2018 Fantasy Nascar Prview: Brad Keselowski

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Brad Keselowski had a very good 2017 season, he made the Nascar playoffs and got into the championship race at Homestead. But I don't think he ever was a ''true'' championship contender. Of the four drivers in the championship hunt, I would considered him as the weak link. When looking at the season as a whole, more often than not he was between the 4th and 6th best driver. I am not saying he didn't deserve to be in the championship, but it was pretty clear he was missing a step when it came to possibly taking the championship home!

Keselowski is a pretty well-rounded driver for the most part, but intermediate tracks remain his strong suit though. Penske was down in 2017, but it didn't stop Keselowski from being one of the most consistent drivers in the series, either. He posted 3 wins with 16 Top 5 finishes and 21 Top 10 finishes as well to his credit. On the intermediate tracks, he was strong. How did he fair on the bread and butter 1.5 milers? Quite well, actually. In 11 races, he posted 7 finishes of 6th or better. Including a win back at Atlanta. He followed that up top 5 finishes at Las Vegas and Kansas in the incoming months. Of course middle of the season was a bit more rocky, as he had a few DNFs at both Charlotte and Kentucky. At end of the year, he got things rolling once again though. He had 3 Top 7 finishes in his final 5 races on this type of track during the playoffs.

I think Kentucky is his best 1.5 mile track and he would make a very strong case as his best track on the schedule. He has been very good here throughout his career and that success started before Kentucky was at the cup level. In 7 career starts (all since 2011), he has finishes of 7th or better in 5 of those races. Since the 2012 season, Keselowski has 3 wins during that 6-race stench. This is with 2 DNFs, too. A really good thing for Keselowski in 2018? His wins has came in even years. He posted wins in 2012, 2014 and 2016. He should be due for another win in 2018, if the trend holds true!

Las Vegas and Chicago are considered as his next two best tracks on the schedule, in my personal opinion. I love him at both tracks, but Las Vegas really stands out to me. Over the past 5 seasons at Vegas, he has compiled 4 Top 5 finishes. His worst finish is 7th back in 2015. Like with Kentucky, he have found the most success on even years. He won in 2014 and 2016. He might be due for another win in 2018 at Las Vegas. Then there's Chicago. When looking at career point of view, this is considered his best racetrack. He has only made 9 career starts here, but he have made them all count though. Since the 2011 season (7 races ago), he has compiled 7 straight finishes of 8th or better. Once again, he has found the most success on even years. Over the past 3 even seasons (2012, 2014 and 2016), Keselowski has finishes of 1st (2012), 1st (2014) and 5th (2016). He finished 6th last year at Chicago. If the trend holds up, he should get back into the top 5 and maybe more.

The next type of track that I would like to look at is the flats tracks! I think he's really good at both the larger and shorter flats, but he tend to have a few bad results here and there though. Let's look at the shorter flats first! Richmond has been very good over the recent seasons here and have posted 7 Top 11 finishes in his last 8 races. In his last 5 races, he has compiled 3 finishes of 8th or better. When comparing the spring races to the fall races, he is better in the fall (or summer race - whatever you call it) races. As he has finished 11th or better in 3 straight seasons now. Including finishes of 2nd and 8th in 2 of those three seasons.

New Hampshire is probably best shorter flat racetrack when looking at the numbers in recent seasons. In his last 8 races at New Hampshire, he has compiled 6 finishes of 9th or better. And in all 8 races, he has finished 15th or better. Digging deeper into the data pool, he has very impressive. Over his last 13 races, he haven't finished worse than 15th. In fact, he has finished 9th or better in 10 of the last 13 races at New Hampshire. Including 9 of the last 13 races in 7th or better. Then there's Phoenix, I would have to say that this is his worst shorter flat. He's actually pretty good here overall, just not as good as the other two that I have listed above. Over the past 8 races, he has finished 9th or better in 5 of those races. However, he haven't done that well over the past two seasons here though As he has posted finishes of 16th, 14th, 29th and 5th. While not leading a single lap. From 2012 to 2015, he did not finish worse than 11th and only twice worse than 6th.

Now let's move onto the larger flats of Indy and Pocono. Both of these tracks has been pretty solid tracks for Keselowski lately and certainly should keep up the good work in 2018. Let's look at Indy first. He scored his first top 5 finish in 2017 at Indy. But it was the third straight season, where he led laps at Indy though. In his last four races, he has compiled 3 finishes of 12th or better. In his last 7 starts, he has posted 5 finishes of 12th or better. And 4 finishes of 10th or better. In his last 7 races, he has led in 5 different races. Despite only posting one top 5 finish.

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that I would like to look at. I think Martinsville is one of Keselowski's best tracks and he never get enough credit for it. In his last 11 races here, he has compiled 8 finishes of 6th or better. In his last 6 races here, Keselowski has compiled 5 finishes of 5th or better. At Martinsville, he was very good in 2017. He led 100+ laps and finished 4th and 1st in two races during 2017. In 3 of his last 5 Martinsville races, he has led at least 100 laps. Okay let's move onto the next track of Bristol. And it haven't been a very friendly place in terms of good finishes for Bristol. In 7 of his last 9 races, he has finished 14th or worse. In 4 of his last 6 races, he has finished 29th or worse. Including finishes of 29th and 34th in 2017.

Road courses are always an interesting place and Keselowski always seem to make things interesting, too. Watkins Glen is his better road course and I don't think it is very close at all. He has led in three straight seasons at Watkins Glen and has finishes of 7th and 3rd in 2 of the last 3 races. In his last 7 career starts here, he has compiled 5 finishes of 7th or better. In those 5 races, he has 4 finishes of 3rd or better. He last finished 3rd or better in 2016. In last season's race, he finished 15th. He was much better than that, but he ran out of fuel though. At Sonoma, he scored his first top 10 finish since the 2011 season. He finished 3rd in last season's race and that was his first career top 5 finish at Sonoma. However, that was his first finish better than 15th place in last 5 seasons though. It's encouraging to see him get a top 5 finish, but I really need to see more out of him.

Plate tracks are always a place where Keselowski seems to be really good or really bad. Over the past two seasons, he has posted 3 wins in his last 8 plate races. At Talladega, he have posted two of those wins. In his last 7 races at Talladega, he has compiled 3 wins. That's nearly 50% of the time since the 2014 season. In his last 5 of 7 races here, he has finishes of 7th or better. It has been a amazing track for Keselowski over the past three seasons. He's not quite as good at Daytona though. He posted a win over the past two seasons, but that's the best I can say about him though. In his last 7 races, he has finished 18th or better in 6 of those 7 races. While 4 of the last 6 races at Daytona, he's posted finishes of 27th or better. You can see what track that he is clearly better on.

