The races at Phoenix International Raceway are pretty cut and dry, and ever since the track underwent the re-pavement and reconfiguration during the 2011 season, track position has ended up being very important whenever the Sprint Cup Series stops here. Typically, those who qualifying up front finish up there as well. This weekend, we have Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson leading the field to the green, followed by Chase Elliott and Joey Logano in row two. Race favorite Kevin Harvick starts 6th.
Using our final Chase Elliott start at Texas 2 last weekend ended up being the right move, as our Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team swept the top 5 and ended up with 382 points. With two races left in the 2016 season, we now sit in the 89th percentile overall.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Phoenix 2
We went with our two highest-ranked A Group drivers this weekend, and after qualifying our mind was pretty much made up on who we were going to start. Kevin Harvick (with his 6th-place starting spot) will be our A Group driver this weekend–along with many other players, we assume–while Kyle Busch and his 19th-place starting spot will be on our bench. We have seen time and time again the importance of qualifying up front here at Phoenix, plus it would be just plain foolish to go against the guy that’s won five of the last six races here and finished 2nd in the other event. We still think Rowdy Busch has a chance at a top 5 on Sunday, for what it’s worth.
Joey Logano will start 4th on Sunday and looked pretty good during the practice sessions this weekend. He’s never won here at Phoenix but has finished between 3rd and 9th in five of the last six races here. After dominating much of the race at Texas 2 last week, he’s someone to keep an eye on once again this weekend. Denny Hamlin needs a clutch run on Sunday if he wants to keep his championship hopes alive. Unfortunately we don’t associate that word with the #11 team at all. The good news for Hamlin fans is that he starts 5th this weekend and finished 3rd here back in March. His teammate, Matt Kenseth, qualified 10th, and honestly it’s hard to see him advancing to Homestead. He has just one top 5 finish in the last sixteen Phoenix races. On a positive note, that came in this exact race two years ago. Kurt Busch absolutely needs a win if he wants to advance in the Chase. He’s a very solid Fantasy NASCAR pick here at Phoenix (four straight top 10s) but we don’t see him getting to victory lane on Sunday without something crazy happening.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Joey Logano, (3) Kyle Busch, (4) Denny Hamlin, (5) Jimmie Johnson, (6) Matt Kenseth, (7) Kurt Busch, (8) Brad Keselowski
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Phoenix 2
Martin Truex, Jr. is an excellent pick in Fantasy NASCAR leagues that award points based on place differential, but that’s not the case with Yahoo! Auto Racing. He’ll start dead last on Sunday thanks to not making it through inspection in time to make a qualifying lap, but we expect Truex to charge his way through the field and end up solidly inside the top 15, if not the top 10. Having to deal with all of that traffic is far too risky for us to start him, though, so we will save our final Truex start for his best track: Homestead.
Kyle Larson was our best B Group driver when it came to qualifying this weekend, as he will start 2nd alongside Alex Bowman on Sunday. Larson has finished between 10th and 13th in three of his last four Phoenix starts, but that 10th-place result is his career-best finish at this race track. We expect him to post a new career-best in Sunday’s Can-Am 500(k), though. He will be one of our starters in the B Group this weekend, and is probably the best option in this group.
Our second B Group starter is going to be between Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne. They qualified 11th and 13th, respectively, and in terms of practice speed, they were pretty evenly matched on Saturday. Edwards almost won the race here back in March but we don’t see him challenging for the win this weekend. Still, he hasn’t finished worse than 15th here since the 2013 season, and we don’t expect that to change on Sunday. Meanwhile, Kasey Kahne‘s hot run continued at Texas 2 last weekend, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t have a top 10 car here at Phoenix. He’s going to be our second B Group starter on Sunday, as we’re going to save our final Edwards start for the Homestead finale next weekend.
There’s only a couple of other viable options in the B Group this week. Austin Dillon qualified 7th for Sunday’s Can-Am 500(k) and showed pretty nice speed during Happy Hour on Saturday. Don’t be surprised if he’s challenging for another top 10 finish this weekend. His teammate, Ryan Newman, also had good speed in Happy Hour (6th in ten-lap average) and will start from 15th on Sunday. “The Rocketman” has finished 11th or better in five of the last six Phoenix races, and don’t forget that this #31 team has had quite a bit of speed recently. Finally, Jamie McMurray doesn’t have a definite top 10 car heading into Sunday, but you never know how these races are going to play out. He qualified 9th, which is a bit of an advantage, and has finished 16th or better in each of the last five races here in the desert, including a career-best 2nd-place finish in the March race last season.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Kyle Larson, (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Martin Truex, Jr., (4) Austin Dillon, (5) Kasey Kahne, (6) Ryan Newman, (7) Jamie McMurray, (8) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (9) Danica Patrick, (10) Greg Biffle, (11) Tony Stewart, (12) A.J. Allmendinger, (13) Paul Menard, (14) Trevor Bayne, (15) Aric Almirola, (16) Casey Mears, (17) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Phoenix 2
As we mentioned before, we used our final Chase Elliott start of the season at Texas 2 last weekend. He’s probably going to end up being the best C Group option this weekend at Phoenix 2 as well, but we don’t see top 5 potential out of the #24 Chevrolet. Chase finished 8th here back in March and will start 3rd this Sunday. As far as our two C Group drivers, we’ll start with Alex Bowman, the pole sitter. He actually has some viability this weekend, as he should lead a lap to start, which will be worth another 10 points in Yahoo!. And don’t forget that this #88 Chevrolet went to victory lane in this race one year ago. Bowman has finished inside the top 15 in four of his last six Sprint Cup starts and could definitely have another solid run here at Phoenix on Sunday. With that being said, we’re still going to start Ryan Blaney on Sunday, simply because we trust him more than Alex Bowman. Blaney finished 10th here at Phoenix back in March and qualified 8th for this weekend’s Can-Am 500(k). He has also been knocking off top 15s pretty consistently as of late.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Alex Bowman, (4) Michael McDowell, (5) Chris Buescher, (6) Landon Cassill, (7) David Ragan, (8) Regan Smith
