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Martinsville Final Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR Rankings

By
Jordan McAbee
-
Photo Credit: Matt Sullivan/NASCAR via Getty Images

We love the parity between all of the Fantasy NASCAR leagues out there, and that’s what makes it so much fun to spread the love around and participate in all of them. Typically at Martinsville, the best drivers start up front and finish up there as well. Drivers that miss in qualifying but have a great car can still make their way through the field, but it’s tougher. This is a short race track with tight racing and virtually no margin for error. So, while it’s better to go with the drivers starting up front in the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game, you want to pick the cars that will make their way through the field for games such as DraftKings, Fox Fantasy Auto, and NASCAR.com Fantasy Live. It’s all about knowing how the scoring works, and for Yahoo! you just have to pick the best cars you have. So here we go…

The final rankings that we have for each driver grouping in the Yahoo! Auto Racing game for Martinsville can be found below, right after our picks. We arrived at these taking into account the practice results from Saturday (more so Happy Hour, which was in the afternoon) along with how each driver qualified. Don’t forget to check out ifantasyrace.com for practice speeds/notes and other great fantasy content this weekend and every week.

Yahoo! A Group Final Rankings for Martinsville

hamlin-crew-chief
Photo Credit: Robert Laberge/NASCAR via Getty Images

Although we were pretty confident in going with Jimmie Johnson this weekend, we made a last minute switch with our Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team and decided to pair Denny Hamlin with Joey Logano for the STP 500. We were pretty sure we were going to start Logano anyway, and Hamlin provided a better opportunity for qualifying bonus points. Anyway, the #22 Ford took the pole on Friday and looks poised to potentially dominate another event at Martinsville Speedway. Hopefully Joey can finally put together a whole race and get that elusive first victory at “The Paperclip” here on Sunday. With a 1st-place starting spot, a decent possibility of leading the most laps, and that #1 pit stall, the choice here is a no-brainer: we’re starting Joey Logano.

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

Yahoo! B Group Final Rankings for Martinsville

In the B Group this week, we stayed with our gut feelings and loaded up on some out-of-the-box picks with A.J. Allmendinger and Aric Almirola to go along with two of the more popular options–Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex, Jr. In case you missed our earlier Yahoo! post this week, you can read it here.

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images

First lets start with McMurray. This is a guy that is coming off of his first top 10 of the season a couple of weeks ago at Fontana and the guy who finished 2nd in last year’s fall race here at Martinsville. He also ended up 10th in the spring race here last season. That makes it four top 10s in the last six Martinsville races for Mr. McMurray, and he looks poised to have another solid run in Sunday’s STP 500 as well. Jamie will start 15th, which is a decent spot, and was 8th in ten-lap average during that final practice session on Saturday. Say no more, we’re locking him in. This #1 team tends to make the race car better as the day goes on on Sundays so it honestly wouldn’t surprise us at all if we got another top 10 out of McMurray this week.

Now comes the choice between Martin Truex, Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger, because Aric Almirola looks to be a top 20 choice at best on Sunday. Truex starts 16th while Allmendinger starts 6th, so advantage Dinger there. In terms of practice speed, Truex had the 3rd-best ten-lap average in Happy Hour, so advantage #78. However, A.J. was right there with the 6th-fastest ten-lap run, and that’s saying a lot with this mediocre equipment. Truex finished 6th in both Martinsville races last season while Allmendinger came home 43rd and 11th. Advantage Truex.

2015 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Rolex 24 Hours DaytonaBased on pure strength and possible finish, Truex is the better choice between him and Allmendinger. However, we have to take into consideration the fact that we have to use our starts strategically in Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing. If we have the opportunity to get a potential high-teens finish out of a guy like A.J. Allmendinger, we should probably take it 9 out of 10 times. Our rule with Martin Truex, Jr. in B Group is that we’re going to save him for when he can potentially win a race unless there are no other options. We think Truex has the car to potentially run 6th or 7th on Sunday, but it’s going to take a lot for him to be a contender for the STP 500 grandfather clock. Our choices for this week: Jamie McMurray and A.J. Allmendinger.

