Saturday, November 03, 2018

2018 Fantasy Nascar Sleepers & Dark Horses (Texas)

Welcome to TimersSports

Sleepers -

Ricky Stenhouse Jr - Over the past 3 seasons (7 races), Ricky has only once finished worse than 21st at Texas. While finishing 5 of 7 races in 16th or better. One of those two races were earlier this season at Texas. He finished 25th in the spring's race, after suffering mechanical issues. He led 10 laps in that event though. In 2016 and 2017 at Texas, he had 4 straight races between 12th and 16th. This weekend, the #17 car is looking pretty good. This is just one of those tracks where the #17 team shows up with speed. No exception this weekend. I think Ricky can finish somewhere between 13th and 18th, honestly.

Daniel Suarez - The JGR cars are all good but Suarez is probably the guy that get the least amount of credit. I haven't been drinking the Daniel Kool-aid this season, so it means something coming from me. I think the #19 car will surprise a lot of people. In final practice, he was 3rd on the best-ten lap average. That means less here at Texas, since we don't really see the fall-off here like at places such as your Atlanta or Charlotte tracks. But still, I like seeing that out of the #19 car. In two starts at this track in 2017, he had finishes of 19th and 14th. Earlier this season, he finished 29th but he was over 40 laps laps down when the checkers wave though.

Paul Menard - Paul Menard has had some very good runs this season and the 21 team also had some very good runs last season with Ryan Blaney. The Wood brothers keep putting good cars on the track, even with Menard behind the wheel. In four of the last five 1.5 mile tracks, Menard has finished between 10th and 14th. He finished 32nd at Kansas a few weeks ago. But let's not go crazy and panic about that race. He was strong in that event. In that event, he started 18th and was running solidly in the top 10 and close to the top 5. But then his day went downhill. He made contact with Bayne on pit road and car never really was the same. In Sunday's race at Texas, he will start from 11th and should easily challenge for a top 15 finish, in my opinion.

Dark Horses -

Kyle Larson - Larson has a history of running very well here at Texas and I would not be shocked if the No.42 car put his car in the top 5 (or more) when the checkers wave. In fact, I would be disappointed if he didn't. Two weeks ago at Kansas, Larson had a very good car. He ran the two leaders down from about 3.5 seconds back on that final run. I was impressed. At times during that race, it looked like Larson had the car to beat. That was with a backup car. He is fast again this weekend. He will roll off from inside the top 10 and looks very close to be a top 5 guy, in my opinion. Yet, nobody is really considering him a threat, since he has been eliminated already. Mark my words, that is a mistake. I think the No.42 car will be someone you have to beat!

Aric Almirola - Watch out for Aric Almirola! He has been a standout driver here at Texas this weekend. The Ford drivers, in general, has been strong. Aric is in my top 3 drivers of those Fords honestly. They really haven't had to make a lot of changes to his car so far. Overall, Aric and the 10 team seem pretty damn happy with their car. I love when a driver loves his car. Usually that is a great sign. Aric has been very good during the playoffs and have had several solid runs. I think this Aric's best shot to win in the remaining last three races to contend for a top 5 finish. Texas always been a very good track for him and that is saying something. Especially since he has the equipment now. On twitter, Aric sounded confident that they can go out in win. He said he has a fast car!

Honorable Mentions - Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones

****All stats are from FantasyRacingCheatSheet.com

Have a question or want to chat?

Email - briggs_garry48@yahoo.com

Twitter - @Garryy12