Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Fantasy Nascar Sleepers (MVille)

Welcome to TimersSports

After an nice off-week, we turn our attention back to some fantasy nascar. I really enjoyed the off-week, I was able to relax and not have a care in the world. But that was last week and we now have Martinsville to look forward. Martinsville is typically a sleeper-friendly racetrack, if you know what you are looking for. I believe it important to give many quality sleepers throughout the season as possible, however it is important to realize it is all about time. For example, Austin Dillon 5th place at Vegas and Ricky Stenhouse Jr 5th place at Cali. I doubt we will them finish better this season at many racetracks, so snagging that fantasy value would be important. Point being, it all about where you find the fantasy value. To sum it up, don't go crazy looking for a deeper fantasy option. Go with the stats and go with some logic. Two things that usually leads to fantasy success.

Sleepers -

AJ Dinger - Dinger is my personal favorite fantasy sleeper this weekend. Why? Great question and I am going to explain it to you. Dinger is off to a great start this season with finishes of 14th (Vegas), 17th (PIR) and 8th (Cali) over his past 3 races. That right there tells me that 47 team is possibly onto something. Now Dinger goes to one of his best racetracks on the schedule. In 15 career starts, he have managed 9 Top 20 finishes. More recently, he have found plenty of success. Right off the bat, his 3rd place qualifying effort last fall stands out which led to him finishing 11th place. In fact, 3 of his past 4 races at Martinsville have resulted in Top 11 finishes. His lone non-top 15 finish? 43rd last spring after having mechanical issues. Trust me, I remember because I started him on my Yahoo Fantasy Racing team, just start of a very long day. Okay enough about me and my sob sorry. With Dinger, you are getting a risky fantasy option because of his equipment. However all the braking is similar to what a road course offers, so it only makes sense that he knows how to get around this place.

Aric Almirola - Yeah I know, I sort of dropped the ball with Aric's 21st place finish at Cali. However that doesn't change the fact that he was running inside the top 12 or 13 before that final caution. Oh well that was a few weeks ago, and I cannot think of a better fantasy sleeper than Aric. He brings consistent, track record and a team that usually set up well for the short tracks. RPM isn't JGR or anything, but they do a pretty decent job with what they have to work with. At Martinsville, he been very consistent. How consistent? 7 of his 8 races have ended inside the top 20. His lone non-top 20 finish was 21st in fall 2014. When digging deeper into the data pool, he have finished 5 of those 8 races inside the top 16. Including 3 Top 8 finishes. However his last one came in spring 2014. But he did knock off finishes of 12th and 16th last season. A great trend for Aric Almirola in the spring races? 3 of his past 4 races (dating back to 2012) have resulted in 8th-12th place. Now I know that isn't a large simple size, but I wouldn't be shocked if that trend held through.

Clint Bowyer - I accepted the fact that I was nuts along time ago, so considering Clint Bowyer as fantasy option doesn't scare me. Sure he's in a complete crap equipment and sure he's probably having his season of his career. However there are a few reasons to believe he might shock us with a half-way decent finish at Martinsville though. For starters, this is his best racetrack and MWR wasn't exactly tearing it up these last couple years. He still managed a top 15 last season in the spring. Now it wasn't pretty by any means, but the result still counts though. Second, Justin Allagier was able to finish up inside the top 15 with this same raceteam. No disrespect to Justin, but Clint (in my opinion) is a better short track racer. I am not saying Clint Bowyer is going to have some type of god-like performance, but if he going to have a good race this season. Then I would put my money it will come on a short track and Martinsville is at top of the list.

Have a question?

Email - briggs_garry48@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading,

Garry Briggs