2020 Fantasy Nascar Picks (Las Vegas)

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First off, I wanna say that I am sending my best thoughts and wishes to Ryan Newman! That was a scary wreck to end the Daytona 500! Sometimes, we forget how dangerous this sport is and these drivers are human beings, too. And sometimes, we don't realize what really matters. It isn't about winning a race, it is about life. Thankfully, Ryan doesn't have any life threatening injuries which is truly incredible and I was so happy to hear that!

Aside from the scary wreck from Newman, I was pretty happy with the outcome of the Daytona 500! My Driver Group Game (DGG) lineup was a monster hit, as I swept the top 10 with Hamlin, Newman, LaJoie and Buescher. Sometimes, you get stupid lucky and luckily lady luck was shinning on me. Anyways, we are onto Las Vegas for this weekend's race. I will be adding lineups to the Slingshot game and Fantasy live (on Nascar.com) to my weekly's article. I suppose we should get down to things and start looking at some picks!

***Picks updated****

DGG -

A:

Starter - Joey Logano

Bench - Martin Truex Jr

Reasons - I really like Logano this weekend and he will have a great chance at winning Sunday's race. He is far from a sure thing, but he is on a 8-race top 10 streak at Las Vegas. I will take my chances wit him!

B:

Starters - Ryan Blaney and Aric Almirola

Bench - Erik Jones and William Byron

Reasons - Entering the week, the plan was to use Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney. I still like Blaney a lot, but I have decided against the Jones' plan. Aric was someone who I was very interested in and he has some really good speed this weekend. But William Byron is someone who I would love to use here at Vegas, as I think he can be a sneaky good fantasy option. His teammate's Alex Bowman is another driver I really like out of grouping tier of drivers!

C:

Starter - Ross Chastain

Bench - Chrisopher Bell

Reasons - Chastain was named the replacement driver for Ryan Newman, so at the last minute I swapped drivers. And I will likely start him long as he is in the car or long as I have starts. I don't think Newman will be out the whole year, so I will likely just use many starts with Ross as I can. You have to be smart with this guy and play it long-term!

Slingshot -

Erik Jones (starting 16th), Alex Bowman (starting 12th), Kurt Busch (starting 13th), Aric Almirola (starting 14th) and Austin Dillon (starting 21st)

Reasons - The goal is start drivers further back and hope that they can move up through the field. With qualifying washed out, it made it a little tougher as all of the top drivers are starting up front. But I did my best to create a well balanced lineup! I feel like Jones should move up from 16th, same with Aric Almirola. I feel the most confident in those two. Kurt showed some speed, so I bet he can finish in the top 10. Bowman? I thought he was pretty good overall based on practice results, but I have concerns about him doing it in the race. Dillon is on here based on the fact that I really don't bellieve he can finish worse than 21st. And that more to do with his record here than anything!

Fantasy Live -

Drivers: Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Reasons - I like the Fords drivers this weekend. So I see no reason not to have my lineup full of them! Almirola seems pretty confident in his car. Blaney has a great record here and should run well! Logano should be a top 5 pick for Sunday's race and Keselowski has a unbelievable record here for the past 4 or 5 seasons. Then there's Alex Bowman whom looks pretty good, too.

Garage driver - Kevin Harvick

Reasons - If one of my picks doesn't pan out, I could always throw Kevin Harvick in there and I am sure he's good for a top 5 finish. I would like to save him, but I am not against it though. Especially if he leads a lot of laps and what not,etc

Dark Horse - Aric Almirola

Winner - Joey Logano

Have a question or want to chat?

Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com

Twitter - @Garryy12

2020 Fantasy Nascar Final Rankings (Las Vegas)

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Final Rankings -

1. Joey Logano
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Kyle Larson
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Martin Truex Jr
6. Aric Almirola
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Kurt Busch
9. Alex Bowman
10. Kyle Busch
11. Denny Hamlin
12. Chase Elliott
13. William Byron
14. Jimmie Johnson
15. Erik Jones
16. Clint Bowyer
17. Austin Dillon
18. Matt Dibenedetto
19. Chris Buescher
20. Chrisopher Bell
21. Cole Custer
22. Ross Chastain
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
24. Ty Dillon
25. Tyler Reddick
26. Ryan Preece
27. Darrell Wallace Jr
28. Corey LaJoie
29. Michael McDowell
30. John Hunter Nemchek

Have a question or wanna chat?

Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com

Twitter - @Garryy12

2020 Fantasy Nascar Update (Las Vegas)

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Fantasy Nascar Update -

1. Kevin Harvick - It's hard to not like Kevin Harvick this weekend. He looked pretty good in practice on Friday and he will start from the 3rd position. Practice doesn't mean as much as it use to though. However, Kevin always been ace with the #4 team on these 1.5 mile tracks. There should be (and isn't) no difference here at Las Vegas! Hard to say how things will play out, but if I had to make a confident pick then Kevin is who my money on!

2. Joey Logano - I have been very high on the #22 car this all week long and my gut tells me that he gonna be strong on Sunday. He didn't post any super fast laps, but he seems pleased with his car overall. And he is one of the best drivers in the series here at Las Vegas. Past history isn't always a great indication of future success, but he is been a machine at this track, though. In his last 8 starts at Las Vegas, he has finished inside the top 10! Not only that, but he has race winning potential!

3. Martin Truex Jr - I won't lie, I didn't love any of the Joe Gibbs cars as none of them really had impressive speed. Now with this package, I am not sure really how stock you can really put into practice results. But if we did, then Truex Jr was the best Gibbs car. As you can tell that I am have some concerns about Truex Jr and his Toyota's counterparts. But I am gonna give them guys the benefit of the doubt. Truex Jr is also a total stud on these 1.5 mile tracks, which is something I cannot discredit!

4. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski is just so good here at Las Vegas! I hinted at it in my preview at start of the week that I love the Penske cars. None of them have dominant speed, but I think two of them can finish in the top 5. And Keselowski has as impressive track record at Vegas as anyone in the field. In 6 of his last 9 starts at Vegas, he has posted finishes in the top 3! Guys, the top freaking 3! That's silly good! I wish he showed a little more speed in practice, but that's alright though. He's usually a pretty safe bet!

5. Kyle Larson - I cannot say that I love Larson, but I think he gonna be really solid in Sunday's race. Over the past couple seasons, he has simply been just consistent here at Las Vegas. In 2019, he had finishes of 8th and 12th. He wasn't anything impressive, but he was good enough to be in that 8th-14th range. I liked him in practice, too. He showed some solid speed in the two practice sessions overall, in my opinion.

6. Ryan Blaney - Like his teammates, I was very high on Blaney all week long. And I really liked what I saw from him in the two practice sessions out of him. And it doesn't hurt that that Ryan has a pretty good record at Vegas in his career. In 3 of his last 4 races at this track, he has finished in the top 5! What makes him a even better fantasy option? He is starting up inside the top 10 for Sunday's race! I am not sure what else more I have to say about him honestly. He has speed, great track record and a good starting spot. He was pretty inconsistent at 1.5 mile tracks such as Texas, Kansas and Las Vegs in 2019 though. If I had some worry, then that would be it. However, he ended the season with finishing in the top 8 in 2 of his last 3 races at those three tracks. He finished 8th at Texas and 5th at Vegas during the playoffs.

7. Aric Almirola - Another driver that I was really high on this week was Aric Alimorla, I thought he had a great chance to run well here at Vegas! Well, he sitll does! Aric looked really good on Friday and that team seemed pretty happy with that car. And Aric seems confident, too. On tweeted on Saturday morning: ''This Mustang was fast right out of the gate.'' I really have a good feeling about this #10 car this season. I think he gonna have a really good year and I hopefully things will go well for him on Sunday's afternoon!

8. Kyle Busch - I am not super high on Kyle Busch this weekend. Him and the other Toyotas were down on the speed charts. I am not too concerned about it, as I fully expect them to run better than they practiced. I don't think Kyle going to the back will hurt him too much. He should be able to rebound and eventually contend for a top 10 finish.

