Welcome to TimersSports
Fantasy Nascar Update -
A:
1. Kyle Busch - Kyle Busch has a pretty solid car this weekend and will roll off from the 5th starting spot. His lap times in practice were pretty consistent and seemed pleased with the speed in his No.18 car. Busch have finished 3 of the past 5 races at this place inside the top 3. Last time he started from the 5th starting spot at the Glen? 2013. Where did he finish on that day? In victory lane. In fact, he have started inside the top 5 in 4 races so far in career. He have finished three times inside the top 2. Including both of wins. I have considered him one of the favorites all week long and after practice, I don't see any reason to change my opinion of him. All of the Gibbs cars seems to have plenty of speed. Rowdy is my pick to win on Sunday.
2. Joey Logano - Logano have one of the best cars this weekend and I don't think enough people give him enough credit as an ace road course racer. He have finishes of 3rd, 1st and 5th over his past 3 road course races and have finished 4 straight inside the top 6. At WGI, he have posted finishes of 1st and 6th over the past two seasons. In practice, he looked very good and top 5 good in my opinion. He worked on mainly race runs in practice and he was right there with the Gibbs cars on the lap times. It hard to say how good he truly is, since lap times don't fall off too much. But you could tell he was in pretty good shape with the lap he was posting compared to other drivers in both sessions though. I think he will be top 5 good on Sunday afternoon and contend for the win.
3. Brad Keselowski - Keselowski is another great fantasy option to consider this week. He been awesome at WGI in his career and raced in the NXS race, which should gave him some extra on-track time. He was pretty good on Friday in practice as well. He posted solid lap times in both sessions overall in my opinion, which didn't surprise me one bit. He will roll off further back than I would like (12th place), but it hard to deny that he been very good at this place. He have started 12th or better in the last 5 races here and have translated them into 4 top 7 finishes. Last time he started from 12th place? 2011 and he finished 2nd on that day. He also has a lot of momentum right now, as he have posted 6 Top 5 finishes over the past 9 Sprint Cup series races. I also believe there will be a lot of pit strategies going on in Sunday's race with this tire not falling-off much (faster speeds too). Brad's is one of the best in the series on pit strategy. I think this race could fall right in his lap. Look at Pocono? He finished 2nd.
4. Denny Hamlin - I usually don't rank Hamlin that high at a road course, however he was legit at Sonoma and have shown pretty good speed this weekend as well. I thought he was pretty good overall on Friday. He also has plenty of momentum entering the week. Entering the week, he have posted a season-high 3 straight Top 8 finishes. He also have been performing much better than he was earlier this season of late as well. He haven't gotten a least an top 15 finish here since 2009, but I think that will change though. Not to mention, all his JGR teammates has some speed in their cars. Usually when two or more of them has speed, it a common theme for the rest of them. I think the fact that Hamlin is running better, will help him this weekend. Not saying Hamlin is a safe option by any means, but it hard to overlook that he could be a great dark horse nobody is talking about. On twitter, Hamlin said he has a great car and added he To top it off, he will start from the 6th.
5. Kevin Harvick - The final spot in this grouping of drivers came down to Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch. All three have came ran quite well over the past couple seasons on the road courses . But I am going with Kevin Harvick because he been one of the best road course racers in the series over the past two seasons. He probably should won this race last season and had the lead until he ran out of fuel on the final lap. Harvick have been a strong road course racer since joining SHR. He have finished 4 of 5 road course races inside the top 7. Including finishes of 7th and 3rd in his first two WGI starts. Much like any other race weekend, Harvick was very fast and seemed to be pleased with his racecar. But I like most race, I think his pit crew will blow this race for him. As it seems like more often than not, the #4 team always find ways to come up short. Also if it comes down to fuel mileage, I don't consider Kevin as the best fuel saving driver. He has a fast car no doubt and will likely have of the cars to beat on the long runs. If you really want to use him this week, then I am not against it.
B:
1. Carl Edwards - Carl Edwards in eyes in one of the favorites and probably could make a very strong case as the odds-on favorite as well. The No.19 car showed solid speed on Friday and backed it up on Saturday afternoon by qualifying on the pole. Carl also qualified on the pole earlier this season at Sonoma and eventually finished 4th place. He have qualified inside the top 5 in 5 road course races (3 at Sonoma, 2 at WGI) so far in his career. All 5 races have ended in 9th or better. Even better? 4 of those 5 races have ended inside the top 5. Including the past 4 times. Back in 2010, he also sat on the pole for this race and finished 5th on that day. Edwards also have plenty of experience this season starting up front as well. In 7 previous races this season, he have started on the front row. He finished 7th or better in 5 of 7 races. He have finished inside the top 4 in the past two times he have started on the pole this season. Long as the 19 team keep Edwards towards the front, I think he finishes somewhere inside the top 3 or top 5. Edwards has the speed, question is can he take advantage of this opportunity?
2. Martin Truex Jr - Truex's team made a very risky gamble on Saturday in qualifying that didn't pay off for him. His team decided to wait until the last minute possible to make their qualifying lap, so the track would have rub down. Which isn't a terrible idea. problem was you could put faster lap times down as you put more laps on your tires. As you guessed, he missed the final round because he tried to outsmart the competition. He seems very happy with car's speed, so I am not too concerned about his poor starting position, I am just worried what bad luck is in stored for him. Last week, he kept hitting the wall. I don't really know, but I don't trust him. Based on pure potential, I would say he can be a top 5 driver. However, I wouldn't bank on it. To me is about an top 10 fantasy pick with a top 5 caliber car.
