The final race of the season is pretty cut and dry in the Fantasy NASCAR world. As far as the Yahoo! Auto Racing game goes, you’re probably bound by the number of starts you have left with the top drivers in each group. And if you’re down to having to choose between which mid-tier driver to start in each group, you’re already on a contrarian strategy. If you have starts left, it’s going to be best to just roll with things as usual: start the best drivers you have left.
We ended up with 327 points at Phoenix 2 last weekend but didn’t gain a whole lot on the rest of the field. Heading into the finale at Homestead, we’re sitting in the 90th percentile overall. We hope to finish up a couple of percentage points with our picks this week.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Homestead
We said coming into the weekend that Kevin Harvick was going to be the best non-championship driver to go with, and that turned out true. The #4 Chevrolet is on the pole for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400, and Harvick has a really good chance at leading the most laps this weekend as well. He was 8th-best in ten-lap average during Practice #2 this weekend and wound up P1 on that chart in Happy Hour. Homestead is also, statistically, Harvick’s best track. If you have him on your team this weekend, we think you have to start him.
Our two A Group drivers are Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano, and while we do see both of them potentially challenging for the win (obviously, that’s just what happens with this Chase format), we’re going to start the former. The #48 Chevrolet has been the one of the strongest cars on the intermediate race tracks as of late, and while Joey Logano does have a whole bunch of momentum right now, Jimmie Johnson looked better than him in both practice sessions on Saturday, so that sealed the deal for us. This Sunday, however, you can’t really go wrong with starting the three drivers above, or Kyle Busch. All four have top 5 potential. If you have any other A Group driver on your roster this weekend, then you probably didn’t listen to us earlier this week, so all we can do is wish you the best of luck.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Jimmie Johnson, (3) Kyle Busch, (4) Joey Logano, (5) Brad Keselowski, (6) Matt Kenseth, (7) Denny Hamlin, (8) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Homestead
Our two B Group starters were pretty much set before this week even started, as we purposely saved our final starts with Carl Edwards and Martin Truex, Jr. for this race. They are the class of the B Group in Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing this weekend and either of those two could wind up in victory lane on Sunday. We do know that quite a few other teams didn’t save those starts like we did, though, so we’ll touch on a few of the other B Group drivers that have caught our eye this weekend.
The first one right off the bat is Ryan Newman, who qualified 3rd for Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400. He’s always ran well here at Homestead (three finishes of 7th or better in the last six races) and the #31 team seems to have found something on the intermediate race tracks over the last couple of months. Additionally, the #31 team backed up that qualifying speed with a couple of very solid practice sessions on Saturday, as Newman was in the top 11 on both ten-lap average charts. He could legitimately finish top 10 this weekend.
Kyle Larson is on our roster this weekend but since we have Edwards and Truex to use he’s going to be sitting the bench. Larson qualified back in 24th, so there’s a little bit of risk in starting him on Sunday, but we anticipate that he’s going to have that high line working on Sunday and should make his way toward the front. He should be good for at least a top 15 finish…if he can keep the #42 Chevrolet off the wall. Larson had the 2nd-best ten-lap average in Happy Hour on Saturday.
The only two other B Group options that are viable this weekend (in our opinion) are Austin Dillon and Jamie McMurray. Austin qualified 17th for this year’s season finale and has a career-best finish of 14th at this track. He could better that this weekend, though, as the #3 Chevrolet was consistently fast in both practice sessions on Saturday and had the 3rd-best ten-lap average in Happy Hour. We don’t like McMurray as well as Dillon this weekend, but the #1 Chevrolet had solid top 10 speed in both practice sessions on Saturday and McMurray has finished 13th and 5th in the last two races at Homestead. This weekend he will roll off the starting grid from 15th.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Carl Edwards, (2) Martin Truex, Jr., (3) Ryan Newman, (4) Kyle Larson, (5) Austin Dillon, (6) Jamie McMurray, (7) Tony Stewart, (8) A.J. Allmendinger, (9) Kasey Kahne, (10) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (11) Paul Menard, (12) Trevor Bayne, (13) Greg Biffle, (14) Danica Patrick, (15) Casey Mears, (16) Aric Almirola, (17) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Homestead
The two best options in the C Group this weekend are, hands down, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney. However, because we are out of starts with the former, we’re going to have to go with the latter here on Sunday. If you do have a start left with Elliott, though, he’s a better choice, as that #24 Chevrolet could legitimately run top 5 on Sunday. Blaney doesn’t have too terrible of a car, though, as the #21 Ford was fast in both practice sessions on Saturday and even had the 3rd-best ten-lap average during Happy Hour. Ryan should be a top 15 car heading into the Ford EcoBoost 400 but might be able to squeak out a top 10 result depending on how the race plays out. As far as the other C Group drivers, there’s really no other great option. Alex Bowman should be your default starter if you’re completely out of Elliott and Blaney starts, but he might struggle to crack the top 15 this weekend. One guy that did show a surprising amount of speed this weekend was Brian Scott: in addition to qualifying 22nd, he also ranked 16th in ten-lap average during that final practice session on Saturday. However, we still wouldn’t recommend starting Scott no matter what your start situation is in the C Group.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Alex Bowman, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) Michael McDowell, (6) Ty Dillon, (7) Landon Cassill, (8) David Ragan, (9) Brian Scott, the rest
