Fantasy NASCAR Blog

Congratulations to Alex Bowman on winning his first race of the season in dominating fashion and showing us that the Hendrick teams are back to competing at a high level with the rest of the teams. The Penske teams seem to be second best right now followed by the Joe Gibbs and then the Stewart-Haas teams as far as speed goes. It will be interesting to see which teams improve as the season moves on.

FANSHIELD 500

This week the series stays out west as the drivers and teams head to Phoenix Raceway for the running of the FanShield 500. This is a 1-mile, low-banked tri-oval track so, speed won’t be as big of a factor as handling and pit stall selection. That means we need to decide on which teams and drivers we trust with making the right decisions all weekend to get the best stalls and make the right adjustments during the race.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin is a no brainer to have on your roster and will probably be my starter this week. In his last sixteen starts here he has won seven races, finished second twice and finished in the top five thirteen times. There hasn’t been anyone this dominant at this race track before and you need to have him on your roster. We can decide if we want to start him after practice and qualifying

Kyle Busch: So, here is our dilemma this week about who to start, but not about who to have on your roster in the A group. Kyle has finished first or second in each of his last four starts here. He has also finished in the top five in eight of his last nine starts at Phoenix. Once practice and qualifying is over we will have to set out rosters with one of these two drivers.

Denny Hamlin: Too bad all of these drivers are in the same group. Denny won the fall race here last year and is really good on the flatter tracks. I think this is a week we take a break from Denny as he hasn’t been quite as consistent as the two drivers mentioned above and there are a lot of tracks left on the schedule where we’ll be able to use his starts late on.

Ryan Blaney: After having a disappointing finish when he got a flat tire late in the race last week at Fontana, Ryan will be looking forward to getting back to racing. He finished third in both of the races run here last year and should have a really good car once again this weekend. If he can avoid the bad luck this week he could find himself battling for the win late in the race.

Kyle Larson: This is one of the tracks where Kyle seems to avoid the bad luck most of the time. In fact, he has finished in the top six in five of his last seven starts at Phoenix and after getting knocked into the wall early last week at Fontana he will be looking to make up ground in the standings and maybe even get a win to get himself qualified for the playoffs.

Joey Logano: Joey has one win at this track and lead ninety-three laps in the fall race last year. This team has been pretty stout so far this year and this is the type of track where if they hit their setup right away they will have a shot at winning. If they struggle in practice it could be a long day for them once again.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie hasn’t won a race here since the 2009 season. However, this team has had a resurgence this season showing a lot of speed on the intermediate tracks. This week we will see how they do on the short, flat tracks. They did run well on this type of track last year and I see them improving on that this year. I think he should be on our roster once again this week.

Kurt Busch: Another driver to possibly use in the B group this week, Kurt has nineteen top ten finishes in his thirty-four career starts at this track. If he has good practice sessions he will be worth using this week. He seems to be better on the short, flat tracks and more consistent than he is on the intermediate tracks.

Brad Keselowski: Brad is still looking for his first win at this track. He does run well here most of the time as we can see from his past stats where he has finished in the top twenty in seventeen of his last eighteen starts here. Ten of the last sixteen races he has run here he has finished in the top ten. Like I said earlier, Kevin and Kyle are the two most consistent drivers in the A group for Phoenix and we can hold off on the rest this week.

Aric Almirola: When I think of Aric I usually think of him on the intermediate tracks but, he has run very well at Phoenix lately. In fact, he has finished in the top ten in four of his last five starts here and led twenty-six laps in the spring race last year. I think he might be worth having on your roster this week if you want to take that chance. I’m going to hold off on him myself.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR PHOENIX RACEWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Kevin Harvick
• Kyle Busch

Driver Group Game Group B

• Ryan Blaney
• Jimmie Johnson
• Kyle Larson
• Kurt Busch

Driver Group Game Group C

• Ross Chastain
• Ty Dillon

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT PHOENIX RACEWAY

1. Kevin Harvick
2. Kyle Busch
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Kyle Larson

Dark Horse: William Byron

Stay Away From: Alex Bowman

Big 18: Kevin Harvick

If the race in Las Vegas last week is any indication of how even the teams are going to be this season we are all in for some great action. The Hendrick teams were all fast, the Penske teams were all fast, the Stewart-Haas teams were all fast. Guess what? All of the teams were fast. If not for three of the Gibbs cars starting at the back I’m sure they all would have been running with the rest of them.. Let’s not for get the small teams either. They were all competitive this past weekend. Now let’s see if they can keep that up.

