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AJ Dinger is coming off his best year ever by far with the No.47 team and looks to make more improvements in 2017 with a new teammate to boot. Dinger isn't the most talented driver in the world, but he is capable of very good things in 2017. I think the biggest thing for him will be building on 2016 and staying consistent. I think Dinger has good fantasy value and will be an real asset, if he can be consistent in 2017. I always say consistency in the key baseline to any sort of fantasy success. A driver like Dinger really needs the consistency to have any real value outside of his gem-like tracks. Dinger will be his best on the road courses, shorter flats and short tracks in general. Everywhere else will heavily depend on the performance and consistency of the No.47 team.
Road Courses are always the tracks that comes up whenever AJ Dinger's name is mentioned it seems and for very good reason to. Since entering the Nascar ranks back in his Richard Petty and Team Redbull days, he has been a legit driver on the road courses. Early in his career, he was consistent and very trustworthy. However, he has hit a rough patch since joining the No.47 team. He is consistently one of the fastest cars at the road courses, but never seems to be able to seal the deal. Since 2014, he has had an issues at all but one race. That race? Watkins Glenn in 2014, he won that race. Every other race, he was involved in some type of wreck, mechanical issue or running out of fuel. Even though, he finished 4th last year, he did wreck Kyle Larson on he final lap of the race. Got the good finish, but not really incident free though. I am not even going to dig into the stats because they are misleading due to all of the misfortune he has had lately. But he will have top 10 potential with winning-possible upside on the road courses in 2017!
Short tracks is the next type of track that I want to look at, they would be the tracks of Martinsville and Bristol. Both tracks has been good to Dinger in the past and could be places to use him in 2017 as well. I would say that Martinsville is Dinger's best track not on the road courses honestly. He simply get around this place good, he has had quite a few good runs at Martinsville recently and could make some noise in 2017 as well. Over the past 6 races at Martinsville, he has posted 5 Top 11 finishes. Meaning, he has finished 11th or better in 5 of the last 6 races. Only race, he didn't? He blew an engine and finished dead last in 2015 spring race. Otherwise this guy been straight up impressive at Martinsville. How good was he here in 2016? Well, he finished 2nd and 10th, while posting driver rating in both races over 100. Something he has only done on the road courses probably with JTG 47 team. In fact, he has finished 11th or better in 3 straight races. All three of those races has ended with at least an 90.2 driver rating.
Bristol is a decent track for him, but not a great racetrack though. He has been a bit inconsistent but has posted 3 Top 20 finishes over the past 5 races at Bristol. He was able to sweep the top 20 in 2016 with finishes of 19th and 9th. It is important to note that Dinger posted driver ratings of 83.9 and 90.3 in two races at Bristol last season. Again that is not great, but still pretty solid for him overall. Performance wise, those are the best two races at Bristol in the #47 car at the cup level. You will have to go back to 2012 to find better performances by him at Bristol. He wasn't great last season at Bristol, it was definitely pretty damn good though.
I would say that the shorter flats tracks are his most consistent type track overall. When looking at the numbers. Since 2014, all three shorter flats (Richmond, New Hampshire and Phoenix) ranked among his top 10 tracks over the past two seasons. No other track type can be said about him. I would say Phoenix is his best shorter flat track though. He has made 6 starts with the 47 team at Phoenix and he has posted 5 finishes of 17th or better. His lone non-top 17 finish? 24th place. Pretty good, right? You bet and his numbers from a career-point of view only further make a case for him. In 15 career starts at Phoenix, he has posted 12 Top 18 finishes. Over the past 13 races alone, he has posted 11 Top 18 finishes. Including an impressive 11th place finish back in 2013 with the #51 team. The the #51 team back in 2013 was called Phoenix Racing aka HScott Racing (in 2016). Anyhow, Dinger has always ran well at Phoenix. Never anything special, but pretty consistent when looking at his numbers. I will take a top 20 at Phoenix with him any day.
Richmond and New Hampshire at pretty equal tracks since joining the #47 team honestly. He isn't a standout at either place. At both tracks, he will likely have potential in that 18th-24th place range. More often than not it will be around 20th-24th place though. I would say that they are near equal when taking in the factors. He been better at Richmond from a career point of view, but has been more consistent lately at New Hampshire though. Over the past 13 races at Richmond, he has posted 10 Top 20 finishes. With only 3 races ending in 21st or worse. With that said, all three finishes has been with the #47 team. Over the past 6 races at Richmond, he has posted 3 finishes finishes of 20th or better. His best four has been 20th, 25th, 24th and 13th. Not great numbers by any means, but not terrible either though. New Hampshire numbers has been in the same range of late as well. Over the past 6 races at New Hampshire, he has posted 6 straight finishes of 23rd or better. His first three races at New Hampshire with the #47 team ended in 18th, 13th and 13th. His last three finishes? 21st, 21st and 23rd. With that said, half of his career top 20 finishes has came with the #47 team. Like I said earlier, his range is likely 20th-24th at both Richmond and New Hampshire. The numbers suggust that is the likely case in 2017 as well.