I expect great things from Brad Keselowski in 2018! He may not be the homerun that we are looking for every single week. But more often than not, he will be there at the end. And that alone will give him a shot at a great finish. Let alone, if he actually has a great racecar. I think Keselowski will have about 2 to 3 wins in 2018. And much like every other year, you can expect his total of top 5 finishes to be in the middle teens and his top 10 finishes to be somewhere in the 20s. I am not expecting anything out of the unusual for him. It will be like pretty much any other year. He contend for wins, be consistent and find a way to be in the conversation for a top 10 (and plus some) on a every week basis. That's all I really got to say about him for the most part.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Ricky Stenhouse Jr

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Ricky Stenhouse Jr is coming off a career year after a career year. Pretty good, wouldn't you say? He had his best season (at the time) in 2016, where he impressed a lot. What does he go out and do? He have a even better season in 2017 and scores his first two career wins.

Intermediate tracks will be good and bad for Stenhouse Jr in 2018, but the past two seasons he has proven that he can be a very consistent driver. I think we have to bank on that consistency for him to have any real constant fantasy value. We like predicable in fantasy nascar and Stenhouse Jr will deliver that, too.  His best three intermediate tracks (in my opinion) are Atlanta, Kansas and Texas. One of three, I would have to say that Atlanta is his best one of those tracks. In 5 career starts, he has posted 19.0 average finish and that includes an 36th place finish back in 2015. In his four other career races, he has finished 20th or better in every race. He has been very competitive over the past two seasons here. He has finished 10th and 13th in 2016 and 2017 races. Statistically based on performed, they also were very strong races for him. He performed very well in the low-teens for the event and that alone should tell you should about him. In my opinion, Atlanta is just one of those tracks that fits perfectly in his driving style.

Kansas is another really good track for Ricky and he has plenty of experience here. In 6 of his 10 career starts, he has finished in the top 20. In 4 of his last 5 starts at Kansas, he has finished 19th or better. He has finishes of 11th, 19th, 13th and 13th in those four finishes. In last fall's race, he finished 29th. In that event, he crashed into the wall and then dragged his side against the wall for about half a lap. Obviously he had something going wrong, prior to hitting the wall. Regradless, the results ended up being the exact same for him. That would end up eliminating him from the championship and advancing to the next round.

Charlotte is another solid track for him and he has been really good lately here. In his last 5 starts here, he has finished 20th or better in all five races. In 4 of those 5 races, he has finished 15th or better. Including finishes of 13th and 15th during the 2017 season. In his first three starts with the #17 car at Charlotte, he had no finishes better than 24th. Since then, he doesn't have any outside of the top 20. It really shows the improvement that RFR has made since latter part of the 2015 season. This is one of the greatest example of that!

Bristol is a really strong track for Ricky Stenhouse Jr and I would go far as saying it his best track so far in his career. I guess the plate tracks would put up a tough fight for that title, but outside of that, I don't think another track comes close. Ricky is a stud at Bristol and his numbers can back that up, too. Earlier in his career, I thought he was bit of a fluke. But as the races go by, it is hard to argue that he is just that good here. In 10 career starts, he has finished in the top 10 five times. That's 50% of the time and he also has posted 3 Top 5 finishes. That's 30% of the time! In 7 of his last 8 races here, he has finished in the top 16. In 5 of his last 8 races here, he has finished in the top 9. Including in 2 of the last three races overall. In his last three races, he has finishes of 14th, 9th and 2nd. He has been at least a top 15 driver on pure performance in all three races, in my opinion. That's a very good sign for him in 2018 and beyond!

Martinsville is one of his worst tracks on the schedule, despite a career-year at the paperclip in 2017. He posted two top 10 finishes of 10th place in 2 races during the 2017 at Martinsville. Prior to that, he had one career top 15 (15th place) in his first 8 races. During that 8-race span, he posted just 2 finishes in the top 25. And they were 15th and 25th. They came in 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Shorter flats will be a very interesting place for him in 2018, but I still think RFR is a working progress on this type of track. I would have to say that New Hampshire has been the kindest to him over the past couple seasons. In his last 6 races at New Hampshire, he has compiled 5 finishes of 17th or better. Yes, that's pretty damn good! He's very consistent at New Hampshire of late. This is something he has struggled to do in general on this type of track so far in his career. In his last 5 races at this track, he has finished 4 of 5 races in the top 15. He swept the top 15 with finishes of 14th and 15th in 2017.

New Hampshire may had been more kind to him over the past couple seasons, but I think Phoenix is his BEST shorter flat. In 2017, he was really good and he has been at his best at this place throughout his career. In 2017, he finished 8th and 4th. Prior to that he had three straight finishes of 23rd or worse. In 7 of his 10 career races at Phoenix, he has finished 18th or better. And there is Richmond, where he has had his issues at. Ricky has had been inconsistent at times, but he isn't terrible here. In 4 of his last 5 races, he has finished 19th or better. In 5 of his 10 career races at Richmond, he has finished in the top 19. I would like to see him consistently contend for those top 15, but isn't too far off of that. Just need a little more work here overall.

Pocono has been a very good track for Stenhouse Jr over the past couple seasons. He has been very good since the start of the 2016 season. In the past two seasons, he haven't finished worse than 18th place. The June races has been his best finishes though. In the last four June races, he has 3 top 15 finishes. Including finishes of 11th, 15th and 15th. His number in the August races aren't bad, either. In his last 4 August races, he has 3 Top 18 finishes. Including finishes of 16th, 18th and 18th. You really cannot say anything bad about Stenhouse Jr when he can post these kind of numbers at this track. A place that has given drivers a lot of trouble over the years. Stenhouse Jr has done well for the equipment he been given. Indy has been a real trouble spot for Stenhouse Jr. It is considered one of his worst tracks in Nascar and his numbers back that up, too. In 5 career races, he only has one finish better than 24th. That race came in 2016 and he finished 12th in that race. Otherwise, his finishes look like this: 35th, 35th, 24th and 25th. This is just a ugly nightmare that I personally want no part of!

Plate tracks has given Ricky his first two career wins. They both came in 2017 and both were just a few months apart. Don't be fooled though, he was considered a great plate racer long before the 2017 season. He has been very good since his debut in 2013. At Talladega, he has 5 top 10 finishes in his last 8 races at this track. Prior to finishing 26th in last October's race, he had back to back top 5 finishes in May 2017 and October 2016. In his last 4 races (before last October's 26th place finish), he had 3 top 9 finishes. 

