Month: March 2018

Congratulations to Clint Bowyer on picking up his first win of the season and first since joining Stewart-Haas Racing last year. I didn’t get a chance to watch this race because I had to work on Monday when it ran due to the fact it was cancelled because of snow in Virginia on Sunday. Now with a week off for the Easter holiday, I will be looking forward to seeing another race next weekend.

O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500

So, after a deserving week off, the teams will head to the Texas Motor Speedway to continue their quest for a championship. This track is another of the so called ‘cookie cutter tracks’ on the circuit. It is a 1.5-mile well banked quad-oval that is very similar to Atlanta and Charlotte and is owned by the same company as those two tracks. Jimmie Johnson has won six of the last eleven races run here. Will he be able to do it again?

Kevin Harvick: I have to go with Kevin to win once again on an intermediate track. He has been fast all year and won three races already. He got into an early accident in California, which broke his three race winning streak, but he looked really fast once again and was moving towards the front when the wreck happened. I think Kevin learned even more from that wreck than he already knows and will use that to his advantage once again this weekend.

Martin Truex Jr.: Martin won the race in California a few weeks ago on a two-mile track and has looked very good once again on the intermediate tracks where he dominated the series last year. I think he is going to give Harvick a run for his money once again this weekend. These two seem to be along with Kyle Busch seem to be the most consistent so far this season.

Kyle Busch: Kyle has been very close all season long once again and you can never count him out at any track. He has finished second on both the intermediate and short tracks already this year, so we know this team is close to winning a race soon. He has finished in the top five at Texas in seven of his last two starts including two wins in that stretch. Going to be tough determining which two of the first three drivers mentioned to have on your team.

Jimmie Johnson: As I stated earlier, Jimmie has won six of his last eleven starts at this track including the spring race here two of the last three years. However, this team hasn’t shown the speed they need to win a race at this point of the season. I am sure they are going to get better and find more speed as the season progresses and become more competitive, but I will wait a while before putting Jimmie on my team.

Joey Logano: Joey has rebounded nicely this year and is running consistently well so far. He has only finished outside the top seven in two of his last ten starts at Texas. We have seen that the Ford teams seem to have a speed advantage at this point of the season and we should stick with having the majority of our rosters having drivers who are driving this make of car right now.

Chase Elliott: Chase has been the cream of the crop for the Chevrolet drivers so far this season. In his four starts at Texas, Chase has finished in the top ten in all of them, led laps in three of them, and finished every lap in those races. This team is getting close, but they still have a little bit of work to do to get their car to be at its best at the end of the race. This is going to happen soon.

Kurt Busch: Kurt has one win at this track and set a qualifying record here last year. Although he only has one win here, which came back in the 2009 season, he has consistently finished in the top ten. In fact, Kurt has finished in the top ten in seventeen of his thirty starts here. That includes five top ten finishes in his last seven starts. As I said before, the Ford drivers are the cream of the crop at this point of the season.

Brad Keselowski: Not to beat a dead horse as they say, but here is another Ford driver who has run consistently well at this track, especially lately. Even though Brad is still looking for his first win here, he has finished in the top five in five of his last seven starts here. I enjoy watching Brad and seeing what type of strategy they deploy in each race to get his car better and get him to the front of the pack where he can compete for a win late in the race.

Denny Hamlin: Denny disappointed me and I’m sure himself last weekend at Martinsville where he normally finishes in the top five or ten. Not that he had a bad race, just that they know they could have done much better. Well, Denny does have two wins at this track sweeping the races here back in 2010. Since then he hasn’t been real consistent here, but did finish third in the fall race last season.

Ryan Blaney: Ryan has only run six races at Texas in the Cup series and has gotten better every time here. He has looked fast all season long with his new Penske team and surprised a lot of people last week by finishing third at Martinsville. As I said, he has gotten better every time out at Texas and finished sixth here last fall. He is a dark horse to watch for this weekend too.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Martin Truex Jr.

Driver Group Game Group B

• Chase Elliott
• Kurt Busch
• Ryan Blaney
• Erik Jones

Driver Group Game Group C

• Alex Bowman
• David Ragan

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Kyle Busch
4. Joey Logano
5. Chase Elliott

Dark Horse: Ryan Blaney

Stay Away From: Kasey Kahne

Big 18: Joey Logano

Congratulations to Martin Truex Jr. who dominated the race in California this past weekend as he swept the stages and picked up seven playoff points. There wasn’t anyone who had anything for Martin as he won by 10 seconds and only left 10 cars on the lead lap. Kevin Harvick was involved in an early wreck that took him out of contention and snapped his three race winning streak. He looked fast early, but I don’t know if he would have had anything to compete with Truex either.

