Wednesday, December 02, 2015

2016 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Denny Hamlin

Welcome to Timerssports

Driver Name: Denny Hamlin

Car #: 11

Make: Toyota

Season Debut: 2006 (First-Full season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career Races:  362

# of Career Poles: 21

# of Career Wins: 26

# of Career Top 5s: 105

# of Career Top 10s: 174

# of Career DNFs: 29

# of Career laps led: 7,598

Career Average Finish: 14.5

Career Average Start: 13.9

# of 2015 Wins: 2

# of 2015 Top 5s: 14

# of 2015 Top 10s: 20

# of 2015 Poles: 2

# of 2015 DNFs: 2

# of 2015 laps led: 529

2015 Average Finish: 13.6

2015 Average Start: 11.7

2015 Fantasy Recap: When looking at Denny Hamlin in 2015, I would divide his season into two halves. The first half, he struggled to find consistency. Despite having a top 10 car on a weekly basis. The second half, he was a absolute machine. From Michigan to Marinsville (11 races), he finished inside the top 5 eight times. He led the series in that span. I think Denny's biggest problem was stabilizing fantasy value in general. He was overlooked most weekends (minus a few), because of his teammates. He never get any attention at JGR because he is really haven't done much winning over the past few seasons. Also he is viewed as the weak link. Especially early in the season. I think people got the impression he was unreliable, so it stuck with him. Doesn't help his stats are pretty crappy because of the 2013 season. He was off his game that season due to injury. All and all a very solid season by Hamlin. 14 Top 5 and 20 Top 10s is a decent year for any driver at the NSCS level.

Strong Tracks: Martinsville, Homestead, Darlington and New Hampshire

Weak Tracks: Sonoma, WGI and ACS

Yahoo Grouping Tier: A-list Grouping Tier

Overall Value Prediction: Solid option with upside

2016 Fantasy Outlook: As i stated above under Overall Value prediction, I think Hamlin will be a solid fantasy option. I say solid because he is one of those drivers who usually good for a top 10 finish. But doesn't always deliver the top tier finish on a weekly basis. He will always have the potential to do so though. These last few seasons, I think my biggest problem with Hamlin is that he doesn't dominate races up front. In most fantasy formats, that is a fantasy value killer. Typically you should expect his best finishes to come on the short-flat racetracks and short tracks. He will also perform well on the intermediate racetracks at times, but he will also have questionable finishes. Road course and Plate tracks are the wild card on the schedule. I would expect solid efforts on the plates, but road courses will likely end on the poor side.

Twitter - @JeffNathans