AUTO CLUB 400

This week the series stays out west as the drivers head to the Auto Club Speedway for the running of the Auto Club 400. This is a two-mile D-shaped oval track in Fontana, CA. This race is really going to show us which teams have the speed which is going to be a major factor in whether a driver and team can compete here due to the long straightaways. With the way everyone ran last week my job of predicting races just got a lot harder for this race.

Martin Truex Jr.: I’m going to go with Martin to win this week’s race. He was running towards the front all last week until a mistake with some loose lug nuts caused his to have to come back to pit road under caution where he lost a lot of track position and ended up getting squeezed up into the wall which took him out of contention. I think he is going to be really fast on the straightaways and the mistake won’t be repeated this week.

Joey Logano: Last week’s winner can’t be ruled out once again this week. He has momentum on his side as he looks for his first win at this track. He finished second in this race last year and has a run of four straight top five finishes at this track. I think he a Paul Wolfe are going to get along real well and will contend for another championship this season.

Brad Keselowski: Brad has finished in the top five in four of his last five start here including a win back in the 2014 season. They weren’t quite as fast as Joey and Ryan last week but, they were competitive. I think this team will get better as the year progresses and driver and crew chief get more comfortable with each other.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin was really fast on short runs last week but, faded on the longer runs. This is exactly how things started out for him last season and this team figured it out late in the year and started winning races just before the playoffs started. I think they will go back to what made them better last year and will figure it out much quicker this year.

Chase Elliott: Chase was the class of the field in the first two stages of last week’s race. I the four races Chase has run at this track he has never finished worse than sixteenth. He always seems to run well at Michigan which is a very similar track. They are hungry for a win and I see them picking their first one up for the year very soon.

Kyle Busch: Kyle has won three of the last six races he has run at this track and has finished in the top three in six of his last eight starts here. He never really competed last week after having to start at the rear of the field when his team couldn’t get through inspection. I think if he gets to start towards the front this week he will be in the hunt at the end.

Ryan Blaney: Another driver who has only run four races here, Ryan finished thirty-fifth in his first but, ended up in the top ten in the last three races. He was really fast the whole race last week and it was looking like he might win until a late race caution came out and they didn’t make the right call in the pits. They are going to be fast once again this week.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie looked really good last week and he leads all active drivers with six wins at his home track. Even though he struggled last season, what I saw from this team last week, it looks like this team is on the right track to be competitive once again this season. In fact, all of the Hendrick teams were fast last week and that is a good indication they have figured something out and are going to compete each and every week this year.

Kyle Larson: Kyle has finished in the top two in three of his six career starts at this track. I thought he would have run better last week at Las Vegas and was a little disappointed in how they ran there. I think I am going to wait and see how they run the next few races before I put him in my lineup. I think they will get better as the year progresses.

Denny Hamlin: Denny is another driver I was a bit disappointed in last week also. I know he had to start in the back due to not passing inspection but, I thought they would be able to make their way back to the front. At one point he almost went a lap down. He is still looking for his first career win at this track but, has finished in the top ten in three of his last four starts here.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Martin Truex Jr.
• Joey Logano

Driver Group Game Group B

• Ryan Blaney
• Jimmie Johnson
• William Byron
• Alex Bowman

Driver Group Game Group C

• Ross Chastain
• Cole Custer

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Joey Logano
3. Chase Elliott
4. Ryan Blaney
5. Kyle Busch

Dark Horse: Matt DiBenedetto

Stay Away From: Chris Buescher

Big 18: Martin Truex Jr.

After a rain out on Sunday the Daytona 500 is finally in the books and once again a lot of cars were taken out in one sweep late in the race. Coming out on top was Denny Hamlin for the second season in a row and third time in his career. A great start for a team that thought they should have won a championship last season.

PENNZOIL 400 PRESENTED BY JIFFY LUBE

This week the series heads out west to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube. This is the first of many intermediate tracks that the series will run on this season. The rumor is that next season there will be more short tracks added to the schedule with some tracks being visited that haven’t been on the schedule before. I think that will make it a little more exciting.

