With the starting lineup for Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 being set on Practice #1 speeds thanks to the rain on Friday, it probably wouldn’t be the worst strategy in the world to just start the drivers that have the best starting spot on your Yahoo! rosters. Let’s not forget that the last three Richmond races have all been won by drivers starting 3rd or better, and 78% of the winners at this track have starting inside the top 10. This is a 0.75-mile D-shaped “short” track that acts like a speedway, and because the Sprint Cup teams only had one practice session on Saturday, we think it would be best to take track history into account a little bit more when making Fantasy NASCAR picks this weekend.
Last Sunday’s race at Bristol was another tough one for the Fantasy Racing Online team, as we started Kyle Busch in the A Group and he wrecked out. We were able to salvage some points thanks to Ryan Newman (9th) and Paul Menard (15th) in the B Group, though. We’re sitting in the 29th percentile, though, so it’s time for a good week and a bunch of points at Richmond. This Yahoo! Auto Racing game is a marathon, not a sprint, but it’s time to pick up the pace.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Richmond
The definite better pick our of our two A Group drivers this weekend–Kyle Busch and Joey Logano–is Kyle Busch. However, we’re already down to seven starts left with this #18 Toyota, so starting him for the Toyota Owners 400 race at Richmond on Sunday would already put us down to six with 75% of the schedule remaining. Joey Logano is really solid at this race track, but he’s been pretty unpredictable this season and is on this weird streak of single-digit finish one week, double-digit finish the next. If that keeps going on Sunday, he’s due for a single-digit result. Logano also starts 2nd for this year’s Toyota Owners 400, while Kyle Busch starts 9th. But that #18 Toyota had top 3 speed in Happy Hour on Saturday while Logano ranked 15th in ten-lap average. We’re going for max points with our roster this weekend and to do that we need to start Kyle Busch, so that’s what we’re going to do.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Jimmie Johnson, (3) Kyle Busch, (4) Kurt Busch, (5) Joey Logano, (6) Brad Keselowski, (7) Denny Hamlin, (8) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (9) Matt Kenseth
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Richmond
We’re happy with our gamble to throw A.J. Allmendinger on our roster for Richmond. On Friday he was 10th-fastest in Practice #1, which means he’s going to start Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 from a solid top 10 starting spot. The #47 Chevrolet also had solid speed during the Happy Hour practice session on Saturday as well, ranking 8th in both overall speed and ten-lap average. A.J. also seemed pretty happy with his car, and that never happens. This #47 team’s strength is on the short tracks and that’s going to show once again this weekend. If nothing goes wrong, Allmendinger might have a shot at a top 10 finish here on Sunday. He ran 13th in this race one year ago.
Carl Edwards is once again the class of the B Group field and looks like a solid top 5 and potentially race-winning threat. We still advise saving his starts but we know how hard that can be right now. We don’t think the #19 Toyota is good enough to dominate this race like it did last week, though. Anyway, Truex might crack the top 10 on Sunday and might now, so once again we would recommend keeping him on your bench if you rostered him this weekend. Kasey Kahne looked good in Happy Hour on Saturday but keep in mind that he typically races worse than he starts/practices. At best we think Kahne will finish 13th or so in this year’s Toyota Owners 400.
Allmendinger is our definite start of the weekend, while Jamie McMurray is definitely on the bench due to his 27th-place starting spot. So now we have to choose between Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Kyle Larson. Between those two, Stenhouse is actually the safer option, as he has five finishes of 16th or better in the last seven Sprint Cup races. He will also start 12th on Sunday. Kyle Larson always has that major upside potential, though, and was faster than Stenhouse (in terms of ten-lap average) during Happy Hour on Saturday. Larson has also never finished worse than 16th in his three Sprint Cup starts here at Richmond, while Stenhouse has just one finish better than 16th in six career starts here. Right now our gut tells us to go with A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Larson as our B Group drivers in this weekend’s Toyota Owners 400.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Carl Edwards (2) Martin Truex, Jr., (3) A.J. Allmendinger, (4) Kasey Kahne, (5) Ryan Newman, (6) Kyle Larson, (7) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (8) Austin Dillon, (9) Jamie McMurray, (10) Greg Biffle, (11) Tony Stewart, (12) Paul Menard, (13) Trevor Bayne, (14) Aric Almirola, (15) Danica Patrick, (16) Casey Mears, (17) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Richmond
Tony Stewart announcing his return to the Sprint Cup Series on Thursday really threw a wrench in all Yahoo Fantasy NASCAR players’ plans. We were able to use Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon when we could, so we’re left with eight starts remaining with both Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney now–which are our two C Group drivers for Richmond. The #24 Chevrolet will start Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 from 23rd while the #21 Ford will roll off the grid in 29th. Blaney did look a little faster than Elliott in final practice on Saturday, but when it’s all said and done on Sunday, we think Chase is going to finish higher–and he has a much better chance of coming away with a surprise top 10 (or even top 5) result. We’re starting Chase Elliott on Sunday, although if you have Brian Scott on your roster, it’s definitely worth a long consideration on starting him. He could surprise some people this weekend.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Brian Scott, (4) Matt DiBenedetto, (5) Landon Cassill, (6) Chris Beuscher, (7) Michael McDowell, the rest
do you think Blaney will finish enough better than Scott to not take a chance on Scott?
I would save Blaney for when he looks like a definite top 10 threat, so I’d start Scott this week.
Thanks, with Tony back the C list is going to be a lot harder
Yes it is. I guess we got “lucky” that he was out for the 8 races he was…