2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Kevin Harvick

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Kevin Harvick had a very good 2017 season. I would have to say that the 4 team wasn't quite on the same level as 2014, 2015 and 2016. But I think that was expected though. He took a step back, but in the end he was still in contention for the championship all season long and made it to Homestead.

As usual, Harvick was still very strong on the intermediate. He wasn't dominant like we saw with Chevy, but still he was very consistent and still contended for top 5 finishes on a weekly basis. On the 1.5 mile tracks, he was the best on in 2017. In 11 races, he posted 6 Top 5 finishes (1 win - Texas) and 10 Top 9 finishes. In 8 of those 10 finishes, he led at least 10 laps in each race. It is hard to pick a couple tracks for Harvick. But Texas, Kansas and Atlanta are his best three intermediate tracks, in my opinion. At Kansas over the past couple seasons, he has been amazing here. In his last 9 races at Kansas, he has compiled 6 finishes of 3rd or better. Including 4 of his last 6 races overall. No, that's not a typo. That's just filthy right there!

At Texas, he has been very good as well. He just haven't had many bad races since joining the 4 team. In fact, I don't think he had a bad race (minus 2014 spring race with blown engine) at Texas. In his last 7 races at Texas, Harvick haven't finished worse than 10th. In his last 7 races overall, he has compiled 5 finishes of 4th or better. In 6 of his last 7 races at Texas, Harvick posted 6 finishes of 6th or better. In 10 of the last 12 races, he has finished in the top 10 at Texas Motor Speedway! At Atlanta, he has been nearly untouchable lately. In his last four seasons, Harvick has been the best driver in the series and nobody can touch him. He has led 116 or more laps in each race. In 5 of his last 6 races here, he has led at least 101 laps or more. You get the picture, right? In his last three seasons, Harvick has compiled 3 straight finishes in the top 9. Including 9th last season. In two of the last three seasons, he has had a dominant racecar. When I say dominant, I mean flat out kicking the living shit out of the entire field. He should had won last year, when he led 292 laps but faded after a late caution.

On the shorter flats, he is pretty underrated for the most part. He's the best at Phoenix, even though he didn't score any wins or laps led in 2017 there. At Phoenix, he has been impressive for a number of years. In 11 of his last 12 races, Harvick has compiled 11 finishes of 6th or better. During that 12-race span, he has compiled 8 finishes of 2nd or better. From 2013 to 2016, he posted 5 wins with at least 139 laps led in each race. During that span, his numbers were just off the charts. In his last three races, he haven't led any laps though. But he has finishes of 5th, 6th and 4th. Crazy to think that his last three races are considered a letdown, right? For the normal driver out there, then sure. But not Harvick, he has set the bar so high!

Richmond and New Hampshire both has been very good for Harvick. At Richmond, he's really consistent. In his last 8 races, he has compiled 6 finishes of 11th or better. In 5 of his last 7 races, Harvick has finished inside the top 5. Including 3 of his last 4 races, he has finished in 5th place. Last September, he finished 15th. One of two non-top 5 finishes since April 2014. At New Hampshire,  he also been really good. I would say that is the most underrated here of the three tracks. In his last 7 races, he has compiled 5 finishes of 5th or better. In July 2014 (8 races ago), he was running top 5 with a couple laps ago. Then he ran out of fuel. In September 2016, he was dominant. He led 216 laps, before running out of fuel again. In last September's race, he finished 36th after being in an accident. So he basically has finished in the top 5 in every race, except the races he had issues. The shorter flats will be great tracks for him in 2018!

 Larger flats in recent seasons has been another strong area for Kevin Harvick and the 4 team! Pocono is the better track and that's saying something, too. Pocono has been amazing track for him. In his first start with SHR at Pocono, he finished 14th. He had a great car, but he ended 2 laps down after pitting for a flat tire. He got both laps back, but it wasn't the very end of the race. He rally for 14th place, but he was good enough to challenge for the win, in my opinion. Since then, he has been the guy that has set the bar here. In his last 7 races at Pocono, he has compiled 5 finishes of 4th or better. Including 4 finishes of 2nd or better. In his last three races at Pocono, he has compiled finishes of 4th, 2nd and 2nd. Over the past two seasons, he finishes has improved (or stayed the same) in every race. In June 2016, he finished 9th. His next three finishes has been 4th, 2nd and 2nd. Is a win in his future in 2018? The trends are on his side on this one!

At Indy, I think he is pretty underrated and never get enough credit for exactly how good he is there. He has been very consistent over the past 4 seasons. In his last 4 races at Indy, he's posted 4 straight finishes of 8th or better. He led a career-high 75 laps in 2015 on his way to 3rd place finish. He should had won that race, but there was a lot of late caution. He had some really good restarts, but the last few didn't go his way. And as you know, restarts can be a major factor in the outcome. In the last two seasons, he haven't been quite as good. Still got decent finishes though. He finished 6th in each of the last two seasons. He was top 10 good and probably closer to the top 5 overall.

Bristol and Martinsville are the next two tracks that I would like to look at. Bristol has been an awesome track for Kevin Harvick! In 2014 and 2015, he had a mix bag of results in both seasons. But over his last 5 races, I don't think any driver has found more success at Bristol. In his last 5 races, he has finished 8th or better in all 5 races. In that 5-race span, he has 3 top 5 finishes. Including a win back in August 2016. His worst finish in that span is 8th place during last August's race. But I thought that 8th place finish was pretty impressive. Considering that he started 29th that night. He could have easily found trouble coming up the field. As for Martinsville, it has been more up and down. I would say that Martinsville is one of Kevin's worst tracks on the schedule. In his last four races here, Kevin has compiled 3 finishes between 17th-20th. He finished 5th in last October's race. In 4 of his last 7 races overall, he has finished 17th or worse. His three good finishes are: 5th, 8th and 8th. In the spring race 2015, he was very good. I thought he was capable of winning. Before he had issues during the race. I cannot remember what exactly happen (without going back and rewatching it), but I remember him having to rally late for a top 10 finish.

Road courses has been good to Kevin Harvick, but he haven't always gotten the finishes that he deserves. At Sonoma, he has been getting the finishes lately though. In his last three seasons, he has compiled 3 straight finishes of 6th or better. In 2014, he finished 20th. But he had a very good long run car. I would say that he had the car to beat on the long run. But he got into a wreck and had to tough it out rest of the day. In 2017, he scored his first win at Sonoma Raceway. In 3 of his last 4 races at Sonoma, he has led at least 1 lap. Prior to that, he only has led a lap in two of his first 13 races. At Watkins Glen, he haven't found quite as much success as Sonoma. In his last 6 races at Watkins Glen, he has finished 13th or worse in 4 times. He finished 17th and 32nd in each of the last two seasons. He had finishes of 3rd and 7th in 2014 and 2015 though. Road courses could go either way for Kevin in 2018. But I would have to say that true about any driver honestly. As the road courses has become wildcard races.