STP 500

This week the series heads back to the east coast as the drivers visit the Martinsville Speedway for the running of the STP 500. This is the shortest track on the circuit and the banking is almost non-existent. So, we go from a 2-mile track to one that is just over a half-mile and that means a whole different type of race once again this weekend. 500-laps on this track takes a lot out of a driver because they are almost constantly in a corner here.

Denny Hamlin: I am going to pick Denny to win the race this week at Martinsville. He has looked pretty good this season and is always good on the short flat tracks. He has five wins and twelve top five finishes in his twenty-four starts here and I look for him to add to those stats. Qualifying is really important this weekend because of how the pits are stretched out all the way around the track and the teams get to pick their pit stall based on how they qualify.

Kyle Busch: Kyle is going to give Denny a run for his money this weekend. Kyle has two wins and thirteen top five finishes in his twenty-five starts here. He has been running fairly well all season and his pit crew has been consistently fast early in the year. I think he is going to battle with Denny all race long and the winner might be decided in the pits.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie leads all active drivers with nine wins here. He also has nineteen top five finishes in his thirty-two starts at this track. These three drivers are the cream of the crop when it comes to this track and how consistently they run here. The rest of the field can’t compare to the stats of the first three drivers I have mentioned and you need to have as many of them on your roster as you can in whatever league you are in.

Brad Keselowski: Brad has one win at Martinsville in his career and has also finished in the top five in six of his sixteen starts. This is a track that Brad likes to run on and he has the mentality to not let 500-laps here get to him. I think the mental part of racing here is the toughest thing for the drivers to fight through. Good pit stops and strategy are what get you wins here.

Clint Bowyer: Clint has finished in the top ten here in fourteen of his twenty-four starts. Those are some good stats and now that he is back with one of the elite teams he should be able to get another top ten finish and might even be able to pick up his first win at this track. I think they still have a little ways to go to all be on the same page when making the adjustments to their car during the race, but they seem to improve a little more every week.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin has one win here and has finished in the top ten fifteen times in his thirty-three starts at Martinsville. He is going to be chomping at the bit to get back on the track this week after get caught up in a wreck in California last week that took him right out of the race. We know how good he has been on the intermediate tracks this year, now we get to see how he is going to run on the short track this weekend.

Ryan Newman: Ryan also has one win at this track and has finished in the top ten in fifteen of his thirty-two starts here. This team is once again quietly putting together another solid season while not being talked about during the races too much. He could surprise people once again this weekend and should run towards the front of the pack for most of the race.

Jamie McMurray: Jamie is another dark horse when it comes to Martinsville. He is still looking for his first career win here and has only finished in the top five twice in thirty starts. However, he has finished in the top ten in fifteen of those starts, so we can see that he has a pretty good handle on this track. If everything falls just right for him he could be another surprise contender this weekend.

AJ Allmendinger: AJ is another driver you could possibly take a chance on here. He has six top ten finishes in his nineteen starts here, so he finishes towards the front in about a third of the races he runs here. It might be a little to early in the year to be taking chances, but this is a gut call for each individual person and the league they are in. He could be a fairly inexpensive option in a league that runs on salaries.

Kurt Busch: Kurt is either feast or famine here. He has won twice at Martinsville, yet he only has three top five and five top ten finishes here in thirty-five starts. I think there are much better places to use my starts for Kurt. We will be using up all of his starts this season and this is not the place to waste on of those starts.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Denny Hamlin
• Kyle Busch

Driver Group Game Group B

• Clint Bowyer
• Jamie McMurray
• Daniel Suarez
• AJ Allmendinger

Driver Group Game Group C

• William Byron
• Michael McDowell

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

1. Denny Hamlin
2. Kyle Busch
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Clint Bowyer

Dark Horse: Clint Bowyer

Stay Away From: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Big 18: Denny Hamlin

Wow! Congratulations to Kevin Harvick who won his third straight race this past weekend in Phoenix. He didn’t dominate this race like he had the previous two as some of the competition is getting stronger with Kyle Busch leading the majority of this race. Chase Elliott showed his improvement also and Denny Hamlin had a great run on a flat track once again.

