Month: April 2017

Congratulations to Joey Logano who became the seventh different driver to win a race this season when he crossed the finish line at Richmond this last weekend on the 400th lap. This completed a one two finish for Penske Racing with teammate, Brad Keselowski, coming in right behind Logano. Denny Hamlin, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick complete the top five finishers of last week’s race.

GEICO 500

This week the series heads from the short tracks to the longest track on the circuit and the second restrictor plate race of the year. The Talladega Superspeedway is a 2.66-mile tri-oval track that will see speeds in excess of 200 mph during the race. This track also has the potential for the ‘Big One’ to occur because all of the cars will be racing in packs. That means that if one driver has a problem they could take a lot of other cars with them. The smallest mistake by a driver can ruin the day of many drivers and it happens almost every time at these types of races.

Brad Keselowski: I am going to take Brad to win the race this week at Talladega. The Ford’s still seem to have the most speed out of all the models on the track this season and that will help on the long straightaways at this track. That and the fact that the Penske teams always seem to draft well at the restrictor plate tracks makes me like the drivers who are in Ford’s this week.

Joey Logano: Joey won the last two fall races at this track and is the teammate of Brad. He will have a fast car this weekend also and seems to be able to have his car in the right place at the right time on this track. If he and Brad can team up and draft together I think they are going to be tough to beat this weekend. Although they are good in the fall races they seem to struggle a bit in the spring races here and I don’t know why.

Kurt Busch: Kurt is still looking for his first win at this track despite finishing in the top ten here in over half of his thirty-two starts. He won the Daytona 500 this year which tells us that this team should have a car that will draft well once again this weekend. It’s just hard to use the better drivers in this type of race in the Yahoo league when you can only start them nine times during the season and the potential for them to get caught up in the ‘Big One’ is so high.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale announced that he will be retiring from driving at the end of the season this past week. He leads all active drivers with six wins at Talladega and really needs a win to get on the right track. He has had a lot of issues during races this year and currently sits outside the top twenty in the point standings. This team should have a lot of confidence coming into this weekend’s race with the six wins and sixteen top ten finishes Dale has at this track in his thirty-three starts.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin has one win at this track and the impressive thing is that he has only failed to finish two races here in his thirty-two career starts. I have seen time and again a wreck happening around Kevin and he somehow gets through it without any damage to his car. At first I thought it was all luck, but after seeing it happen so many times I think he just might have some of the best reaction time I have ever seen. I hope I’m not jinxing him now.

Clint Bowyer: Clint has had a pretty good year so far and he always seems to run well at Talladega. He has two wins and twelve top ten finishes in his twenty-two starts at this track. He even had a top ten finish last season in this race running for HScott Motorsports which isn’t a team that is very competitive on the other tracks on the circuit which goes to show you anybody on any team can win the restrictor plate races.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: Ricky always seems to run well at the restrictor plate tracks and has four top ten finishes in his seven starts at Talladega. This team has looked very good this season and they have the potential to win the race this weekend. I think Ricky has the patience needed to stay out of trouble early in these races and make his move towards the end to get to the front. I look for him to be pretty quiet early in the race but have a chance to win late.

Matt Kenseth: Matt has one win at this track and has had cars that are capable of winning more races than that. He has led laps in thirteen of his last fourteen starts at this track but it seems like he is always getting caught up in a wreck or having some type of mechanical issue late in these races. He has had a lot of bad luck this season and if he can get the luck to swing to the good side this weekend he will contend for his second win at this track.

Jimmie Johnson: With two wins under their belt already this season, this team can take some chances that will give them track position if they need it. You might see them taking a chance on gas mileage or staying on the track when other drivers pit this weekend. Tires shouldn’t be much of a concern and you will see a lot of two tire stops by all of the teams, so staying out instead of pitting can be a good options here also.

Ryan Blaney: Ryan has only run five races at this track, but he has two top ten finishes. This team has looked good for the most part of the season so far, but they seem to have mechanical issues or Ryan’s patience gets short and he takes chances that he probable shouldn’t take and that gets him in trouble. If he can keep his patience this weekend, I think he will have a shot at the win late in this race.

YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

Yahoo Driver Group A

• Brad Keselowski
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Yahoo Driver Group B

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Ryan Blaney
• Jamie McMurray
• Trevor Bayne

Yahoo Driver Group C

• Michael McDowell
• Erik Jones

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

1. Brad Keselowski
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
3. Joey Logano
4. Kurt Busch
5. Kevin Harvick

Dark Horse: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stay Away From: Kyle Busch

Big 18: Ryan Blaney

Congratulations to Jimmie Johnson, who is on a roll right now, on picking up his second consecutive win of the season. Kyle Larson came away with another top ten finish and remains the points leader at this stage of the season. Matt Kenseth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are two of the big name who are both over two-hundred points behind Larson right now. Clint Bowyer had a great run at Bristol picking up a second place finish which is his best finish since winning in 2012.

TOYOTA OWNERS 400

This week the series stays on a short track as the drivers head to the Richmond International Raceway. This three-quarter of a mile D-shaped oval track is just the opposite of Bristol with very little banking anywhere. This track is a good test for a lot of drivers who feel they need to learn something here for when they return in the fall. This track has held the last race before the Chase since its inception.

Kyle Busch: Even though he has had some tough luck this year and seems to have a lot of tire issues, I have to stick with him to win the race this weekend at Richmond. In his twenty-three career starts at this track he has come away with four wins, fifteen top five, and seventeen top ten finishes. He is going to break out of it one of these weeks and this is probably going to be the week for him with stats like I just mentioned.

Denny Hamlin: Denny has three wins, and twelve top ten finishes in his twenty-one starts at this track. He has also lead more laps here than any other active driver. He won the fall race here last year and has finished in the top ten in his last three starts. He needs a win or another top five finish to move his way up from fifteenth in the standings and get a little more confidence for himself and his team.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin is no slouch here either. He has three wins, eleven top five and twenty top ten finishes in his thirty-two starts at this track. I think with Clint Bowyer as a teammate you will see Kevin learn a little bit more about what it takes to get around this track consistently fast and you might see him pick up his first win of the season this weekend.

Clint Bowyer: Clint has two wins and twelve top ten finishes at this track. If you take away the two races last year when he was driving for an under funded team his stats look even that much better. I think this team has made great strides already early in the first year of Clint driving for Stewart-Haas Racing and I think we are going to see him win a race sooner rather than later. Five years is a long time to wait for another win.

Kyle Larson: The points leader and most consistent driver on the circuit so far this season, Kyle is someone to watch out for every week this year. He has only run six races at Richmond in his short career to date and only has one top ten finish here. That was a runner-up spot in last fall’s race. The impressive this is he has never finished worse than sixteenth here and he just seems to get better every time he comes here. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him visit victory lane once again this weekend.

Ryan Newman: Ryan’s lone win at this track came way back in 2003, but he has run consistently well here throughout his career. He has finished in the top ten here in over half of his thirty starts and looks very good early on this year. With a win under his belt already this season I can see this teams confidence building and now they believe in themselves. Expect another good run from Ryan this week.

Joey Logano: Joey has finished in the top ten here in his last six starts including a win back in spring race of 2014. This team has been fast most every week the past couple of seasons and this is a track that Joey seems to have a pretty good handle on. I believe you are going to see him win multiple races this season and the first of those wins will be coming shortly.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie has won three races at this track in his career with the last one of those coming back in 2008. Going into last week’s race at Bristol he only had one win there. We have seen what this team can do when they start winning races. They can go on a tear and win multiple races in a row like they are doing right now. When they get into this kind of a groove you can never count them out on any type of track.

Matt Kenseth: Matt also has two wins at this track and has been very good here over the past eight races coming away with one of those wins and four top five finishes. Like I stated earlier, Matt needs to make up some ground on the points leader as he sits twentieth in points over two-hundred points behind Larson. No time like the present to start getting himself a string of top five and top ten finishes and keep himself in contention for the win late in a race.

Kurt Busch: Kurt has two wins at this track himself with the last of those coming in the spring race two years ago. He has also finished in the top ten in six of his last eight starts here. Since winning the Daytona 500 this team has struggled a little bit. Kurt is usually very good on the short flat tracks and this might be the week this team can turn their fortunes around.

YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

Yahoo Driver Group A

• Kyle Busch
• Denny Hamlin

Yahoo Driver Group B

• Clint Bowyer
• Kyle Larson
• Ryan Newman
• Kurt Busch

Yahoo Driver Group C

• Ty Dillon
• Daniel Suarez

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY

1. Kyle Busch
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Kyle Larson
5. Joey Logano

Dark Horse: Clint Bowyer

Stay Away From: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Big 18: Kyle Busch

Jimmie Johnson showed us that there is nothing wrong with him or his team when he picked up his first win of the season at Texas a couple of weeks ago. This years race for the championship looks like it could be very tight at this point of the season, but there is still a lot of racing to do before we really worry about that and a lot of things can happen over the next twenty or so races.

