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I was gonna take some time off from Timerssports, but I had second thoughts and decided against. So you all are stuck with me unfortunately. Anyhow we are headed to Pocono Raceway this weekend. I think this is one of the toughest places to make fantasy picks, because we either overthink our lineups or try to go too far outside of the box. Even though there some great fantasy options laying out there in the rough, but the challenging part will be discovering them and employing them to their best value possible.
Okay let get into today's sleepers and busts!
Sleepers -
Austin Dillon - Yes.Yes I know I been on the Dillon train a lot lately. The RCR cars seems to have a thing for being sleepers (cough cough Paul Menard). That isn't a bad thing though. Typically Dillon is middle teen driver on most weekends. Last weekend at Indy he disappointed a lot of fantasy players, but he had the potential to produce a solid points day though. However two speed penalties pretty much ended any chance of him finishing respectably. I think he can rebound this weekend though. Dillon best asset is usually him qualifying well. When he qualifies well, I believe he performs a bit better than normal. Even though that is probably true about every driver in the field. In 3 career starts at Pocono, he have started inside the top 11 in all 3 starts. Including a 6th-place starting position in June. Dillon actually had top 15 car for that race, but he faded in the end to 19th. Believe it or not that is his career-worst finish at the 2.5 mile flat track venue. Now I don't trust him as a legitimate top 15 fantasy option, but he does have that potential. I would expect an top 20 run out of him realistically. However I can see him finishing near the top 10 or top 12, if he looks good in practice. However for now I will keep quiet about that until after I see practice.
Justin Allgaier - Allagier isn't a top tier fantasy option in most formats, but he should make for a powerful punch if he is employed correctly in the proper scoring formats. In 3 career starts, Allagier have an 21.0 average finish with an stout 21.3 average running position. I say stout because typically anytime a driver like Allagier have an ARP above 25.0 it pretty impressive. Mainly because of his equipment. The 51 car have struggled to finish well this season, but he did finish 20th earlier this season. Even though he about an 25th place car in that race. However he also finished 16th last August which is a good sign from a fantasy point of view. There are clearly better fantasy options out there, but I do like him more than I have most weeks.
Casey Mears - Mears have better tracks coming up, but I do like him a lot this weekend. Since switching to Chevy in 2014, Mears have performance at Pocono have seen a upstick in production. Especially over his past two starts here. Last August he finished 12th at Pocono. I wasn't quite that good as he only posted 74.4 driver rating and 20.0 ARP. Most noticeably he ran nearly half of that run inside the top 15. Earlier this season he finished 16th. I say he had a pretty similar performance to August 2014. In that event, he had an 71.4 driver rating and 20.0 ARP. In fact that 20th place mark have been where Mears have ran a lot at Pocono the past few seasons. Over the past 4 races here, Mears have held 18.8 average finish with 20.4 average running position and 68.4 driver rating. I think he can finish near 20th once again this weekend.
Busts -
Kasey Kahne - Sorry but I have lost all faith in Kasey Kahne after another terrible performances at some of his best racetracks. He finished 24th at Indy, 19th at New Hampshire, 32nd at Daytona and 27th at Kentucky in his past 4 races. It pretty hard to trust Kahne after finishing 19th or worse ever since his 8th place run Sonoma. In fact he have only 3 top 12 finishes in his past 9 races. Also his Pocono record been pretty inconsistent since joining HMS. He have finished 1st or 2nd in past 2 of 3 races at Pocono in August though. On the flip side, he have finished outside of the top 25 in three other races. Even though they were in the June races. There definitely potential with Kahne, but I would rather wait until he shows some consistency. Or least one respectably finish.
Jimmie Johnson - Not often does a Hendrick car land on the bust list, let alone two Hendrick cars. However I haven't been impressed by the performance of HMS since Michigan. There no reason to believe they will suddenly turn it around this weekend. Right now they are behind Gibbs Toyotas, Haas Chevys and Penske Fords. We have seen teams fall behind all season long. Not to mention I haven't been very impressed by the 48 outside of Sonoma and Daytona. They have had some good runs, but not Jimmie Johnson's type runs since the last Pocono race. Also his Pocono record is questionable since the repave. Over his past 6 races, he have finished 13th or worse in 3 of those races. Including finishes of 13th, 14th and 39th. One thing you cannot like about Johnson this week is: He have finished worse in the August's race than he have in the June's race in every season since 2008. To be fair he did finish 4th in both races in 2011, but that been the lone exception.
