Tuesday, December 26, 2017

2018 Fantasy Nascar Profile: AJ Dinger

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: AJ Dinger

Car #: 47

Make: Chevy

Season Debut: 2008 (First-Full Season)

Number of Championships: 0 

# of Career Starts: 335

# of Career Poles: 4

# of Career Wins: 1

# of Career Top 5s: 10 

# of Career Top 10s: 52

# of Career DNFs: 33

# of Career laps led: 501

Career Average Finish: 21.1  

Career Average Start: 20.3

# of 2017 Wins: 0

# of 2017 Top 5s: 1

# of 2017 Top 10s: 5

# of 2017 Poles: 0

# of 2017 DNFs: 5

# of 2017 laps led: 7

2017 Average Finish: 22.0

2017 Average Start: 23.9

2017 Fantasy Recap - After a really solid 2016 season, AJ Dinger took a big step back in the 2017 season. It was pretty obvious that Dinger was bound to regress after such a consistent season in 2016. But he took a bigger step back than I expected. He had one top 5 finish, 5 Top 10 finishes with 22.0 average finish. Aside from 2015, I would consider this is worst year with the #47 team. One thing stands out in 2017 compare to his season past? His average finish. That 22.0 average finish was his third-worst average finish since the 2010 season. It should be noted, 2012 and 2013 he only ran a part-schedule each season. Aside from his stats history, I never was super impressed with Dinger. He always was running in the low to mid 20s every time I would look up at the tv. In 36 races, he only posted 14 finishes in the top 20. Of those 14 top 20 finishes, he only posted 8 finishes of 17th or better. He also had 5 Top 10 finishes in 2017, three of them came at Watkins Glen, Daytona and Martinsville. I consider these ''special'' tracks. For obvious reasons, I don't think I have go into details about. And more times than not, Dinger seem to be at his best at those of tracks.

Strong Tracks - Martinsville, Daytona and Watkins Glen

Weak Tracks - Darlington and Kentucky   

2018 Fantasy Outlook - Dinger did not have a good 2017 season, so he is probably due for some sort of a rebound year. I don't think it will be huge or anything, but he should see some kind of improvement in 2018. I think it is pretty obvious at the tracks that he excels on, with Dinger is pretty clear. He is known to be a road course racer, so obvious Sonoma and Watkins Glen will be the first places to use him. Even though, he has really sucked it up at Sonoma in the #47 car. A lot of that could have to do with his equipment though. Another great track for him? Martinsville. Some would say that it is his best track not named Watkins Glen! In terms of consistency, Homestead and Cali are really decent track for him. In 22 combined starts, he has only 5 finishes outside of the top 20. In general, the intermediate tracks will be overall weak spot. The shorter flats on the other hand points to a possible strength. Over the past three seasons, Dinger has posted 10 finishes of 21st or better at Richmond, Phoenix and New Hampshire. That's pretty solid considering, he finished  outside of the top 20 in 5 of 6 races on shorter flats in 2016. My point being? With all of the success recently at the shorter flats, he is due to bounce back on this kind of track. I personally think he will have very surprising runs at the shorter flats. The plate tracks will another kind of track that, I think Dinger will surprise people. He has been a very effective fantasy option at both Daytona and Talladega! I don't want to give too much away from my preview of him, so i will leave it at that!

*All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18