Looking at the stats for the past few seasons here this is a tough race to call. There a quite a few drivers who have run consistently well at this track and I don’t really see that changing. The biggest question for me is to see if the Chevrolet teams have improved since last season. They were getting more competitive at the end of last season and they were very fast at Daytona last weekend.

Joey Logano: I am going to go with Joey to win the race this weekend. He won this race two years ago and has five top five and eight straight top ten finishes at this track. He also has Paul Wolfe for a crew chief this year and he has had a lot of success here in the past with Brad Keselowski, I’ll have to watch practice next week before I decide if he is going to be my starter or if it will be my second driver.

Martin Truex Jr.: Martin has won two of the past five races here including this race last season. He is going to be my second driver to choose from in the A group. He has finished in the top five in four of the last five races also and has finished in the top twenty here in his last twelve starts.

Brad Keselowski: The only reason I’m not going with Brad in this race is because he doesn’t have Paul Wolfe anymore. However, he has won three of the last eight races here and hasn’t finished worse than seventh in his last nine starts. Those a very impressive stats but, I want to see how he does with his new crew chief before I start using him this season.

Kyle Busch: Let’s not forget about our defending NASCAR champion. Kyle considers this his home track and has only won once here through his career. He does have four top five finishes in his last eight starts but, hasn’t run consistently well at this track. I think there are better tracks to use his starts at.

Kyle Larson: Kyle has finished in the top three in three of his last five starts at Las Vegas. Last year he had a lot of bad luck with a fast car. Starting out the year this team has forgotten all about the bad luck they had last season and have a lot of reason to be optimistic right now. I think they are going to have a great year.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin has run really good here the past four races winning three stages and finishing second in three other stages. He has also won two of his last seven starts. You can never count him out and he is going to run towards the front all day and will be in contention for the win at the end of the race.

Ryan Blaney: Ryan has finished in the top seven in five of his seven career starts at this track. This team and driver seem to be getting a little better every week that goes by. Once he learns to have some patience early on in races and taking care of his equipment so he can be there at the end he is going to win a lot of races.

Aric Almirola: Since moving to Stewart-Haas Racing two years ago, Aric has run very well on the intermediate tracks. In fact he has finished in the top ten in three of his four starts at Las Vegas and I only see this team getting better in their third full season together. This is the type of track where this team can compete for a win.

Chase Elliott: Chase was the best of the Hendrick group last season and after seeing the speed improvements on the Chevrolet’s at Daytona last week it seems they might have found some more speed and might be able to compete with the other Manufacturers. He finished in the top ten in his last two starts and is looking to capitalize on the new found speed this season.

Matt Dibenedetto: Matt is in a new ride with the Wood Brothers this season and if he can run like Paul Menard did at Las Vegas in the same car he will have a shot at a win early on this season. Matt ran well last year and this car has finished in the top twenty in each of the last twelve races. Matt lead nine laps in the fall race here last year so, he knows how to get around this track at the front of the pack.

Update: Ross Chastain is subbing for Ryan Newman for the near future at least. Use him while he is in an upper tier seat.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Joey Logano
• Martin Truex Jr.

Driver Group Game Group B

• Kyle Larson
• Aric Almirola
• Matt DiBenedetto
• Ryan Blaney

Driver Group Game Group C

• Cole Custer
• Ross Chastain

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

1. Joey Logano
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Kyle Larson

Dark Horse: Matt DiBenedetto

Stay Away From: Clint Bowyer

Big 18: Joey Logano

Short and sweet for this week. Remember, don’t use the better drivers at the restrictor plate tracks.

DAYTONA 500

I will be back right after the finish of this week’s race to make my predictions for the race in Las Vegas. Until then don’t forget to set your lineups for this week’s race!

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Joey Logano
• Chase Elliott

Driver Group Game Group B

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
• Jimmie Johnson
• Austin Dillon
• Alex Bowman

Driver Group Game Group C

• Darrell Bubba Wallace Jr.
• Brendan Gaughan

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

1. Joey Logano
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
4. Jimmie Johnson
5. Chase Elliott

Dark Horse: Bubba Wallace

Stay Away From: Clint Bowyer

Big 18: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.