Daytona has some interesting trends for the most part. He started off very well at the Daytona 500 in his career. In his first 3 starts at the Daytona 500, he posted finishes of 20th, 11th and 7th. Trending in the right direction, right? Yup and then things went south quickly. In his last 3 Daytona 500 races, he has finishes of 29th, 22nd and 31st. In the July races? He has been a lot better. In 5 July races, he has posted 3 top 11 finishes. Including finishes of 1st, 5th, 19th, 41st and 11th. In his last two July races, he has back-to-back top 5 finishes.

Road Courses will be a kind of track that I would try to avoid using Stemhouse Jr on. He have a dirt background, but that means little to nothing when it comes to road course racing. Even though he haven't completely terrible. In 5 career races at Watkins Glen, he has posted 3 finishes in the top 20. His best career finish is 18th though. In his last three races here, he has finishes of 20th, 38th and 34th. His best-career finish of 18th place came in his first very first start. Since then, he have two 20th place finishes to his credit. That's all!

As one would guess, drivers usually struggle a lot more at Sonoma than Watkins Glen. Since, the skill level required at Sonoma is vastly different than Watkins Glen. At Sonoma, it typically reward the skillful road course racers. Stenhouse Jr doesn't have the skill-set mastered yet. In 5 career starts, he has one top 20 finish. He finished 20th in 2015. His next best finish? 26th. In those other four races, he has finishes of 38th, 26th, 31st and 27th. Things haven't ended all too well for Ricky overall at the road courses.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Aric Almirola

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Aric Almirola will driver the #10 car in 2018 for Stewart-Haas Racing, after previously driving for Richard Petty Motorsports over the past 5 seasons. Many would argue that Aric won't have much more success with the #10 team than he did with the #43. I do see their point as Aric isn't a monster talent behind the wheel. I do, however have to disagree with that. I think to a certain extent that Aric will have more success with SHR. In my opinion, Aric did an amazing job with the 43 team. Considering Petty never exactly delivered him top 10 capable cars. Nobody could expect him to go out there and contend for good finishes, because he never had the equipment. He has a better ride now, one that is capable of running closer to the top 10. Obviously getting the #10 car means he will be at end the bottom of the food chain. But I think Aric is capable of doing some really good things in 2018. That if he can live up to his full potential with his new team.

Intermediate tracks never has been a strength for Aric Almirola in his career, but he is also in new equipment than he was in recent years. I don't think it will make a world difference, as Aric will probably get a lot of the leftovers stuff. But I think Aric can surprise us with some solid finishes here and there. With that said, I think there will be inconsistency. I think this can be said about every driver, aside from the top 4 or 5 drivers in the sport. What are his best intermediate tracks? I personally would have to say Texas and Michigan when looking at his career numbers. Of course that all was with Richard Petty Motorsports, too.

At Texas, he has been very good recently. Overall, he has been consistent in the top 20. In his last 8 races at Texas, he has compiled 5 finishes of 19th or better. Including 4 finishes of 19th or better in his last 6 races at this track. In 2017, he posted finishes of 15th and 18th. He wasn't nothing special during the events though. But he still found a way to get respectable finishes in the top 20. It's hard to complain about that! At Michigan, Aric has found success throughout his career. In 11 career starts, he has compiled 7 finishes in the top 20. In 4 of his last 6 races at Michigan, he has finished 22nd or better. Including finishes of 12th, 14th and 20th. What do those three finishes have in common? All three finishes has came in the last three August's races at Michigan.

Shorter flats has been where Aric has had his best results and performances. In general. this has been the type of track that he been the most reliable on. By far, he has been the strongest at Phoenix and Richmond. In 26 career starts at both tracks (combined), he has compiled 20 career top 20 finishes. That's insane consistency right there and it is exactly what has given him fantasy value over the last couple seasons. I would say that Richmond is his slight better track though, but it could either way really. At Richmond, his record of late is impressive! In his rookie's season, he had a pair of 26th place finishes. Since? In 10 starts, he haven't finished worse than 21st. That 21st place finish was back in April 2014. In 4 of his last 5 races at Richmond, he has finished 17th or better. These finishes includes 17th, 9th, 17th and 4th. More impressive? 3 top 10 finishes in his last 7 races at Richmond. Statistically speaking, it is one of better tracks on the schedule. And I don't think many people even know it!

At Phoenix, he is also very good on. In his first two starts in 2007 (Dale Inc) and 2010 (the first go around with Richard Petty in the #9 car), he had finishes of 27th and 26th. In his 12 starts since then? No finishes worse than 22nd place. In 11 of those 12 races, he has finished in the top 20. In 4 of his last 5 races at Phoenix, he has finished 17th or better. Including 3 of his last 5 races ending in 13th or better. In his last race here (November 2017), he finished 9th for that event. Then there is New Hampshire, the worst of the three shorter flats. In his last 5 races at New Hampshire, he has compiled 3 finishes of 24th or worse. Including finishes of 26th, 24th and 43rd. In his last 9 races overall, he has finished 23rd or worse five (5) times. In 4 of his last 7 races, he does have finishes in the top 20 though. As you can tell, Aric is really good at two of the three tracks. Then the three one, he is a bit more iffy on.

The larger flats has been a pretty interesting place for Aric to say the least. Indy haven't been a good track for him, but it haven't been bad, either. When looking at his record, it is basically middle of the road for Aric. In 6 career starts at Indy, Aric has compiled 4 finishes of 13th-21st. He had best career finish in 2017, where he finished 13th. From a performance stand-point, he was his best in his firs two career starts. In his last three starts at the track, he haven's started any better than 22nd. i think that in itself puts him at an disadvantage. Especially since Indy is a very difficult place to make passes on. If things can improve with the #10 car with Aric behind the wheel, I think Indy is a good place for him to be a solid sleeper.

The other larger flat is Pocono. And man is his track record is ugly! In his first 5 career starts, he posted 4 finishes between 18th-22nd. I can live with that from Aric, can't you? Since August 2014? He has made 6 starts and has finished 35th or worse in 4 of those 6 races. His last 6 finishes at Pocono: 38th, 39th, 20th, 18th, 43rd and 35th. If you are looking for an example of  a ''terrible'' track record, then you found it. You could say it is bad luck and I would agree. However, when you get these sort of finishes in such a span. You also have to face the facts that it is a pattern. Even if he has stupid bad luck here lately. Nothings points to him having better luck and the only thing that will do that is good results. I would avoid him at Pocono going forward, until he proves himself.