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

Yahoo! C Group Final Rankings for Martinsville

Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

This choice is pretty much a no-brainer as well, just like the A Group. Brian Vickers in the #14 Chevrolet has been super fast all weekend–1st in ten-lap average during Practice #2 and 4th on that chart in Happy Hour–and he qualified 3rd to top it all off. Martinsville is not a very kind race track for rookies, and although I think the potential is there for Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to have some good runs on Sunday, the best choice in this group is Brian Vickers–both from a strategic standpoint and a potential finish standpoint. In his last four starts at this track, Brian has finished 27th, 16th, 11th, and 8th. If we can get another top 15 result out of him here on Sunday, we’ll be more than happy. Let’s just hope Vickers doesn’t end up in the wall (again). Our choice: Brian Vickers.

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

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Martinsville NASCAR Fantasy Live Picks

By
Jordan McAbee
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Photo Credit: Drew Hallowell/Getty Images

This week in NASCAR.com Fantasy Live it’s more important than ever to make sure you have the driver who leads the most laps on your roster. The STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway is scheduled to run 500 total laps, and although that only equals 250 miles of actual race, that also means there are 250 bonus points up for grabs for laps led as well as 250 bonus points for fastest laps. Therefore, we’re going to worry less about place differential this week than normal. We strongly believe that with these short track races, it’s often more advantageous to take someone who starts up front and risk the points lost if they wreck or something. And unless a driver really messes up in qualifying at Martinsville, the best fantasy choices usually qualify near the front. This weekend, however, we will see quite a few good drivers roll off the grid mid-pack, as a lot of unexpected cars qualified up front. The full STP 500 starting lineup can be seen by clicking here.

Last week at Fontana, our official Fantasy Racing Online team scored 290 total points, which gives us 1,340 total points through the first five races of the 2016 Sprint Cup season. We’re currently sitting in the 99.43th percentile in 1,319th place overall. Hopefully we can crack the top 1,000 after Martinsville on the march toward the top 50.

NASCAR.com Fantasy Live Picks for the Martinsville STP 500

Photo Credit: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson ($26.50) – Well that worked out exactly as planned. We locked in Jimmie Johnson at his $26.50 price point a few races ago with anticipation of his salary increasing gradually. We decided to keep him on the roster at Phoenix and Fontana (over Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) because of this race: Martinsville. Jimmie is an 8-time winner at the track they call “The Paperclip” and leads all active drivers with a 7.5 average finish over 28 career starts. Not too shabby. Now, the #48 Chevrolet hasn’t finished better than 12th at Martinsville since the spring race of 2014, but all drivers go through a rough patch every now and then. We’re not too worried about it to be honest with you. This #48 team has already got two wins under their belt in the first five races of 2016, and they’re more than capable of coming away with another great finish here in the STP 500 on Sunday. Johnson did qualify 24th for this weekend’s race, but we’re not too worried about it because that just says “place differential points” in our mind. Jimmie was 5th in ten-lap average during the morning practice session and ranked 1st on that chart in Happy Hour.

Joey Logano ($27.25) – Typically we really discourage picking the driver who wins the pole in a game like NASCAR.com Fantasy Live, but at a short track like this, the bonus points for laps led help mitigate that risk. We’re hoping Joey Logano can go out and dominate this race on Sunday, and it looks like the #22 Ford is good enough to do that. It was mentioned during Practice #2 that they are using the same setup that they had here in the fall, and if you remember back to that race, Logano led 207 laps and looked well on his way to his first Martinsville win until Kenseth dumped him. Joey led 108 laps and finished 3rd in last year’s spring race at “The Paperclip.” On Sunday, Logano will have that coveted #1 pit stall and as long as he doesn’t get wrecked, he should be a serious contender for the win.

Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ($27.00) – We had a hard time picking the third “high priced” driver we wanted to put on our roster this weekend but ultimately decided on Dale Earnhardt, Jr. It was between him, Denny Hamlin, and Martin Truex, Jr. Although Hamlin is probably the safest choice of the three, we chose Junior because of his starting spot: 21st. We’re going to try and capitalize on some more place differential points from the #88 team, just like we’ve done all season. Here at Martinsville, Junior has three top 5s in the last four events and he has started in the mid-20s in all three of them. This weekend, the #88 Chevrolet had great speed in Practice #2 (4th in ten-lap average) but slowed down a little bit in Happy Hour (12th in ten-lap average). Junior seemed to know what he wanted to change on the car when he was interviewed afterward, though, and this #88 team is great at making mid-race adjustments on their race car. Unless Denny Hamlin leads a bunch of laps on Sunday (which is definitely possible), Earnhardt should be the better choice in NASCAR.com Fantasy Live. We just wish we could afford Kyle Busch in this slot.

