Monday, November 21, 2016

2017 Fantasy Nascar Profile: JMac

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: Jamie McMurray

Car #: 1

Make: Chevrolet

Aka: JMac

Season Debut: 2003 (first full season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career starts: 510

# of Career Poles: 11

# of Career Wins: 8

# of Career Top 5s: 58

# of Career Top 10s: 143

# of Career DNFs: 50

# of Career laps led: 1867

Career Average Finish: 18.4

Career Average Start: 18.6

# of 2016 Wins: 0

# of 2016 Top 5s: 2

# of 2016 Top 10s: 12

# of 2016 Poles: 0

# of 2016 DNFs: 2

# of 2016 Laps led: 0 

2016 Average Finish: 15.8

2016 Average Start:  16.6

2016 Recap: JMac had a very similar season to his 2015 season, as the common theme of his season was based on consistency. However, the speed in the CGR camp was down though imo. So that meant his upside was downgraded to mainly teen-like finishes on a weekly basis. He only produced 2 Top 5 finishes and top 10 finishes in 2016. Despite that, he didn't really see that much loss of production regards to top 10 finishes. He had 10 top 10 just like did in 2015. He had 2 more top 5 finishes in 2015 than 2016 though. He only had 2 in 2016, while producing 4 in 2015. With that said, his average finish went down from 14.8 in 2015 to 15.8 in 2016. That's pretty noticable, which means he had more poor finishes in 2016 than in 2015. Still he had a productive year that led to second straight chase birth on points.

Strong Tracks: Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond and Sonoma

Weak Tracks: Atlanta and Kansas

Additional Info: JMac's new trademark seems to be consistency now. Which is what gives him fantasy value for the most part. If he didn't have that, he wouldn't be useful at all. In the last three seasons (2014-2016), he has produced 28.6 Top 20 finishes on average. Which means he is finishing out races and finishing on the lead lap inside the top 20 on a weekly basis. From 2011 to 2013 (3 seasons), he only averaged 21 Top 20 finishes.

Yahoo Group Prediction: B-list Grouping Tier

Overall Value Prediction: Consistency with teen-potential

2017 Fantasy Outlook: In 2017, you expect a lot of similar results that he has shown over the past couple seasons. He will likely hover with about 10 to 12 Top 10 finishes and somewhere around 2 to 5 top 5 finishes. He most likely won't be a top 5 contender on most weekends, but his best days will come on the shorter racetracks like Martinsville and Bristol. Also at places like Phoenix and Richmond. He also will run well on certain intermediate tracks such as Texas and Charlotte. However, I would say his best shots at top 10 finishes are the shorter tracks. His intermediate outlook will be mainly in the lower teens. JMac worst days will come on days when he has bad luck, most weekends you can expect top 20 finishes. More realistically, he will be an top 15 contender and finish somewhere inside that range. Another thing to remember about JMac is equipment. Chip Ganassi Racing isn't what HMS, Penske, SHR or Gibbs is, they are an second-tier team. There's a reason why they don't contend each week for wins. With that said, JMac doesn't have the talent to run up front like teammate Kyle Larson. His upside will be only go far as his equipment takes him. Which usually means he will contend for a top 15 finish and have a shot at finishing inside the top 10

**All stats from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18