Email - Briggs_garry48@yahoo.com
Twitter - @Garryy12
I was gonna take some time off from Timerssports, but I had second thoughts and decided against. So you all are stuck with me unfortunately. Anyhow we are headed to Pocono Raceway this weekend. I think this is one of the toughest places to make fantasy picks, because we either overthink our lineups or try to go too far outside of the box. Even though there some great fantasy options laying out there in the rough, but the challenging part will be discovering them and employing them to their best value possible.
Okay let get into today's sleepers and busts!
Sleepers -
Austin Dillon - Yes.Yes I know I been on the Dillon train a lot lately. The RCR cars seems to have a thing for being sleepers (cough cough Paul Menard). That isn't a bad thing though. Typically Dillon is middle teen driver on most weekends. Last weekend at Indy he disappointed a lot of fantasy players, but he had the potential to produce a solid points day though. However two speed penalties pretty much ended any chance of him finishing respectably. I think he can rebound this weekend though. Dillon best asset is usually him qualifying well. When he qualifies well, I believe he performs a bit better than normal. Even though that is probably true about every driver in the field. In 3 career starts at Pocono, he have started inside the top 11 in all 3 starts. Including a 6th-place starting position in June. Dillon actually had top 15 car for that race, but he faded in the end to 19th. Believe it or not that is his career-worst finish at the 2.5 mile flat track venue. Now I don't trust him as a legitimate top 15 fantasy option, but he does have that potential. I would expect an top 20 run out of him realistically. However I can see him finishing near the top 10 or top 12, if he looks good in practice. However for now I will keep quiet about that until after I see practice.
Justin Allgaier - Allagier isn't a top tier fantasy option in most formats, but he should make for a powerful punch if he is employed correctly in the proper scoring formats. In 3 career starts, Allagier have an 21.0 average finish with an stout 21.3 average running position. I say stout because typically anytime a driver like Allagier have an ARP above 25.0 it pretty impressive. Mainly because of his equipment. The 51 car have struggled to finish well this season, but he did finish 20th earlier this season. Even though he about an 25th place car in that race. However he also finished 16th last August which is a good sign from a fantasy point of view. There are clearly better fantasy options out there, but I do like him more than I have most weeks.
Casey Mears - Mears have better tracks coming up, but I do like him a lot this weekend. Since switching to Chevy in 2014, Mears have performance at Pocono have seen a upstick in production. Especially over his past two starts here. Last August he finished 12th at Pocono. I wasn't quite that good as he only posted 74.4 driver rating and 20.0 ARP. Most noticeably he ran nearly half of that run inside the top 15. Earlier this season he finished 16th. I say he had a pretty similar performance to August 2014. In that event, he had an 71.4 driver rating and 20.0 ARP. In fact that 20th place mark have been where Mears have ran a lot at Pocono the past few seasons. Over the past 4 races here, Mears have held 18.8 average finish with 20.4 average running position and 68.4 driver rating. I think he can finish near 20th once again this weekend.
Busts -
Kasey Kahne - Sorry but I have lost all faith in Kasey Kahne after another terrible performances at some of his best racetracks. He finished 24th at Indy, 19th at New Hampshire, 32nd at Daytona and 27th at Kentucky in his past 4 races. It pretty hard to trust Kahne after finishing 19th or worse ever since his 8th place run Sonoma. In fact he have only 3 top 12 finishes in his past 9 races. Also his Pocono record been pretty inconsistent since joining HMS. He have finished 1st or 2nd in past 2 of 3 races at Pocono in August though. On the flip side, he have finished outside of the top 25 in three other races. Even though they were in the June races. There definitely potential with Kahne, but I would rather wait until he shows some consistency. Or least one respectably finish.
Jimmie Johnson - Not often does a Hendrick car land on the bust list, let alone two Hendrick cars. However I haven't been impressed by the performance of HMS since Michigan. There no reason to believe they will suddenly turn it around this weekend. Right now they are behind Gibbs Toyotas, Haas Chevys and Penske Fords. We have seen teams fall behind all season long. Not to mention I haven't been very impressed by the 48 outside of Sonoma and Daytona. They have had some good runs, but not Jimmie Johnson's type runs since the last Pocono race. Also his Pocono record is questionable since the repave. Over his past 6 races, he have finished 13th or worse in 3 of those races. Including finishes of 13th, 14th and 39th. One thing you cannot like about Johnson this week is: He have finished worse in the August's race than he have in the June's race in every season since 2008. To be fair he did finish 4th in both races in 2011, but that been the lone exception.
Email - Briggs_garry48@yahoo.com
Twitter - @Garryy12