Matt DiBenedetto ($6.25) – We were going to throw Chris Buescher in here at $6.75 to hit the cap limit this week, but we feel like Matt DiBenedetto is the right low-price choice in NASCAR.com Fantasy Live this weekend. First let’s consider the fact that he finished 31st and 30th in his first two starts here at Martinsville last season, and then let’s focus on how this #83 team has been outperforming all year: to the tune of a 26.8 finish in the four races since the season-opening Daytona 500. Getting that kind of value for a guy like Matt DiBenedetto is what separates the men from the boys in this Fantasy NASCAR game.

Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images

Brian Vickers ($12.50) – We don’t particularly like putting Brian Vickers on our NASCAR.com Fantasy Live roster this week, but when you are extremely limited with your options, sometimes you have to bite the bullet. In order to afford the “big three” up above, we’re going to need a lower, mid-range driver to fill out the roster and make the math work. Pretty much the only other options we have are Casey Mears (which would be a nice sleeper pick) or Danica Patrick. So we’re going with Brian Vickers–probably, if we switch we’re going with Mears–because of one thing and one thing only: speed. The #14 Chevrolet has had great speed all weekend long, and it all started with Vickers qualifying 3rd on Friday–which is why it’s such a huge risk to pick him in this game. However, Brian had the best ten-lap average in Saturday morning’s practice session and was 4th in ten-lap average during the afternoon Happy Hour. We’re hoping the expected laps led points from Logano help offset the points we’re going to lose from Brian Vickers finishing worse than where he starts, although if he can pull off an 11th-place finish like he did in this race two years ago, we’ll be fine with that.

Race Winner: Joey Logano
Manufacturer: Ford

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DraftKings Fantasy NASCAR Drivers to Avoid for Martinsville

By
Jordan McAbee
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Photo Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/NASCAR via Getty Images

The Sprint Cup events at Martinsville Speedway can be tricky for DraftKings players, simply because the margin of error is so much smaller than at other race tracks. Martinsville is a half-mile venue, which means if a driver (or team) makes a mistake on pit road or are plagued by some kind of misfortune on the track, it’s very easy to lose multiple laps. And once a driver gets three or more laps down here at “The Paperclip,” their day is pretty much over–no chance of really salvaging a good finish.

Another aspect to consider when it comes to Martinsville races is that, typically, those who start up front finish up front. So this limits our chance at place differential points compared to other tracks, because you need to pick drivers you can trust (and there’s not a whole lot at this track). So now that qualifying is complete (you can see the starting lineup here) let’s take a look at some of the DraftKings drivers that you should avoid for this week’s race at Martinsville. Remember: one bad driver on your DraftKings roster can ruin your entire week and stop you from winning money.

DraftKings Drivers to Avoid for the STP 500 at Martinsville

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Chase Elliott ($8,000) – Anybody who watches NASCAR knows that Martinsville is a very tough race–especially for rookies. You have to complete 500 laps around this tiny race track just to stay on the lead lap, and that doesn’t even count fighting for position. Now, we agree that Chase Elliott is probably the best rookie we’ve seen in years–and he’s in elite equipment–but there are a few reasons why you should avoid him in DraftKings. He’s a decent option in other fantasy leagues, but not DraftKings. The main reason is his price. At $8,000, we believe Chase is quite overpriced, especially at a track like Martinsville. Are you really going to allocate 16% of your salary cap to a guy that has one Sprint Cup start here? And it was a 38th-place finish, for the record. Being able to put down a fast lap in qualifying (Chase starts 10th on Sunday) is much easier than putting together a full race. We want to see the #24 Chevrolet have another good run, but it’s not worth the risk putting Chase Elliott on your DraftKings team this week.

Kasey Kahne ($7,900) – Price-wise, Kasey Kahne is right there in the middle between the high priced drivers and the bottom dwellers, and typically that’s the area where you need to make the right decision to ensure a good roster. Unfortunately, Kasey threw all of his usability out the window on Friday when he qualified 2nd. When it comes to the DraftKings format, if you’re going to pick a driver who starts up front, you need to be absolutely certain that they’re going to finish inside the top 5–and even then it may not be worth it. As far as Kasey Kahne’s record here at Martinsville, he did finish 11th and 9th in the two races here last season, but he has just two total top 5 results in his last eighteen starts at “The Paperclip.” A good run for Kasey and the #5 team on Sunday would be around 10th, and that type of finish is only going to net you around 26 points in DraftKings. To top it all off, Kahne does have a tendency to wreck a lot of race cars, so you won’t find him on any of our DraftKings lists this week–well, except for this one.