Bristol and Martinsville are among two of his favorite tracks on the schedule! Martinsville is a very good track for him and not even people even realize it! Over his last 6 races here at Martinsville, he has posted 5 finishes of 18th or better. In his last 8 races, he has compiled 6 finishes in the top 18. In his last three races he has finishes of 18th, 18th and 15th. If you exclude his 40th place finish (engine) in 2016, he haven't finished worse than 21st place. Since hopping in the #43 car, he haven't finished worse than 21st in a race, other than that lone DNF in 2016. He also has compiled 9 top 20 finishes during that 12-race span. At Bristol, he isn't quite as good. But he has been on the record of saying that he loves Bristol Motor Speedway! He have some bad finishes of late, but still it a very good track for him overall. In his last 9 races here, he has compiled 5 finishes in the top 17. Overall, he has finished 6 of his last 9 races in the top 22 at Bristol. If you exclude last season's results of 22nd and 37th, he has finished 5 of his last 7 races in the top 17. He's pretty damn good here!

Road courses haven't exactly been a strong suit for Aric and I doubt it will change that much with the #10 team! At Sonoma, he haven't found much success at all! In his career so far, he only has one finish better than 20th. He finished 14th back in 2015. In 6 career starts, he has only two top 20 finishes overall. His other four finishes consist of 27th, 27th, 28th and 23rd. He haven't ever started better than 25th at this place, either. He's a lot better at Watkins, which isn't exactly much of an accomplishment. But still, he isn't terrible at Watkins Glen. Over his last 6 races at Watkins Glen, he has compiled 4 finishes between 16th-21st. In other two finishes outside of that range? 27th in 2016 and 37th in 2014. Not bad. He had an accident in 2014 race and I believe he had a tire down that caused him to nail the tire barriers. I would trust him a lot more at Watkins Glen than Sonoma.

The plate tracks will be a very strong area for Aric Almirola! He is one of the most underrated plate racers in the series. Over the past two seasons, he has under a 12.0 average finish at this type of track. Over his last 6 Daytona races, he has finished 5 of 6 races in the top 15. His last 6 finishes at Daytona: 4th, 15th, 12th, 34th, 15th and 1st. Doesn't that look really good? He has been on fire since winning at Daytona. He's pretty good at Talladega, too. In his last 6 races at Talladega, he has compiled 5 finishes of 16th or better. His last three finishes consists of 5th, 4th and 8th. Over his last 8 races at Talladega, he has finished 16th or better in 6 of 8 races.

I don't think Aric will go to contending for wins in 2018 or anything close to that, but I think he will be better than he was in recent seasons. That might be difficult though, since he had a pretty impressive run in 2015. But I still stand by that, I do believe he can accomplish some things with his new team. He is not super talent, so don't expect the world. Personally, I would focus on targeting him at his strongest tracks. And they would be places such as Martinsville, Richmond, Phoenix, Talladega and Daytona. Off top of my head those are always the tracks that stick out to me. If he can post solid numbers in the #43 car, then there's no reason why he cannot keep having solid runs there. Those are the tracks that he will most likely have success on. Of course this is Nascar, so who knows what gonna happen. Personally, I am gonna be keeping an eye on Aric Almirola through the first 4 or 5 races. I think that gonna tell a lot in terms of what sort of season he could have.

***All stats are from DriverAvearges.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Trevor Bayne

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Trevor Bayne get zero respect from anyone it seems and I get that because of RFR's recent history. The entire Roush organization were at their low point in the 2014 and 2015. Logically the drivers get shit on and a bad reputation comes to the surface. I am not your average fan, so you cannot fool me that easily. I love digging up stats and comparing them, so my perspective is a little different. And over the past two seasons, Bayne has been making solid gains as a driver. But Roush was so bad 3 or 4 seasons ago, it is hard to see those gains. Especially, if you don't keep track of his progress.

In his rookie season, he posted just 2 top 10 finish with 25.8 average finish in 36 races. Yeah that's bad and that was during Roush's worst season as whole. 2015 was a ugly year for the whole organization. So no surprise that their most inexperience driver had the biggest struggles. In 2016, he was a lot better overall. In 36 races, he posted 2 top 5 finishes and 5 Top 10 finishes with 19.9 average finish. In the first 23 races of the 2016 season, he posted 14 Top 20 finishes. He had 20 Top 20 finishes in 36 races. So yeah, it was a decent season in 2015 was. But I felt like he truly took a big step in 2017. Especially how he started the season. In the first 11 races of the 2017 season, he posted 8 finishes of 13th or better. Sounds pretty promising, don't you agree? I was pretty impressed by him in those 11 races. Then there was the All-star break and that when things started to go downhill. In the final 24 races, he only posted 4 top 13 finishes. If he can keep up the consistency for a longer period of time, I think he can have a really good season in 2018. That's all I really need to see from him in 2018. I don't care about how many top 5 finishes or top 10 finishes he get. Just consistently finish in the top 15 on a weekly basis. Worry about the top finishes, later on down the road.

He will be inconsistent on the intermediate tracks in 2018, but I expect him to make some sort of progress though. In 2017, he was really consistent all around on the intermediate. On the 1.5 mile tracks, he finished 20th or better in 9 of 11 races. In addition, he had finishes of 17th and 5th at Michigan as well. He wasn't a top 5 driver at Michigan, but things really worked in his favor at the end though. His best intermediate tracks so far in his career are Michigan, Las Vegas and Atlanta. All three are good tracks for him, but two of them we only visit once per season. So our data pool is limited. But like anything else, we have to trust the data until it says not to.

At Atlanta, Bayne only has four career starts. However, he has made them count though. In 4 career starts, he has compiled 3 finishes of 19th or better. His lone non-top 20 finish is 22nd in 2016. Last season was his best performance by far at Atlanta. If you watch the 2016 Atlanta race and then watch the 2017 race, it is clear as day which race he was better in. He was legit top 15 driver in last season's race. The next track that I would like to look at is Las Vegas. In 7 career starts, he has posted 5 finishes in the top 20. In the past two seasons, he has finishes of 13th and 17th. He has made three starts in the #6 car at Atlanta. He has improved in each start. He finished 28th in 2015, 17th in 2016 and 13th in 2017. The trends are on his side for a possible top 10 finish in 2018. Again, they are trends and can change in an instant. But it is encouraging to see!

Michigan is one of his best tracks on the schedule, in my opinion. Bayne has always been a big fan of Michigan. So it make sense that he has had some success here, dating back to his days in the #21 car. Of the non-plate tracks, he has made the most starts here of any track. He has made 6 starts with the #6 car and has posted 4 finishes of 17th or better. In fact, he has posted 3 top 15 finishes in those 6 starts. That's 50% of the time! The June races been really good for Bayne. He has made 7 starts in the June races since 2011. In those 7 races, he has compiled 6 finishes in the top 20. His finishes in June are as follow: 17th (2017), 15h, 9th, 19th, 15th, 43rd (engine - 2012) and 16th (2011). The August races? Well not quite as promising: 5th (2017), 24th, 22nd, 41st, 21st, 24th and 24th (2011). He has no top 20 finishes in the August race, prior to finishing 5th in last season's race.

