Fantasy NASCAR Blog

Congratulations to Kevin Harvick on picking up his first win of the season in dominating fashion at Atlanta this past weekend. Nobody really had anything for Kevin most of the day where he even had issues with a gun on pit road and went to the back of the pack and drove right to the front in less than half of a fuel run. Brad Keselowski was the only driver who looked like he might have a chance to overtake Kevin, but that only last for a little while and once Kevin got a new set of tires he took off and no one could stick with him.

KOBALT 400

This week the series heads out west to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the running of the Pennzoil 400. This is another of the mile-and-a-half tracks like Atlanta and we will probably see most of the same names at the top of the leader board once again. It looks like the Ford’s are still quite a bit faster than the other makes at this point of the season, so we will probably look to load our rosters this way once again. It seems that the Chevrolet teams are still working on getting the speed and handling figured out on the new Camaro model they are running this season.

Brad Keselowski: I am going to say that Brad wins at Vegas this weekend. He was the closest to Kevin last week and he runs better here on a consistent basis winning twice in the last five races run here. With two wins, four top five and five top ten finishes in his last five starts at this track, Brad is the most consistent driver in the field at this track and he is going to have something for Kevin this week.

Martin Truex Jr.: Truex started at the rear last week and quickly moved up to the top ten in the first thirty laps before fading later in the race. I think this team comes to Las Vegas with an even better car than they had at Atlanta and competes all day long for the win here. We have to remember how good this team was all last season on this type of track and I think they are going to be just as good this year at those same tracks.

Kevin Harvick: They showed they are still going to be fast every week and are going to have great handling cars that are going to run towards the front every weekend. This team saw how important all those playoff bonus points were for Martin last year and they are going to shoot for those the rest of the season with the pressure of making the playoffs gone. They can take some chances with their strategy to try and win some stages and more races now.

Clint Bowyer: Clint had a great run at Atlanta last weekend and that is going to give the team a lot of confidence and a little momentum for the near future. It looks like the Stewart/Haas and Penske drivers are a cut above the rest of the field right now and they need to take advantage as the other teams are going to figure things out and get better as the year progresses. I think this team is going to make the playoffs this year.

Joey Logano: He looks so much better than he did the last two-thirds of last season. Joey always seems to run well at this track and has three top five and four top ten finishes here in his last five starts. The question for this team always seems to be if they can make the right adjustments to their car as the race progresses and the track changes. I want to watch them a little more before I decide how good they are going to be this year.

Kurt Busch: Kurt had another good run at Atlanta coming away with a top ten finish in that race and leading some laps early on. He really wants to win this race as Las Vegas is his hometown and he wants to win in front of his hometown crowd. Once again, all of the Stewart-Haas drivers are looking stout right now and they want to take advantage of it right now.

Ryan Blaney: The third of the Penske drivers, Ryan also had a great run at Atlanta last weekend. He has only run three races at this track and he came away with two top ten finishes. Now he is on an even better team and you should see him compete all day long this weekend and have himself in a position to possibly win this race. The question is has he learned to have a little more patience yet, so he doesn’t have to make risky moves on the track.

Kyle Busch: Kyle was the top Toyota finishing driver at Atlanta last weekend. I think he is going to be fast all year long, but I don’t know if they can be fast enough to beat the Ford’s at this stage of the season. Kyle really has to drive his butt off to have a chance to win a race right now, but he can do that. Last year he came so close so many times only to see Martin pass him and he just couldn’t catch back up. The Gibbs teams need to find a little more speed to make things easier on their drivers.

Chase Elliott: Chase fought hard last weekend, but just couldn’t keep up at the end of the race. This looks like the best of the Chevrolet teams right now running even more consistent than Jimmie Johnson. I really think the teams are going to figure out what they need to do to set up the new Camaro so it runs faster each and every week. It might take another month or so for them to make significant headway, but it is a long season. Chase has only run at this track twice and has one top five finish to show for his efforts.

Denny Hamlin: Denny looked pretty good last week and his team ran a special strategy to try and beat Kevin. When teams do something like this they are basically saying, their car isn’t good enough to beat the top cars at the track that week so they need to do something unorthodox and hope that lady luck is smiling down on them that day. Denny is a good enough driver to keep himself in a position to win races every week.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Brad Keselowski
• Kevin Harvick

Driver Group Game Group B

• Kurt Busch
• Ryan Blaney
• Clint Bowyer
• Aric Almirola

Driver Group Game Group C

• Alex Bowman
• Darrell Wallace Jr.

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

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

Dark Horse: Paul Menard

Stay Away From: Austin Dillon

Big 18: Brad Keselowski

Congratulations to Austin Dillon on winning the Daytona 500 for the first time and taking the #3 car back to victory lane there. This also gives Austin a spot in the playoffs this year and takes a lot of pressure off of this team for the short term.

Once again we had a restrictor plate race with a lot of accidents that took out most of the field, but at the same time it was quite exciting to watch with drivers challenging each other and making risky moves to gain stage points throughout the race. As I cautioned everyone before the race, don’t use the best drivers because they might get caught up in a wreck that isn’t of there own making and this happened to quite a few of them.

I will also tell everyone right now, it doesn’t matter how well or how poorly your team did in the opening race of the season. There are still thirty-five more races to go and a lot of racing left. If you took my advice for the 500 you will still be in good shape come October and November.

FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500

This week the series heads to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for the running of the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500. Once again we have a long race this coming weekend with a lot of speed in it. We didn’t see a lot of engine woes all last season and that should continue here again this year. This is going to be a race where the track will change quite a bit from the beginning to the end and the teams will have to keep up with the track when making changes to the cars on pit stops.

Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie is my pick to win this week after a tough week at Daytona where he wrecked three cars in three races. He was looking plenty fast before getting knocked out at Daytona and always seems to run well at Atlanta. This can be seen by Jimmie winning two of the last five races at this track. I think this team is at the top of or farther ahead at this stage of the season than most other teams each year for some reason. Look for Johnson to visit victory lane this week.

Martin Truex Jr.: Let’s not forget what Martin did last season. Eight wins and a championship with most of those wins coming on the mile-and-a-half tracks like Atlanta. Although he didn’t win one of those eight races at Atlanta he will be strong here once again and could put this track on his list of wins for this season. It will be interesting to see if any of the other teams have improved at all and if Martin is as good or better on these tracks this year.

Kyle Busch: Last year Kyle started out with a lot of bad luck and it took him a while to get a win which he almost turned into another championship. Well, he started out on the wrong foot once again this year, but I think that is going to be short lived. Kyle has won here before and I think he is going to have something to say this week before the race is decided.

Chase Elliott: Chase looked really strong at Daytona and I look for him to have an outstanding season. He came so close so many times last year and we all know his first ever Cup win is coming soon. This is the type of track where he has been consistently strong over the past season and will probably be the type of track he gets his first win at and that might come this weekend. He finished in the top ten in his only two starts at this track last season and his confidence will be high once again entering this race.

Kevin Harvick: Kevin has been very stout over the past two season and always seems to run well here. He started his first ever Cup race at this track and won that race and hasn’t looked back since then. In his last five starts, Kevin has finished in the top ten four times at this track. He is another driver who had a disappointing week at Daytona and will be chomping at the bit to get back on the track this weekend.

Joey Logano: Last season after Joey won the spring race at Richmond and was found to be in violation during post race inspection and his win was considered encumbered by NASCAR, Joey never found his way back to top form. Well, he started his road to recovery last weekend at Daytona, where he fought back from being a lap down twice in the race to come away with a top five finish. If that doesn’t give this team a lot of confidence nothing will. Joey has two top five and three top ten finishes in his last five starts at Atlanta.

Kurt Busch: Kurt came close to pulling off back to back Daytona 500 victories this past weekend. It will be interesting to see if this team has gotten better this season and can run more consistently than they did after that win last year when you never knew which team was going to show up. I think they will show a lot of speed once again this weekend where Kurt has also finished in the top five twice and top ten three times in his last five starts here.

Kyle Larson: We didn’t hear much of Kyle last week, but I think you will hear his name called out this weekend. Kyle ran fast at these tracks all last season and I see this team doing the same thing once again this year. He has only run four race at this track and has one top five and two top ten finishes to show for his efforts. I have no fear that this team will run just as well if not better than they did last season.

Ryan Blaney: Oh so close and very disappointing for this young talented driver. He led more laps than anyone else last week at Daytona only to see his hopes and dreams dashed after a late race restart. However, he showed how talented he really is and we can all see that he is going to be a driver to be reckoned with on a weekly basis now that he is on an even better team than he was on last season. I still think he needs to learn a little more patience and when he does, look out field.

Erik Jones: Erik showed us all what he has to offer the sport last season and now that he is on a team with more than one veteran driver, he will learn a lot more quickly than he picked it up last season. I see this team getting better and better every week as the season progresses. He finished fourteenth in his only start here last year and should improve on that number this weekend.

DRIVER GROUP GAME FANTASY NASCAR PICKS FOR ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Driver Group Game Group A

• Jimmie Johnson
• Martin Truex Jr.

Driver Group Game Group B

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

Driver Group Game Group C

• Alex Bowman
• Darrell Wallace Jr.

MY TOP-5 OVERALL AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

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

Dark Horse: Aric Almirola

Stay Away From: Denny Hamlin

Big 18: Chase Elliott

In addition to Should Your Fantasy NASCAR Team Entry Carry Over Each Week?, the second most questioned tweak to the rules that Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing had in their game is our suggested reduction of driver starts from 9 to 7.

You can see in our rules for the Driver Group Game it says this regarding maximum starts.

Maximum Starts

Each driver in the Driver Group Game can be in the ‘Starter’ position of your team in no more than seven races. For the purposes of this game, a driver must be in the ‘Starter’ position for a race (not during qualifying) in order to be charged with a race start. Likewise, a driver who is on your team but stays in the ‘Bench’ position during the race does not get charged for a race start.

Once a driver has reached the seven-race limit, he will no longer accumulate any fantasy points for your team even if he occupies a ‘Starter’ roster spot. This limit does not change no matter when you join the game.

Your driver’s start totals will not reset at the segment divisions of the season. If you start your driver seven times during the first segment of the season, he will not be eligible to earn ANY fantasy points (qualifying, finish or lap points) for the remainder of the season.
If a driver is on your roster in a ‘Starter’ position for a given race but does not drive in that real-life event, he will not be charged with a race start. But, you will also not earn any points from him. The number of races each driver has started for you will be listed along with all of his other stats.

Does It Make It More Competitive?

The underlying reason our group suggested to reduce it to 7 starts is to make the game a little more competitive. Historically, in the Yahoo! game there were drivers in the A and B groups that got very little use if some drivers were dominating. At 9 starts per driver you could essentially use just 4 drivers from each group for the entire season (9 starts x 4 drivers = 36 races).

Reducing it to 7 starts seems a minor tweak, but it does force you to use at least 6 of the 8 drivers in each group. (7 starts x 5 drivers = 35 races. Plus, 1 more driver used 1 time to equal 36 races.)

We Want Your Vote And Feedback!

When I sent the first ‘update’ email to those that signed up I got plenty of replies regarding this. Rather then surmise what I think the majority of fantasy NASCAR players want in this new game strictly from those emails, let’s open it for discussion here.

Please converse in the comments below this post the pros and cons. Also, vote 9 or 7 in the poll included here.