Thursday, December 21, 2017

2018 Fantasy Nascar Profile: Ryan Newman

Welcome to TimersSports

Driver Name: Ryan Newman

Car #: 31

Make: Chevy

Season Debut: 2002 (First-Full Season)

Number of Championships: 0

# of Career Starts: 584

# of Career Poles: 51

# of Career Wins: 18

# of Career Top 5s: 112 

# of Career Top 10s: 238

# of Career DNFs: 66

# of Career laps led: 4,748

Career Average Finish: 15.9  

Career Average Start: 12.3

# of 2017 Wins: 1

# of 2017 Top 5s: 7

# of 2017 Top 10s: 13

# of 2017 Poles: 0

# of 2017 DNFs: 4

# of 2017 laps led: 46

2017 Average Finish: 15.8

2017 Average Start: 17.1

2017 Fantasy Recap - In 2014 and 2015, Newman was considered one of the most consistent drivers in the series. He posted very good numbers overall, but over the past two seasons he has been in more middle of the road. He improved in 2017 compared to 2016, but still he was lackluster at times. In 2017, he had one win, 7 top 5 finishes and 13 Top 10 finishes as well. His win total, top 5 total and top 10 total all were improved from a year ago. The thing I noticed about him is you couldn't figure out, if he was gonna be really good or just average. Most of his top 5 and top 10 finishes were kind out of nowhere. I think the lack of speed at RCR also was a factor in Newman's decline over the past couple years, too. But still, it is hard to say it was a ''bad'' year for Newman when looking at his numbers. Actually it was by far one of his better years in overall production. He won a race and posted the most top 5 finishes since the 2011 season. I guess I was just looking more from him entering the season. And I am not talking about from the win or top 5/top 10 departments, either. I am talking about his average finish and quality finishes. For me that right there is what gives him value. If he is gonna be considered a legit option in most formats, he needs to be extremely consistent. Because he doesn't usually have enough ''potential'' to overcome it. Unless from year to year, he can post numbers like he did in 2017. If he can, then I guess I can live with him having some off-races. But personally, I don't know if he can though

Strong Tracks - 

Weak Tracks -  

2018 Fantasy Outlook - What can you expect from Ryan Newman in 2018? Hard to say, in my honest opinion. He posted some very good numbers in 2017 and just couple years ago he was very consistent. If he can put both of those together, then Newman can have quite the season. But I think that will be tough to accomplish though. Personally, I am hoping Newman can return to some sort of consistency in 2018, just because I think that will give him the best chance of being a reliable fantasy option in general. It is hard to depend on a driver like Newman to produce top 5 and top 10 finishes on a regular basis. Since 2011, he have never posted more than 17 top 10 finishes. In the two years, he posted just 13 Top 10 finishes and 10 Top 10 finishes. Those are career-lows since the 2008 season. 2016 was in my opinion his worst season in nearly a entire decade! His best days will likely be on the short tracks and flats tracks in general. His intermediate races will be good, but you can definitely expect some average days. Honestly, I really don't know what to totally expect from him aside from guessing. A lot of that will be decided with how well RCR start the year running.
 

*All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18