AUTO CLUB 400

This week the series stays out west for the final week this spring as the drivers head to the Auto Club Speedway for the running of the Auto Club 400. This is the first two-mile track the series will race at this season, so we will have to see if Harvick can maintain his dominance, or if someone will break his streak. This is another low banked track, but with large sweeping corners. The longer straightaways will reward drivers who can run the top groove with a lot of speed down the stretch where they will be able to pass cars.

The bad news for the rest of the field is that Kevin Harvick has led the most laps here in the last two races. The question is who will stop him? Also, if you are in a fantasy league that limits your driver starts, when do you save Harvick, or do you keep using him until someone can show they have the speed and handling to beat him. He lost his car chief for the Phoenix race and that didn’t bother him at all.

Kevin Harvick: In his last nine starts at this California track, Kevin has come away with one win, three runner-up, and six top ten finishes. Not to mention he led 142 laps here two years ago on his way to one of those second place finishes. With the momentum he has right now it is hard not to have him on your roster this week once again. He will be on mine and I will decide if I should start him or not after qualifying and practices next weekend.

Kyle Busch: Kyle has been the driver who has been the closest to Kevin the past couple of weeks and only needs a small something extra to be able to beat him. Last year Kyle had the same trouble with Martin Truex on the intermediate tracks. I think if they wouldn’t have had trouble on their last pit stop they might have come out ahead of Harvick after their last stop and held him off. He is going to be on my roster this weekend also.

Kyle Larson: Kyle won this race last season and also won the last three races at Michigan which is a very similar track. He is one of the drivers who loves running the top groove and rocketing off the corners to pass other competitors on the straightaways. He has shown he has the speed once again this year and if he can stay off the wall he will be a contender once again this week.

Joey Logano: Joey has finished in the top five in his last two starts here. The Penske teams seem to have the speed they need, but are finding themselves resorting to trying something out of line with the race leaders most week’s to get them up to the front where they can compete for the win. Joey always seems to qualify well, but then they seem to fall behind as the race progresses and other teams are making the right adjustments where they seem to go backwards. If they can figure this out, they will be competitive every week.

Chase Elliott: Chase has really looked good the past couple of weeks and in his two starts here he has finished in the top ten both times. Combine that with three runner-up finishes in only four Michigan races and a top ten in his other start there he has finished in the top ten in all six of his races on two-mile tracks in his career in this series. I look for him to be towards the front of the pack this whole race and be in contention for the win at the end.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie leads all active drivers with six wins at his home state track. However, this team hasn’t shown that they are on top of their game at this point of the season and it looks like they have quite a bit of work to do to get back to being competitive. I think those days are coming again, but I want to wait and see before I put him back in my lineup. I think they will figure this thing out sooner rather than later this season.

Brad Keselowski: In his last three starts at this track, Brad has one win, one runner-up finish, and a top ten finish. We have seen that the Ford’s have been the fastest cars on the track each and every week so far this year. I also like the fact that if they have some kind of problem or qualify poorly that crew chief Pall Wolff will go out of sequence or make a two tire stop to get the track position they need. Better than trying to catch a car that is faster than you without using any strategy.

Kurt Busch: This is another team that has been strong all year and really showed what they were made of at Phoenix after staying out during a caution to grad the lead and then losing all of their track position when they pitted and the rest of the drivers stayed out. Kurt then drove back through the field to come away with a top ten finish. It just looks like the Stewart-Haas teams are ahead of the rest of the teams on these longer tracks at this point of the season.

Clint Bowyer: Another of the Stewart-Haas drivers, Clint has always run pretty well at this track. He finished third here last year in his only start at this track on this team and I think they could improve on that finish this weekend. I think the longer this team works together the better they will get and I think they are going to win some races this year. Clint is someone you can take a chance on this weekend, but I think I will save him for tracks like Martinsville, Richmond, and Loudon where he really runs well.

Martin Truex Jr.: Let’s not forget about Martin. Just because he hasn’t won at an intermediate track this season doesn’t mean this team lost what they had last year. Martin has run very well every week this season and should still be considered one of the drivers to beat each week the series heads to an intermediate track. He finished fourth here last year and all top five finishes are a huge accomplishment in this series.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Kyle Busch

Driver Group Game Group B

• Chase Elliott
• Kurt Busch
• Erik Jones
• Ryan Blaney

Driver Group Game Group C

• Darrell Wallace Jr.
• David Ragan

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Kyle Busch
3. Chase Elliott
4. Kyle Larson
5. Martin Truex Jr.

