher Bell ended up disappointed.

North Wilkesboro Speedway will be a disappointment.

It’s a tough little track over there in the North Carolina mountains. A grind-it-out type of place that, long before this season, saw races that weren’t pleasing to the eye but were a test for the drivers. Joey Logano dominated for his return to victory lane, and there wasn’t much else to take away from the event.

Well, there was that fantastic van Gisbergen radio communication about taking the lead.

And lastly, there were championship picks for all three series: Kyle Larson, Justin Allgaier, and Laye Riggs.

It’s going to be a tall task for Larson and Hendrick Motorsports, who have been a step behind this season as they adjust to their new Chevrolet body. Larson, the reigning champion, remains winless and starts the Chase in seventh position. He is not out of it by any means given the reset, but they are clearly behind the Toyota group.

As for Allgaier and Riggs, those two could prove to be right. Both drivers are having tremendous seasons in their respective series and are the No. 1 seeds going into the postseason.