The plate tracks will be interesting place for Kevin Harvick in 2018. He has found a lot of success throughout his career at both Daytona and Talladega. With that history, he also get held to high standards. As he doesn't always live up to his hype on these tracks. Of course, anything can happen in these races. So that's not on him though. I am not blaming him, but he haven't exactly gotten the finishes we would like to out of him. In his last 8 plate races, he has just two top 10 finishes. At Talladega, he has finished 15th or worse in 4 of his last 5 races. Prior to that, he had 4 straight top 12 finishes from October 2013 to May 2015. At Daytona, he is complete boom or bust lately. In his last 7 races, he has 3 finishes in the top 4. He also has 4 finishes of 22nd or worse.

Kevin Harvick will be one of the best drivers in 2018 season, no doubt! He has the potential to challenge for the championship once again. At the intermediate tracks, he will be strong. Not just strong, but winning capable on a weekly basis. The three tracks that he will have best shot at winning on are Kansas, Texas and Atlanta. You can also throw Michigan in there as another great track for him (even though I didn't get chance to touch on that earlier). As for the flats, he will be very good there. I think he is pretty underrated at Richmond, New Hampshire and Indy. All three tracks get overshadow at his track records on Pocono and Phoenix. All five flats are very good places to use him in 2018. Road courses like with any other driver will be a guessing game, as we seen how these races can go. Harvick has performed very well at Sonoma lately, well having some mix results at Watkins Glen. As for the plate tracks, I am leaning towards avoiding him in 2018. As he haven't really lived up to our standards of him at either Daytona or Talladega. I expect another really strong season out of Kevin Harvick. In fact, I am expecting him to be even better than he was in 2017!

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Joey Logano

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Joey Logano had a tough 2017 season, he technically scored a win at Richmond. However, he failed post-race inspection for that race. After that, he really struggled to put together good finishes. So much that he actually missed the playoffs cut-off. I am not sure if it was Penske not wanting to push the issue too much or what. But something happened that really threw that 22 team off so much that they became a complete different team between April and the summer months.

Intermediate tracks as usual should be a strong area for Joey Logano and the 22 team. His best intermediate tracks are Texas, Las Vegas and Michigan. I think of the three that Texas is his best track and it may be his best track on the schedule, too. Since joining Penske in 2013, he has been really strong. In the last 10 races (at Texas), he has compiled 7 Top 5 finishes. In 4 of his last 6 races, he has finished 4th or better. With 5 of the last 6 in the top 7 overall. He scored his lone win in 2014 in the spring race. He led 108 laps in that event. Him and teammate Brad Keselowski dominated that event. After Keselowski had a late speeding penalty, it was all Joey's race for the taking after that.

Las Vegas is a very good track for Joey, in fact it is his best track in terms of career average finish. Since joining Penske in 2013, he has posted 4 straight top 10 finishes. His worst finish is 10th during that span in 2015. In 3 of those 4 races (since 2014), he has compiled 3 Top 4 finishes. He has finishes of 4th, 1st, 10th and 4th in his last four races at Las Vegas.

Then there is Michigan! He has been very solid here in recent season. Since 2013 (9 races), he has posted 7 Top 9 finishes. During those 7 top 9 finishes, he has 5 Top 5 finishes. In the June's races, he has finished in the top 9 in every single race. He has finished in the top 5 in the last three June races at Michigan. In the August races? He has finishes of 28th (2017), 10th, 7th, 3rd and 1st. His finishes in the August races seems to be getting worse in each race. Good news? He is probably due for a better finish, with his most recent finish coming in 28th during last August's race.

Richmond is a very good track for him since joining Penske back in 2013. Currently, he is riding a 8-race top 10 streak. In 5 of his last 8 races at Richmond, he has finished in the top 5. While 6 of 8 races ended in 6th or better. In 2017, he had finishes of 1st and 2nd. In the spring race, he failed post-race inspection and got his win taken away. It still shows in the record books that he won, but it will always be a little mark next to that finish. I think that race was extremely important because it probably changed the entire season for Logano.

The other two shorter flats are Phoenix and New Hampshire. Of the two tracks, I would say that Phoenix is his better track. Since the 2013 season (9 races), he has posted 6 Top 9 finishes. In 4 of his last 8 races overall, he has finished in the top 6. Bad news? He has finishes of 12th, 31st and 18th in 3 of his last 4 races. In his last five races during the November races, he has finished 12th or better in every race. He has finishes of 12th, 1st, 3rd, 6th and 9th since joining the 22 team in 2013 during the November (fall) races. In the spring races, things haven't been promising of late. He has gotten worse with every finish since the 2014 race. He has finishes of 31st, 18th, 8th and 4th. He is probably bound to break that trend in 2018, as I find it hard to believe that he will finish worse than 31st.

At New Hampshire, he is a former winner at this track and he is pretty underrated, too. In July 2014, he had a strong race going. Then he wrecked into Morgan Shepherd, while leading the race. Of course things got heated after the race, when Logano wanted to confront Morgan about the incident (he didn't). But that's a story for a different day. In Septmber 2014, he went to victory lane. That started a 4-race span that resulted in 4 straight top 4 finishes from September 2014 to July 2016. After that, he has posted finishes of 11th, 37th and 10th in his last three races at this track.

At Indy, he has been impressive since joining 22 team. In his last five races at Indy, he has compiled 5 straight top 8 finishes. He has led at least 6 laps in 4 of those 5 races. In his last four races, he has finished in the top 5 three (3) times. In 7 of his 9 career races, he has posted finishes in the top 12. He finished 4th in last season's race. Then there's Pocono! He started things off very well at Pocono in his first 7 starts with the 22 team. In 5 of his first 7 starts, he posted finishes in the top 10. In his last three starts at this track, he has finished 23rd or worse. While 4 of his last 5 races has ended in 20th or worse. I want to believe that Logano is a solid driver at Pocono, it is very worrisome seeing his recent results. If I didn't look at stats often as I do, I would be shocked.

Bristol is a very good track for Joey. He is one of the best drivers in the series here. In 6 of his last 9 races at Bristol, he has finished in the top 10. He has been a lot better in the August's races than the April's races. In 5 races in the August (summer) races, he has posted finishes of 13th, 10th, 1st, 1st and 5th. What I don't like about those finishes? He is going in the wrong direction in the finishes department. But don't get it twisted though, he can turn it around at any moment. He is very good at Bristol. At Martinsville, I would say that he doesn't get credit on. He has really turned it around since joining the 22 team. In his last 8 races, he has finished 11th or better in 6 races. In 5 of those 6 races, he has finished in the top 10. With 4 of those 5 races ending inside the top 5. He has led laps in 8 straight races at Martinsville Speedway.