9. Chase Elliott - I am not super high on Chase Elliott this weekend, as he kinda struggled (in my opinion) in practice compared to what I was expecting out of him and I still have some question marks about him entering the season. I would say that he has more upside than his teammates does. Elliott is one of those guys you cannot really rank too low. Because the odds are they will make you look like a complete fool.

10. Denny Hamlin - Like I mention with Truex Jr and Busch, the JGR cars are a bit down on speed. But as I mentioned before, I think they will be just fine in the race though. I have a hard time believing that Hamlin won't find himself inside the top 10 before the checkers wave on Sunday's afternoon. There's not a lot to say about him honestly. I am personally putting him between the 8th and 14th place range driver!

Just missed -

11. Kurt Busch

12. Alex Bowman

13. Erik Jones

14. William Byron

15. Jimmie Johnson

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNanthans18

2020 Fantasy Nascar Early Rankings (Las Vegas)

Welcome to Timerssports

Early Rankings -

1. Joey Logano
2. Kyle Busch
3. Martin Truex Jr
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Kyle Larson
8. Chase Elliott
9. Ryan Blaney
10. Erik Jones
11. Kurt Busch
12. Aric Almirola
13. Clint Bowyer
14. Jimmie Johnson
15. Alex Bowman
16. William Byron
17. Austin Dillon
18. Matt Dibenedetto
19. Chris Buescher
20. Chrisopher Bell
21. Cole Custer
22. Ty Dillon
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
24. Darrell Wallace Jr
25. Ryan Preece
26. Tyler Reddick
27. Michael McDowell
28. John Hunter Nemechek
29. Corey LaJoie
30. Daniel Saurez

Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com

Twitter - @Garryy12

2020 Fantasy Nascar Preview (Las Vegas)

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Las Vegas -

#1-Kurt Busch: Vegas isn't a great track for Kurt Busch overall. He has struggled here for a long time, even though he was pretty competitive in 2019 at this place. He finished 5th in 2019 spring race and finished in the top 10 in the first two stages in the fall's race. Then he had a tire rub after making contact with Martin Truex Jr and Chase Elliott! He later would plow into the wall and ended his day early. Like I said earlier, this is not a very good track for Kurt in his career! In 12 of his last 15 races overall, he has finished 16th or worse. His three lone top 10 finishes are 5th, 9th and 9th. You can take a chance with him, but I would much prefer to wait and see with him!

#2-Brad Keselowski: Not many drivers were happier that Nascar gave Las Vegas a second race then Brad Keselowski! As he has some really awesome numbers at this racetrack! In 6 of his last 9 races here, he has compiled finishes in the top 3. And in those 9 races, he hasn't finished worse than 7th! And 5 of his last 6 races has ended in the top 5 as well. Since the 2013 season here, he has been just amazing at this place. If you combined his numbers at Vegas and being known as one of the most consistent drivers on the 1.5 milers, then you probably get a top 5 drvier. I love Brad this weekend!

#3-Austin Dillon: Dillon isn't anything flashy here at Las Vegas, but in 8 of 9 career starts he has finished 21st or better. While 5 of those 8 races has ended in 12th-16th place range! More recently? He has finished 3 of the last 4 races between 11th and 13th. In his last 4 races at Vegas, he has compiled finishes of 12th, 20th, 11th and 13th. I will be completely honest, I am higher on Austin Dillon in general in 2020 than most. However, I am not a big fan of Austin Dillon's at Vegas! His upside is somewhere in the top 15, but realistically he will run/finish somewhere in the mid to high teens.