The flats tracks will be at times a tough type of track for Bayne to find success on. He has struggled on the flats over the past couple seasons. I think RFR's struggled and his inxpereince both can contribute to that. I would like to look at the shorter flats first. His best shorter flat track is Richmond. He has mix results there, but his finishes of late are very encouraging. Bayne has posted 3 finishes of 17th or better and 3 finishes of 23rd or worse. Good news? His last four races (2 seasons): 25th, 13th, 14th and 17th. That's really good, minus his most recent race here.One thing I always look for in young drivers is if they are completing laps and getting more experience. That's so key for drivers like Bayne. If he keep up his recent good runs here, the finishes will follow. I would be very happy with some more top 17 finishes from him in 2018. In fact, I wouldn't surprised at all.

New Hampshire and Phoenix are where I am most considered about when it comes to the 5 flats. Over the past two seasons, both tracks are ranked in his bottom-three worst tracks. In fact, they are by far his worst two tracks among places with two races per season. How bad have he been at these two tracks? In his last 8 starts combined, he has compiled just two top 20 finishes. That matches his number of DNFs as well in those 8 races. In his last four races at New Hampshire, his best finish is 20th in last July's race. In 4 of his 6 career starts, Bayne has finished 23rd or worse. He has been even worse at Phoenix. Just terrible so far in his career. In 7 career starts, he has only one finish better than 23rd place. That was 19th in last March's race. Otherwise his finishes look like this: 39th, 28th, 23rd, 34th, 28th and 40th. That's good enough for a 30.0 career average finish in 7 career starts. Woof!

The larger flats are not much more encouraging for Bayne so far in his career. At least not at Indy, he has been dreadful in his limited starts. In 7 career starts, he has only two top 20 finishes. And three finishes better than 30th overall. He hit rock bottom in 2014, where he finished 43rd. Since then, his finishes are as followed: 40th, 30th and 20th. He has improved his finishing position in each of the last three seasons at Indy. I know it is not saying much, but things are looking up for him and the 6 team at Indy. The other larger flat is Pocono. And it has been actually pretty consistent track for Bayne over the past couple seasons. In his two seasons (or last 4 races), he has compiled 4 straight finishes of 13th-21st. He has finishes of 20th, 21st, 19th and 13th. He haven't been anything special during the races, but he has logged laps and gotten pretty good finishes. That's the best thing he can do at a challenging track such as Pocono. He need to keep doing that in 2018 and keep adding solid finishes in the top 20.

Bristol and Martinsville are the next two tracks that I would like to look at. Bristol is one of his best tracks on the schedule! RFR has found a lot of success at Bristol recently and 2018 could be the same as well. In Bayne's first two starts, he had finishes of 28th and 34th. Since then? He has 5 straight finishes of 15th or better. In his last 4 races, he haven't finished worse than 12th in any of them. In 3 of his last 4 races, he have 3 races with driver ratings above 80.0. That's important because a driver rating is a great tool to measure a driver's performance. You can tell by that or a driver's average running position. He had finishes of 7th and 11th in 2017. At Martinsville, he isn't quite as good though. He had a tough start to his career at Martinsville, before breaking out in 2017. In his first 5 career starts, he had just one finish better than 23rd. In fact, 3 of his first 4 races ended in 27th or worse. In 2017, he had finishes of 6th and 13th. I am still not convinced that he is legit here though. I need to see more than two races at a place like this. But he has my attention though.

Road courses are a ideal place to avoid Trevor Bayne in general. Both places has been pretty tough on him overall. In six career starts combined, he has just top 20 finish and two finishes in the top 22. Both of those finishes came at Watkins Glenn. He had a 9th place finish in 2016 and 22nd in 2015. He wasn't a top 10 driver in the 2016 race though. Not even close. He probably was lucky to be 20th place driver, if he was even that during the event. At Sonoma, he has a career high of 23rd in his debut at the track in 2015. In his three starts, he has finishes of 23rd, 25th and 27th. Yeah, I think I would avoid him in general on the road courses. There's better places to him!

Plate tracks has been very good to him over the past couple seasons and this isn't something that I expected. After winning the Daytona 500 in his Cup debut, he really struggled to produce good numbers for awhile. At Daytona, he has really good numbers in his last 5 races. Since July 2015 (5 races), he has compiled 3 top 10 finishes in 5 races. From July 2011 to February 2015 (8 races), he had no finishes better than 20th place. In 7 of those 8 races, he finished 27th or worse. So it has been a very good turnaround for him over the past few seasons. At Talladega, I would say that his success isn't as good. In his last 4 races here, he has compiled 3 finishes of 17th or better. In 6 of his last 9 races at Talladega, he has finished 21st or worse.

Trevor Bayne won't have a great season and he won't get much respect from your average race fan. That's just how it will be. That does not mean, he isn't a decent driver. He belongs here at this level. But he will only go far as RFR will take him. They need to deliver him quality racecars to race. He started off 2017 very well (like he did in 2016, too) and I would love to see him do that again. He will likely be his best on the intermediate tracks overall. You can throw Bristol in there as well. Every other type of track, I have my concerns about. The flats will likely be where he is the most inconsistent on. Richmond looks like the best place to employ him though. Road courses will be consistent, but probably consistently bad. As I breakdown up above, he haven't had many good races in his limited experience at both Watkins Glen and Sonoma. He needs to show me something before I trust him at either track. As for plate tracks, I am still undecided about. He has been good over the past couple seasons, but I am not sold on him. Convince me, Trevor!

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Austin Dillon

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Austin Dillon had a consistent rookie season for the most part, but then he was all over the map in year 2. He made some impressive strides in 2016 in year 3 with a good mix of consistency and results. But then last year, he really step back and regressed his ways back to the 2015 season. Even though, he did score a win though. He posted 3 top 5 finishes with 4 top 10 finishes on 18.6 average finish. At end of the season, he was very good though. In his last five races of the 2017 season, he posted 5 straight finishes of 14th or better. That was his best stench of the season.