FOOD CITY 500

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter break from NASCAR and we are ready to get back to it. This week the series heads to one of my favorite tracks on the circuit, the Bristol Motor Speedway. This is a very short track with a lot of banking which results in laps being run in about fifteen seconds for every driver. It doesn’t take much to find yourself a lap or more down here seeing you are a half lap down when you get to the starting line if you start in the back of the pack. Qualifying is very important here and I don’t think you will see so many drivers not passing inspection like we did at Texas.

Kyle Busch: I am picking Kyle to win this race. He leads all active drivers in laps led at this track and has five wins under his belt here. This will be his first win of the season and will give this team a boost in confidence. Kyle has finished in the top ten at Bristol in thirteen of the twenty-three races he has run here and has been close to winning already this season. Look for him to take the checkered flag this weekend.

Brad Keselowski: Brad leads the series with two wins so far this year and could very well pick up his third win this weekend. He has already won at this track twice in his career to go along with five top ten finishes in his fourteen starts here. This team has looked like they are ready to win another championship even though it is early and are probably the favorite in that category right now.

Kyle Larson: Here is the hottest and most consistent driver on the circuit so far this year. This hasn’t been his best track in his short career with only two top ten finishes in his six starts here and only leading laps in one of those races. However, the way this team is running now you can’t count them out at any track on any weekend. I do believe I will save his starts for those tracks he has shown more consistency at in his young career.

Jimmie Johnson: Last race’s winner can reel them off in a hurry as he has shown throughout his career. He has only one win at Bristol in his career, but he has finished in the top ten in eleven of his last sixteen starts at this track. Once again, I think there are tracks where Jimmie is more consistent than Bristol and I will be saving his starts for those places. You just can’t count this guy out on any weekend though.

Joey Logano: Joey has four top ten finishes in his last six starts at Bristol including his two wins at this track. This team has been fast all year, but has been digging themselves into holes by having penalties and poor pit stops on pit road that has taken them out of contention and then they have spent most of the races clawing their way back to the lead lap and getting into contention, but it has been too little too late for them so far this year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale came away with his first top five of the season at Texas and is feeling good about his team right now. He is another driver with one win here and he finished second in this race last year. He has also finished in the top ten in almost half of the thirty-three races he has run at this track. I think this team will keep improving as the season progresses and they will win at least one race before the start of the Chase.

Matt Kenseth: Matt has four wins and twenty top ten finishes in his thirty-four starts at Bristol. He trails only Kyle Busch in laps led here for all active drivers which shows me that he runs consistently well and up front at this track. He is a good safe bet to have on any fantasy team this weekend.

Kurt Busch: Kurt is a five time winner at this track and could be a great pick this weekend even though the last of those wins came way back in 2006 and he has only finished in the top ten in three of his last eleven starts here. I think with the new Ford engines and a win already under his belt this year you will see the old Kurt Busch this weekend at Bristol where he is aggressive and makes his way to the front and fights to stay there.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: This team has looked pretty good all season and this is one of Ricky’s best tracks. In his eight starts here he has finished second twice, once last fall, and in the top ten in four of those eight starts. He is my dark horse this week even with a small penalty imposed on this team after the Texas race when they were found to have a loose lugnut on their car in post race inspection. That is a safety violation and the reason for the fine.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin picked up his second win at this track last fall and is still looking for his first win of the season after coming so close so often already. While still looking for that first win of the season you might see Kevin be a little more aggressive than he usually is as he fights his way to the front of the pack. If he needs to use his bumper to make passes I think we will see him doing that late in the race if it means he can pick up the win.

YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Yahoo Driver Group A

• Kyle Busch
• Brad Keselowski

Yahoo Driver Group B

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Ryan Newman
• Jamie McMurray
• Clint Bowyer

Yahoo Driver Group C

• Ty Dillon
• Erik Jones

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Kyle Busch
2. Brad Keselowski
3. Matt Kenseth
4. Kurt Busch
5. Jimmie Johnson

Dark Horse: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Stay Away From: Martin Truex Jr.

Big 18: Kyle Busch

Congratulations to Brad Keselowski who picked up his first career win at Martinsville and second win of the season last weekend. I thought there were some pretty good races for position going on all around the track most of the day and that makes it worth it to watch the Martinsville race now. I used to think this was one of the more boring tracks to watch a race at on the entire circuit, but this weekend they put on a pretty good show.

