Thanks to an early lockdown this week, we really didn’t have the chance to change our Yahoo! picks for this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but we’re not too upset about that. We’re still going into this race with the mentality that the most stable teams are definitely going to be the ones to beat on Sunday night. It may not seem like a whole lot, but 100 extra miles is 100 extra miles. The two major things to remember this weekend are: 1.) This is a long race, and we’re going from late afternoon into night. The track is going to change a lot. And 2.) the practices held on Saturday were both in the middle afternoon, so we aren’t relying on those speeds as heavily as some other weeks.

In the last race, our Yahoo! team finally had a good week with 322 points at Dover. The bad news? We had race winner Matt Kenseth on our bench. The good news? We got a 2nd-place finish out of Kyle Larson and a nice 17th-place finish from David Ragan. We’re now in the 42nd percentile and going for another big points week at Charlotte on Sunday with the “heavy hitters.”

Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte

The two choices we have in the A Group are Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth, and it’s pretty much a no-brainer choice for us: we’re starting Kurt Busch. Not only does he start higher up (13th compared to 27th) but the #41 Chevrolet was faster than the #20 Toyota (by a pretty wide margin) in both practice sessions on Saturday. Also, Kurt Busch has been a top 10 machine all season long and we see no reason why that would change this weekend. In an ideal world, we would start Jimmie Johnson, but we left him off this week. He’s got the best car in the A Group by far. Harvick is always a top 5 threat but we’re not sure we would use him this week even if we had him. He’s good but not great. Joey Logano is on the front row for this year’s Coca-Cola 600 and is a nice play as well, and if you have Brad Keselowski he should be solid on Sunday night, too. We wouldn’t waste a Kyle Busch start this weekend.

Final A Group Rankings: (1) Jimmie Johnson, (2) Kevin Harvick, (3) Joey Logano, (4) Kurt Busch, (5) Kyle Busch, (6) Brad Keselowski, (7) Denny Hamlin, (8) Matt Kenseth, (9) Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Charlotte

Yeah, we’re already down to 6 starts left with Martin Truex, Jr., but we’re going to have to start him this weekend. The #78 Toyota is definitely the car to beat heading into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, and we’re not going to pass up the chance at all those points for a win and the most laps led. Truex arguably had the best car here at Charlotte last season, and he might be even better this time around now that he has switched to Toyota. He had the best speed in both practice sessions on Saturday–which is significant because the track conditions were very different between the two–and has been fast off the truck. We have start saved for many races this season but we just can’t do it with this weekend’s Coke 600. Truex is a lock.

Our second B Group pick is where things become a little interesting. We have Carl Edwards on our roster, but honestly we don’t see the #19 Toyota as a legitimate threat to win on Sunday night. Yeah, he’s going to have a solid top 10 car and will probably end up inside the top 5, but not race-winning material. Our other choices are Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, who have both had up-and-down weekends.

Between the #42 and #3 Chevrolets, the obvious pick is Larson. Not only did he race very well during the All-Star Weekend one year ago, but he has just had a bunch of speed over the last three or four weeks overall. If he can keep his car off the wall on Sunday night, there’s definite potential there for a good finish. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon typically isn’t that great of a Fantasy NASCAR pick unless he starts 15th or better, and he’s going to roll off the grid from 28th for Sunday’s race. Not ideal.

If we were going for max points, we would pair Carl Edwards with Truex this weekend. However, we still have the strategy aspect to consider with this Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game. So we’re going to go with Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Larson as our B Group drivers for this year’s Coca-Cola 600. If you have Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. on your team this weekend, there hasn’t been a better time to use him. He starts 3rd and looks to have the speed for another solid top 15 finish. The other Roush-Fenway drivers–Greg Biffle and Trevor Bayne–are also some good start-saving sleeper options this weekend, and Paul Menard could surprise some people as well.

Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Kyle Larson, (4) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (5) Austin Dillon, (6) Ryan Newman, (7) Greg Biffle, (8) Paul Menard, (9) Trevor Bayne, (10) Jamie McMurray, (11) A.J. Allmendinger, (12) Tony Stewart, (13) Kasey Kahne, (14) Aric Almirola, (15) Casey Mears, (16) Danica Patrick, (17) Clint Bowyer

Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte

Chase Elliott is the best pick in the C Group this weekend. Heading into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, he has a legitimate shot at a top 5 finish. Ryan Blaney is looking at a high teens finish with a possible top 10 if luck is on the #21 team’s side–which it has been as of late. However, we still have to look at this Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game from a strategic perspective, and we’re already down to 6 starts remaining with Chase Elliott. We have 8 left with Ryan Blaney. So, because of that, we’re going to roll with the #21 Ford and Ryan Blaney on our Yahoo! team this weekend. If you have 7 or more Chase Elliott starts remaining, we’d recommend going with him, though.

As far as start saving options, we really wouldn’t recommend starting anyone else this weekend. This is a 600-mile race that is going to take a toll not only on the drivers but also the race cars. Sorry but we don’t want to rely on some underfunded team in a race like this. Brian Scott is typically the one other C Group driver that we might look at, but he starts way back in 30th so there goes that. Chris Buescher qualified 22nd for Sunday’s Coke 600 but that seems to be about the only thing he can do well this year: qualify.

Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Brian Scott, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) Regan Smith, (6) David Ragan, (7) Landon Cassill, (8) Michael McDowell, (9) Matt DiBenedetto, the rest

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Charlotte, North Carolina is the hub for most NASCAR Sprint Cup teams, and all of them put a little extra effort toward running well whenever we stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race of the season and this event has been known to test the engines in these race cars. Teams will be unloading their very best cars here this weekend, and because of that we’re sticking with the top teams for our Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing team. We finally had a good points week back at Dover, now we just need to finish off the Spring Segment with a great Coke 600 roster this weekend.

We did see most of the field on-track last weekend in the Sprint Showdown and then the All-Star Race. Those events–especially the latter–are basically won on strategy, so we wouldn’t recommend putting much stock into the results. If you watched the events and paid attention to how the cars actually ran, that’s worth more than the finishing order.

Yahoo! A Group Picks for Charlotte

Matt Kenseth (8 starts remaining) – We had Kenseth on our roster at Dover and left him on the bench as he went to victory lane. While that wasn’t good for our fantasy team, that win was great for the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing team: they finally got the monkey off their back. Matt can now drive a little more stress-free knowing that he is guaranteed a spot in the Chase. He can also focus on driving now and not trying to answer why his team isn’t catching any breaks. This #20 Toyota has been a fast car all season long and now the finishes are coming. In three of the last four Sprint Cup races, Kenseth has ended up 7th or higher, and he’s still led in all but one race this year. Here at Charlotte, Matt owns a career average finish of 11.5 and he has finished 4th and 3rd in the last two Coca-Cola 600s. He also sat on the pole for both races here last season. We’re jumping on the Kenseth bandwagon and keeping him on our roster for Charlotte.

Kurt Busch (9 starts remaining) – As of this writing, we’re feeling like an outside-of-the-box strategy is going to work this weekend. Just a hunch. Start saving isn’t a huge deal in the A Group, but since we’re already down to 6 starts left with Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, we’re going to try a different direction this week. This season, Kurt Busch has actually been one of the most reliable Fantasy NASCAR picks with ten top 10 finishes in the first twelve races. This team is coming off of back-to-back top 5 finishes at Kansas and Dover and now we’re at a track that they have been very fast at as of late. In last year’s Coca-Cola 600, Kurt started 14th but ended up leading 118 laps en route to a 10th-place finish in that fuel mileage race. He bounced back with a 5th-place finish in the fall race here last season, and that makes it three Charlotte events in a row that he has had a driver rating of at least 107. We might change our mind with this pick before the rosters lock this week but we think the #41 Chevrolet is going to be a contender here on Sunday night.

Looking at the other A Group choices, you can’t go wrong with Harvick or Kyle Busch. We have 8 starts remaining with Jimmie Johnson but we’re not really considering him this week. He’s kind of in a funk both here at Charlotte and in Sprint Cup action overall. The Penske teams of Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski finished 1-2 in the All-Star Race, but once again that was a race centered on strategy. We’re still not convinced that #22 team has found the long-run speed they need. This is a great track to use Denny Hamlin but we don’t trust him enough right now.

