Pages

Pages

Friday, December 23, 2016

2017 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Dale Jr

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: Dale Jr

Car #: 88

Make: Chevy

Season Debut: 2000 (First-Full Season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career Starts: 595

# of Career Poles: 13

# of Career Wins: 26

# of Career Top 5s: 148 

# of Career Top 10s: 252

# of Career DNFs: 60 

# of Career laps led: 8,189 

Career Average Finish: 15.5

Career Average Start: 16.0

# of 2016 Wins: 0

# of 2016 Top 5s: 5

# of 2016 Top 10s: 6 

# of 2016 Poles: 0

# of 2016 DNFs: 4 

# of 2016 laps led: 53

2016 Average Finish: 15.6

2016 Average Start: 15.3

2016 Fantasy Recap - Dale Jr had an terrible year overall. He only was able to run in 18 of the 36 races, before an concussion put him out in the 2nd half of the season. Prior to that, he didn't really impress me too much. That 88 team was struggling to find speed and only seems to get worse when HMS lost speed after May. He didn't score a win and only posted 6 top 10 finishes in 18 races he completed in. Dale Jr looked off for most of the year, but had his best race of the season probably at Phoenix. Overall, there wasn't a lot to be thankful for if you were an Dale Jr fan. That team looked off and so did Dale Jr. And him being put out to injury only further made his 2016 campaign that much worse. I cannot say a lot of good things about him, in fact he was terrible on the plate tracks. And that's typically his bread and butter. Not in 2016, so that right there says a lot and probably sums up his year. I think Dale is ready to put 2016 behind him!

Strong Tracks - Daytona, Phoenix, Pocono, Michigan, Atlanta and Martinsville

Weak Tracks - Charlotte and Homestead

Yahoo Grouping Tier: A-list Grouping

2017 Fantasy Outlook - Dale Jr had a very tough 2016 season, personally I am not even going to take his stats into consideration too much. That 88 team was just off for most of the year, they didn't have many good runs to show for. Nor did Dale, so I am just going to chalk that up as a lost season overall. In 2017, I think we will see a bound back year from Dale Jr. HMS was running better at end of last year and hopefully for Dale's case, that will continue. The intermeidate tracks will likely be a solid type of track. He seems to excel at them because of the horsepower advantage but overall he is just really top 10 consistent. He should do well on the flats in general as well. Phoenix and Pocono stand out as his best tracks. His best two tracks over the past couple years has been Pocono and Phoenix. One is a larger flat (Pocono) and the other one is an shorter flat (Phoenix). Indy, Richmond and New Hampshire are more hit or miss. He has made good runs at all of them venues recently, but doesn't have a specific stand out run though. Plate tracks obviously will be his strongest type of track, but I don't think I need to mention that. He will run very well at both Daytona and Talladega. Unless something goes wrong like last year. Road courses are also becoming an area of strength for Dale Jr. I thought it was a fluke at first, but he is starting to deveolp into a nice little road course racer. Overall, I thought a bounce back year for Dale Jr in 2017. He will be very consistent, but will have a lack of upside most weekends. There will be certain tracks that he will have top 5 upside and possibly contend for the wins. Those tracks are most likely at Datyona, Talladega, Phoenix and Pocono.

Twitter - @JeffNathans18