I started this blog to provide a casual, recreational level of fantasy NASCAR advice and discussion. I've been playing these contests for a number of years and am annoyed by lineup sellers and groups of players using the same lineup. I'm hoping to give the casual player some help in building solid lineups that can beat that annoying crowd most of the time. I'm not a "tout" and don't do this for a living, so proceed accordingly. I hope you enjoy the discussion here and Good Luck!
Hey all -- been sick all week so I'm not going to post any Texas content. Hope to be back up to speed for Xfinity and Cup next weekend at Bristol.
0 Comments
Can't wait to see what happens on Sunday at Martinsville. From a pure narrative standpoint, you've got to imagine Logano and Truex fighting for this win again. Can Truex finally score his first short track victory? Or will the recent Kyle Busch dominance continue? Here's some thoughts for your winning lineups:
FRIDAY NIGHT UPDATE: After practice today, a few more names are standing out as budget options in a Kyle Busch lineup. Raphael Lessard is near minimum price but is running in top notch Kyle Busch Motorsports equipment. He had good speed in practice. But it's his first ever Truck series race so I would use him only if he starts pretty far back in the field. Tyler Ankrum is running in the #17 truck, which has been solid this year with multiple different drivers.
Love the racing at Martinsville. Here are my thoughts going into the Trucks Series race on Saturday.
We had another winning Fantasy NASCAR analysis for the Xfinity Series race led by Kyle Busch. Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown and Matt Mills were other guys we mentioned as lineup fits that did a great job.
On the Cup side, I'm always up front on this page, and I've got to tell you I have not spent as much time as I normally do watching practice this weekend. This is an unpaid hobby of mine so other things have to take priority. I still did a good chunk of research throughout the week and spent some time with the practice numbers, though, so wanted to give you all some thoughts about the race -- just with that word of caution.
Good luck! The key question again this week is whether to roster Kyle Busch at $15,000. As of now, I'm planning to do that and here's why:
I think the path to a cash game lineup is pretty straight forward this week. There's a few very tough decisions to make, but the general framework is pretty clear. Here we go:
The Fantasy NASCAR question for the Xfinity race this week is whether or not to use Kyle Busch and his $14,900 salary. I'm leaning yes in all formats. Kyle has done the Xfinity race at Phoenix four times in the last few seasons. In three of those four races, he has completely dominated the race. And I mean COMPLETE and DOMINATION. It's a 200 lap race and in those three races, he's not only won them going away -- but also led 175 or more of the 200 laps and had by far the greatest number of fastest laps. If he comes anywhere close to that again, you're looking at 120+ points which is absolutely crazy with the lower lap count in an Xfinity race.
In the one race Kyle did not completely dominate, he still finished 3rd, led 39 laps and had +2 position difference. That race was won by Brad Keselowski, who had a great car, led many laps and might have dominated even more without an early pit road speeding penalty. This week, Kyle will be the only Cup Series star in the Xfinity race, so his path to domination is clear. The one Xfinity regular that might be able to give Kyle a go is Justin Allgaier. He won this race in 2017 and finished 2nd in 2018. In three of the last four races here, he's led 69 or more laps -- including in several races with Cup Series stars crossing over. He finished 24th here last Fall only because he was the innocent victim of an incident on track in front of him. He will probably be my lead hedge play against Kyle Busch, but in tournaments only. Christopher Bell has been awesome so far this year and he won the last Phoenix race last Fall while leading 94 laps. The catch there is that no Cup Series regulars were in that race. In two Phoenix races with Cup Series guys in them, Bell has come home 4th both times with a total of 5 (out of 400) laps led. So, unlike Allgaier, he's not shown an ability to lead laps and run up front at Phoenix when Cup guys are in the race. Given all that, any exposure to Bell would likely be in a third tournament lineup. The one scenario where I might consider fading Busch is if you have multiple quality Xfinity regulars starting in the back and the salary savers to pair with Busch are pushed up on the starting grid. That's very unlikely, but you never know. So, who are the salary savers to pair with Busch if you go that route? We'll have to see qualifying spots for sure, but some early week possibilities include Ryan Truex (running in the top notch Jr Motorsports #8 car), Jeremy Clements, Roy Black Jr, Josh Williams, Brandon Brown and Bayley Currey. I may post an update on Friday night if I see anything of note during Friday's two practice sessions. Been a great weekend so far cashing easily in the Truck and Xfinity Series races. Going for the weekend sweep on Sunday. I always try to be completely up front and honest here and, for this race, I have no idea what's going to happen. Sometimes admitting you don't know something is just what you have to do. And everything at this point is pure speculation because we have never seen all the cars on the track in race conditions with this new package. And with the way it looked in final practice, the entire field is going to be bunched up pretty closely, so I'm very concerned about incidents that would normally be 1-2 car deals turning into 7-8 car wrecks.
So my approach for this weekend is going to be to play a smaller bankroll for the week and use something like a super speedway lineup. We've got 10-12 really good teams and drivers starting from 17th on back. I am going to fill my lineup with those guys figuring that no one is going to dominate the race and that the way to rack up the points on Sunday will be on position difference points and fastest lap points from guys drafting their way up through the field. Keselowski, Almirola, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman are some of my favorite choices. Lastly, I just don't think there's anything to talk about or analyze with respect to track history, etc. We've never seen anything like this package run at Las Vegas so past history here means next to nothing. Likewise any history on 1.5 mile tracks since this is the very first time this package is being run at all. None of that stuff matters to me this weekend. Here's a few notes to help you build Xfinity lineups:
|
AuthorMy name is Steve and I've won thousands playing NASCAR fantasy racing games. This blog will share my advice for enjoying and winning your fantasy racing games. Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|