We are headed to New Hampshire today and this is one of the tougher places to predict. While, we don't typically see a lot of wrecks. However, we do tend to see deadly mistakes. One mistake under green and your day at a good finish is basically toast. Guys, you can go one lap down and you will likely spend rest o the race trying to catch up. Multiple laps down? You are probably getting that 30th place finish. On the flip side? Track position is key and mid-level drivers have a shot at stealing stage points and maybe more! Oh and restarts? You could lose a half dozen laps and probably spend the whole run trying to get 3 or 4 of those spots back.
Yeah, this place can be a challenge to set a strong lineup for! Luckily, I have a few drivers I like and I dislike for today's race! Happy race day and let's get rolling!
Drivers I like -
Matt DiBenedetto - I really like DiBenedetto, as I wrote about him yesterday as well. He been on my radar all season and I have high hopes for him again. He has finished outside of the top 15 in the past two races and I think he is due for a strong run today. At New Hampshire in 2019, he had a really strong run and I think this No.21 team is really starting to click right now. If we went to New Hampshire early in the season, I would have less confident. But this team has been bringing some really fast cars to the track over the past month or so.
Ty Dillon - There probably plenty of drivers out there that offer more than Ty Dillon, but I am sick of using all of the same names. So I had to dig a little deeper and Ty Dillon is someone whom is appealing as a fantasy pick. He hasn't finished worse than 23rd in his 4 career starts at New Hampshire and has some momentum. In his last 4 cup races, he has finished 16th or better in 3 of those races. I think for Dillon to be a quality fanasy pick, he will have to get more out of his equipment than it is capable of and that's so Ty Dillon at a place like New Hampshire. Ever notice how he is often a top 20 finisher at these shorter-flat tracks? Yeah, he will typically get better finishes than his equipment should. I am betting on to happen again here at New Hampshire.
Drivers I don't like -
Jimmie Johnson - Johnson was once a stud here, but those days are gone. Over the last couple years, it seem like he can be a decent fantasy option. But his ceiling is probably around 9th or 10th I would say. And he really haven't been top 10 good on speed in a good month or month and a half now. He started off running well early in the season, but the other teams caught and passed him. When you look at the numbers, he is the worst HMS driver right now in pretty much every major stat. His teammates aren't running circles around him, but they are consistently outrunning him on the track. In his last 7 starts this season, he has just one finish better than 16th and that was a 13th place finish. I felt like Johnson was really strong out of the gate this season and still had something up to Martinsville. But his production has started to really fall off from Homestead on and now you can notice it on the racetrack as well. I feel like for him to be worth it as a fantasy pick, he needs to be able to finish somewhere in the top 10. And right now, I really don't have much faith in him to do that.
Joey Logano - Logano has had a tough strench of races recently and only has two top 10 finishes in his last 8 races. Going deeper into his stats, he has just two finishes better than 10th place in his last 11 cup races this season. Yeah it has been an awful run of races for him. At times, he has been competitive, but he seems to fall off in some races, too. In other races? He simply just has bad luck. Another reason why I have him on this list is because how he has performed recently at New Hampshire. In his last 5 races at New Hampshire, he has finished 9th-11th in four races. Problem is? He has failed to reach a 100.0 driver rating in any of those races. In fact, he has failed to even have a driver rating at 90.0. And his average driver rating is just 84.3 and his ARP is just 13.3 for those 4 races betwen 9th and 11th.
***All stats are from DriverAverages.com and FRCS.PRO
Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com
Twitter - @Garryy12