#4-Kevin Harvick - Harvick is a stud on the 1.5 mile tracks and it is where the #4 usually shines and Vegas can be a great track for Kevin. If he avoids trouble, then most times he will contend for the win and likely be a top 5 driver. Problem? He has had trouble avoid trouble here with SHR. In 8 career races with SHR, he has posted same amount of top 2 finishes (3- including 2 wins) as he does DNF finishes of 38th or worse. More bad news? If his trend pattern of finishes holds true, then he's due for a bad finish this weekend at Vegas. Here how his 8 finishes look with #4 team (most recent races listed last): 41st, 1st, 7th, 38th, 1st, 39th, 4th and 2nd. His trend has been: Bad race, good race, good race, bad race, good race, bad race, good race and good race. If that trend holds true, then he is due for a bad race. Of course, trends are worthless unless they actually contuine. I am very high on Kevin Harvick, but I am very aware that this has been a bit of bad luck place for him.

#9-Chase Elliott: Elliott had a very disappointing end to the 2019 season, a year where he posted 3 wins and 11 top 5 finishes. Elliott overall is one of the more well-rounded drivers in the series in a top ride. But the intermediate tracks the bread and butter for this #9 team, though. However, I wouldn't call Las Vegas a sure thing for him. As he has three career top 10 finishes in 6 starts! He also has finishes of 34th, 36th and 38th in his other three career starts! He did sweep the top 10 in 2019 with finishes of 9th and 4th, though. Vegas is a good track for Elliott, if he can avoid problems.

#10-Aric Almirola: Most people are down on Aric, after he had a very disappointing 2019 season! I think he will bounce back in 2020, though. Vegas could be a good place to help him do that, too. In his last 5 races at Las Vegas, he hasn't finished worse than 14th place. In 3 of those 5 races, he has finished in the top 10. In 2019, he had finishes of 13th and 7th. He posted driver ratings of 96.5 and 95.6 as well. So overall that performances weren't too different from each other. I will note I thought he was stronger in the spring's race (where he finished 7th), as he started 25th in that race. Honestly, he really struggled in 2019 on the 1.5 mile tracks. He started the season with 3 top 10 finishes and 5 top 12 finishes in the first five 1.5 mile tracks. After that? Only one top 10 in the final 6 race on the 1.5 mile tracks. He also 3 ugly races at Kansas and Michigan. With finishes of 17th, 33rd and 23rd. Yikes! Not good, considering those are tracks that we commonly compare to a place like Vegas!

#11-Denny Hamlin: Hamlin had a great season in 2019 and honestly I would expect him to regress some and that's pretty much a given. Is it possible for him to back it up? Sure, but I say it is unlikely. Based off the numbers, I wouldn't be too excited about him at Las Vegas. He can run well here, but his numbers aren't exciting. In his last 10 career races here, he has only posted 3 top 10 finishes. In those 10 races, he has only twice posted a driver rating above 100.0. If you are elite performer, you should be well above 100. In 4 of his last 6 races here, he has finished 15th or worse! He did finish 10th in last spring's race, though.

#12-Ryan Blaney: In 5 of his last 6 races at Vegas, he has finished 7th or better. Over the past two seasons, he has posted 3 top 5 finishes in 4 races. He finished 22nd in last spring's race. It was a very disappointing weekend for the #12 team. He qualified poorly and ran even worse, too. I think Blaney's biggest problem is consistency, but that doesn't seem to be a major issue at his favorite tracks. Certain places he has just a knack for finishing and running well on. I think Las Vegas fits into that category!

#14-Clint Bowyer: Bowyer wasn't too sharp in the 2019 season and he had a major consistency problem, too. On the 1.5 mile tracks, he was very unimpressive at times, too. I do like him more than most people heading into the season, but that's not saying a lot. However, I am not very high on him here at Las Vegas! This ranked as his 17th (of 22) best tracks over the past two seasons, and ranked as his 20th-best track with only 8 top 20 finishes in 16 career starts. That number get cut in half, when we are looking at top 10 finishes. How did he fair in the 2019 here at Las Vegas? He was unimpressive and had finishes of 25th and 14th. In his last 9 races here, he has just two finish inside the top 17 and those were a 10th place finish in March 2017 and 14th place finish in March 2019. In the other 7 finishes, he has six finishes of 21st or worse! Simply put, he is not very good at here!