Credit: Matt Hazlett/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Matt Hazlett/Getty Images

Ryan Newman ($7,300) – It seems like “The Rocketman” has gotten back to his old ways of qualifying up front these past two races, and if that continues it means he’s probably going to end up on this avoid list more often than not. Price-wise, Newman finds himself on the lower end of the mid-priced drivers this week, but him qualifying 5th has to be a pretty big red flag for most DraftKings players. Consider this: Newman hasn’t ended up better than 11th in any of the five Sprint Cup races ran this season, and even if he does have a top 10 run on Sunday, you’re looking at a max of around 30 points or so. Now, that’s not terrible for Newman’s price, but you should really only put the #31 Chevrolet on your team if he fills out a perfect roster. He’s a more dependable pick than some of the other drivers around him (Kyle Larson at $7,400 and Clint Bowyer at $7,200). Newman does have runs of 7th and 3rd over the last two years here at Martinsville, so you don’t need to avoid him like the plague. But to that same point, don’t expect max points out of him, either.

Paul Menard ($6,500) – It’s pretty tough to lay off of Paul Menard at such a low price point, but let’s just look at the whole picture here and do some simple math. Through the first five races of the 2016 Sprint Cup season, Paul Menard–while being very consistent–hasn’t really had a “great” run. His best finish thus far has been 15th, and we honestly don’t see that changing here on Sunday. Yeah, he had a solid qualifying run of 4th on Friday, but that was qualifying. Looking at Menard’s history here at Martinsville (17 career starts), he has a grand total of one top 10 finish–a 10th-place result in this race two years ago. The #27 Chevrolet has came home inside the top 15 in three of the last four races here at “The Paperclip,” but that’s not going to cut it for us on Sunday. If Menard finishes 15th in this year’s STP 500, that means he’ll earn us a whopping 18 points in DraftKings. Yes, his low price makes him an attractive option, but we’d rather take a chance on some of the other lower-priced drivers this weekend.

Matt Kenseth smiling in garage
Photo Credit: Jared C. Tilton/NASCAR via Getty Images

Matt Kenseth ($9,700) – This is another driver that you don’t need to avoid like the plague, but let us ask you one question: when has Matt Kenseth been a solid Fantasy NASCAR pick in 2016? He finished 7th at Phoenix, but nobody expected that, so he wasn’t really considered by many fantasy players. Other than that, this #20 team has done nothing but make mistakes and run into odd problems (seriously, what’s with their luck this week?). Obviously this is going to change (soon), but when? It’s very possible that it could be this weekend at Martinsville–Kenseth has four finishes of 6th or better in the last five races here–but do you really want to commit 19.4% of your DraftKings salary cap to a team as unpredictable as this #20 crew is right now? We don’t. Matt Kenseth is one of the most overpriced drivers in the field this weekend, but with our luck he’ll probably go out and win the damn thing.

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NASCAR Early Week Martinsville Value Betting Picks

By
Jordan McAbee
-
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images

Looking back at Fontana, we were all set to cash another win with Kevin Harvick until the late caution came out. Situations like that happened so many times during the 2015 season that we’ve learned to just move on. Sometimes picking the best car simply doesn’t work out. Our Race Day “Bet of the Day” did cash, however, so it was nice to make some money there.

Now we’re at Martinsville Speedway for the STP 500, and it’s pretty easy to already narrow down the field to the few favorites that are going to be in contention on Sunday. This is a half-mile short track that has some unpredictability built into it, but we still tend to see the same drivers up front each time we stop here. Jimmie Johnson leads all active drivers with 8 career wins at “The Paperclip” while Denny Hamlin has gone to victory lane on 5 separate occasions here.

Johnson is the favorite heading into Sunday’s STP 500 (+350) followed by Denny Hamlin at +550 and Kevin Harvick at +650.

Early Betting Picks for Martinsville

The driver odds in this post are accurate as of 7:30 am ET on March 31, 2016 and came from Bovada.