3. AJ Dinger - Dinger will always have great potential to finish up front on road courses but he have struggled to finish out these road courses races more often than not. I think that have more to do with equipment or pit road mistakes than anything though. I don't think he has a dominating car . However I fully expect him to drive up to the front from the 9th starting position, but don't look for him to drive away from the field though. He isn't what Marcos Amrbose was a few years back, even if he the closest we have right now (so people will make those comparisons). To be completely honest, I am not sure what Dinger has for this weekend because as I mentioned before lap times don't fall off too much. I want to say that he has a car capable of winning, but I didn't think he was overly great. He never seemed happy with his car, but I do believe we will see him get inside the top 5 at some point. Weather it is on strategy or myself. He has the speed to do it, he probably a little off still from being a race winning car in my opinion though.
3. Kyle Larson - My dark horse pick drives the Target Chevy for Chip Ganassi Racing in Kyle Larson. For weeks and weeks, many have speculated when he would score his first win of his career. This could be the week it happens. Larson is a very solid road course racer and have quickly became a front runner on this type of track. Earlier this season, he was top 5 good for most of the event. Until he got a speed penalty late in the race, which put him a hole. He recovered nicely to an solid 12th place. On top of that, Larson has a lot of momentum. He have finished 5th and 6th in his previous two races (Indy and Pocono) and will start a season-high 2nd on Sunday. He was not really that happy with his car until late in final practice. However, he came out on Saturday and showed strong speed out of his Chevy. He also has some extra on-track time from Saturday's race. I believe he will finish somewhere inside the top 10, with upside to finish inside the top 5.
5. Tony Stewart - The good times continues to roll for Tony Stewart and the 14 team, as he will start from the 3rd starting position. Tony is considered to be one of the best road course racers in the field, as he have won at this track alone 5 times. But only has one race under his belt, since the 2012 season. Despite that, I can overlook that and say that he is good enough to be around top 10 or top 12 fantasy pick. Remember he also won earlier this season at Sonoma as well. Honestly, I like him for the momentum he brings into this race more than anything else. He have finished 4 of the past 6 races inside the top 5. To me fantasy nascar have a lot to do with momentum. A driver with momentum can be a difficult thing to halt and Smoke has plenty of it right now. Truthfully, I didn't really pay much attention to Tony in practice. So I am not really that sure what he has overall, but common sense would suggest that he is good enough to finish as I mentioned earlier least inside the top 12.
C:
1. Chase Elliott - Elliott will make his Cup series debut at WGI on Sunday and he have looked better than I expected him to. He qualified in the 16th starting position and was higher on the speed charts than I was thinking. However, we have to remember that he is in HMS equipment. The Hendrick bunch always seems to unload good cars. Obviously HMS is behind right now, but still Chase haven't looked too bad. However, he is a major slump right now. His main focus should be finishing ahead of the Ganassi cars who are directly behind in the Sprint Cup Series standings. Headed into the race, I view him as a top 17th-22nd driver with the potential to finish inside the top 15 as the race progresses. I am still not completely sold on Chase at the moment, least not until he proves he can finishes out races again.
2. Jeff Gordon - Jeff Gordon qualified outside of the top 20 and he was very surpised. In a post-qualifying interview with MRN, he said his car was great on Friday and expected to easily make inside the top 10 and maybe even top 5. He was that confident in his car beforehand, so it had to be very disappointing for him. He also added that he felt great this week, so maybe that will translate to better performance than the first few races back. I have higher standards for Gordon than I had earlier in the week. I think we will see least an solid low teen finish from Gordon, depending how the race plays out. Heck, I wouldn't be shocked if the 88 car finishes inside the top 10 on Sunday.
3. Ryan Blaney - Blaney will round out this grouping tier of drivers. I cannot say, I have been too impressed with Ryan Blaney so far. My expectations for him wasn't high to begin with though, so not really disappointed either. I just haven't shown much from him to say that he is a legit top 20 threat. I honestly, I thought for sure, he would be entered in the NXS race this week to get addition track-time. But he wasn't (Keselowski, Logano was). As I said in my preview, my main concern was his inexperience at this racetrack and his inexperience on road courses in general. If this race goes for Blaney as I am thinking, I think he will finish somewhere around 20th place. Headed into the weekend, I thought how these rookies improved throughout the weekend would be the key to their potential upside.
Grouping Tier Rankings -
A:
1. Kyle Busch
2. Joey Logano
3. Brad Keslowski
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Jimmie Johnson
7. Kurt Busch
8. Matt Kenseth
B:
1. Carl Edwards
2. Martin Truex Jr
3. AJ Dinger
4. Kyle Larson
5. Tony Stewart
6. Ryan Newman
7. Jamie Mac
8. Kasey Kahne
9. Austin Dillon
10.Greg Biffle
C:
1. Chase Eilliott
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Ryan Blaney
4. Michael McDowell
5. Chris Buescher
Twitter - @JeffNathans18