#18-Kyle Busch: Kyle Busch was very good on this type of track in 2019, but I wouldn't call him dominant, though. He will always have a great chance to go to victory lane on these 1.5 mile tracks, but he didn't win a race on one until Homestead. I gotta say, that was very suprising. Even more suprising, he only produced 4 Top 5 finishes (outside of his win at Homestead) on the 1.5 mile intermediate tracks. He was strong in last spring's race here at Las Vegas, as he finished 3rd after leading 13 laps. In the fall's race, he finished 19th. Don't be fooled though, as he had a top 5 car. He had a crazy race and really had to rebound at end of the event and probably would had scored a top 5 finish, but he had an incident with a lap down car. That of course, made for a very interesting post-race interview. Overall, he has finished 6 of his last 8 races here in the top 11. Prior to finishing 19th in last season's race, he had 3 straight top 7 finishes at this track. He shoul be back to contending for top 5 finishes here this weekend!

#19-Martin Truex Jr: This is a great chance for Martin Truex Jr to get a win early in 2020 and he has been impressive since joining Toyota on 1.5 mile tracks. And over the past two seasons, no driver in the field has a better driver rating than Martin Truex Jr and ranks second in average finish. In 2019, he had finishes of 8th and 1st. Going back further, he has finished 5 of his last 7 races here in the top 4. In the past 5 races at Las Vegas, he has some really impressive performances! 3 times in the last 5 races, he has had a driver rating above 125.0! Guys, you are performing at an elite level if you have anything north of 120.0. He had driver ratings of 125.9, 135.1 and 147.6. Other two races? 97.1 and 113.2. Overall, he has been simply stupid good! In my eyes, he is the early odds-on favorite to win!

#20-Erik Jones: Jones' biggest problem early in his career (like most young drivers) is posting consistent finishes on a regular basis. But luckily, he was pretty consistent on the 1.5 mile intermediate tracks in 2019 honestly. In 8 of 11 races, he posted finishes in the top 10! But Las Vegas was trouble spot for him in 2019, as he had finishes of 13th and 36th. Overall, it has been a tough place for him with just one top 10 finish in 5 career starts and 3 top 20 finishes in those 5 starts. Is that horrible? No! But he also really hasn't contended for any top 5 finishes at this place, either. I guess, there's nothing to hate about him at Las Vegas. But I would prefer waiting on him for now and seeing how he does early in the season. If he can put together a few top 10 finishes, then I am all for using him!

#22-Joey Logano: Las Vegas is a great track for Penske and I am pretty high on them this weekend! Logano had a pair of impressively strong races at Las Vegas in 2019, where he led 86 laps to a win in March 2019 and led 106 laps to a 9th place finish in September 2019. Overall, he has finished 10th or better in 8 straight races and compiled a driver rating over 102 in all 8 races. And in 6 of those 8 races, his driver rating has been 108.0 or better! It's hard to not be impressed with him at this track! As impressive as he has been, he doesn't even have the best numbers among his teammates. Like I said, I am very high on Penske in general this weekend!

#24-William Byron: I like William Byron a lot in 2020, I think he gonna have some really good performances. I am sure there will be rough spots for him, but I think he could be the next driver to score his first career win! He was all over the map on the 1.5 mile tracks in 2019, as he pretty much was top 10 or miss as a fantasy pick. He had 5 top 10 finishes in 2019 on this type of track, which means he had 6 finishes outside of the top 10 as well. Hopefully there's more speed in those Chevys in 2020, and if there is then I think we can expect a upstick in production. I think we will see some sort of improvement, regardless how much more speed the Hendrick cars have. Like any young driver, he will get better as he keep getting more starts!