At the plate tracks, Joey has had his moments. He is inconsistent, but he does have some good finishes of late going at Daytona. Back in 2015, Joey won the Daytona 500. Then he posted 3 straight top 6 finishes from February 2016 to February 2017. So overall 4 of his last 6 Daytona races has ended in the top 6. Not bad at all! He doesn't have a lot of success at Talladega, but he certainly does have some really good results in the October (fall) races. In his last three fall races at Talladega, he has compiled 3 straight top 4 finishes. Including finishes of 4th, 1st and 1st. Over his last 5 races overall during the fall times, he has finished 16th or better. In the spring races? Completely different story. Since 2010, he has just one good finish at Talladega in the spring races. And that was 10th in 2011. He has posted finishes of 32nd, 25th, 33rd, 32nd, 35th, 26th, 10th and 36th during the spring races. So overall 7 of 8 races has ended in 25th or worse. Isn't that insane?

The Road courses will be a good spot for Joey in 2018! I always considered Joey as a pretty underrated road course racer. People don't usually think of him at either place, but he has developed very nicely into one of the most consistent drivers in the series. At Sonoma, he has compiled 6 top 12 finishes in his last 7 races. Over the past three seasons, he has compiled 3 straight top 12 finishes. Including finishes of 12th, 3rd and 5th. Watkins Glen is his better road course and that doesn't come as a shocker, either. Over his last 5 races at Watkins Glen, he has compiled 4 top 7 finishes in that 5-race span. Overall he has finished 5 of his last 7 races in the top 7. He won back in 2015 and finished 2nd in 2016. In 2017, he ended up finishing 24th.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Kurt Busch

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Kurt Busch is coming off a disappointing 2017 season, a year where I really expected some great things out of him. I had high hopes for him and he didn't live up to my expectations. He had his worst season since the 2014 and that's bad. He was barely better than his first year with SHR. And he struggled that season to adjust to joining SHR. In 2015 and 2016, he was really good. He posted some really good numbers in both seasons. But in 2017, he took a nosedive in every MAJOR category. In average start, average finish, wins, poles, laps led, etc. You get the picture, right?

I think he will rebound in 2018 and outperform his 2017 numbers, but the question is how much? I thought SHR moving to Ford really hurt Kurt. I think that hurt the whole organzation as whole. Now everyone had a year under their belt. I think the cars will be better than they were last season. Even Harvick struggled to be that race-winning threat (and I mean truly a threat from start to finish) from time to time. So it was understandable to see Kurt struggle in 2017. I think the most mind-blogging aspect was watching how up and down he was overall. I couldn't judge him at all. Every week it was something with him.

Intermediate tracks will obviously be a good area for him, with the horsepower advantage he has on majority of the competition. His top intermediate tracks would be Atlanta, Charlotte and Texas. Of the three, I would have to say that his success at Atlanta stands out. It ranks as his 9th-best track for his career, but that also with all of the ''bad runs'' he had early in his career. In 6 of his first 11 races from 2000 to 2006, he finished outside of the top 30. Since then, he has really turned the corner. So much that it is considered among his very best tracks now. In 10 of his last 13 races at Atlanta, he has finished in the top 11. During that span, he also has 8 finishes in the top 7. Including two wins during 2009 and 2010 spring races at Atlanta. Since the 2010 season, he has been amazing at Atlanta. In 5 of his last 8 races, he has finished in the top 5. Since that 2010 season, he has developed a pattern: Every other race resulting in a top 5 finish.

Charlotte has been a great track since joining SHR and things look promising for 2018 as well. In his last 7 races at Charlotte, he has finished 6 times in the top 11. In 4 straight races (prior to finishing 22nd in last fall's race), he finished 5th-8th place. From May 2015 to May 2017, he finished in the top 10 in 5 straight races. At Texas, he is pretty similar overall. Since the 2014 season, he has finished 6 of his last 7 races in the top 14. During that span, he's finished in the top 10 in 5 of 7 races.

Shorter flats is a spot that has been a good spot for Kurt in recent seasons and you can expect more of the same in 2018. At Richmond, he has been very good lately. Over his last 10 races at Richmond, he has finished 9 of 10 races in the top 15. While posting 8 finishes in the top 10. Overall, 5 of his last 7 races has ended in 8th or better. Including an win back in 2015. He dominated that event. He led 291 laps on his way to victory lane. Another very good track for Kurt is Phoenix. I don't think enough people know exactly how good he is at this place. And he has a teammate that may be pretty good here, too. At Phoenix (or as it called now ISM), he had two poor finishes in 2017. Where he finished 21st and 25th. Prior to that, he had 5 straight top 7 finishes at this track. Overall 7 of his last 11 races here has ended in 7th or better. Then there's New Hampshire! And it has been a tough track for Kurt lately. Over his last 10 races here, he has only compiled 4 Top 15 finishes during that span. He has finishes of 8th and 5th over his last three races here. But he also has 4 finishes of 19th or worse in his last 7 races at New Hampshire. Since the 2011 season, he has only finished in the top 20 in about 50% of his races.

Pocono been very good lately for Kurt Busch! In terms of final finishing position, it ranks as one of his best tracks. In 14 of his last 16 races, he has finished 13th or better. More recently, he has finished 10th or better in 7 of 10 races. In those 10 races, he also has finished in the top 5 in 50% of those races. He won back in 2016 after leading 32 laps to victory lane. He wasn't a contender early in the race, but then he came out of nowhere and charged to the lead. In 2017, he posted finishes of 13th and 4th. At Indy, Kurt has always struggled on. That haven't changed in recent seasons and that probably won't change in 2018. In his last 5 races at this track, he's finished three times in the top 14. But to show you how bad he has been over the years: Since 2008, he has finished 6 times outside of the top 20. He has only made 10 starts since the 2008 season. And his best finish during that 10-race span is 8th back in 2015.

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that I would like to look at! One of his career worst tracks is Martinsville and I still consider it one of his worst tracks right now. He won back in 2014, but that was a fluke win, in my opinion. His car was taped up to hell from an incident with Brad Keselowski. He won, so I will give him props for that. He has made 7 starts since winning in spring 2014. In 5 of those 7 races, he has finished 22nd or worse. During that span, his best finish was 13th. His last three races haven't ended too well for him. His results in the last three races are: 22nd, 37th and 22nd. At Bristol, he is better on. But he use to be great earlier in his career here though. As of recently, he is all or nothing. In his last 10 races at Bristol, he has posted 4 Top 5 finishes. Problem? His other 6 races ended in 15th or worse. Including 4 of 6 races ending in 25th or worse. His finishes in those 10 races (in order - most recent finishes first): 5th, 25th, 38th, 3rd, 14th, 15th, 5th, 35th, 31st and 4th. See anything you don't like about the pattern of those finishes? For one, he doesn't have any back-to-back ''solid'' finishes. And another, his finishes outside of the top 10 have all came in pair. So the trends says that he will finish at least 14th or worse in 2018 in both races. Not good for Kurt!

