In previous weeks with our FOX Fantasy Auto roster, we sometimes picked drivers that started toward the front of the field on race day because we wanted the finish points. That’s not the case with the GEICO 500 this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. We are focusing solely on place differential points with our roster this weekend, and that means picking cars that start near the back. There’s going to be hundreds of roster combinations for this game on Sunday, and how good each is will change literally every single lap. These races are so unpredictable that we recommend not stressing over your Fantasy NASCAR rosters too much–just set one and enjoy the show.
Last week at Richmond, our official Fantasy Racing Online FOX team ended up with 177 points. We received solid points for all of our picks except one: Ryan Blaney. Still, we maintained pace with the leaders in this game and moved up a little bit, into 3,946th place overall and 6th in our private group.
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Talladega GEICO 500
Jamie McMurray ($9,700) – Jamie McMurray has been very Ryan Newman-esque this season in that he has just been a consistent, top 15 finisher. Jamie’s best finish thus far in 2016 has been 10th (at Fontana) but he also has just two results worse than 17th (Atlanta and Martinsville) and has yet to come home in a spot worse than 23rd. For the GEICO 500 on Sunday, Jamie Mac will start from 30th, which makes him a great option here in the FOX Fantasy Auto game due to the place differential points potential. Jamie is a two-time winner here at Talladega Superspeedway and finishes inside the top 10 in about one in every four starts here. With that being said, even just a 15th-place run here on Sunday out of this #1 team will still net FOX Fantasy owners 41 points, so in terms of big payoff potential, McMurray is one of the best this weekend.
Kevin Harvick ($13,700) – Honestly, Harvick is a “must pick” in FOX Fantasy Auto this week. We all know that this #4 Chevrolet typically has the most speed in it on a week-by-week basis, and the fact that Harvick has only finished worse than 15th once in his last seven starts at Talladega makes him just a great pick overall. Also, “Happy” ended up 4th in this year’s Daytona 500 back in February, so you know this team has a good restrictor plate package. What makes him a “must pick,” though, was his qualifying effort on Saturday; Harvick will start the GEICO 500 from the 29th starting spot and should get us plenty of place differential points.
Kyle Busch ($12,600) – This #18 team has been a top 5 machine all season long and there’s no reason to think that will change just because we’re at a restrictor plate track. Rowdy does have one victory here at Talladega (back in 2008) but has notched just four total top 5 finishes here in his twenty-one career starts. The good news? Three of those came in the last seven events here. Rowdy was able to come home 3rd in this year’s Daytona 500 and we’d love to see a similar run out of him here at Talladega on Sunday. He starts 17th, which gives us the potential for some place differential points, and has finished 12th or better in five of the last seven races at this track. Rowdy is also one of those drivers that likes to make his way toward the front and stay there as soon as the green flag drops, and those are the best fantasy options at these big superspeedways (in our opinion).
Danica Patrick ($6,500) – Like we said, we’re going for the place differential points this weekend. Danica Patrick qualified 37th for this weekend’s GEICO 500, and as far as all of the drivers that are starting 30th or worse, Danica has the 2nd-best car and team behind Jamie McMurray. So while you could reach for someone like David Ragan or David Gilliland, we’re going to go with the better team in this position. Another reason we kind of like Danica on Sunday is because she finishes races here at Talladega. Yeah, she’s never ended up better than 19th at this track over six career starts, but she has only one DNF on her record here and has finished on the lead lap in all four races at Talladega over the last two seasons.
Clint Bowyer ($7,400) – We’re throwing the hail mary here. All season long we’ve ragged on Clint Bowyer and how terrible this #15 team and car is. However, when you get a race like Talladega where anything can happen, it’s sometimes worth a shot in the dark with a driver like Clint Bowyer. Let’s not forget that he is a two-time winner here at Talladega Superspeedway and owns a career average finish of 14.9 over his twenty career starts here. Clint has also ended up 10th or better in nine of the last twelve races here. Obviously he was in much better equipment for those events than he is in this weekend, but the opportunity is always there for the less fortunate teams to do well in these races. Remember, Regan Smith ended up finishing 8th in this year’s Daytona 500, and Michael McDowell finished 15th in that race. For Sunday’s GEICO 500, Bowyer will roll off the grid from the 34th starting spot, so if he can just muster a 20th-place finish, that will be 35 points in the FOX Fantasy Auto game.
Denny Hamlin (9 starts remaining) – Over the last couple of seasons, the #11 Toyota has been one of the best in the restrictor plate races. Over at Daytona, Hamlin finished 2nd, 6th, 4th, and 3rd before he most recently got to victory lane in this year’s Daytona 500. He hasn’t been that good here at Talladega, but Denny won this race two years ago and ended up finishing 9th in the May race last season. Momentum-wise, he had a good run at Richmond last week (6th), which was his only top 10 finish in all of April. We still have all nine Denny Hamlin starts left in Yahoo! so we’re going to go ahead and roll with him this weekend despite the #11 team not being the best fantasy pick over the last two months.
