Friday, December 02, 2016

2017 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Danica Patrick

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: Danica Patrick

Car #: 10

Make: Chevy

Season Debut: 2013 (First-Full season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career Starts: 154

# of Career Poles: 1

# of Career Wins: 0

# of Career Top 5s: 0 

# of Career Top 10s: 6

# of Career DNFs: 18

# of Career laps led: 57 

Career Average Finish: 24.1

Career Average Start: 25.7

# of 2016 Wins: 0

# of 2016 Top 5s: 0

# of 2016 Top 10s: 0 

# of 2016 Poles: 0

# of 2016 DNFs: 3

# of 2016 laps led: 30

2016 Average Finish: 22.0

2016 Average Start: 25.1

2016 Fantasy Recap - Danica Patrick had her best season ever in terms of average finish. She had an average finish of 22.0. However, he failed to produce any top 5 finishes or top 10 finishes for the first time since becoming an full-time driver. In 2013 (rookie season), 2014 and 2015, she at least posted one top 10 finish. So you would think that she had more top 20 finishes, right? Well, not exactly! She had 14 Top 20 finishes in 2016. In 2014 and 2015, she had 13 Top 20 finishes in each of those two seasons. However, her average finish for the season was up from 23.6 and 23.4 in 2014/2015 to 22.0 in 2016. All in all, her numbers stayed the same for the most part. Her only noticeable stat increase was that her average up. Overall, you cannot really say that Danica had a terrible year. She didn't have any eye-popping races where she was a standout or anything. However, she did a great job of limiting her really poor finishes. For Danica, that's key for her success. I thought she made more steady progress in 2016. She continue to improve year after year, it is a slow progression for her compared to the competition.

Strong Tracks - Michigan and Atlanta

Weak Tracks - Pocono and Indy

Yahoo Grouping Tier: B-list Grouping

Overall Value Prediction: Limited potential with limited upside

2017 Fantasy Outlook - I don't expect major improvement from Dannica Patrick in 2017, actually I expect around the same numbers for the most part. She has made major gains since her rookie season. She is entering her 5th year as a full-time driver and should keep on making improvements at each type of track. Her best type of track will likely be the intermediate. More often than not, it seems to be her strongest suit overall. She can run well on the flats, road courses, shorts and plates but I think they further in between though. There will be certain tracks that she excels out, but I say they are most likely on the intermediate tracks. Danica's biggest issue is she isn't an appealing fantasy option in any formats really. Her limited potential and upside will hold her back to being nothing than top 20 to top 25 driver. A good trend from 2016 was that she was very consistent on the 1.5 mile tracks. As she overall finished 21st or better in 8 of the 11 races on that type of track. 7 of 8 of those top 21 finishes ended in 17th-21st place range. In simpler terms, she was basically was a top 20 caliber driver on the high-speed intermediate tracks. If she can retain that sort of potential and consistency in 2017, then she definitely will have some fantasy value in deeper leagues. Consistency is key, if she can be consistent then her value goes up. It about being predicable, if she can be predicable then it should be easier to read her from week to week. For a lot of us, I think not knowing what to expect is the scary part. Don't be shocked if Danica has her best year yet in the Cup Series. Every single year, it seems like her numbers get a little better. For her sake, I hope that the case once again.

**All stats are from DriverAverages.com 

Twitter - @JeffNathans18