Category: Driver Group Game

Congratulations once again to Kyle Busch who came away with his second consecutive win of the season after battling the elements along with Kyle Larson for two days to visit victory lane at Bristol. This was an exciting race to watch when it wasn’t raining as there was a lot of passing all around the track, but eventually the two best cars on the weekend battled it out right to the end on Monday.

TOYOTA OWNERS 400

The drivers and their crews have a really short week ahead of them as they head to Richmond Raceway for the running of the Toyota Owners 400. The race this week is scheduled for Saturday night, so make sure you get your picks in in a timely manner. This is another short track on the circuit, but a bit different from Bristol. Richmond is a three-quarter mile D-shaped asphalt track just outside of Richmond, VA. This track has very low banking compared to the high banking we saw at Bristol last weekend, so it takes a whole different setup to run well here.

Denny Hamlin: I am going to pick Denny Hamlin to break Kyle Busch’s win streak this week at Richmond and win his first race of the season and get himself qualified for the playoffs. Denny has three career wins at this track and has finished sixth or better here in his last five starts. I think this team will put their pit road penalties behind them this week and turn in a winning performance.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin will be a nemesis for Denny once again this week. He has run consistently well here over the past five seasons coming away with six top five finishes in his last ten races at Richmond. Kevin probably feels like he hasn’t won for a long time and yet he still has three wins on the short season already. I think this team runs towards the front of the pack for the majority of the race on Saturday and will have a shot at the win late in the race.

Joey Logano: Joey won this race last year and was then failed post race inspection and that cost him the rest of his season. He has been running much better so far this year including a good run at Bristol last week. Nine of his last ten starts here have resulted in top ten finishes with him finishing first and second in the two races held here last season. This is the track where you can use Joey and he should get you good points no matter what.

Kyle Busch: The hottest driver on the circuit right now also leads all active drivers with four wins at Richmond. He has also finished runner-up here six times and has fifteen top five finishes in his twenty-five starts at this track. Once again he should probably be on your team this week, but how quickly can you use up his starts for the Driver Group Game?

Clint Bowyer: Clint has won twice at this track and has been running really well this season. After picking up the win at Martinsville earlier this year, Clint will be another big threat to win this weekend once again. I really like him on most all of the short flat tracks and Richmond fits the bill. Clint should be one of the better choices for the B Group of the Driver Group Game.

Kyle Larson: Kyle won the fall race here last year and almost came away with a win last week at Bristol. This team is right where they need to be at this time of the season to compete for wins on a weekly basis. They will be looking forward to getting back on track after coming so close to punching their ticket for the playoffs last weekend. Look for Kyle to run well here once again this weekend.

Ryan Newman: After having a horrible time during practice and qualifying last week at Bristol, Ryan still came away with a top ten finish. Now he heads to Richmond where he hasn’t won since back in the 2003 season. However, he has always run well at this track and came away with two top ten finishes last year here. He has also finished in the top ten in eighteen of his thirty-two starts here and should be on you roster this weekend.

Brad Keselowski: Brad finished second in this race last season and has seven top ten finishes in his seventeen starts at Richmond. He was running well at Bristol last weekend until a mechanical failure took him out of the race. The Ford drivers have all looked fast all season and this weekend should be no different for them. I think this team is on the verge of winning some races.

Martin Truex Jr.: At the beginning of his career he would have been a stay away from driver at Richmond, but in the past few seasons he has become someone to keep on you radar here. He has led almost four-hundred laps in the last two fall races here and has finished in the top ten in the last four spring races at this track. I still think there are better options to have in the Driver Group Game and will use Martin on the intermediate tracks for that game, but if you are in a different type of league he might be someone you could take a chance on this week.

Daniel Suarez: Daniel is my dark horse this weekend. He has shown he knows how to race a Cup car on the short flat tracks and just seems to get better and better every time he goes to one. In the only two races he has run here he has finished twelfth and seventh and I think he improves on those finishes this weekend. He had a good run at Bristol last week and I think this track is more suitable to his driving style.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR RICHMOND RACEWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Denny Hamlin
• Kyle Busch

Driver Group Game Group B

• Clint Bowyer
• Daniel Suarez
• Ryan Newman
• Kurt Busch

Driver Group Game Group C

• Alex Bowman
• Michael McDowell

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT RICHMOND RACEWAY

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

Dark Horse: Daniel Suarez

Stay Away From: Ryan Blaney

Big 18: Ryan Newman

Congratulations to Kyle Busch who picked up his first win of the season and has now finished in the top five in his last five starts. He also picked up a valuable six playoff points by winning a stage and the race this week at Texas. Kevin Harvick gave Kyle a good fight once again, but Kyle didn’t let Kevin challenge him after the last restart of the race and won quite easily.