The intermediate tracks will be an interesting place for him in 2018. He will be inconsistent and have mix bag of results. I think his upside is in the top 15 somewhere, with his realistic finishes coming between 12th-20th somewhere. He may sneak in a top 10 finish here and there, but I am not expecting many. His best two intermediate tracks are Michigan and Kansas, in my personal opinion. Of the two, Kansas is his better track overall. Both are pretty similar though, so no shocker that Dillon have performed well on both. At Kansas, he has performed consistency well. In his last 4 races at this track, he has compiled 4 straight finishes of 16th or better. Including a pair of 8th place finishes in 2016. At Michigan, he always been pretty good. He said it is his favorite racetrack on the schedule. Back in 2016, he said he loves big and fast tracks. That's exactly describes Michigan in general. In 2014 and 2015, he had zero finishes better of 20th. But he was very good in 2 of those three races. But he had bad luck in both races. One race, he had couple of speeding penalty and the other one he had a tire go down after pit stop. However, he has been very good lately. Over his last 5 Michigan races, he has compiled 3 finishes of 8th or better. Including a finish of 7th in last August's race.

The shorter flats will be inconsistent for Dillon, but he should be able to grab a couple solid finishes. I say like most tracks, his best possible outcome is for him to finish in the low-teens. Over the past couple seasons, his best track is New Hampshire. In 8 career starts, he has only one finish outside of the top 20. In his last 6 races (3 seasons) here, he has compiled 4 finishes of 16th or better. In his last three races here, he has finishes of 19th, 15th, 16th and 13th. Of all of the shorter flats, he is the most consistent here. All he need to do now is up his finishes a little more.

Phoenix has been a okay track for him overall. In his last 5 of 6 races, he has finished 20th or better. His lone non-top 20 is 39th place. In his last 4 races, he has finishes of 18th, 14th and 9th. Clearly, he isn't as good here as he is at New Hampshire. But still, I wouldn't mind similar kind of results in 2018 from him. In fact, I would say that is exactly what I am expecting. Then there's Richmond! And I would call this his worst track among the three shorter flats. In 8 career starts, he has only one finish better than 20th place. And that was 13th in September 2016. However, he have finishes of 13th, 20th and 20th in 3 of last 4 races at Richmond.

At the larger flats tracks, he has been a interesting option in recent seasons. Both are good track for him, but nothing over the top though. At Pocono, he haven't had many bad races for the most part. In 8 career starts, he has finished 6 of 8 races between 13th-19th. In 3 of his last 5 races, Dillon has finished 13th. In last season August's race, he finished 21st. That was just his 2nd career finish outside of the top 20 at Pocono. At Indy, he been pretty up and down. He has two finishes in the top 10 in the last four seasons. But he also have two finishes outside of the top 20 as well. His finishes of 9th and 10th came in 2014 and 2016. So trends say he is due for another top 10 finish though. Take that for whatever it is worth to you.

The next two tracks that I want to look at is Martinsville and Bristol. Both venues are very good for Dillon. Over the past two seasons, not many tracks on the schedule has been kinder to Dillon than Martinsville. In his last 4 races at Martinsville, he has compiled 4 finishes of 17th or better. Including top 5 finishes in each of the past two April (spring) races. Overall, Dillon has finished 18th or better in 7 of his 8 career starts. Heading into his cup career, this is one of the last places that I figured Dillon would succeed at like he has. I would go far as to say that Austin Dillon is one of the most underrated drivers in the series at the paperclip. At Bristol, he is also decent and pretty unappreciated. In his last 6 races at Bristol, Dillon has 4 finishes of 13th or better. Overall in 8 career starts, Austin Dillon has compiled 5 finishes of 13th or better. He finished 13th and 4th in two of his last three races here. He had a DNF back in last August's race. He finished 39th after completing just 230 laps.

Like most inexperience drivers, Dillon has had up and down moments at both road courses. Of the two tracks, I would have to say that Sonoma has been a little kinder to him. In 4 career starts at Sonoma, he does not have any finishes better than 17th place. He had finishes of 17th in his first two career starts in 2014 and 2015. Over the past two seasons at Sonoma, he has finishes of 18th and 22nd. In terms of performance, I thought last season race was one of his better days on a road course. He was better than that 18th place finish. At Watkins Glen, he haven't found much success. His first career start was his best race. He finished 16th and was his best performance. In his last 3 starts, he does not have any finishes in the top 20. In fact, his best finish in that span is 26th. Good news? That 26th place finish came in 2017. In 2015, he finished 36th. In 2016, he finished 31st. See a pattern? He is improving his finishes. Good sign for 2018!

Plate tracks always seems to be a strong suit for Austin Dillon, even when he doesn't finish up front. He does a great job in the draft and has some talent when it comes to it. Dillon is already considered one of the better drivers in the series on these plate tracks. Last season at Daytona, Dillon struggled to get good finishes. He had finishes of 36th and 19th. In his 6 previous starts (prior to 2017 season), he had 5 finishes of 9th or better. In all 6 of those races, he finished 14th or better. Was 2017 just a fluke? I would like to think so, or at least give him benefit of the doubt. At Talladega, his numbers aren't quite as good. In his last 8 races here, he has compiled 6 finishes of 15th or better. While, he have 3 finishes of 14th or better in his last 5 races at Talladega. Much like Daytona, he had a tough 2017 season. He had finishes of 29th and 36th at Talladega. I would like to think that 2017 was just a bad season for Dillon.

After a disappointing season, aside from his win in 2017, I think a lot of people will be overlooking him. And I won't lie that I have my doubt about him. But I think he can have a good season, if RCR can improve from last season. Dillon will have his ups and downs, but you got to remember that he is still trying to develop as a 5th-year driver. He will have his good days and bad. Intemediate tracks will probably determine weather his seson is a success or a failure. This goes for most drivers on big-time teams. I think Dillon will have a few top 10 finishes, but most of his finishes will be in the low to high teens. That is where I am expecting most of his performances overall, too. The flats will be interesting because like most tracks, he seems to be a little up and down. He seems to be pretty consistent on the larger flats and at New Hampshire. You can say the same thing with Phoenix, but to a lesser extent. Plate tracks will another strength for Austin Dillon in 2018. For most of his young career, he has been very impressive on this type of track. You can expect more of the same in 2018! I think Dillon improve his top 5 and top 10 finishes in 2018, but he will not go back to victory lane though.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Jamie Mac

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Jamie Mac had a great 2017 season, it was so good, I think most of us knew before June that he would have one of his best seasons as a driver. I think that right there showed the improvement at CGR from 2016. Jamie started the 2017 out really strong and never really slowed down. He wasn't super fast, like his teammate, but he was very consistent. In terms of stats, I would say it was his 3rd-best season of his career. He posted 3 Top 5 finishes and 17 Top 10 finishes with 14.6 average finish.