The intermediate tracks could be a strength for AJ Dinger in 2017, when looking at his suprsiing numbers from 2016 honestly. He will likely lack the upside to be a true contender at the intermediate tracks, but he will bring top 20 upside most weekend. He could bring value, if he remains consistent though. If we take out the Kentucky and the fall Charlotte (October) race, he compiled an 15.2 average finish on the 1.5 mile tracks. He posted 7 Top 20 finishes with 4 of those ending inside the top 15 as well. Pretty good for a guy like AJ whom isn't known to be a good racer on these type of tracks. He also had strong runs at Cali (8th) and the second Michigan ran (15th) as well. Not a bad year for AJ at the intermediate tracks.
His best intermediate tracks are most likely Las Vegas, Kansas and Cali, I would say honestly. Statically speaking, Cali is considered as one of his very best tracks from a career point of view. In 12 career starts, he has posted 8 Top 20 finishes with 2 Top 20 finishes over his 3 most recent starts there. Over the past 3 seasons, he has posted 2 Top 20 finishes at Cali and ranked 5th in average finish since 2014 among 23 tracks. When looking deeper into the numbers, he has posted 6 Top 20 finishes over the past 7 races at Cali. Including 2 top 10 finishes over the past three races. His lone bad finish was back in 2015, when he finished 34th. If I recall correctly, everyone kept blowing tires in that race or something. It was a mess either way and a lot of drivers finished poorly. Dinger was one of them. Otherwise, Dinger has been a straight stud at this place. And between Kansas and Las Vegas, it is hard to decide what track he is better on. I am going to say Kansas, because the simple-size is larger at Kansas than Las Vegas. Over the past 6 races at Kansas, he has posted 4 Top 20 finishes. Last season, he posted career-high of 8th place in both races. Yes, you read that right! The Dinger swept the top 8 last season at Kansas! With 4 of the past 5 races ending in 14th or better overall. He has proven himself on this surface of Kansas and turned into a solid racer, too. Statically, he has been pretty good at Las Vegas as well. Over the past three races here, he has posted 3 Top 18 finishes. If there was three tracks to use him at and feel good about, then those would be the places to unload him.
The Larger flats will be a decent place for him. He ran good at the larger flats in 2016. He swept the top 16 at Pocono and well overheated at Indy after about 71 laps completed. In three starts with the #47 team at Indy, he has only posted 1 Top 20 finish of 18th place back in 2014. So he has had some troubles at Indy so far. But that's okay though, because he been a bit better at Pocono though. Over the past 6 races at Pocono, he has posted 4 Top 21 finishes. With 3 straight Top 16 finishes over the past 3 races overall. Not great numbers from a career point of view, as it ranked 13th of 23rd among the 23 tracks. However, he is trending in the right direction with 3 straight top 16 finishes. I am not expecting him to keep that type of consistency, but it would be nice if he can hover in the top 20 in 2017. If he does then, he will hold at least some type of value for fantasy value on the larger flats.
The plate tracks will also be a weakness for him, he isn't a driver that really can use the draft to his advanatage and contend up front. With that said, he is one of those drivers that can be an hail mary play if you feel like being a dare devil (Cough Garry Briggs Cough knows what I talking about Cough), then Dinger could be your all or nothing play. On a good race at Talldeaga or Daytona, he survives the craziness and get a respectable teen-finish. That's all, but most times you can expect something in the low to mid twenties out of him though.
Overall in 2017, I would expect Dinger to have a pretty good year. He won't contend for top 10 finishes every week but there will be tracks to use him though. Watkins Glenn and Sonoma are the obvious places. But tracks like Martinsville, Bristol, Phoenix, and even Pocono could be other awesome places to employ. Also keep Kansas and Cali in mind on the intermediate tracks. So there are about 8 to 10 tracks that he is very useful at, the thing will be timing. Also he needs to show consistency to have any real fantasy value as well. I think Dinger will be less consistent than last season, but he will see some of that consistency remain with him. Less so on the intermediate tracks though. I don't see him repeating his success on that type of track. I really do like Dinger as a solid sleeper throughout the season, just don't expect the world from him though.
