By Jordan McAbee

It’s that time once again: to lock down our final rosters for the race on Sunday. Luckily, this week is pretty predictable, and unless there is some crazy wreck that happens during the Good Sam 500, we’re all going to have a good fantasy week. Remember, this isn’t the race to try and make up points with your fantasy teams. Just go with the flow because chances are, if you go off-course, you’re going to majorly regret it and be even further behind when it’s all said and done. Could you make a great argument for starting some drivers that a lot of other people aren’t going to use? Yes, you could, but that doesn’t mean you should actually pull the trigger. The A Group is loaded this week, and it wouldn’t surprise us one bit if all nine drivers in that group ended up finishing inside the top 10 on Sunday.

Our final rankings for each driver grouping in the Yahoo! Auto Racing game for Phoenix can be found below. We arrived at these taking into account the practice results from Saturday along with what happened during qualifying on Friday. Click here for the starting lineup for Sunday’s Good Sam 500(k). Also, be sure to check out ifantasyrace.com for the practice speeds and other great fantasy content. And don’t forget about the Post Practice Predictions where I rank all drivers 1 through 25 for the race on Sunday!

Yahoo! A Group Final Rankings for Phoenix

Kevin Harvick should have been on all rosters this week, so the real question was who you were going to pair him with. The best choice would have been Kyle Busch (since he won the pole) and more than 1 in 3 Yahoo! rosters had the #18 Toyota this weekend. As far as our Fantasy Racing Online team, we went with Kurt Busch, who starts 4th. Now, it’s tempting to go with the #41 Chevrolet over his teammate, but that’s not the smart move. Kurt may have been faster than Harvick in practice on Saturday, but let’s not forget that the #41 team tends to fade over a race. Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick has ended up 1st or 2nd in seven of the last eight Phoenix races. Both of these drivers should be a threat for the win, but the safer pick is Kevin Harvick. Right now, The Choice: Kevin Harvick

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

Yahoo! B Group Final Rankings for Phoenix

This is where things get interesting, because I don’t think there’s a car in the B Group that can win this weekend. The one with the best chance is Carl Edwards’ #19 Toyota, which is on our roster, but do you really want to waste an Edwards start when there’s just a chance he can win? I know you want to score maximum points every week, but with a game like Yahoo! Auto Racing, you also have to bring in strategy when it comes to allocating your starts. For the record, the drivers that our Fantasy Racing Online team are choosing between are: Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, and Austin Dillon.

In our rankings, we have Carl Edwards as a solid top 10 car. Meanwhile, we have Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon on the outside looking in as just top 15 cars. And with Jamie McMurray, we have him in the later teens despite the fact that he qualified 11th for the Good Sam 500. So let’s take a look at how each driver was in practice, specifically Happy Hour ten-lap averages. Austin Dillon ranked 10th on that chart followed by Ryan Newman in 18th, Jamie McMurray in 22nd, and Carl Edwards in 24th. Now, the #19 Toyota isn’t that bad, in my opinion, and it’s good that Carl actually made a long run. For maximum points, the starts should be Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon, but saving an Edwards start by pairing Dillon with Newman is a possibility, too. Our gut says The Choices Are: Carl Edwards and Austin Dillon

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

Yahoo! C Group Final Rankings for Phoenix

The clear best choices in this group are Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott–like every other week. However, with this race at Phoenix, the gap between those two and the rest of the C Group drivers is even wider. So, we’d consider this a must-start Blaney or Elliott event. Don’t worry about start saving with the C Group this week because these two might be the only drivers that finish top 20 in Sunday’s Good Sam 500. Now, if you have both Blaney and Elliott on you roster, you have a decision to make. The #21 Ford is the faster car, but the #24 Chevrolet has ran really well here at Phoenix in the past. As far as our Fantasy Racing Online team, we have Chase Elliott and Ty Dillon to choose from, so the choice is pretty easy. The Choice: Chase Elliott

If you really want to dig deep and save the valuable Ryan Blaney/Chase Elliott starts you have, Ty Dillon is probably going to be your choice. However, some other drivers that might surprise on Sunday are David Ragan and Matt DiBenedetto. Obviously there’s some major risk there but both of those guys looked pretty good during the practice sessions at PIR on Saturday.

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

What does your final Yahoo! roster look like for this week’s race at Phoenix International Raceway? Let us know in the comments section below!

By Jordan McAbee

Ouch. That’s all I have to say about the Las Vegas race. Not only did Matt Kenseth ruin a bunch of Fantasy NASCAR rosters, but the broken axle on Brian Vickers’ car did as well. Like I always say, though, you just have to move on when it comes to these fantasy racing games we play. Luckily for us, we’ve got a race at Phoenix up next, which is a track that tends to be incredibly predictable. You probably won’t see much change from the favorites early on in the week to the favorites on race day.