I think my biggest takeaway from the 2017 season with Jamie was how good he was on a weekly basis without ever really being considered a ''threat'' to win. It was kinda crazy how often he would run between 8th-14th place. You rarely saw him in the top 5, but yet you could count on him hovering somewhere in the middle practically on race long. He had just 9 races, where he finished outside of the top 15. With 4 of those finishing happening in 4 straight races during the Nascar playoffs.

You can expect Jamie to be really good everywhere, but I believe he will be his best on the intermediate tracks. The CGR cars were really good at this type of track in 2017. I would like to point out that, he was very consistent on the 1.5 milers. I don't think he get nearly enough credit on how well he ran on them in 2017 as a whole! In the first 7 of 8 races on the 1.5 mile tracks, he finished in the top 10. His lone non-top 10 finish? He finished 12th in May at Charlotte. In last three races on this type of track wasn't nearly as good though. He had finishes of 34th, 18th and 13th. I think a lot of that had to do with Jamie was already eliminated from playoffs contention, too. He also was very good on some of the larger intermediate tracks. Such as Michigan, where he swept the top 10 in both races. And Michigan's sister track (Cali), he also finished in the top 10 on.

What are Jamie's best tracks among the intermediate tracks? Michigan, Texas and Kentucky stand out when looking over the past couple seasons. I think Michigan is his best racetrack of the three though. Over the past three seasons, it is his best racetrack on the schedule. Over his last six races here, he has compiled 5 top 10 finishes. Over his last 8 Michigan races, he has compiled 6 Top 12 finishes. Including 4 straight top 9 finishes, all coming in each of the last two seasons.

Kentucky and Texas are also solid intermediate tracks, but I would say the edge goes to Texas though. As there is more races at Texas than Kentucky each season. At Kentucky, he has scored back-to-back 7th place finishes in each of the last two season. In his last 5 seasons at Kentucky, Jamie has posted 3 finishes of 7th or better. That's great, but the sample size is small. His numbers at Texas are pretty good, too. In his last 7 starts, he has compiled 4 Top 10 finishes over that span. In last season's races, he posted finishes of 18th and 7th. In the spring race, he was very good and competitive enough to finish in the top 10. He finished 7th. In the fall race, he just wasn't the same. He finished a lap down in 18th. I do believe that was a fluke though. His success on intermediate in general in 2017 backs that theory up as well.

The shorter flats are always a strong area for Jamie Mac and that will be no difference in 2018, either! When looking at his numbers over the past couple seasons, it is hard to overlook his record at Richmond. He has been pretty good overall! In his last 7 races at this track, Jamie has compiled 4 Top 10 finishes. Over his last 9 races at this track, he has compiled 5 top 7 finishes. In just his last three starts, he has compiled finishes of 14th, 6th and 7th. In spring 2017 and fall 2016, he had finishes of 6th and 7th. Both races, he had a driver over 101.0 each time. Statistically, that is really good for Jamie. It's definitely over his average on any given raceweekend. I would have to say that anything over the mid-80s is really good for Jamie Mac.

Phoenix is the next shorter flat track that I want to look at! Over the past two seasons, he has compiled 12.0 average finish at Phoenix. That ranked as his 10th-best track among the 22 tracks on the schedule. I wouldn't say that he is overly great at Phoenix, as most of his performances here don't stand out. But, he is very consistent though. Over his last 8 races at Phoenix, he has finished 15th or better in 7 of those 8 races. In 4 of those 8 races, Jamie has finished 11th or better. Including finishes of 6th and 11th in each of the last two November races. When in each of the last two Spring (March) have been 15th and 16th. His worse finishes has came in the spring races lately, well his better runs has been in the fall races. The opposite can be said in 2014 and 2015, as his better finishes came in the spring time with 2nd and 10th. While finishing 14th and 15th in the fall races. I guess the only thing we can take away from him at Phoenix is: He is just a consistent top 15 driver in general, who knows beyond that.

I would have to say that New Hampshire is his worst track among the shorter flats tracks. He just haven't been that good overall. In his last three races at New Hampshire, Jamie best finish in 16th place. In his last three races, he has compiled finishes of 19th, 17th and 16th. Good news? His has improved his finish position in each race. Only a position or two each time, but still progress though. However, he haven't found much success here in general since the 2014 season. In 5 of his last 8 races at New Hampshire, he has 16th or worse. Including 4 of his last 6 races overall. Of the three shorter flats tracks, I trust him the least at this place honestly.

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that I would like to look at. He has been really consistent at Bristol. Over his last 8 races at this track, he haven't finished worse than 14th in any of those races. That's really impressive, considering all of the messy races that we have seen there in recent seasons. I always go back to the August 2014 race, where he might had won that race, if he didn't have a bad pit stop and line up in the wrong line. He was just domiance in that event. He led 148 laps on his way to 8th place finish. Since then, he's been really good. Nothing close to being a top 5 driver, but he always get quality finishes though. In 4 of his last 5 races here, he has finished 12th or better. I think Martinsville is another good track. I think this place is just a Jamie's track. He understand how to get in a rhythm and be patience. Both of those things are key at Martinsville. In his last 6 races at this track, he has compiled 3 Top 10 finishes and 3 finishes of 23rd or worse. In his last 10 races, Jamie has 5 finishes in the top 10. He's basically batting .500 at Martinsville over the past 5 seasons. There aren't a lot of drivers who can say that, can they?

Plate tracks are always where a lot of people look at Jamie because of his track history. But I have to disagree with that. He has won at both Talladega and Daytona. But a lot of the times, he have found his way into an DNF. He haven't won at Daytona since the 2010 season and he haven't won at Talladega (or a race in general) since October 2013. At Daytona, Jamie haven't finished better than 14th since July 2013. He finished 7th back in July 2013. In 8 races since then, he have only produced 3 Top 15 finishes during that span. In 15 race since his last win (at Daytona), he have only produced 5 Top 15 finishes. That's just 30% of the time!

He's a little better at Talladega though. Since his last win in October 2013, he have produced 3 top 11 finishes in 8 races. All 3 finishes came in the May (spring) race in each of the last three seasons. His finishes in the spring races over the last three seasons are 4th, 2nd and 11th. His other five races since October 2013? 19th or worse in each race. Over his last 15 races (since October 2010) at Talladega, he has finished 19th or worse in 10 races. No disrespect to Jamie, but he's kinda overrated at these plate track. Good skills on this type of track, but he doesn't ever seem to get the results consistently!