**All stats are from DriverAverages.com
Twitter - @JeffNathans18
AJ Dinger is coming off his best year ever by far with the No.47 team and looks to make more improvements in 2017 with a new teammate to boot. Dinger isn't the most talented driver in the world, but he is capable of very good things in 2017. I think the biggest thing for him will be building on 2016 and staying consistent. I think Dinger has good fantasy value and will be an real asset, if he can be consistent in 2017. I always say consistency in the key baseline to any sort of fantasy success. A driver like Dinger really needs the consistency to have any real value outside of his gem-like tracks. Dinger will be his best on the road courses, shorter flats and short tracks in general. Everywhere else will heavily depend on the performance and consistency of the No.47 team.
Road Courses are always the tracks that comes up whenever AJ Dinger's name is mentioned it seems and for very good reason to. Since entering the Nascar ranks back in his Richard Petty and Team Redbull days, he has been a legit driver on the road courses. Early in his career, he was consistent and very trustworthy. However, he has hit a rough patch since joining the No.47 team. He is consistently one of the fastest cars at the road courses, but never seems to be able to seal the deal. Since 2014, he has had an issues at all but one race. That race? Watkins Glenn in 2014, he won that race. Every other race, he was involved in some type of wreck, mechanical issue or running out of fuel. Even though, he finished 4th last year, he did wreck Kyle Larson on he final lap of the race. Got the good finish, but not really incident free though. I am not even going to dig into the stats because they are misleading due to all of the misfortune he has had lately. But he will have top 10 potential with winning-possible upside on the road courses in 2017!
Short tracks is the next type of track that I want to look at, they would be the tracks of Martinsville and Bristol. Both tracks has been good to Dinger in the past and could be places to use him in 2017 as well. I would say that Martinsville is Dinger's best track not on the road courses honestly. He simply get around this place good, he has had quite a few good runs at Martinsville recently and could make some noise in 2017 as well. Over the past 6 races at Martinsville, he has posted 5 Top 11 finishes. Meaning, he has finished 11th or better in 5 of the last 6 races. Only race, he didn't? He blew an engine and finished dead last in 2015 spring race. Otherwise this guy been straight up impressive at Martinsville. How good was he here in 2016? Well, he finished 2nd and 10th, while posting driver rating in both races over 100. Something he has only done on the road courses probably with JTG 47 team. In fact, he has finished 11th or better in 3 straight races. All three of those races has ended with at least an 90.2 driver rating.
Bristol is a decent track for him, but not a great racetrack though. He has been a bit inconsistent but has posted 3 Top 20 finishes over the past 5 races at Bristol. He was able to sweep the top 20 in 2016 with finishes of 19th and 9th. It is important to note that Dinger posted driver ratings of 83.9 and 90.3 in two races at Bristol last season. Again that is not great, but still pretty solid for him overall. Performance wise, those are the best two races at Bristol in the #47 car at the cup level. You will have to go back to 2012 to find better performances by him at Bristol. He wasn't great last season at Bristol, it was definitely pretty damn good though.
I would say that the shorter flats tracks are his most consistent type track overall. When looking at the numbers. Since 2014, all three shorter flats (Richmond, New Hampshire and Phoenix) ranked among his top 10 tracks over the past two seasons. No other track type can be said about him. I would say Phoenix is his best shorter flat track though. He has made 6 starts with the 47 team at Phoenix and he has posted 5 finishes of 17th or better. His lone non-top 17 finish? 24th place. Pretty good, right? You bet and his numbers from a career-point of view only further make a case for him. In 15 career starts at Phoenix, he has posted 12 Top 18 finishes. Over the past 13 races alone, he has posted 11 Top 18 finishes. Including an impressive 11th place finish back in 2013 with the #51 team. The the #51 team back in 2013 was called Phoenix Racing aka HScott Racing (in 2016). Anyhow, Dinger has always ran well at Phoenix. Never anything special, but pretty consistent when looking at his numbers. I will take a top 20 at Phoenix with him any day.
Richmond and New Hampshire at pretty equal tracks since joining the #47 team honestly. He isn't a standout at either place. At both tracks, he will likely have potential in that 18th-24th place range. More often than not it will be around 20th-24th place though. I would say that they are near equal when taking in the factors. He been better at Richmond from a career point of view, but has been more consistent lately at New Hampshire though. Over the past 13 races at Richmond, he has posted 10 Top 20 finishes. With only 3 races ending in 21st or worse. With that said, all three finishes has been with the #47 team. Over the past 6 races at Richmond, he has posted 3 finishes finishes of 20th or better. His best four has been 20th, 25th, 24th and 13th. Not great numbers by any means, but not terrible either though. New Hampshire numbers has been in the same range of late as well. Over the past 6 races at New Hampshire, he has posted 6 straight finishes of 23rd or better. His first three races at New Hampshire with the #47 team ended in 18th, 13th and 13th. His last three finishes? 21st, 21st and 23rd. With that said, half of his career top 20 finishes has came with the #47 team. Like I said earlier, his range is likely 20th-24th at both Richmond and New Hampshire. The numbers suggust that is the likely case in 2017 as well.
