We’re back to the normal scoring in FOX Fantasy Auto at Richmond this weekend, as qualifying didn’t get cancelled. Denny Hamlin is on the pole followed by Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Jamie McMurray, and Kurt Busch, but there are quite a few cars starting pretty far back that we need to target for place differential points. It’s not uncommon for drivers to make their way through the field here at Richmond, so the potential for a big points night is pretty high. As far as our overall strategy for the race, we’re going to focus mainly on place differential drivers and hope for the best, because this race has the potential to get a little crazy.
Last week at Darlington, our Fantasy Racing Online team walked away with 149 points despite Jimmie Johnson’s wreck and subsequent 33rd-place finish. We cracked back into the top 500 overall (currently 492nd) and still remain 3rd in our private group. This is the final race before the “Fall Segment” in this game starts.
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Richmond Federated Auto Parts 400
Kyle Busch ($10,300) – Rowdy Busch’s career average finish at Richmond International Raceway is 6.9 so of course he’s going to make our FOX Fantasy Auto roster this weekend after qualifying 9th on Friday. Rowdy is a four-time winner here and has finished 2nd or 3rd in three of the last four races at this track. Yeah, not too shabby. In practice this weekend, the #18 Toyota was consistently one of the fastest cars on the track, and considering Kyle Busch ranked inside the top 5 in ten-lap average during both sessions on Friday, it’s obvious that he has a very good long run car this weekend–and that’s what it’s going to take to make Busch a threat for the race win on Saturday night. Rowdy also started 9th when we raced here back in April and ended up finishing 2nd, and he should have a car good enough to replicate that performance here on Saturday night.
Carl Edwards ($10,000) – Speaking of last April’s race at Richmond, here’s the winner of that event: Cousin Carl. Yeah, he burned a lot of Fantasy NASCAR owners last weekend (us included), but it seems like just when he has a disappointing race like that he bounces back with a great result the next time around. In Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400, Edwards will roll off the grid from 13th, which means there’s some room there for place differential points. What we like the most about him, however, is how much long run speed he showed during the practice sessions: Edwards was 3rd-best in ten-lap average during the morning session and then ranked 1st on that chart during the Happy Hour practice in the afternoon. Overall, Richmond has been a pretty good track for Carl throughout his career, and he has ended up inside the top 10 in nine of the last thirteen events here. We’re betting he makes it ten of the last fourteen here on Saturday night.
Kevin Harvick ($13,900) – We didn’t want to this much of our cap with one driver but after Kevin Harvick ended up qualifying 19th for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400, he’s almost a must-start in the leagues that award points based on place differential. “Happy” is as solid as they come here at Richmond and currently has three top 5 finishes in the last four events at this track. He won here back in 2013 but hasn’t really been a true contender at Richmond since. We think that all changes this weekend, though. Stewart-Haas Racing finally made a pit crew change on this #4 team and Harvick now has a couple of guys from Danica Patrick’s team to try and eliminate pit road mistakes. And if he can get track position at any point in the race on Saturday night, the #4 Chevrolet is good enough to lead a whole bunch of laps and drive away from the field. Harvick ranked 6th in ten-lap average during Happy Hour on Friday, but you have to note that that was ran in the last half of the practice session. If it was ran earlier, like many other teams did, we bet Harvick would have been P1 on that chart. A top 5 finish out of the #4 team on Saturday night will net us 50+ points in FOX Fantasy Auto, and that makes Harvick well worth the money this weekend.
Chase Elliott ($8,900) – Once the should-be Rookie of the Year qualified 34th on Friday, we had to adjust our initial FOX Fantasy Auto roster and make room for him. It’s not very often that you get a driver of this caliber starting this far back, and considering this game is based off of those place differential points, he’s almost a must-start here on Saturday night. The #24 Chevrolet was struggling all day on Friday, and was probably at its worst during qualifying. However, we’re not about to bet against a Hendrick Motorsports team, especially one with five top 15s in the last six Sprint Cup races overall–like this #24 group has. Chase has made two career Sprint Cup starts here at Richmond and has ended up finishing 12th and 16th in those two events. We don’t know if he can get up quite that high here on Saturday night, but even a 20th-place finish will score 35 points in the FOX Fantasy Auto game. Anything higher than that is just bonus. This is the farthest that Chase Elliott has started back all season long, but that doesn’t worry us too much: he has good teammates to work with overnight and get that car right on Saturday.
Paul Menard ($6,500) – To afford the top guys this weekend, unfortunately you have to go with one of these low-dollar drivers. We decided on Paul Menard but Chris Buescher is a viable option as well in this price range. Menard’s season has been pretty crappy this year, but he does have three finishes of 22nd or better over the last four weeks, and believe it or not that’s an improvement for this team. Here at Richmond, Menard hasn’t been great, but he has just one result worse than 22nd in the last nine races here and that has to count for something. The #27 Chevrolet had top 20 speed during Happy Hour on Friday, and if Paul can finish anywhere near that on Saturday night, we’ll be okay with it. He rolls off the grid from 30th this week and should have a pretty low percentage of ownership, so he allows you to be a little different than the competition while affording those big name drivers above.
Looking for an alternate roster?
Below is what our initial roster was set to before qualifying took place on Friday. However, because of the limited potential for place differential points, we decided to switch to the lineup above. We still may end up going with the one below for Saturday night’s race, though…
Denny Hamlin ($10,200) – The #11 team is one of the hottest teams in the Sprint Cup Series garage right now as they have an average finish of 4.7 over the last six Sprint Cup races overall. When you combine that with the fact that Denny Hamlin has an average finish of 10.6 here at Richmond (along with two victories), he’s a no-brainer pick in many Fantasy NASCAR leagues. However, because he won the pole for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400, it really limits the amount of points he can earn for a team this weekend. So if you put Hamlin on your FOX roster this week, you’re essentially focusing solely on finish points, which isn’t a terrible idea. Denny has finished 6th in each of the last two events at this track, and during the practice sessions here on Friday, the #11 Toyota was one of the strongest cars on the track, ranking 12th in ten-lap average during the first session and 3rd on that chart during Happy Hour.
Kyle Busch ($10,300) – See our notes above about Kyle Busch.
Matt Kenseth ($10,200) – You can’t really go wrong with Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday night, and Matt Kenseth has been one of the strong competitors here at Richmond ever since he made the move to this organization. Over the last eight Richmond races, Matt has ended up 7th or better in all but one of them, and that includes his absolutely dominating performance in this race one year ago. In practice on Friday, the #20 Toyota wasn’t “flashy” fast, but Kenseth was right there with his teammates on the ten-lap average chart (2nd-best in Happy Hour) so you know he has good speed on the long runs. Like Hamlin, Kenseth’s place differential points are limited here on Saturday night (he starts 3rd) but he should still be good for 35+ points in this FOX Fantasy Auto game.
Carl Edwards ($10,000) – See our notes above about Carl Edwards.
Martin Truex, Jr. ($8,900) – Martin Truex, Jr. finished 5th here at Richmond way back in 2008, and that has been his single top 5 finish over his twenty-one career starts at this 0.75-mile race track. But that could all change this weekend. This #78 team is coming off of that awesome win at Darlington one week ago, and they unloaded another fast car here at Richmond this weekend. Truex qualified 6th for Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400, so his place differential points are pretty limited as well, but he was inside the top 5 on both ten-lap average charts during the practice sessions on Friday and many guys in the garage area were pointing to the #78 Toyota during Happy Hour as one of the cars to beats. Truex does have four top 10 finishes in the last six Richmond races, but it wouldn’t surprise us if he bumped it up a notch and wound up with a second career top 5 on Saturday night.