Kurt Busch had never won at a plate track prior to winning the 2016 Daytona 500, but that doesn't mean he wasn't good before that though. He's pretty underrated still, in my opinion. At Talladega, he's very good. In 6 of his last 7 races at Talladega, he has finished in the top 12. Prior to finishing 25th in last fall's race, he had 4 straight top 10 finishes. In his last 5 races, he has results of 25th, 6th, 4th, 8th and 10th. At Daytona, he is similar on. In his last 6 races at Daytona, he has finished 4 of 6 races in the top 10. In half (50%) of those races, he has finished in the top 5. While finishing 5 of his last 8 races overall in the top 10. It is hard to hate Kurt Busch on the plate tracks honestly. I sure don't!

Road courses are always good places to use Kurt and 2018 will likely be no difference, too! At Watkins Glen, he has very good numbers lately. Over his last 5 races at WGI, he has 5 straight top 11 finishes.While 4 of those 5 races has ended in the top 10. Dating back to the 2007 season, Kurt has only two finishes outside of the top 11 at Watkins Glen! At Sonoma, he may be even better on. Since 2011, he has been on it! Currently, he's on a 7-race top 12 streak at this track. During those 7 races, he has finished five times in the top 7. From 2011 to 2015 (5 races), he had 4 Top 5 finishes. In 2017, he had a down season at Sonoma. He posted finishes of 7th and 10th. Yes, top 10 finishes are considered a down year for Kurt Busch at Sonoma!

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Ryan Newman

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Ryan Newman didn't exactly have a great season in 2017, but it wasn't terrible. In last offseason's preview, I went on the record saying that Newman would have a bounce back season from 2016. Statistically, the 2016 was one of the worst seasons of his cup career. So in 2017, he did very much have a good year. He posted a win with 7 Top 5 finishes and 13 top 10 finishes. Not quite as consistent as those impressive 2014 and 2015 seasons. But still, he was definitely right in the ballpark. The most important part about his 2017 season? He scored RCR first win since the 2011 season. That's huge! Of course, it was on a strategy, but a win is a win though.

In 2018, 31 team need to stabilize some consistency. That how Newman usually get his fantasy value. He won't go out there and contend for wins on a weekly basis. He just not that guy or have that equipment. When he get on a run of consistent top 5 or top 10-like finishes, that is the best time to take advantage. Most of the time, he will finish in the low-teens or middle-teens. You want to find that window of opportunity, when he go on a little streak inside the top 10. Mark my words, he will go on that streak, too.

Intermediate tracks will be interesting for Newman. He will usually contend for finishes in the low to middle teens, but not exactly with a super high ceiling or upside though. He will from time to time finish in the top 10 though. Maybe a top 5 or two, as well. I wouldn't constantly expect it though. His top 3 intermediate tracks are Darlington, Michigan and Charlotte. I had always thought that Michigan was one of his best tracks and he loves Michigan. He always come to Michigan and perform very well. Before and after the repave, his numbers has remained very good. In 14 straight Michigan races, he has finished 18th or better. In 9 of those 14 races, he has finished 15th or better. Since joining RCR (last 8 races), he has finished 15th or better in the last 5 of 8 races. In 3 of his last 5 races overall, he has finished 11th or better at Michigan.

 At Darlington and Charlotte, I would like to think these are very good example of tracks that Newman is well above average on. His numbers are very strong at both tracks. Consistently over the past couple seasons, he has finished in the top 10 on a regular basis. These are two tracks that you can possible target him at, where he will have a shot at finishing more toward the front. At Darlington, he is an elite driver. In 13 of his 19 career starts, he has finished in the top 10 with 11.7 career average finish. That's a large simple size overall. In his last 5 seasons at Darlington, he has finished 4 of those 5 races inside the top 10. Over the last two seasons, he has finished 7th and 8th. At Charlotte, he has been just as good, maybe even a little better. Since the 2013 season (10 races span), he has posted 7 Top 10 finishes. In his last three seasons (6 races - since 2014), he's posted 4 top 10 finishes in those races. In his last 6 races at Charlotte, he has finishes of 40th, 9th, 4th, 10th, 15th, 6th and 7th. Prior to his 40th place finish in his most recent race here, he had a really strong stench of finishes.

Martinsville and Bristol are both very good tracks for Ryan Newman. In fact, I would rank them both among his top 5 tracks. I would say that Martinsville is the better of the two racetracks. I love him at Martinsville. He always has ran well at this short track. In his last 5 races at Martinsville, he has posted 4 Top 14 finishes. In those 5 races, he has posted 3 top 10 finishes during that span as well. His finishes are as followed: 14th, 8th, 16th, 10th and 7th. Since joining RCR in 2014 (8 races), he has finished in the top 10 in 50% of his starts at Martinsville. One of his best top 10 percentage tracks since joining RCR. At Bristol, he's very solid overall. He has only one ''poor'' finish since joining RCR in 2014. That came when he finished 28th back in 2016. Over his last 6 races at Bristol, he has posted 4 Top 10 finishes during that span. In his last 8 races at Bristol, he has finished 7 of 8 in the top 16. In 6 of his last 7 races, Newman has finished 14th or better. You see the trend lately with Newman at both tracks? Very consistent. Us fantasy nascar players just love that. It make our jobs a lot easier!

Plate tracks are where Newman will get no respect, but he's usually have a habit of finishing in the top half of a field at both Talladega and Daytona. In his last 10 races at Daytona, he has finished 5 of 10 races inside the top 11. With 6 o those 10 races ending in the top 18 overall. In 3 of his last 5 races at Daytona, he has finished 11th or better. At Talladega, he is pretty consistent as well. In his last 7 races at Talladega, he has finished 12th or better at this track. Over his last 11 races at Talladega, he has finished 6 times in the top 12. Including 5 top 10 finishes during that span.

The shorter flats has been very good overall to him overall. At Richmond, he is solid. In his last 9 races at RIR, he has compiled 6 top 11 finishes. During that span, he has posted 5 top 10 finishes during those 9 races, too. Since the 2011 season, he has posted top 10 finishes in over half of his starts at Richmond. During that span, he also has finished in the top 15 over 75% of the time. He's just that damn good here! At Phoenix (now known as ISM - I think that is stupid, but whatever), he is a former two-time winner. And he has been consistent there for awhile, too. In his last 9 races at ISM, he has posted 7 Top 12 finishes. Before the repave, I thought he was even better. From 2010 to 2012, he posted 5 Top 5 finishes during a 6-race span. Then there is New Hampshire! Another track that is a former winner on. He is not the same driver he was early in his career though. At New Hampshire, he is kinda inconsistent for the most part. In his last 8 races at New Hampshire, he has finished 7 of 8 races in the top 20. During that span, he has posted 3 Top 10 finishes. Problem is? His last three races all has ended outside of the top 12. His last three finishes are 13th, 27th and 20th.

