Month: February 2019

Well, the first race with the new aero package is in the books, and I for one am not a fan at the moment. It seemed like about 20 laps into a run and the tenth place driver was more than 10 seconds back. There really wasn’t a lot of passing opportunities after the first 4 or 5 laps of a restart either. However it did seem to help some of the less funded teams compete a little more, but still it seemed like track position after a caution was a make or break situation.

PENNZOIL 400

So, we now head to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennziol 400. This is another of the mile and a half tracks on the circuit and we will see if these teams learned anything about setting up the cars on this type of track. It still looks like the Ford teams have the upper hand so far this season with speed and handling overall.

Martin Truex Jr.
Martin looked really good at Atlanta last weekend and has led more laps than any other driver in the last three races at Las Vegas. He also has four top five finishes in his last five starts here including a win here in the spring of 2017. He is my pick to win once again this weekend.

Kevin Harvick
Kevin has won two of the last five races at Las Vegas and led 214 laps here in winning here last spring. It still looks like the “Big 3” from last year are still the three driver to beat this year. I look for Kevin to run towards the front all race long this week.

Brad Keselowski
Brad has won three of the last six races here including the race last fall. The Penske teams look like they are picking up where they were at the end of last season making major improvements and being able to compete with the Stewart-Haas teams.

Kyle Busch
Kyle had a bit of a rough weekend last week at Atlanta, crashing in the final practice, going to a backup car and then crashing again in the race, but he still ran well even after that. Kyle has four top seven finishes in his last six starts and has led laps in five of those races.

Kyle Larson: Kyle looked really good last weekend at Atlanta lead the most laps until he got caught speeding on pit road. That penalty took him right out of the race because of how difficult it is to pass with the new aero package. He has three straight top three finishes at Las Vegas and if last week was any indication he will be a contender once again this weekend.

Ryan Blaney: Ryan was another driver who had a great run going at Atlanta until he had issues in the pits late in the race. Another of the Penske cars that looked good in that race. Ryan has finished in the top seven in the last four races at Las Vegas. Look for him to run well on the intermediate tracks this season.

Joey Logano
The third Penske driver in the field, Joey has run very well at Las Vegas during his career with six straight top ten finishes. Joey took advantage of not having pitted late in the race to take the lead after having multiple problems on pit road early in the race last week. Then he ended up having a loose wheel and that was the end of his chances.

Aric Almirola
Aric finished in the top ten in both races here last year in his first season with Stewart-Haas Racing. He seems to be getting better and better every week and this is the type of track where he runs consistently well. Look for him to come away with another top ten finish this week.

Denny Hamlin
Denny ran a bit better than I thought he would last weekend and he has always run better at Las Vegas than at Atlanta. He could be a bit of a surprise to me once again this weekend where he has only finished in the top ten in two of his last eight starts. Maybe the Gibbs teams have something figured out with the new aero package.

Paul Menard
Paul is my dark horse this weekend. He finished in the top ten in both races here last season in his first year with Wood Brothers Racing and they do run Penske engines. Paul could pull another surprise this weekend and is someone you could probably have on your roster this week to save some starts for some of your more consistent drivers.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Martin Truex Jr.
• Kyle Larson

Driver Group Game Group B

• Ryan Blaney
• Paul Menard
• Aric Almirola
• Daniel Suarez

Driver Group Game Group C

• Chris Buescher
• Daniel Hemric

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Kyle Larson
5. Ryan Blaney

Dark Horse: Paul Menard

Stay Away From: Jimmie Johnson

Big 18: Martin Truex Jr.

The Daytona 500 is in the books and the 2019 NASCAR season is in full swing. Once again it ended up being a wreck fest which is why we say don’t take chances on your better drivers in this type of race. I hope everyone got to join all of their favorite leagues and hopefully you started out with a good week last week. This week the series heads to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the running of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500

This will be the first of the mile and a half tracks that make up most of the races in the series. Over the past couple of seasons there have been three drivers who have dominated most of these races and I don’t see that changing right now.