Kurt Busch Monster Car
Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

Kurt Busch (+1800) – We love these odds for Kurt Busch. The #41 team had an off-weekend at Fontana a couple of weeks ago, but most teams are bound to have those every once in a while. The fact of the matter is this: this #41 Chevrolet has been one of the fastest cars in the garage for four of the five Sprint Cup races this season, and we’re expecting Kurt to be very fast once again here at Martinsville on Sunday. He’s a two-time winner at the track known as “The Paperclip”, with the most recent coming in this race two years ago. That was the one where Busch got a bunch of damage early but was still able to wheel his car around and take the checkered flag. Now for the bad news: that has been Kurt’s only top 10 finish here at Martinsville in his last TWENTY starts. But what’s that old saying–‘streaks are made for breaking’? Something like that. Fun fact: in each of the last two seasons, Kurt has won in his sixth start, and the STP 500 on Sunday marks the sixth Sprint Cup race of 2016.

Denny Hamlin (+550) – We typically shy away from putting any money on the favorites this early in the week, but getting Denny Hamlin at 5.5-to-1 odds might end up being a steal when it’s all said and done. This is arguably the best track on the circuit for Denny Hamlin and he’s off to a very good start here in 2016 with three top 5s in the first five races. Oh, and did we mention that Hamlin is the defending winner of this race? He ran top 5 in both Martinsville races last season and the Joe Gibbs Racing cars might be even better right now than they were at their peak in 2015. If Hamlin qualifies his #11 Toyota near the front and looks good in practice this weekend, we’ll probably see his odds on Sunday get closer to Johnson’s +350 right now. If you’re putting money on Denny this week, now will probably be the time to do it so you get the most value.

Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Joey Logano (+700) – We see Joey Logano ending up in the +500 range on race day, so locking him in now at 7-to-1 odds isn’t the craziest idea in the world. Young Joey hasn’t gone to victory lane in a Sprint Cup race here at “The Paperclip” but he’s been knocking on the door for quite some time. Hell, he probably could have won both races here last season, and was well on his way to the win before Matt Kenseth dumped him. Logano has been the pole winner for the last two Martinsville races and has posted three top 5 finishes in the last four. Over that span, he has never had a driver rating under 112 and he has led a total of over 400 laps. No other active driver has even crossed the 300 laps led mark at Martinsville over the last two years. The Penske Fords aren’t as strong as the were at this time last season, but the #22 Ford should still be fast enough to have a shot at the STP 500 win here on Sunday. And don’t forget that Penske typically gets very good gas mileage our of their race cars, and we’ve seen races here come down to fuel mileage before…

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Martinsville Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR Strategy Picks

By
Jordan McAbee
-
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/NASCAR via Getty Images

Although the weekend off for Easter was nice–and almost necessary after that very rough race at Fontna–it’s time to get back to business with the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway. This is our first short track stop of the season, which means a couple of things in terms of Fantasy NASCAR: one, it’s more important than ever to pick cars that are going to be good all race, because it’s very easy to go down a lap at a half-mile race track, and two, qualifying means a lot more than normal due to how short this track is. It’s not impossible to come from the back at Martinsville, but it’s not an ideal situation, that’s for sure.

For the second race in a row, it’s going to be very important to make the correct decisions in the B Group for the Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR game. The good news is is that there’s quite a few solid options this week, and there’s some good “start save” options as well.

Yahoo! A Group Picks for Martinsville

Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Jimmie Johnson (9 starts remaining) – Well, this #48 team has already racked up two victories in 2016 and we have missed out on both of them with our Yahoo! team. With 9 starts remaining with Jimmie Johnson, it’s time to ‘unleash the beast.’ Jimmie is an 8-time winner here at Martinsville Speedway and owns a series-best 7.5 average finish here over his 28 total career starts. He has also led over 2,700 laps here at “The Paperclip,” which more than doubles the guy who is 2nd on the list in terms of laps led: Denny Hamlin (1,315). Although Johnson hasn’t finished better than 12th here at Martinsville over the last three events, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if he made it to victory lane once again in the STP 500 on Sunday. This #48 team has been one of the best with this new low downforce package in 2016, and Martinsville has been a great track for Jimmie Johnson.

Joey Logano (9 starts remaining) – There’s quite  few drivers that we could plug into this spot to go along with Jimmie Johnson. Historically, Denny Hamlin probably has the best history here at “The Paperclip” among the rest of the drivers, while Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch should also both be serious contenders in the STP 500. But we’re going with Joey Logano as our second A Group driver this week for a couple of reasons. First, the #22 Ford has the 3rd-best average running position over the first five races of the 2016 season, coming in right behind Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson. Also, although Logano has never won a race here at Martinsville, his victory is coming soon. Joey hasn’t started a race worse than 6th here over the last six events, and he won the pole for both Martinsville races in 2015. He led 315 total laps between those two events and probably would have won the fall race if it wasn’t for Matt Kenseth exacting his revenge. It’s going to be between Logano and Hamlin for our second B Group spot this week, and right now we’re going with the former.