FOOD CITY 500

This week the series heads to the Bristol Motor Speedway for the running of the Food City 500. Once again the drivers are on a short track, but this time there is going to be a lot of banking in the corners, unlike Martinsville. This is going to be another exciting race on the season and qualifying will mean everything here once again because of the pit stall going all the way around this small half-mile track.

Kyle Busch: Kyle is the hottest driver on the circuit right now and it is his turn to win multiple races in a row. Kyle leads all active drivers with six wins at this track. He has also finished in the top five nine times and in the top ten fourteen times in his twenty-five starts at Bristol. With the momentum he is carrying and the attitude he has I have to pick him to win once again this week.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin won’t be happy with a second place finish last week and will do everything he can to get back to victory lane this week. Kevin has finished in the top ten at Bristol in his last five start including a win in the fall of 2016. These are the top two drivers right now who seem to be battling each other every week for a top five finish or a race win. I see that continuing again this weekend.

Kurt Busch: Kurt trails his brother in wins at Bristol, but only by one. He has five wins here himself. If he can stay out of trouble early in the race he will be in contention late in the race this weekend. This team has been running very well all year and could come away with their first win of the season if everything goes as planned.

Joey Logano: Jowy has finished in the top ten in four of his last five starts at this track including a win in the fall of 2015. This team has looked much better so far this season than they did for much of last season. This is another team that needs to make sure they are making the right adjustments during the race as the track changes and if they do that they will have a shot at the win once again this weekend.

Denny Hamlin: Denny always seems to run well at this track and has finished in the top ten in four of his last five starts here also. Of those four top ten finishes, three of them have been third place finishes. Anyone who can run that consistently at this track needs to be considered for your line up this weekend. The only thing that can really hurt this team are pit road speeding penalties which Denny seems to get a lot of and he got one again last week at Texas.

Kyle Larson: Kyle has led a lot of laps at this track over the past two seasons. In fact, Kyle Busch is the only active driver to lead more laps at this track the past two seasons. I think this team is going to come out with a strong race car and qualify well here. He sat on the front row for both of the races here last season and could very well sit there again and I don’t think they will have to worry about tire issues this weekend.

Erik Jones: Erik has only run two Cup races at this track, but he led 260 laps here last fall and finished second. After another top five finish at Texas last week, this team will try to build on their momentum this weekend. I think that after running so well here last fall, Erik will have a lot of confidence going into this weekend and will be looking forward to the green flag flying once again.

Clint Bowyer: Clint finished second in this race last year and now that he has a little more time with his Stewart-Haas team they will be looking to get to victory lane once again on a short track this season. Granted, this race is a little different than Martinsville, but Clint always seems to run well on the short track no matter who he is racing for. I look for him to come away with at least another top ten finish this week if not more.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: For some reason, Ricky runs well here on a consistent basis coming away with five top ten finishes in his ten starts at Bristol. This team looked really good last week at Texas until they had mechanical issues late in the race and I know Ricky is looking forward to going to Bristol this weekend. I think this team is going to continue to improve as the season progresses.

Ryan Newman: Surprisingly to me, Ryan only has two top five finishes at this track and no wins yet. However, he has finished in the top ten seventeen times in his thirty-two starts, so that is a top ten finish in over half of his starts. He has once again been having a quietly successful season and could really surprise people this weekend. I think he is some one to keep on your radar this week.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kyle Busch
• Kyle Larson

Driver Group Game Group B

• Clint Bowyer
• Ryan Newman
• Erik Jones
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Driver Group Game Group C

• Matt DiBenedetto
• Chris Buescher

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Kyle Busch
2. Kyle Larson
3. Kevin Harvick
4. Joey Logano
5. Clint Bowyer

Dark Horse: Ryan Newman

Stay Away From: Ryan Blaney

Big 18: Kyle Busch

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