Saturday, December 19, 2015

2016 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Kyle Larson

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: Kyle Larson

Car #: 42

Make: Chevy

Debut: 2014

# of Career Races: 75

# of Career Poles: 2

# of Career Top 5s:10

# of Career Top 10s: 27

# of Career  DNFs:  11

# of Career Laps led: 169

Career Average Finish: 17.3

Career Average Start: 15.1

# of 2015 Wins: 0

# of 2015 Top 10s: 10

# of 2015 Top 5s: 2

# of 2015 Poles: 1

# of 2015 DNFs: 5

# of 2015 Laps led: 115

2015 Average Finish: 19.3

2015 Average Start: 13.3

2015 Fantasy Recap: Every time that could wrong went wrong for Kyle Larson during the 2015 season. If someone didn't curse him for the 2015 season, then he just had bad luck. So yeah he hit the sophomore slump and quite frankly a lot of people were very disappointed. I was too as I had very high hopes for the young CGR driver. Truthfully I kept waiting for him to break out, but he never did. If there was race that could sum up his season, then look no further than final race of the season at Homestead. He had the car to beat (by far) on the long run. He was rapidly closing the gap on leader Brad Keselowski and with 10 to go the caution came out. Just his luck, right? Overall it was a difficult season for young Kyle Larson, but it was a learning curve. All the great ones least had one bad season. I think he will be just fine in the future!

Strong Tracks: Homestead, Chicago, Dover and Pocono

Weak Tracks: Martinsville and Daytona

Yahoo Grouping Prediction: B-list Grouping Tier

2016 Fantasy Outlook: Kyle Larson is entering his 3rd full season at the cup level in 2016. I think CGR has realized that he should have already been to victory lane several times. The Crew Chief change had a lot to do with that, as something had to change for 2016. For 2016, I am not exactly sure what to expect from him. I think a lot of that will have to do with how well he and Chad Johnston get on the same page. A lot of people giving this Crew Chief change a lot of negativity, because of Johnston lack of success with Stewart. Personally I think that's unfair as Smoke haven't been himself the past few seasons. Larson is young and hungry. I think a change of scenery will be good for them both.I expect both of the CGR cars to be faster in 2016 and the I think new package will be beneficial to Larson style of driving. From a fantasy point of view, I think Larson will be a really good sleeper to start the season off. There so many unknowns with him, I expect most fantasy players to back away and take a safe approach. The big question is: Will he finally get his first cup win? Honestly I don't know. I think there a potential of that happening. For that to happen, I think CGR will need more speed than they had in 2015.

Twitter - @JeffNathans