Yahoo! B Group Picks for Martinsville

Martin Truex, Jr. and Kevin Harvick racing at Atlanta 2016
Photo Credit: Matt Hazlett/Getty Images

Martin Truex, Jr. (8 starts remaining) – Our strategy in this B Group (as far as saving starts) is to only use Truex and Carl Edwards whenever they can possibly win the race, or seem like “for sure” top 5 picks. We also like to keep one of them on our roster just as a backup driver in case the rest of our team looks really bad heading into race day. Now, the reason we’re going with the #78 Toyota this week at Martinsville is because, quite simply, we think the alliance with JGR is really going to help Truex at this track. We all know how good the Gibbs cars have been here, and Truex finished 6th in each Martinsville race in 2015. Plus we only have 7 starts remaining with old Concrete Carl. Martin hasn’t posted a top 5 finish here since the 2012 season but that could easily change here on Sunday.

Jamie McMurray (9 starts remaining) – This #1 team got their first top 10 finish of the season at Fontana and will be looking to grab two in a row here at Martinsville on Sunday. And it wouldn’t surprise us one but if they accomplished that. This has been a nice little track for Jamie Mac over the last few years, especially last year’s fall race when he finished runner-up to race winner Jeff Gordon. In terms of average drive rating, only four drivers have been better than Jamie here over the last two years, and all of those are in the A Group. To cap it all off, McMurray has four top 10 finishes in the last six races here at “The Paperclip,” and if we can’t get that kind of finish out of him here on Sunday, we’ll be more than happy about it.

Photo Credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images

Aric Almirola (9 starts remaining) – Due to the fact that we only have 6 starts remaining with Austin Dillon, we’re going to go with some other guys this week and give the #3 Chevrolet a break. Aric Almirola is an intriguing option this week at Martinsville because he has had some surprisingly solid runs here over the past few years, including an 8th-place finish in this race two years ago and results of 8th and 4th in the two races here during the 2012 season. Last year, Almirola came home 12th in this race and then 16th in the fall event. Aric has three top 15s through the first five races of the 2016 season, although this #43 team hasn’t broken through with a top 10 yet. It’ll come eventually, though. It’ll be hard to start Almirola this Sunday unless he qualifies up front, but he did start 8th in last year’s fall race. We also considered Ryan Newman in this spot but, right now, we can’t really trust “The Rocketman.”

A.J. Allmendinger (9 starts remaining) – Hear us out here. This is going to be a pretty large risk for our Yahoo! team, but it just feels like a good week to take a chance on a sleeper–and there’s none better than A.J. Allmendinger. First let’s look at the recent races here at Martinsville: A.J. finished 11th in the 2015 fall race after starting 3rd, and he ran 11th and 9th in the two races here during the 2014 season. He posted a career-best finish of 2nd here in 2012 while with Penske, and although he won’t have that good of a car here this weekend, the JTG Daugherty Racing machine hasn’t performed too bad thus far in 2016; Allmendinger posted his first top 10 finish of the season at Fontana a couple of weeks ago, and preceded that with a 17th-place finish at Phoenix and a 14th-place run at Las Vegas. If you’re looking for a “start save” pick this week, The Dinger is your guy, as he has just two finishes worse than 14th over his last nine Martinsville starts.

Yahoo! C Group Picks for Martinsville

Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Well, one of these weeks we’re going to make the right choice in the C Group. At Fontana, somehow Brian Vickers overcame early mechanical issues and ended up finishing 13th, while our pick, Ryan Blaney, had late race issues that the team wasn’t able to fix (somehow) and came home with a 35th-place result. Congratulations to all of those teams that decided to go with the #14 driver in the last race, and it should be noted that Vickers is in that car once again for the Martinsville race.

In order to make the start math work in this C Group, we have to have Brian Vickers on our roster this week (and whoever is in the #14 Chevrolet during other races). So, as usual, the second choice comes down to either Ryan Blaney or Chase Elliott. Although we like Blaney, we’re not sold on this #21 team’s expertise on these short tracks, and Elliott is driving the #24 Chevrolet, which just so happened to go to victory lane here in last year’s fall race. Our C Group drivers will be Brian Vickers and Chase Elliott for Martinsville, both of which we have 8 starts remaining.

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