I think Pocono is one of Ryan's best tracks and I don't think enough people are aware of this! He had a pair of poor finishes in 2015, where he finished 23rd and 39th. In the June's race, he wrecked with AJ Dinger late in the event, while running competitively in the teens. He followed up with 23rd place finish. Outside of 2015? He haven't finished worse than 14th since June 2008. That's 17 races, if you are keeping track at home! In 7 of his last 11 races at Pocono, he has compiled finishes in the top 12. In half of his starts since the 2011 season, Newman has finished in the top 10.

At Indy, he was average at best for years. And then, he finished 7th in 2012. After that, he broke out in the 2013 season. He started on the pole in 2013 and dominated. He start along side the heavy favorite for the event in Jimmie Johnson. He shocked everyone when he won the pole. It was even more impressive that he stood in front for long as he did. He eventually got passed by Johnson. How he did he win the race though? Genius pit strategy launched into the lead and held off a charging Jimmie Johnson late. Over his last 6 races here, he has finished 11th or better in five of those races. In half of those races, Newman has finished in the top 7.

Road courses are good for Newman and sometimes he get overlooked for some reason. In his last 5 races at Sonoma, he has compiled 5 straight top 15 finishes. With 3 o those 5 races ending in the top 11. At start of his career at Sonoma, he was a top 10 machine. In middle of his career, he started to really struggle. And now lately, he is starting to return back to form. At Watkins Glenn, he doesn't offer a lot of upside overall. But he is consistent though. In 6 of his last 8 races at Watkins Glenn, he has posted finishes in the top 16. Over the last three seasons at Watkins Glenn, he has finishes of 25th, 16th and 15th. Obviously when looking at the numbers, he is showing a lot more promise at Sonoma than Watkins Glen. But don't be fooled though, he is still plenty good at Watkins Glen. Just not as appealing.

**All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Chase Elliott

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Chase Elliott enter his 3rd season as a driver and it is a very important one, in my opinion. He has been hyped as one of the top young drivers in the sport and it is time for him to breakout a win soon. He has been very impressive in his first two seasons. And he has been close to wins on number of occasions, but just cannot quite close the deal. Since his debut, there has been multiple first time winners. Including Ryan Blaney, Austin Dillon, Christ Buescher, Ricky Stenhouse (two wins) and Kyle Larson (4 wins). So there has been 5 first-time winners since Elliott has debut in the Cup series. That has to be eating away at Chase Elliott. Question is will that add pressure to his shoulder and motivate him?

You can expect him to be at his best on the intermediate tracks. It is hard to pick just a couple good ones for Elliott. He has found success in some form across the board, in my opinion. But If I had to pick just three tracks, then I would go with Michigan (2-mile intermediate track), Dover (1-mile intermediate track) and Chicago (1.5 mile intermediate track)  as his top 3 intermediate tracks. Texas and Atlanta are also great tracks for him. Dover may be his best track in terms of pure results. At least among the tracks with at least 4 starts on. In 4 career starts, Chase Elliott has finished 5th or better in every start at Dover. In his rookie's season, he had a pair of 3rd place finish. Then he followed it up with finishes of 5th and 2nd. In last October's race, he was awesome. I thought he had the race won at one point. He led 138 laps on his way to an 2nd place finish to race winner Kyle Busch.

I would say that Michigan is the most logical place for him to score his first win. As he has more 2nd place finishes here then anywhere else. In his first three starts, he finished 2nd place. In June 2016, he could had won the race. But a bad late restart cost him a win to race winner Joey Logano. In August 2016, he had the race won. He beat Kyle Larson off pit road during late round of pit stops. Then got through traffic a lot better than the 42. Then there was a caution and Larson got away from him on a late restart. He finished 2nd once again. The follow race at Michigan, he wasn't nearly as good but he was in contention again. He just couldn't catch Kyle Larson on the final restart though. In August 2017, he had a shot to win again. He was the 2nd or 3rd driver on fresh tires on a late restart, but couldn't take advantage of it. He finished 8th in that event. If Elliott and his team can put it altogether, then he can easily go to victory lane at Michigan. I think this is where he will find one of his wins at!

Between Chicago, Texas and Atlanta it is hard to pick which one is top racetrack, but I would say it is Chicago though. His numbers at Chicago are very impressive in his limited starts. In two career starts, he has 11.0 average start but impressive 2.5 average with 40+ laps in each race. He has not only been running well at Chicago, but he has been a legit racer winner contender. He has finished in the top 10 in every race at Chicago, Texas and Atlanta so far his cup career. I think that just speaks how impressive that Chase Elliott has been so far in his first two seasons at this level!

The flats tracks will be just a okay spot for Chase Elliott, as his first two seasons he has been valuable to inconsistency in his results. The shorter flats has been up and down for Elliott overall. I think Phoenix is his best track of the three by far. In 4 career starts, he haven't finished worse than 12th. That 12th place finish was his best race of his young career here. He had one of the best cars in the event. He led a race-high 106 laps, before fading in latter part of the race. In November 2017, he finished 2nd place and led 34 laps on his way to that runner-up finish. In 2016, he had a pair of top 10 finishes.

New Hampshire is a good track for him, but not great track. In his first career start, he had an incident with teammate Alex Bowman that derailed his solid top 10 day. He finished 34th and multiple laps down. In his three starts since then, he has compiled three straight finishes between 11th-13th. So in four career starts at New Hampshire, he does not have a single top 10 finish. Very close to be breaking into the top 10 though. And then there's Richmond! In 5 career starts, he has only one finish in the top 10 and that was last September. He finished 10th in last September's race. Prior to that, he had finishes of 16th, 12th, 19th and 24th. Richmond has been a disappointment overall, as I high hopes for him at this place. As he found a good amount of success in the lower series. So logically this was a place I circled for him, but so far the results haven't been there.

Elliott made his debut at Pocono in June 2016 at the cup level and really impressed a lot of people. As he led a race-high 51 laps on his way to 4th place finish. He followed that up with 33rd place finish in the August's race. That was a very strange race with the fog and Chris Buescher scoring his first career victory. However, Elliott had a good top 10 run going for that event. Until he wrecked with Joey Logano in middle of the event. Elliott finished 4 laps down. In 2017, he was just top 10 good in both races. He had finishes of 8th and 10th. That pretty much where he deserved to finish, too. At Indy, he has made three career starts. And all three races has been below average I would say. He has a career-high of 15th place finish in 2016. He wasn't nothing special for that race, either. He was probably at best a middle-pack driver. His 73.8 driver rating definitely backs that up. He was running in the top 10, before his engine went south in 2017. It started to go downhill after maybe 20 laps. And finally let go around lap 40 or so. He has some work to do on these flat tracks!