Yahoo! B Group Picks for Charlotte

Carl Edwards (7 starts remaining) – This is one of Carl Edwards’ best tracks on the Sprint Cup circuit so we’re not opposed to using a #19 start this weekend. Thanks in part to fuel mileage, Carl is the defending winner of this race, and that event really jump started this #19 team and vaulted them to the elite group that we’re seeing on the track today. Edwards hasn’t finished worse than 11th in a points-paying race here at Charlotte since the 2011 season and we don’t see that changing here on Sunday night. Honestly, we think this #19 Toyota is going to be a legitimate threat for the 2016 Coca-Cola 600 win. Carl has had a very rough month of May thus far, so if you put a lot of stock into momentum and want to save a start, feel free to leave him off your roster. We won’t be doing that, though.

Austin Dillon (6 starts remaining) – After this weekend, Austin Dillon just may be our most-used B Group driver. Statistically, this is the 2nd-best track on the Sprint Cup schedule for Austin, right behind Daytona. In four career starts here at Charlotte, he has never finished worse than 16th, and he posted a career-best result of 7th in the fall race here last season. All of that equates to a career average finish of 13th for him. This track type has been one that Austin has excelled at over the last year and a half and that means the #3 Chevrolet should be a solid car here in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. This team isn’t as good now as they were in the first month of the 2016 Sprint Cup season, but the potential is there.

Martin Truex, Jr. (6 starts remaining) – Truex probably had the best car in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, and now that he is in a Toyota and partnered with Joe Gibbs Racing, he might be even better. This could finally be the week that we see the #78 Toyota in victory lane. Yeah, 600 miles means that there is more time for this #78 team to make a mistake, but that also means that they have more time to recover from a mistake. None of us can deny that Truex is one of the fastest drivers in the series right now, he just needs things to fall into place during the race. It’ll happen eventually. Martin swept the top 5 in both Charlotte races last season and should be a contender for the win here on Sunday night. The only way we’re going to burn another Truex start this weekend is if he can win, so if you really want to start save you might not even put him on your roster.

Kyle Larson (7 starts remaining) – Most NASCAR fans are feeling sorry for Martin Truex, Jr. right about now, but what about Kyle Larson? He had a car that could have potentially won at Kansas before he wrecked. He then had victory within his grasps at Dover, only to fall short and finish 2nd to Matt “I Suddenly Got Rid Of My Bad Luck” Kenseth. And then Larson was leading with a few laps to go in last weekend’s All-Star Race before he hit the wall, allowing Joey Logano to collect that million-dollar check. Well, this weekend is the chance for Kyle to get some redemption. One thing about this kid is that he’s a very streaky driver, so when he starts heating up and has a bunch of speed, you should hop on the bandwagon. In the fall race here at Charlotte last year, Larson raced his way up to the top 5 but got damage after an altercation with Kyle Busch and ended up finishing 21st. He did end up 6th in the 2014 Charlotte fall race, though. We like the #42 Chevrolet a lot this weekend.

When it comes to the other B Group drivers, Jamie McMurray tends to run well here at Charlotte but hasn’t been that great this season. We expect a teens finish from Jamie Mac on Sunday night. Trevor Bayne has an average finish of 13.7 over the last six Sprint Cup races if you’re looking for a sleeper. We wouldn’t recommend him, though. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. has top 15 potential again this weekend, and Kasey Kahne has finished 14th or better in eight of his last nine starts here at Charlotte. Kahne just might make our roster this weekend before we lock down. Greg Biffle ran 2nd in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, but remember: fuel mileage.

Yahoo! C Group Picks for Charlotte

Well, our gamble at Dover paid off somewhat, as David Ragan was able to come away with a top 20 finish. So right now our Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team has 8 starts remaining with Ryan Blaney and 6 starts remaining with Chase Elliott. That means we have to find 10 more starts from lesser talent. We have two road courses and two more restrictor plate races coming up, so that number is down to six. Then we have Loudon twice, Bristol, and Dover–all short tracks, where we plan on start saving–bringing it down to two. The reason we’re saying this is because we are going with Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott as our two C Group drivers this week. As stated earlier, we think the best course of action for the Coca-Cola 600 is to go with the best options available, and that’s what we’re doing. Blaney ran 14th in last year’s fall race here at Charlotte and Elliott finished 18th in last year’s Coke 600. We think they will both be top 10 threats here on Sunday night.

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