The intermediate tracks could be a strength for AJ Dinger in 2017, when looking at his suprsiing numbers from 2016 honestly. He will likely lack the upside to be a true contender at the intermediate tracks, but he will bring top 20 upside most weekend. He could bring value, if he remains consistent though. If we take out the Kentucky and the fall Charlotte (October) race, he compiled an 15.2 average finish on the 1.5 mile tracks. He posted 7 Top 20 finishes with 4 of those ending inside the top 15 as well. Pretty good for a guy like AJ whom isn't known to be a good racer on these type of tracks. He also had strong runs at Cali (8th) and the second Michigan ran (15th) as well. Not a bad year for AJ at the intermediate tracks.
His best intermediate tracks are most likely Las Vegas, Kansas and Cali, I would say honestly. Statically speaking, Cali is considered as one of his very best tracks from a career point of view. In 12 career starts, he has posted 8 Top 20 finishes with 2 Top 20 finishes over his 3 most recent starts there. Over the past 3 seasons, he has posted 2 Top 20 finishes at Cali and ranked 5th in average finish since 2014 among 23 tracks. When looking deeper into the numbers, he has posted 6 Top 20 finishes over the past 7 races at Cali. Including 2 top 10 finishes over the past three races. His lone bad finish was back in 2015, when he finished 34th. If I recall correctly, everyone kept blowing tires in that race or something. It was a mess either way and a lot of drivers finished poorly. Dinger was one of them. Otherwise, Dinger has been a straight stud at this place. And between Kansas and Las Vegas, it is hard to decide what track he is better on. I am going to say Kansas, because the simple-size is larger at Kansas than Las Vegas. Over the past 6 races at Kansas, he has posted 4 Top 20 finishes. Last season, he posted career-high of 8th place in both races. Yes, you read that right! The Dinger swept the top 8 last season at Kansas! With 4 of the past 5 races ending in 14th or better overall. He has proven himself on this surface of Kansas and turned into a solid racer, too. Statically, he has been pretty good at Las Vegas as well. Over the past three races here, he has posted 3 Top 18 finishes. If there was three tracks to use him at and feel good about, then those would be the places to unload him.
The Larger flats will be a decent place for him. He ran good at the larger flats in 2016. He swept the top 16 at Pocono and well overheated at Indy after about 71 laps completed. In three starts with the #47 team at Indy, he has only posted 1 Top 20 finish of 18th place back in 2014. So he has had some troubles at Indy so far. But that's okay though, because he been a bit better at Pocono though. Over the past 6 races at Pocono, he has posted 4 Top 21 finishes. With 3 straight Top 16 finishes over the past 3 races overall. Not great numbers from a career point of view, as it ranked 13th of 23rd among the 23 tracks. However, he is trending in the right direction with 3 straight top 16 finishes. I am not expecting him to keep that type of consistency, but it would be nice if he can hover in the top 20 in 2017. If he does then, he will hold at least some type of value for fantasy value on the larger flats.
The plate tracks will also be a weakness for him, he isn't a driver that really can use the draft to his advanatage and contend up front. With that said, he is one of those drivers that can be an hail mary play if you feel like being a dare devil (Cough Garry Briggs Cough knows what I talking about Cough), then Dinger could be your all or nothing play. On a good race at Talldeaga or Daytona, he survives the craziness and get a respectable teen-finish. That's all, but most times you can expect something in the low to mid twenties out of him though.
Overall in 2017, I would expect Dinger to have a pretty good year. He won't contend for top 10 finishes every week but there will be tracks to use him though. Watkins Glenn and Sonoma are the obvious places. But tracks like Martinsville, Bristol, Phoenix, and even Pocono could be other awesome places to employ. Also keep Kansas and Cali in mind on the intermediate tracks. So there are about 8 to 10 tracks that he is very useful at, the thing will be timing. Also he needs to show consistency to have any real fantasy value as well. I think Dinger will be less consistent than last season, but he will see some of that consistency remain with him. Less so on the intermediate tracks though. I don't see him repeating his success on that type of track. I really do like Dinger as a solid sleeper throughout the season, just don't expect the world from him though.
**All stats are from DriverAverages.com
Twitter - @JeffNathans18