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that I would like to look at. Both are really good tracks for him and Martinsville may just be one of his best tracks. He was impressive at this place in 2017. He finished 3rd in the spring, after leading 20 laps. Then he followed it up with 23rd place finish. But he was awesome in that race. He led 123 laps and was leading with just a few laps to go. Then him and Denny Hamlin had an incident. This spark major drama between then and going forward in the Nascar playoffs. Between fans and drivers alike. If he can repeat those performances in 2018, then he will be in victory lane most likely at Martinsville. At Bristol, he has been very good. He has gotten better finishes in the spring races than the summer races. He has finishes of 4th and 7th in the last two spring races. In the summer races? 15th and 18th. Good news? He led laps in both summer races, if that means anything to you.

Road courses will be another area where I say that Elliott need to make some improvement on in 2018! He isn't bad, but he isn't great though. At Watkins Glen, he has made two starts and finished 13th in both races. In 2017, he was better than being 13th place driver. I say he was top 10 good for the event and he even led 9 laps towards the end. But I think that had something to do with how pit strategy went, too. At Sonoma, he has made two starts with career-high of 8th place. That came in last season's race but I don't recall him being that good for the event. He was more of a low to middle teen-type driver overall. Young drivers usually struggle more at Sonoma. You can expect more of the same in 2018 from Elliott. I don't think he will cotend for wins at either road courses in 2018, but it will be nice if he can make more gains though.

Plate tracks has been a strong suit for Elliott, but he haven't had much luck on his side. In the opening race of the 2017 season, he almost won the Daytona 500. If he had a little more fuel, I think he would had won the Daytona 500. He was that strong at the end, I don't think anyone would had overpowered him. He finished 14th in that race. In his three other career starts, he has finishes of 22nd, 39th and 32nd. He's led laps in 2 of those 3 races though. Things just haven't worked out well for him at Daytona. How has he done at Talladega? Pretty good, I would say overall. In 4 career starts, he has posted 3 finishes of 16th or better. In 2016, he posted finishes of 12th and 5th. He led laps in both races. In 2017, things didn't go quite as well. He had a pair of DNFs with finishes of 16th and 30th.

Chase Elliott should have a great 2018 season overall. He will be at his best by far on the intermediate tracks. The flat tracks will be inconsistent spots for Elliott, but he will have his fair share of opportunities, too. Phoenix would be his top flat track, while the likes of Richmond and Indy would be his worst tracks. When it comes to the short tracks of Martinsville and Bristol, you can expect him to very strong. I think he can challenge for win at both tracks. More so at Martinsville than Bristol though. As for the plate tracks and road courses you can expect him to have mix results. The plate tracks he seems to run better than he finishes. Not exactly promising as a fantasy player, but he has great potential. The road courses are getting better for Elliott as he enter year number 3. However, I am not buying that he is ready to be considered as a legit option.

I am not very interested if Elliott can get to victory lane in 2018. There's several tracks that I think it can happen on and most of them are intermediate tracks. This is the most common type of track in Nascar right now and he's very good at most of them. If I had to hand pick a track for him to go to victory lane at, I would pick either Dover or Michigan.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Denny Hamlin

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Denny Hamlin had pretty much the year that I expected him to have. He started out slow (like in each of the previous couple seasons), but he started to roll as we enter the month of July. That when things really started to click (a lot like in 2016) and he really started to knock off the top 5 finishes. In second half of the season, there wasn't many better drivers. The question is will that trend continue into 2018? I would like to say that he will be strong out of the gate, but I cannot. This is a pattern for Hamlin, where he doesn't get rolling into middle of the season. I am not sure why, but it just is. Until, he can prove this theory to be false, I think we have to keep going under this assumption!

Obviously, the intermediate tracks will be a major strength for Denny Hamlin and the 11 team in 2018! His best intermediate tracks? Chicago, Darlington and Homestead. These tracks will always stand out on his resume and he should be very strong at all three places once again in 2018. We only visit them each once per year, but Denny usually make them count! His best track? It's Darlington and it is not very close. From a career point of view, his numbers are stupid good off the charts. In 12 career starts, he holds impressive 5.83 average finish! In his first 5 starts, he posted 4 top 10 finishes in 5 races with a pair of top 2 finishes. Since then? He have only gotten better! In his last 7 starts at this place, he has compiled 6 Top 7 finishes in 7 starts. In 5 of his last 6 starts, Hamlin has finished in the top 4. In just his last three starts, he has finishes of 1st, 4th and 3rd.

Homestead is another very good track for him! In his last 12 starts, he has only finished once outside of the top 14. In his last 5 starts at this track, he has compiled 5 straight finishes in the top 10. Including finishes of 9th, 9th, 10th, 7th and 1st. In those last 12 starts, he has posted 9 Top 10 finishes during that span. On top of that, he has posted 2 wins during that 12-race span. His first win was back in 2009 and the last win came in 2013. He led 71 laps and 72 laps. Chicago is another very good track for him, especially lately. He started off his career pretty rocky at Chicago. As he finished 16th or worse in 5 of his first 8 races at Chicago. In his last 4 races at this place? His finishes consists of 4th, 6th, 1st and 6th. In his last 9 races, he has posted 6 Top 8 finishes. He had finishes of 8th and 5th in 2009 and 2010.

Shorter flats has always been a very strong type of track for Denny Hamlin and there's no reason to believe that will change now. Aside from Martinsville and Darlington, I would have to say that Richmond is one of Denny's top tracks. He has amazing record here and been the best driver in the series over the past couple seasons. In his last 5 starts at this track, he has compiled 5 straight finishes of 6th or better. Prior to that (from September 2012 to April 2015), he had no finishes better than 18th. That was just a rough path for Hamlin as it is clear that he is back on track now. Majority of those races were during tough times for Hamlin. Back in spring 2013 (he injured his back) and wasn't himself in 2013 or 2014. It wasn't until latter part of 2015 that Hamlin actually started to run again like the Old Denny Hamlin. So I get why, he had some struggles at certain places during those seasons. Prior to that, he posted 4 Top 5 finishes in 6-race span from September 2009 - April 2012.