#42-Kyle Larson: Larson has a better average finish over the past couple seasons than I thought he did, but a lot of those because he had 3 top 5 finishes during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He was very good during those two seasons. However, those are by far his best seasons at this track. In 2019, he had finishes of 8th and 12th and never really contended for top 5 finishes in either race. By no means is Larson a bad driver here at Las Vegas, but I don't have ton of confidence that he can finish in the top 5. He admitted in 2017 or 2018 (cannot remember which one) that he was suprised how well he ran at Las Vegas. Sometimes, I keep those important nuggets in back of my head for times like these. I would expect a low-end top 10 finish from Larson!

#48-Jimmie Johnson: Over the off-season it was announced that Jimmie Johnson would retire after the 2020 season's ended! Look, I have been very tough on Jimmie over the past couple seasons and there's no hate on him. I really wish he could go out and have a magical 2020 season. But folks, he isn't the same guy anymore and I know there's a lot of people who disagree with that. But go back and watch him the past few seasons and you will see exactly what I mean. Could it be because of Hendrick on a downslide? Sure! But his teammates also outran him pretty often during the 2020 season. For the season, he had average finish of 17.4. Byron had 14.9 average finish and Bowman average finish was like 14.4. That's a pretty big drop-off, if you ask me. So what is realistic to expect out of him at Las Vegas? Well if there was bright spot for him during the 2019 season, then it was on these 1.5 mile tracks. He actually posted 7 top 10 finishes and even a few top 5 finishes. The days of Johnson contending for wins are probably over. But he is very capable of some solid finishes.

#88-Alex Bowman: Bowman had a good 2019 season and I will admit he was better than I thought he would had been. He did score a win (I didn't think he would) and had a few very strong runs, too. In 2019, he had 14.4 average finish with 12 Top 10 finishes. He hasn't been great at Las Vegas since joining the #88 team, but he has no finishes outside the top 20 and had career best finishes in 2019. He had a career-high (then) of 11th in the March's race, then he topped that high (to create a new-career high) of 6th in the September's race! He ended 2019 with some very good runs on type of track honestly. He had 4 straight top 11 finishes to end the season on 1.5 mile tracks. In 3 of those 4 races, he had finishes in the top 10!

#95-Christopher Bell: I think Bell is gonna win Rookie of the year in 2020, but he will have plenty of competition, though. There's not a lot to go on with Bell, since he has zero cup starts to date. But he will be in great equipment. He will basically be an extra JGR car. Now, he won't get quite as good equipment like the actual JGR cars but the Coach will make sure he's good! Think back to Erik Jones' rookie season to get a better idea what to expect out of the #95 car this season. I think Bell is a better talent to Jones though. This kid has a chance to be very special down the road, especially if he develops like we expect him to!

**All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Twitter - @JeffNathans18

2020 Fantasy Nascar Sleepers & Dark Horses (Daytona)

Welcome to Timerssports

Well folks, I had a lot planned for this offseason. However, I just wasn't up to it after writing up a couple driver previews in late November. I suppose the 2019 Nascar season just wore me down too much. Plus, work and football had me pretty busy. Then of course, things in my personal life kinda had kept me pretty occipued for the most part! With all of that said, I am gonna try to write much Fantasy Nascar content as humanly possibly in 2020! Now I cannot make any promises to anyone as the warmer weather get here.

I am super excited for the 2020 Nascar season, I am probably more excited for this upcoming than I had been over the past few seasons, honestly. So what better way to start the 2020 season, then with my personal favorite fantasy's article? That's right! We are digging into some sleepers and dark horses!

So what do these terms exactly mean in fantasy Nascar? Excellent question! Sleepers and Dark Horses are commonly confused with each other pretty often. When we are talking about sleepers, we are talking about value more than potential. In simplier terms, they are drivers who are typically under the radar and outproduce their expected fantasy's projections. Good examples of that would be guys like William Byron, Ryan Newman and I guess to lesser extent someone such as Alex Bowman, etc. Dark Horses are based on potential and upside. They are typically drivers that could challenge for the win, but they aren't expected to win the race. It's the potential that they COULD win, which makes them such exciting propects! Good examples would be guys like Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones. They always have that high potential to challenge for the win, but most weekends they aren't expected to pull it off!

