Welcome to TimersSports
Sleepers -
Joey Logano: Over the past 6 seasons, 6 different winners have broken out for their first road course wins. All 6 of them have had relatively decent success too. However nobody really saw any of those wins coming. Truth be told, we typically depend on the popular road course gems to deliver. Therefore we overlook the mass majority. Logano is someone you could probably depend on. Two things he brings to the table: Reliability and upside. In 6 career starts, Logano have finished inside the top 20 five times. Most recently he have stabilized himself as a solid fantasy play though. Before last season's 16th place run, he finished 11th , 6th and 10th from 2011-2013 races. Now that is far from impressive, but he have proven he can run up front here. I am willing to bet he least finishes inside the top 10 on Sunday. For now keep tabs on him in practice on Friday.
AJ Dinger: I wouldn't call him a sleeper as he have proven last season. He was arguably the best driver on the road courses. He probably should have finished up front last June. However Dale Jr had other ideas. With about 30 laps to go, Dinger got punted by the 88 car. Which led to Dinger heading to the garage early. Before last season's poor result? He finished 4 straight races from 7th-13th. Dinger is far from a must-have in my opinion. As he have proven to be inconsistent at his best tracks like Richmond , Martinsville, Bristol , etc. Personally I think Dinger will either win or finish somewhere in the 30s. If he finish poorly , I am willing to bet Ryan Newman may be the cause of that.
Jamie Mac: I wouldn't call JMac a favorite by any means, but he isn't someone you should be overlooking this week. If you go solely on stats, you probably wouldn't even consider Jamie. Considering he only have top 10 finish over the past 5 races at Sonoma. However JMac is in my opinion one of the better road course racers in the field. He doesn't always get the finishes, but he have shown us he can run up front. A lot of that have to do with his abilities to qualify well, but it nevertheless true. Last season was his best performance of his career. In that event, he started 1st and finished 4th. That was surprising to me since he was involved in the Clint Bowyer wreck late in the race. His performance for that event was very impressive though. Jamie had about the 3rd best car behind AJ Dinger and Kevin Harvick. In that race, he had the best average running position of 5.0 and best driver rating of 126.0. Two of the most important stats to look at when scouting a driver's overall performance. There two sides to JMac really. He will either finish pretty well or have you heavily drinking. This season he actually have been pretty reliable. He have been a top 15 machine lately. Especially over his past 7 races or so. In those 7 races (From Richmond to Michigan) , JMac have an 9.7 average finish with 4 Top 10 finishes and 6 Top 15 finishes. In fact, he is only one of 3 drivers to finish inside the top 20 in every race. Yeah he been pretty consistent!
Busts -
Tony Stewart - Man I am seriously tired of putting Smoke on the bust list. Honestly I am starting to feel guilty at this point. Unfortunately my hand is pretty much forced. His career stats here are impressive, but he been better at WGI. Smoke have struggled at Sonoma over his past 4 starts. In those races, he have had a 22.0 average finish. He was pretty bad last June too. In that race he finished 19th with 20.0 average running position. That was absolutely pathetic! Even though late pit strategy almost gave him an top 10 finish. Nevertheless it wouldn't changed the fact about his overall performance for the event. Thinking back to his past few races at Pocono and Michigan (best top tracks), he have a huge liability with finishes in the mid-20s. If he can ran well here, then I would definitely consider him for the Glenn. For now I think he will finish somewhere in the teens.
Brad Keselowski: Keselowski have struggled at Sonoma a lot in his career so far. In 5 career starts, Keselowki have only twice finished inside the top 20 and holds an 20.0 average finish with 19.2 average running position. Truthfully the sample-size it too tough to say how good he is here. However Keselowski is a pretty aggressive driver and it is one of the reasons he have done so well at The Glenn. Sonoma really more about hitting your marks. Getting too aggressive usually here typically leads to bad things. With tracks such as Kentucky and New Hampshire on the horizon, I would probably wait on him.
*All stats are from FantasyRacingCheatSheet and DriverAverages
Email - briggs_garry48@yahoo.com
Twitter - @Garryy12
