Categories
Driver Group Game Fantasy NASCAR

2019 Atlanta Motor Speedway, Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500

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.

55 replies on “2019 Atlanta Motor Speedway, Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500”

Quick question Jeff!!! Is everyone elses league’s not tallying their points in their overall standings from yesterday? It is showing the points in Race results but not in the Overall standings?

Not sure. I will let the programmer know. We knew there would be some bugs on the way once again this year, but we will get these issues corrected.

By Post Author

Jeff,
Do you think the new aero package will have a big impact on driver who have historically performed well at Atlanta? Or do you think the usually players will rise to the top? Tire wear will be big here. I’m going with:
A: 4,2;
B: 1, 14, 10, 20
C: 8, 95

The aero package is going to affect all of the teams. It is just going to depend on who figured it out the best for the first race using it.

By Post Author

hey jeff a member of my league just called me about his entties aren’t pulling up for some reason? Mine are fine & I’m able to pull mine up… he has tried restarting his device & it continues to do this? is anyone else having this issue that you know of? Thanks

Kurt Busch drives for Chip Ganassi Racing in Jamie McMurray’s old ride, the # 1 Chevy Camaro.

Thank you for helping me out. Every once in a while I write without thinking about what I am saying. I have updated the article.

By Post Author

You are correct. Thank you for keeping me on my toes. The article has been updated.

By Post Author

Also…just noticed that the “Fantasy Stats” page says it’s for Atlanta, but stats are for Auto Club. lol

Poor Jeff is taking all my slack! Sorry Jeff. Any programming or game issues you can contact me through the contact form on the Driver Group Game site.

Jeff is here for helping on your driver line-ups and talking that through in the comments.

Thanks,

Darren
NASCAR Geek

Same here JJ…Contact me through the DGG website.

Although, everyone can be certain that I’m 99% sure that all the things you ‘want’ are on their way. All the things you ‘had’ are on their way. I haven’t received but 1 or 2 suggestions out of hundreds of emails that are new. Plus, answers to many questions are in the Rules and the FAQs.

This last week I worked 60 hours easy on the game. 35 of them answering emails, which pushes all forward progress back.

Not singling you out JJ! Not at all. Just your message I’m expounding on this under.

Darren
NASCAR Geek

Hi Jeff, Big thanks for helping me win last year. First big question of the year. Got to pick two drivers from this group for next 6 races. The group has Blaney, Elliott, Bowyer, Hamlin, Almirola, Jones and Johnson. What 2 would you go with. Thanks.

Ok, 2 short tracks, 3 mile and a halfs and a 2 mile track. In that case I would go with Blaney and Elliott.

By Post Author

2 things. Why are there only 15 drivers in the driver average stats for each race? Would like to see all of them to help make choices.

Will the qualifying positions be put back on a list with our line-up like last year so we can make a quick switch if needed? Hate looking at different pages to see where my choices ended up.

Kind of like the new look, but some of the old things were nice to have.

That’s because that information as it’s laid out is part of the subscription on FRCS. Also the momentum. I show 10 drivers here…expanding it to 15 was to give a little more. It wouldn’t be fair to the subscribers of FRCS to give for free what they pay for.

Darren
NASCAR Geek

Keselowski had the flu today, so I would stay away from him. Truex looked better than Harvick all weekend so far, but Harvick has two teammates who have run very well and he might learn something from them. Gut call between Harvick and Truex.

By Post Author

I want to wait on Hemric until I get a better feel for him in a Cup car. Dibenedetto looked good last week. Stick with him this week.

By Post Author

So, only if you have nothing to do, and I am embarrassed to say I can’t find the answer myself.

How did Logano get 52 points for Daytona?

Thanks

He got 94 points in my league,
86 for finishing 4th
5 for leading a lap
3 stage points

That will all depend on the scoring system in your league. Go to your dashboard, click rules, click point structure and that will tell you how your league is being scored.

By Post Author

I’m a new paid subscriber. Is any of the “fantasy advice” updated post-practice? A lot has happened the last couple of days so it seems like the expert picks may not be all that relevant pre-practice/ pre-qualifying.

Thanks!
Tim

Tim…the Experts Picks are updated as they decide they like someone better. No pick on there are locked in until the race starts. I ask them to put their picks in on Monday so they are not sitting there blank. But, of course they get updated.

Darren

Chase Elliott looks just plain slow this weekend; solid history at Atlanta, but is he now an avoid?

Because of the new aero package it is going to be hard to determine who to start and who to avoid. It will take a few races to see who has a handle on this new package and who needs to do some work yet. Only time will tell.

By Post Author

Its going to be cool at Atlanta tomorrow and strong winds. How do you think that will effect the racing. Will the cool temps bunch the cars up and hurt the passing?

I don’t think the weather is going to have as much of an effect as the new aero package the drivers are running in this race.

By Post Author

Question Jeff, how come in the league it’s not showing wins, top 5s, and top 10s; and another question, how do you delete messages and memos

James…how about you keep the questions to the content at hand? Jeff writes articles for the site. He’s not a resource to ask about particulars about the game.

I’m going to email you.

Darren

Comments are closed.