Sleepers -

William Byron - I really liked what I saw from Byron in 2019! He showed flashes of mega potential at times in 2019, but he just couldn't put together on a consistent basis. In 36 races, he posted 5 top 5 finishes and 13 top 10 finishes with 14.2 average finish. In addditon to that, he also had 23 top 17 finishes and only 10 finishes worse than 20th place. I love the fact that Chad Knaus will be caling shots for him in 2020 once again! Many (including myself) thought the William/Chad combo would be awesome. I think the first year together was a learning curve for both of them, but I probably have higher hopes than most. Byron showed he could challenge for top 5 (at times) and was a contender for top 10 finishes more often than he get credit for. I think he will take another step in 2020 and suprise some people! Some far at Daytona, he has shown some speed during speedweeks and seems to be pretty good at this superspeedway thing,too. He has very limited expereince, so it is hard to judge him by his record here.

Ryan Newman - Newman was probably better in 2019 than your average fan realizes and he will most likely get that same direspect in 2020! Why? Because he isn't with a top tier team and doesn't run in the top 5 very often. However, he still remains to be one of the toughest drivers to pass in the series and has a history of being a consistent driver! In 2019, he posted 14 top 10 finishes and held 14.56 average finish in 36 races. He also posted 23 top 15 finishes and 28 Top 20 finishes. Like usual, Newman was very consistent and very few times did he finish outside of the top 20. In fact, 15 of the first 21 races he finished 17th or better. We should expect more of the same in 2020! And I really like him at Daytona this weekend! His record is really appealing here, too. Sure, does it really mean that much at Daytona? Not nearly as much as most tracks, but you want a good survival rate here on this type of track. That don't automatically translate to a good result, but it gives you a little more confidence in your picks. In his last 9 races at Daytona, he has posted 7 finishes of 15th or better. In 6 of those 7 races, he compiled finishes in the top 11(!).

Michael McDowell - Man the final spot in this portion of the article was really tough between Ty Dillon and Michael McDowell! I mean really tough, I don't think you can go wrong with either driver honestly. Dillon has posted 3 straight top 6 finishes at Daytona currently and including 6 straight top 17 finishes at superspeedway races. I think Dillon has better numbers overall, but I have this really strong gut feeling about McDowell. In 8 of his last 10 races at Daytona, he has finished in the top 15. In his last 4 races at Daytona 500, he has finishes of 5th (2019), 9th (2018), 15th (2017) and 15th (2016). See a trend? His finishes at the 500 are actually getting better as the season goes by. This doesn't mean he will automatically have a great finish, but like I said I have a really good feeling about McDowell!

Dark Horses -

Ryan Blaney - In 2019, I thought Blaney was really good at times and probably let a few too many races get away from him. He may not had won those races, but he certainly could had a strong finish, though. He will have to fix his inconsistency issues in 2020, if he truly want to contend for a championship! Blaney might be the most dangerous pick in the field, but so very often he is mixing it up at front of the field at Daytona and Talladega! Sure, he might have one of the highest DNF rates of any driver in the field. But I love his potential! Now, I personally wouldn't gamble on him but man the pay off with guy could be huge. His issue isn't skill on this type of track, it is actually having some luck and able to seal the deal. If Blaney is still running at end of the event, I am willing to bet he will have a very strong finish. With all of that said, he has 4 DNFs in his last 5 races at Daytona. Like I said, he is a very dangerous pick but he usually jump off the page in these races though. Don't believe me? Go back and watch some of the recent plate races.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr - I think Stenhouse is easily one of the most talent drivers on this type of track, but he is so disrespected because of his driving style. Yes, he is very aggressive at times and he tends to get himself in trouble. But let's be real here, he has been really good here on these superspeedways dating back before his cup season's debut (in 2013). So it's not like, he has just recently started to run well at Daytona and Talladega. Throw all the disrespect you want at him, but he should be considered a strong threat to win in Sunday's race! He has led in 5 straight races at Daytona, even though he has no finishes better than 13th in his last four races. Like I said, he is very aggressive and has a knack for getting himself in trouble. With all of that said, I am still very high on him and think he could steal a win here in 2020 at Daytona or Talladega!