Being a predictable race is good in one aspect, but at the same time it doesn’t allow for us to gain a whole lot of points on the competition. If you had a bad week at Las Vegas, keep this in mind: you don’t need to make up all of the lost points right away! Don’t try to get cute with your picks this week. There are certain tracks where that is possible, but not Phoenix. Just go with who’s good in the desert and move on to the next race.

Yahoo! A Group Picks for Phoenix

Kevin Harvick (8 starts remaining) – This isn’t even an option. If you don’t have Kevin Harvick on your Yahoo! this week, please stop wasting your time with this fantasy game and do something else. The word “dominant” doesn’t even begin to describe Kevin Harvick at Phoenix. He’s better than any other driver even thought about being here. He has won five of the last seven events here, and should have won last fall, too. He finished 2nd that race to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. thanks to the rain. Also, Harvick was fighting for his Chase life and was able to get to the final round on points, so I’d venture to guess that he wasn’t going as hard as he could that day. Harvick has led more laps in his last four Phoenix starts than any driver has led in their career at this track (except Jimmie Johnson).

Joey Logano (9 starts remaining) – Honestly, with this roster spot I’m just going for some qualifying bonus points. It would take Kevin Harvick breaking his leg for me not to start him at Phoenix, and even then I would still probably roll with him. Joey Logano is a great option for qualifying points at most tracks and Phoenix is no exception. He has started 4th or better in four of the last five races here at Phoenix, and in all five of those events he has finished inside the top 10. He came home 3rd in the fall race here last season, which was a career-best for Joey. His teammate Brad Keselowski has also qualified very well here at Phoenix as of late, and don’t forget about Kurt Busch, who has been a qualifying machine as of late. As of right now I’m leaning Logano but I might go with Kurt.

Yahoo! B Group Picks for Phoenix

Austin Dillon (8 starts remaining) – Run ’em while they’re hot! Austin Dillon capped off a really strong weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a 5th-place finish on Sunday, giving him an average finish of 8.3 through the first three races of the 2016 Sprint Cup season. Getting that kind of value out of a B Group driver is incredible, and we should continue trying to capitalize on it until Austin fizzles out. In this Phoenix race last season, Dillon posted a career-best 15th-place finish, and I’d say he’s poised to post another career-best here on Sunday. I missed out on taking Austin Dillon last weekend but I won’t make the same mistake twice.

Ryan Newman (8 starts remaining) – I didn’t quite get the finish I wanted out of Ryan Newman at Las Vegas, but I’ll take a 13th-place start save most of the time. Now we’re at Phoenix, which is a flat track that really plays into The Rocketman’s strengths. In the last five races in the desert, Newman has never ended up worse than 11th, and he has finished inside that mark in ten of the last twelve overall. Newman ran 3rd in this race one year ago and if we could get another top 5 effort out of him this weekend I would jump for joy.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (9 starts remaining) – Yeah, I’m digging deep here, but I like the other B Group guys I have so I don’t feel like this is too big of a risk. The sleeper pick of the week for Phoenix is Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. I really like what this team is doing in 2016 and, as I said before, it’s best to run these mid-tier guys while they’re hot. Stenhouse came home 10th a couple of weeks ago at Atlanta and then followed that up with a solid 12th-place running at Las Vegas. Now we’re at Phoenix where he has been incredibly consistent for much of his Sprint Cup career; in six career starts here, Stenhouse has finished between 12th and 18th in all but one of them. I remember back when Ricky was in the Nationwide Series he really liked the flat tracks. The Roush-Fenway Fords look to have improved by quite a bit from one year ago, so it will be interesting to see how they look at Phoenix this weekend.

Jamie McMurray (9 starts remaining) – Phoenix is one of those tracks that typically allows us to run some drivers in the B Group other than the “heavy hitters,” and I’m perfectly okay with that. Jamie McMurray had a great run in this race last year, starting 2nd and finishing 3rd, and he followed that up with a 15th-place run in the fall. That makes it four straight finishes of 15th or better for McMurray in the desert, and if I can get that kind of finish while saving a Truex or Edwards start, I’m okay with it.

Note: Martin Truex, Jr. will be without crew chief Cole Pearn this weekend due to suspension, and he has posted just two top 10 finishes in his last seven starts at Phoenix. This is an excellent time to give the ‘ol #78 Toyota a break and go with some other drivers. As you can see, I’m also leaving Carl Edwards off, who has just one top 10 finish in the last five Phoenix races.

Yahoo! C Group Picks for Phoenix

Man, Chase Elliott and Brian Vickers really killed a lot of rosters at Las Vegas–mine included. Both of them had good runs going (more so Elliott), too. Oh, well. It’s hard to bet against the rookies right now, especially since Ryan Blaney came home 6th at Las Vegas last week. The downside is that neither Elliott or Blaney has made a Sprint Cup start here at Phoenix, although the former ended up 7th in both Xfinity races here last season. I’m going for max points this week so right now I’m leaning toward putting both Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney on my Yahoo! roster in the C Group.

Please share your picks for Phoenix in the comments below!