This is one of the fastest tracks on the circuit and with the race this early in the season the temperatures might be low enough to make it even faster. However, this will also be the first race with the new aero package that NASCAR has implemented this season for some of the races. That means we won’t really know how each team is going to run at this point of the season with this new package. We will have to watch and see who has this figured out the best and who is improving as the season progresses.

Kevin Harvick : I am going to pick Kevin to win this race. He has been one of the fastest over the past couple of seasons and seems to be one of the best at running in multiple grooves as the races progress. I think that is going to have a lot to do with winning with this new package. He won this race last season which will give him a lot of confidence heading into the weekend.

Martin Truex Jr. Martin is another of the drivers who have been very good on this type of track over the past few seasons. Martin has finished in the top ten here in six of his last seven starts. He is on a new team this year and I think that is only going to help him get better.

Kyle Busch Kyle is the other driver who has been dominant over the past couple of seasons. He hasn’t been the greatest at Atlanta in his career, but I think we can throw that out this week with the new aero package. I think the drivers who can drive their cars the best when they don’t handle all that well and I think that will be huge with this new package.

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie has won two of the last four races he has run here, but he hasn’t done all the well the last two seasons. I think it is a little early in the season to tell how well he is going to run with a new crew chief and we don’t really know if the Hendrick teams have found any speed for this season either.

Chase Elliott: Chase was the best of the Hendrick drivers last season and we will assume he is going to improve even more this year. He has only run three races at this track and has finished in the top ten in each of them. Once again, I want to wait a bit to see how well the Hendrick teams will run as a whole before I start using them if I can help it.

Brad Keselowski Brad won this race two years ago and then followed that up with a runner-up finish last year. We have seen how fast the Ford’s have been over the past two seasons and that gives us a little confidence on staying with those drivers who are driving for that manufacturer.

Joey Logano Joey has finished in the top six in four of his last six starts at this track. He looked like he kept up with the changing track positions last week at Daytona which always seemed to be his nemesis in the past. He also showed a lot of patience early in the race last week and that is something else that helps drivers as the race progresses.

Kurt Busch Kurt is now driving for Chip Ganassi Racing which is a team that hasn’t been as fast as the Stewart-Haas team he had been on in the past, but they have been showing improvement. He didn’t have the best of luck last week in his first race with his new team, but I think he is going to bring a lot to the rest of the Ganassi drivers with all of his experience in this series.

Eric Jones: I think Eric is going to be much improved now in his third full season in this series. He won his first race last season and I think he wins multiple races this season. He has only run two races at this track and finished in the top fifteen in each of those races. I look for him to come away with a top ten finish this year.

Aric Almirola Aric is another driver who won a race last season and is now in his second full year with Stewart-Haas Racing. This team should feel a bit more comfortable with each other and that will improve their communication as they make adjustments to their car during the race. I look for him to be another driver to win multiple races this season.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR THE ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Martin Truex Jr.

Driver Group Game Group B

• Eric Jones
• Aric Almirola
• Ryan Blaney
• Kurt Busch

Driver Group Game Group C

• Matt Dibenedetto
• Daniel Hemric

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

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

Dark Horse: Eric Jones

Stay Away From: Denny Hamlin

Big 18: Martin Truex Jr.

DAYTONA 500

This is going to be short and sweet this week and then we will get back to the in depth coverage for the rest of the season. Good luck to all of you in your fantasy leagues this year.

One word of caution for this week. Do not use drivers in this race that you are planning on using nine times during the season. There is too much risk in a race on a restrictor plate track to waste a pick here.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR DAYTON INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Joey Logano
• Brad Keselowski

Driver Group Game Group B

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Paul Menard
• Ryan Newman
• William Byron

Driver Group Game Group C

• Jamie McMurray
• Michael McDowell

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

1. Joey Logano
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5. Clint Bowyer

Dark Horse: Jamie McMurray

Stay Away From: Jimmie Johnson

Big 18: Jamie McMurray