Saturday, May 07, 2016

Fantasy Nascar Picks (Kansas)

Welcome to TimersSports

By roughly 100 points, my lowest scores of the season have occurred at the two SuperSpeedways of Talladega and Daytona. Figures, right? So I am not even going to try to recap my weekend (it was not promising), instead we are gonna jump ahead to Kansas and try to rebound there. I like Kansas for multiple reasons. It's fast, have a new surface, and typically the major names rise to the top here. Even though there aren't a lot of racing grooves to work with. Unlike tracks like Texas, Cali and Atlanta, where we saw multiple racing grooves that drivers could select. Which makes sense that Kansas is commonly compared to Vegas, among the 1.5 mile intermediate racetracks. Not because of the racing surface itself, but the limited fall-off in the lap times. So if you were going to look at data from one specific track in 2016, I would recommend checking out the results from that race.

From fantasy point of view, there will be opportunities to use some under the radar drivers! While big ones seems to dominate the top 5 and much of the top 10, I do think we will see a couple drivers will some surprise runs at latter part of the top 10. I will look to employ those drivers on Saturday night to get the edge on the competition. I personally prefer going with lineup that have mix of studs and sleepers this weekend.

Let's get started!

**This page will be updated throughout the week

Yahoo -

A:

Start - Joey Logano (9)

Bench - Kevin Harvick (7)

Reasons - I am not sure what happened to Harvick on Friday, but he seemed very unhappy with his car and honestly he also seemed pissed off. He also starts deep in the field, so I am not going to use him in Yahoo. I want wins from him and I want them to be dominated wins. Logano on the other hand seemed very happy with his car and seemed to be much faster. I'll take him!

B:

Start - Martin Truex Jr (7), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (8)

Bench - Kasey Kahne (9), Ryan Newman (6)

Reasons - Headed into Friday, I had my sights set on using Kasey Kahne and a combo of either Ryan Newman or Ricky Stenhouse Jr. However after watching practice and qualifying, I had to shift plans. Martin Truex Jr starting on the pole and having a fast car set it motion. Hard to bench a driver like that with a history of running very well at Kansas. Stenhouse Jr was someone who I really liked headed into Friday and he have done nothing to change my opinion. He'll roll off 9th. I gave consideration to Newman, but in the end I think Stenhouse have a higher ceiling. Kasey Kahne is well..let's just say he isn't exactly a ideal fantasy pick for Saturday night.

C:

Start - Ryan Blaney (7)

Bench - Chase Elliott (7)

Reasons - This is a tough decision. Elliott seems to run better than Blaney, but I think this is one of the better tracks to use Blaney at though. I really like Elliott this week, but I don't think this will be one of his best finishes. Blaney haven't had quite as many good runs and if you recall he started 8th last season and finished 7th at Kansas. He starting 7th on Saturday night.

Fantasy Live - 4,48,20,46 and 17

Reasons - I like this combo of drivers honestly a lot. Harvick will start deeper in the field and that exactly what you want in Fantasy live, so he pretty much a lock. Since he should make his way through the field into the top 10 I am sure. I debated Johnson or Logano because they start next two each other and were so ever close on speed in practice. I went with Johnson because of his track history and his success this season on the intermediate tracks vs Logano's. Even though Logano is no bum either. Keneth was the third choice on my fantasy lineup. He is having a bad luck season, but he looked like he has a bullet for a racecar. It's risky, but it definitely could pay off! Annett is on my team because of starting position, at worst I am giving up one position for $4.50. It also allows me to select someone like Stenhouse. For most fantasy players, it probably not ideal to use Stenhouse. Because he starting 9th. But I do believe Stenhouse will finish in or close to the top 10. I also went with Stenhouse because I don't like anyone else in his price range. Mears, Stewart, Patrick and Scott aren't exactly capable of top 15 finishes. Well Smoke is, but I'll pass on him until I figure out how good that 14 is.

Sleeper - Austin Dillon

Winner - Jimmie Johnson

Twitter - @MattAleza