Phoenix is another great track for Denny Hamlin and has a great record here. In his most recent race here, he led 193 laps before he faded in the event. Then as he faded to 4th place with a woeful racecar, he got into it with Chase Elliott. And that basically just hurried along the process for Hamlin's day that went from great to bad to worse. Even if that Elliott's situation didn't occur, I still think he would had missed the championship cutoff. Hell, I think he still end up in the wall, even if Elliott wasn't aggressive with him. Prior to that, he has had very good results. In his last 6 races (prior to last fall's race), he had compiled 5 finishes in the top 10. In 4 of those 5 races, he finished 7th or better. In 7 of the last 12 races overall, he has finished 8th or better. I also would like to point out that two of those five ''bad'' results were in November 2013 and March 2014. I usually just disregard finishes during that time period of his career. After those two finishes, he has gotten back on track for the most part.

Then there is New Hampshire. I would say it is a good track for him, but he does have a history of being inconsistent at times. In his last 6 races, he has finished 15th or better in all six races. In his last 9 races, he has finished 15th or better in 8 of those races. During that 9-race span, he has only 4 top 10 finishes and 2 top 5 finishes. He won back in 2016 at this track. In his first 11 starts at this track, he posted 6 top 6 finishes. In his last 12 races here, he has just 4 such finishes. Even though, he all 4 finishes ended in 2nd or better. In 24 career starts, he has a career average finish of 10.1 with 3 wins and 14 Top 10 finishes.

Hamlin isn't quite as good on the larger flats, but he is better than I think most people realize though. At Indy, he has been a stud of late. In his last 6 races here, he has compiled 4 finishes in the top 6. He finished 17th in last season's race and finished 17th. If you need a refresher on the 2017 Brickyard's race, it wasn't basically Daytona on steroids. 14 cautions with pretty much every car in the field aside from the top 3 or 4 drivers being involved in wrecks. Hamlin wrecked with Menard on the final caution, but Hamlin had issues on that final restart. He had a flat tire and was really just a disaster waiting to happen. Prior to finishing 17th at Indy in 2017, he had 3 straight top 5 finishes from 2014 to 2016. Then there's Pocono, he has always been very good here. In 24 career starts, he has managed 4 career wins. In his first 10 career starts, he posted 4 wins and 7 Top 5 finishes. He was the master here to start his career and now the playing field is a lot more even. But he still getting a lot of good results though. In his last 8 races, he has compiled 6 finishes of 12th or better. Including 5 of those 8 races ending in the top 10. Currently, he has finished 14th or better in 4 straight races at Pocono. His lone bad finish since start June 2014 is 22nd place in August 2015.

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that we are gonna look at! He is obviously very good at Martinsville, I would say that is known for being one of the best drivers in the series here. He is a 5-timer winner at this track and his history is impressive overall. In 5 of his last 7 races at Martinsville, he has finished 8th or better. In 11 of his last 16 races overall, he has finished 8th or better. During that 16-race span, he has compiled 4 wins. His last win coming back in March 2015. He has a lot more luck in the fall races though. Since 2013 season, he has finished 8th or better in every race here. His last three fall's race finishes consists of 7th, 3rd and 3rd. You don't need all of these numbers to know that Hamlin is a stud at Martinsville. You knew this already!

Bristol is a good track for him, but like any driver out there, he have some inconsistent numbers. He is very good at this place though. In his last 5 races at this track, he ha compiled 4 finishes in the top 10. Overall 3 of those 5 races has ended in 3rd. What does all three races have in common? They all happened during the August's race. His last three August's race: 3rd, 3rd and 3rd. His last August's race? 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 40th, 28th, 1st and 7th. So 5 of his last 7 August races has ended in the top 7. In his last 13 races overall at Bristol, he has only posted 7 Top 10 finishes. So 5 of 7 has came in the August's race. Pretty easy to figure out where his better finish could come between the two dates.

Road courses for number of seasons where considered a major weakness for Denny Hamlin. From 2010 to 2015 (at both road courses), he posted JUST 2 Top 20 finishes during those 12 races. In the past two seasons? He has 4 finishes in the top 4. In each of the last two seasons, he has finished in the top 4 every single time. He won at Watkins Glen in 2016, after leading 10 laps. He finished 4th in 2017. At Sonoma, he finished 2nd at Sonoma in 2016. He could have won that race, if he didn't overdrive a turn on the final lap. I also feel like he didn't want to be a dickhead to Tony Stewart in his final season. He could have easily take the #14 car out and the win all in one. But he didn't. In 2017, he finished 4th. He has led 44 laps in the last two seasons at Sonoma. That is the most in the series. Among drivers with at least 20 laps led at Sonoma, there are only 3 other active drivers. Stewart and Edwards are currently out of the sport. Only Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr and AJ Dinger has led over 20 laps at Sonoma in past two seasons.

Plate tracks are great for Hamlin, but I think a lot of people will forget that after a down year on the plate tracks in 2017. He finished 17th and 24th at Daytona in 2017. In his last three races at Daytona, he does NOT have a finish better than 17th. In his 5 previous races (from February 2014 to February 2016), he compiled 5 straight finishes of 6th or better. During that span, he posted 3 straight top 4 finishes. He has been a bit more stable at Talladega lately. In 5 of his last 8 races at Talladega, he has finished 11th or better. Including 3 straight top 11 finishes at Talladega. I personally would trust him a little more in the spring races though. In his last 4 spring races at Talladega, he has compiled finishes of 11th, 31st, 9th and 1st. In the fall races? 3rd,6th, 37th and 18th. So the roles have basically reversed lately. He use to be better in the spring races in 2014 and 2015. But in 2016 and 2016, he has been better in the fall race. Only Denny Hamlin could pull that off!

Alright folks, I think it is time to wrap this thing up! Hamlin will probably win a couple races in 2018 and fair share of his success will most likely come in the summer and fall months. For whatever reason, he has struggled to perform well and to get finish early in the season. I don't know why and I personally don't care. Long as this trend continue, it makes my job a lot easier. Of course, if he comes running out of the gate, then I have a entire fuckery on my hands. Us fantasy nascar folks like things to stay consistent. Knowing Denny, he will throw a curve ball to us and win a couple races before the All-star race. Who know, but we do know where he will be his strong at though. The shorter flats and intermediate tracks. This has been where Joe Gibbs Racing seems to have the biggest edge on everyone else. I am not ready to trust Hamlin on the road courses yet, but he is making it really hard not to. Especially after the numbers he has posted in the last two seasons. The plate tracks he has thrown us for a loop for years. He was terrible for years until 2014 and then looked unstoppable. For our sake, I hope he get back to be a consistent top 5 threat at both Daytona and Talladega.

I don't really have a lot more to say about Hamlin. He will get his wins and bunch of top 10 finishes. Hamlin is really starting to come back into his own as a driver after a couple rough seasons in 2013 and 2014. I think this could be his season, where he goes out and finally put it all together. What do you think? I think anything possible, if you put enough time and effort into it!