I guess there's several guys I could had gone with in this article and it probably depends on who you consider a sleeper or a dark horse pick! Anyways, I hope everybody enjoyed my article today!

***All stats are from DriverAverages.com

Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com

Twitter - @Garryy12 

2020 Fantasy Nascar DGG Picks (Daytona)

Welcome to Timerssports

Man, this sure was a quick off-season! But I am not mad about that, as I am super excited for the new season to get here! I gotta say, I cannot remember the last time that I have been looking forward to the new season. A new Nascar season means another season of Fantasy Nascar. In 2019, I was able to finish 11th overall in the full season's rankings on DriverGroupGame.com (DGG). I finished in the top 150 in the final season of Yahoo (in 2017) and inside the top 200 in 2018 for the first season of DGG. So hopefully the success keep pouring in during the 2020 season! Even if it doesn't, I know this 2020 season gonna be ton of fun!

If you notice, I usually only make picks for DriverGroupGame.com. Why? Because that is the only game I really play these days. A few years ago, I use to play Draft Kings, the Fox Sports game (it's not around anymore - I don't believe) and even Fantasy Live. I just don't have much interest in those games anymore, but I am very willing to play those games (or any game for that matter) again and make picks. If picks from those games are requested. All you have to do is send me a email (at GarryBriggs265@gmail.com)!

Anyways, I am excited to get into today's picks! I never been bad at making picks at Daytona and Talladega. In my early days, I overthought it too much and boy did I have some ugly scores! Over the past couple seasons, I kinda just made a lineup and forgot it. Cutting out all of that second guessing has really helped my scores. I guess, the only saying is true about sticking with your gut! Let's get into today's big lineup!

DGG Picks -

Grouping A:

Starter - Denny Hamlin

Bench - Joey Logano

Reasons - Tough grouping to make picks for! I really like less popular options like Chase Elliott (selected by less than 25% as of this morning) or Martin Truex Jr or even someone like Kurt Busch. All of those guys have a good shot as any, but Hamlin always my go to guy (when he's in grouping A). So why change that now? Plus, I am pretty sure I won't use all 8 starts with him during the season. Especially in a grouping with Harvick, Busch, Truex Jr, Keselowski and Logano.

Grouping B:

Starters - Chris Buescher and Ryan Newman

Bench - Alex Bowman and Austin Dillon

Reasons - I think this is the grouping that will make or break you! There's so many combos that you could use and personally I usually use the same combo in every single race! In 2018, I used Dinger and Buescher. In 2019, I used Newman and Menard (except for the Talladega's fall race - used Dillon). And if you look up the numbers, I have gotten stupid good numbers. A few top 5 finishes each season! So why not use a combo from each season with Newman and Buescher. Both have had success here recently and probably will not be on most rosters this weekend. Newman might be just because you need 4 drivers. I suspect most lineups to have Stenhouse Jr, Bowman or Austin Dillon as the starters. Not to say that Newman won't make some teams as he has the 3rd-best average finish over the last 4 races here. But you get the point!

Grouping C:

Starter - Corey LaJoie

Bench - Michael McDowell

Reasons - Yes, I am starting Corey LaJoie. In fact, I started him 4 TIMES in 2019 and he had finishes of 18th (Daytona 500), 11th (first Talladega race), 6th (Summer Daytona) and 7th (Fall Talladega). Yes, he was very lucky, but it's a gamble I am willing to bet on again. I will always be a ballsy picker and I will always take a shot in the dark. And that just doesn't go here at Daytona. Over the years, I have made some crazy picks and a lot of times they end up blowin up in my face. But when I hit on picks, boy my scores has been massive! Hopefully I hit on it in today's race!

Dark Horse - Ricky Stenhouse Jr

Winner - Denny Hamlin

Have a fantasy question or wanna chat?

Email - Garrybriggs265@gmail.com

Twitter - @Garryy12