The final type of track that we are going to look at is the road courses! Jamie has been pretty up and down on them throughout his entire career. I think he is a very skilled road course racer, which explains why he have had some very solid runs at Sonoma. And on more than a couple occasions, he have give away some strong finishes. In his last 4 races at Sonoma, he have compiled 3 finishes of 11th or better. He finished 10th in 2017. In 3 of his last 5 races here, he have started on the front row. I think he's a little more consistent at Watkins Glen over the past 5 seasons. In 4 of the last 5 races at Watkins Glen, he have finished 14th or better. He has finished 14th or better in 5 of the last 8 Watkins Glen races. I think Jamie's best contribution is his consistency. That has been his thing over the past couple seasons.

There's not a lot of things to say about Jamie Mac in 2018. He is exactly what we think he is. A consistent driver with a lack of upside. If you are looking for a safe driver, then he's usually your guy. But you won't see him contending for top 5 finishes that often though. Most weekends, he will run between 8th and 15th place. He will be at his best on the intermediate tracks and shorter flats. You cannot expect him to good on all of them. I say New Hampshire and Kansas are his worst two tracks on those kind of tracks. I think Bristol will be another great place for him, he have that consistency down there. Martinsville is another really good for him, I personally think he will be overlooked there actually. Might be a good place to be sneaky and use him. As for plate tracks, I would just stay away from him for the most part.

In 2018, I fully expect him to make the playoffs once again. But like last season, I don't see him making the Nascar playoffs via wins. I think it will be in on points. My top 3 places for him to win on would be Michigan, Richmond or Talladega. I don't really like him that much on the plate tracks, but his recent trends in the spring races are very encouraging!

2018 Jamie Mac Profile 

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Ty Dillon

Welcome to TimersSports

Ty Dillon had a pretty unusually rookie season with the 13 team. As I pointed out in the profile in December, he showed a regression as the season went on. Most rookies tend to get better as the season goes on. Ty Dillon's best days were pretty early on in the season. In his first 22 races, he posted 16 top 20 finishes. He was very consistent. But then he hit that rookie wall and only collected 4 Top 20 finishes in the final 14 races. Obviously it doesn't take away from what he did accomplish, but I think certainly have to put a bitter taste in his mouth.

Shorter flats and plate tracks has been Ty's most consistent kind of tracks so far in his young career. I would give the edge to the shorter flats though. I only say that because he has a bigger sample size on them. Of the three shorter flats (Phoenix, Richmond and New Hampshire), he is by far the best at Phoenix. In his last three career starts at PIR, he has average finish of 14.0 with worst finish of 16th. He has finishes of 11th and 16th in last season's events. He had one of his best races of the season in November's race at Phoenix. He finished 11th, after starting 29th. That alone should tell you a lot about Dillon's performance. He posted a very solid driver rating of 82.9 as well. That is definitely above average driver rating for him, so that also lines up.

Between Richmond and New Hampshire, I would say they are both pretty equal. But I would have to give the edge to New Hampshire as Dillon's better track. In 2017, he had finishes of 16th and 22nd. He was nothing special in either race, but at least he was consistent. Of the two tracks, I think Richmond is more memorable to me though. I specifically remember being blown away by Dillon's performance in April's race. He was impressive that day. He drove through the field and was actually running just inside the top 10 or just outside of that mark for awhile. He didn't do it on pit road, either. He did most of it on the racetrack. Of course, he eventually found issues later in the race and faded to mid-pack. But I still thought it should be noted.

He was very consistent with the No.13 team on the plate tracks in his rookie seasons. In four races, he posted 3 finishes of 16th or better. He had finishes of 11th and 13th at Talladega. He also added 16th place finish in the July's Daytona race, too. This is no shocker as the 13 team has a lot of success with Casey Mears at both Daytona and Talladega. The small car team has found ways to succeed for years on this type of track!

Next, we are going to look at the larger flats of Pocono and Indy! He haven't been very competitive at either track so far in his career, but he had a theme in 2017 though. In three races on the larger flats last season, he had three finishes of 19th or better. In those three races, he had finishes of 17th, 18th and 19th. He was very consistent, but he probably wasn't a top 20 driver in any of those three races. But he found a way to get there in the end though. That's the important thing for him. Complete all of the laps and get a good result. He did exactly that on the larger flats in last season's races!

The short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville are the next tracks, I would like to look at. Bristol is a very interesting place for him. He finished 15th and posted 64.6 driver rating in last spring's race. But followed it up with DNF in the summer's race. He have only two starts under his belt with split outcomes. Good luck trying to figure out Dillon at Bristol for 2018! But he shouldn't be too bad though. I would say in the upper teens/low-twenties potential is likely! As for Martinsville, I wouldn't want to touch him. He just wasn't very good at Martinsville and really struggled from my recall. He finished both races off the lead-lap and had pair of ugly performances overall. His 22nd place finish last spring somewhat saves him, I guess. In terms of performance as a whole, his Martinsville's numbers were near the bottom.

The intermediate tracks was a weak spot in 2017 for Ty Dillon and nobody should be suprised. The 13 team doesn't have the speed or a driver with the experience to overcome their disadvantage. We knew that heading into the season and he didn't disappoint for the most part. But he had his share of solid runs, too. I would say that Atlanta and Kansas are his best two tracks so far in his very limited cup career!

Let's look at Kansas first, since he had a pair of starts in 2017 there. In two races, he had finishes of 16th and 14th. He also had a start there with the 33 team in 2015. He finished 26th in that race though. Back to 2017, he had a pair of strong outings. He started 22nd and 29th in those races, but finished on average 11.5 positions ahead of his original starting position. He didn't deserve that high of a finish in either race, as he was only a good low-20 sort of driver in both races. Still, I will give the kid some credit. He scored a pair of top 20 finishes at Kansas Speedway. Good for him, hopefully he can repeat that success in 2018, too!

He only made one start at Atlanta last season (obviously - because there's only one race), but certainly made it count though. He started 26th and finished 15th. This was his best finish on an intermediate track in 2017. He reminded me a lot of Casey Mears. As Mears had a lot of success in a similar fashion with the 13 team at Atlanta. In 2016, Dillon filled in for Stewart and finished 17th. When we compare the performances, Dillon actually ran a little better in the 13 car than he did with the 14 car in 2016. Because that makes complete sense, right? Still, two top 17 finishes is two top 17 finishes.

Road courses will be a type of track that I would stay away from Ty Dillon on! More so at Sonoma than Watkins Glen though. He finished 28th after starting from 35th at Sonoma. From a pure performance standpoint, I would consider it as one of his worst races of the season. He simply struggled the entire weekend as most young drivers do at a place like Sonoma. It didn't really surprise me at all. He was a lot better at Watkins Glen and scored a top 20 finish with 19th place. I wouldn't be against using him there in 2018, but I would rather wait and see on him there though.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com 

Twitter - @JeffNathans18