**All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2018 Fantasy Nascar Preview: Ryan Blaney

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Ryan Blaney will make the transition from Wood Brothers to Penske, but I don't think it will be much of a difference for him. As he was basically getting Penske equipment in the 21 for the past two seaons anyhow. But now obviously he will get even better stuff, since he is directly in a Penske car. I think Ryan Blaney is among the top 3 when it comes to the best young drivers in the sport.

Intermediate tracks has been his biggest strength over the past couple seasons, as most of us probably would have guessed. It is pretty easy to figure out his best three tracks, too. His top three intermediate stand out from the other tracks. From pure stats point of view, his best tracks would be Chicago, Las Vegas and Kansas. These tracks have been very kind to him overall. I would add Texas to that list as well, as he has been strong there, too. I would say that I trust him the most at Kansas though. In 5 career starts at Kansas, he has finished in the top 7 in 4 of 5 races. In his last four starts at this track, he has compiled 3 top 5 finishes. In his last four races, he has finishes of 3rd, 4th, 14th and 5th. He finished 7th back in October 2015 in his first start behind the #21 car at Kansas. He has really good numbers at Kansas and he has more than enough starts under his belt.

Las Vegas and Chicago are also very good tracks for him, too. Las Vegas has been very good for him. He finished just 19th in his first career start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In his last two starts? 7th and 6th. He ran in the top 10 for much of the event in both races as well. I love seeing that from a young driver. It is one thing to finish up front, but it is another to perform in the top 10. Blaney did both of those things well. At Chicago, he has only made two starts at. But he has made them count though. He finished 4th in his first career race there in 2016. He got helped with a late caution that really put him that position to gamble for a top 5 finish. In last season's race, he ended up finishing 11th. At Texas, he has been very good lately. In his last three starts at this track, he has finished 12th or better in all three races. In 2017, he was very strong. He dominated at Texas in the spring race. He led a race-high 148 laps, before fading in the last stage of the race. In the fall's race, he was strong and finished 6th. He had a top 10 good race for the event and finished in the area that he should have. Pretty solid rebound at this track, after having no finishes better than 29th in his first three starts.

Shorter flats will be a pretty good type of track for Blaney in 2018, I think. He has been very good at two of these tracks over the past few seasons. Phoenix and New Hampshire clearly stands out of the three shorter flats. New Hampshire has been very good to him so far in his cup career. In five career starts, he has compiled 3 finishes in the top 12. In his last four starts, he has finishes of 9th, 19th, 12th and 11th. He haven't made a lot of starts at New Hampshire, but he have found a decent amount of success overall though. At Phoenix, he has two type of finishes so far in his career. In 2016, he has finishes of 8th and 10th in his first two career starts. In 2017, he started on the front row in both races. Problem? He finished 17th and 23rd in those races. He led 11 laps from the pole, on his way to 17th place finish in last November's race. He wasn't super competitive or anything in the top 10, after the fist run of the race. He was hovering just inside the top 10 or just outside of the top 10 for much of the event after that.

Then there is Richmond, by far his worst shorter flat track. In 4 career starts, he haven't finished 18th or worse in every start. His best finish is 18th in his most recent race there. In his previous three starts, he has compiled finishes of 36th, 39th and 28th in those three races. With only four career starts, there isn't a lot that we can really say about him. As he could easily turn it around at Richmond in 2018. But with that said, there is nothing says he will either. With that said, you would have to think his upside is near the top 10 with how talented he is. Realistically? Probably somewhere in the low teen or maybe at worst the middle-teens. With his career-best 18th, I would say that he can only go up from here.

Pocono is another solid flat track for Ryan Blaney! He finished 30th in his last start here, but it was a very good year in 2017 for him at Pocono. As he was competitive at this place in June and went to victory lane for the first time in his career. In his first three career starts at Pocono, he has compiled finishes of 11th, 10th and 1st. In last August's race, he had a strong top  10 race going. But he made contact with both Johnson and Jones during the second stage. That ended his bid for going back-to-back at Pocono. At Indy, he is much better than his numbers show. He finished 12th in his first career here. In his second start, he had a tough day. He finished 36th, after being in an accident. He got in a wreck with several others during a late restart. In last season's race, he was competitive for much of the race. He finished in 3rd in both of the first two stages. He didn't luck into those stage finishes, either. He constantly ran top 5 for most of the day. Then he got involved in a wreck late that pretty much took him out of contention. That Indy race was crazy though. It had a record 14 cautions, so the wrecking was unavoidable. That how it goes sometimes, you know?

Martinsville and Bristol are the next two tracks that I would like to look at! Bristol has been a up and down track for Blaney when it comes to getting the finishes. He has ran well here in the past two seasons, but he haven't always gotten the finishes. In 2 of his last three starts, he has finished outside of the 30. In the first Bristol race in 2017, he had power steering issues that caused him to finish outside of the top 30. He does have two finishes in the top 11 in past 4 races here though. He only has made 5 stars at Bristol, so it is hard to say what to make of him here. He loves Bristol though. So I will give him the benefit of the doubt for now. How about Martinsville? He is better than I think most people realized. He finished 19th in his first two starts at this track. Then he followed it up with a pair of really solid performances in 2017. He qualified in the top 10 in both races and he finished 8th in October 2017 race. In the spring (April) race? He finished 25th. But he was much better than that for the event. He was involved in two wrecks just after the halfway point of the race. He had to pit multiple times and ended up going multiple laps down. Don't be fooled, he was very fast in the early going. He drove up to the top 5 and could had something for them, if things played out differently.

Road courses should be considered a weak spot for Ryan Blaney as he does not have much experience on them yet. Not to say that he don't have a few good runs on them, but I am not ready to really trust him on them though. At Watkins Glen, he have finishes of 8th and 19th. In last season's race, he ran very well and finished 8th. He was probably top 10 good for the event. In 2016, he really struggled here and finished 19th place. He wasn't much better than that, either. At Sonoma, I think things will be tougher for him. I view that as the more challenging track overall. He finished 9th in his second career start at Sonoma. That came in 2017. He finished 23rd in 2016 race. I am not ready to trust him on the road courses, but he definitely got better in year number 2

Plate tracks will be a strength for Blaney in 2018. He is a really good driver on the plate tracks for such a young driver. Even if he doesn't always get to finish out the races at the front. At Talladega, he has shown great potential. In 3 of his last 6 races at Talladega, he has finished 11th or better. In 4 of his last 6 races at Talladega, he has finished 18th or better. He know how to finish well at Talladega, but what I love that he know how to run well, too. At Daytona, he has only made 5 career starts. And his results are pretty much down the middle. He has two top 14 finishes and three finishes outside of the top 18. In last season's Daytona 500, he finished 2nd.

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18