Dark Horse: Erik Jones

Stay Away From: Alex Bowman

Big 18: Kyle Larson

Kevin Harvick wins back to back races in dominating fashion once again the weekend at Las Vegas. Harvick is racking up playoff points with those two wins and three stage wins in the last two races. He led 214 laps of the 267 in the race on Sunday and won by over three seconds. However, it does look like some teams are making strides and getting closer to being as fast as Kevin.

TICKETGUARDIAN 500

This week the series stays out west as the drivers head to ISM Raceway, formerly known as Phoenix International Raceway, which is a one-mile fairly flat tri-oval raceway which has been dominated by Harvick in the recent past. Can he win three in a row, or will someone else step up this weekend and dethrone him? Let’s get to our analysis for the week.

Kevin Harvick: I think you have to stick with the man who is hot at a track he has dominated the last six seasons. In the last twelve races there, Kevin has won six times, finished second twice, finished in the top five ten times and has a worst finish of thirteenth. It is way to early in the season to think this team is going to do anything other than try to win more races and rack up as many playoff points as they can. They have everyone else at a disadvantage right now and need to capitalize on that.

Kyle Busch: Kyle is one of the drivers whose team has gotten closer to catching up to Kevin early in the season. Kyle finished second at Las Vegas last week and his car got faster and faster as the race went on, so they were making the right adjustments. He has finished in the top five in four of his last five starts at ISM and has one win at this track way back in the 2005 season.

Denny Hamlin: Denny also has one win at this track and this is the type of track where he is at his best most of the time. They struggled a little bit last week, but this week is a whole new ballgame. Denny has finished in the top ten in four of his last five starts here and will come into the weekend with a lot of confidence. I look for him to finish in the top ten once again this week.

Chase Elliott: Chase had some bad luck last week being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He will forget all about that as he heads to Phoenix this week where he has only run four races, but has three top ten finishes. He led a bunch of laps in his last two starts here and finished second here last fall. We all know that he is going to win sooner rather than later and this might be his weekend if everything falls into place.

Kyle Larson: Kyle is another of the drivers whose team stepped it up last week. Now he heads to a track where he has finished in the top three in two of his last three starts. I think this team has the monkey off their back that seemed to hang there late last season and they are going to start running consistently better. I look for Kyle to have himself in position to have a shot at visiting victory lane late in this week’s race.

Kurt Busch: Kurt runs consistently well at Phoenix having come away with six top ten finishes in his last nine starts there. He got his lone win back in 2005 and is looking to get back to victory lane himself. This team had a good run going last week until he got loose on a restart and collected Chase Elliott ruining both of their days. After races like that all drivers are just chomping at the bit to get back on the track and compete again.

Erik Jones: Erik had a great run last week and is coming to a track where he has run very well in only three career starts. Of those three starts, Erik has finished in the top ten in the last two races. I think he has a bright future and will win a race very soon himself in this series. This is his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing and I see nothing but improvement in the near future.

Alex Bowman: Another new comer as a full-time driver in the Cup series, Alex ran one race here last season and all he did was lead 194 laps and finish sixth. He got down a lap early last week, but stayed only that one lap down the rest of the race and was close to getting a free pass a few times. How good and how consistent can this team be this early in the season is still debatable. We will have to keep a close eye on him and see how quickly he improves.

Joey Logano: Joey won the fall race here in 2016. So far this season he looks close to the driver we saw during that 2016 season and he was very good on the short tracks that year. He has six top ten finishes in his last ten races here and led laps in every one of them. This was a track where he qualified in the top five in six of those last nine races, but they couldn’t keep up with the changing track conditions as the race progressed and fell back a little bit. He is still someone to have on your team this weekend.

Brad Keselowski: Another driver who is very consistent at this track coming away with nine top ten finishes in his last twelve starts here. He is still looking for his first win here and loves to race on the short flat track. We have seen how fast the Ford’s are on the intermediate tracks this year, now we will find out if they have the handling they need on the short tracks and I think the answer is yes they do.

I am going to be saving drivers in the B group this week because I think there is a good chance some of those I put on my roster will have good runs on this short track and I can save the best drivers for other weeks, so don’t get upset with my lineup.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR ISM RACEWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Kyle Busch

Driver Group Game Group B

• Clint Bowyer
• Ryan Newman
• Daniel Suarez
• Jamie McMurray

Driver Group Game Group C

• Alex Bowman
• Chris Buescher

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT ISM RACEWAY

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Kyle Busch
3. Chase Elliott
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kyle Larson

Dark Horse: Clint Bowyer

Stay Away From: Kasey Kahne

Big 18: Kevin Harvick