O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500

This week the series heads to the Texas Motor Speedway before taking a week off for the Easter holiday. Texas is another of the mile and a half intermediate tracks on the schedule and is very similar to Atlanta and I believe you will see the drivers talking about their setup at Atlanta and the one they are using this weekend being very similar. Those who didn’t run well at Atlanta have had a few weeks to figure out what they needed to do to make their car faster this weekend and you will see many of them improve on their Atlanta performance.

Kevin Harvick: I am going to stick with a Ford driver to win this weekend’s race once again. The Ford’s have been fast all season so far and Kevin has run very well here lately. He has finished in the top ten in his last five starts here and is looking for his first win at this track. I think he gets it this weekend. He had the dominant car at Atlanta this year when he led 292 of the possible 325 laps in that race before getting caught speeding on pit road during a late race caution. That doesn’t happen this week!

Brad Keselowski: Brad is the hottest driver on the circuit right now with two wins and five straight top five finishes. He has yet to win a race at Texas in his career, but he did win the race in Atlanta this year. He has also finished in the top ten in six of his last nine starts at Texas and will look to keep his momentum going this week. This team always seems to know what changes to make to their car so it is in contention at the end of a race.

Martin Truex Jr.: Martin has four straight top ten finishes at this track and led almost half of the laps run here last spring. This team has been very good the past few seasons, especially on the intermediate tracks. I look for this team to come to Texas with another fast car and run up towards the front the whole race and maybe pull out another win.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie leads all active drivers with six wins at this track. However they haven’t shown me that they are on top of their game at these tracks yet this year. Jimmie finished nineteenth at Atlanta this year, one lap down to the leaders and I haven’t seen the speed that has been associated with Hendrick Motorsports. We know the speed is in the organization by the way Chase Elliott has run and I think Jimmie and Chad will get it figured out and have a shot at winning another championship yet this season.

Kyle Busch: Kyle said he was frustrated last week after the Martinsville race because he didn’t think they made the right changes to his car to keep him in front of Brad so he could pick up the win. If you are frustrated with finishing second in a Cup race, that’s a good thing, because it means you are close and you know you can do better. Kyle is so competitive that if he doesn’t win when he thinks he should he gets very upset and that just shows he is passionate when it comes to racing. You can’t ask for more than that from any driver.

Chase Elliott: Chase is going to win a race very soon and this might be his week. He has only run two Cup races here in his career and he finished in the top five in both of those races. He finished fifth in the race at Atlanta in March and has been so close so many times in his short career that one of these week’s everything is going to come together for him.

Joey Logano: Joey has one win at this track and a most impressive six top five finishes in his last eight starts here. Another Ford in the field with a very fast car this week. I really like his odds at having a shot to win this week’s race himself and am leaning on putting him on my roster ahead of Jimmie, Brad, Kyle, and Martin. I think this team likes to run here and can drive in any lane they choose when it comes to this track which will help you find the speed you need to move to the front.

Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale has struggled a little bit this year and most of it is due to bad luck, as in being in the wrong spot on the track at the wrong time. This is one of the tracks he has run very well on over the past five years or so where he has finished in the top ten in nine of his last eleven starts. I think this team is actually ahead of Jimmie’s team in the handling of their car at the beginning of a race and once they can stay out of the danger spots their finishing position will improve too.

Kyle Larson: This years points leader hasn’t run particularly well at this track during his short career with two top ten finishes in seven starts, but the way they have been running every week this year I think you can throw his past at this track out the door. This is his type of track where you can run either low or high to find the speed your car has in it. I look for him to qualify well and run in the top ten for most of the day once again.

Kasey Kahne: Kasey has looked better this year so far than he has over the past several years. He is another driver that likes to run the high line and this track is made for that kind of racing. Look for Kasey to have another decent run this weekend even if I don’t think they are quite to the point of being able to compete for wins. If they can keep improving on their recent performances they will be able to get back to victory lane in the near future.

YAHOO! FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Yahoo Driver Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Joey Logano

Yahoo Driver Group B

• Chase Elliott
• Kyle Larson
• Kasey Kahne
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Yahoo Driver Group C

• Erik Jones
• Ty Dillon

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Joey Logano
3. Kyle Busch
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Chase Elliott

Dark Horse: Jamie McMurray

Stay Away From: Clint Bowyer

Big 18: Chase Elliott