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Tag: New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Fantasy NASCAR: Foxwoods Casino Resort 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Quick Picks

After several weeks of building Fantasy NASCAR lineups for mile-and-a-half tracks, we get a break from the “cookie-cutter” ovals this weekend when the Cup Series visits New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Nicknamed the “Magic Mile,” the flat, one-mile oval will host Sunday’s Foxwoods Resort Casino 301. While many of the top drivers still excel at New Hampshire, the importance of track position and disparity between the two grooves on restarts allows crew chiefs and drivers to steal some spots and creates a little more unpredictability overall. As a result, I like to use the New Hampshire race as an opportunity to save a few starts from the elite options in both Fantasy Live and the Driver Group Game. Not only do you have a few middle tier drivers who elevate their game at flat tracks, but depending on when cautions fall, the drivers with the best cars often forfeit stage points in favor of track position. You also have to worry about a rash of cautions at the end of the race jumbling up the final results as drivers on the inside typically hemorrhage spots. Add it all up, and it makes a lot of sense to roll the dice on a couple of high-upside midrange drivers. For Slingshot Fantasy Auto, I paired a couple of studs with three mid-priced drivers who have a decent amount of place differential upside. NASCAR’s current qualifying format continues to put all the top drivers towards the front, so I feel a balanced approach makes more sense than top loading my lineup with three high-priced studs who have little opportunity to gain place differential points. Join FullTime Fantasy for top advice in the industry from check-cashing, proven winners! NASCAR.com Fantasy Live Denny Hamlin At their best, I don’t think there is any team better than the No. 11 bunch right now, and Hamlin has always been a force at flat tracks. Of his 42 Cup wins, 19 have come at flat or low-banked tracks, including three at New Hampshire. Despite starting at the rear of the field here last year, he still led 113 laps and finished second. He will start on the front row Sunday, and as good as he has been in 2020, I’m expecting Hamlin to flex some serious muscle this weekend. Kyle Busch I know it hasn’t been a banner year for the defending champ, but because of that, I have a surplus of starts available as we head to one of his best tracks. Busch leads all drivers in basically every category in the last 10 New Hampshire races, and he has led more than 90 laps in three of his last four starts here, leading a race-high 118 laps last season. Rolling off fifth, I think a Top 5 finish and double-digit stage points are his floor. Joey Logano You can’t go wrong with Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. this week either, but Logano has been reliable at New Hampshire, and his team has been one of the best at acquiring stage points all season. He currently ranks third with 173 stage points in 2020 and second with 19 Top 5 finishes in stages, and Logano has finished 11th or better in eight of his last nine New Hampshire starts. He should deliver a solid point total no matter how the race breaks. Brad Keselowski Since stage points could be tougher to predict depending on when cautions fall, I think there is added value in a consistent performer like Keselowski. Over the last 10 New Hampshire races, he ranks fourth in points scored, posting a 9.6 average finish and seven Top 10s. He only has one finish outside the Top 15 in that stretch, and last season, he ranked in the Top 5 in both green flag speed and driver rating at New Hampshire while logging the best average running position. A Top 5 starting spot should help matters. Aric Almirola He extended his streak of Top 10 finishes to eight races with his sixth-place run at Kansas last weekend, and during that stretch, Almirola leads all drivers with a 5.4 average finish and 312 points scored. I’m going to keep playing the hot hand, especially after he drew the pole at a New Hampshire track where he has had success recently. Almirola led 42 laps and logged seven stage points on his way to a third-place finish here in 2018, and last year, he piled up 18 stage points and was leading when another car slid into his pit box and caused a slow stop. Garage Driver – Erik Jones His lack of consistency is a can be a major headache for fantasy purposes, but Jones has plenty of upside, and we’ve seen him go on hot streaks in the past. He has six finishes of sixth or better in 2020, and four of them have come in the last seven races. He also finished third at New Hampshire last year, ranking fifth in green flag speed, and he has an 8.3 average finish in the last three races here. Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet Driver Group Game Denny Hamlin (A) Hamlin has a series-leading five wins under his belt already this season, and he could add to that total Sunday. He led 113 laps in a runner-up effort at New Hampshire last year after starting dead last, and he will get to start from the front row this weekend. I could see him sweeping both stages and winning the race. Aric Almirola (B) He has a series-best 5.4 average finish during his current streak of eight straight Top 10s, and I think he stays hot at New Hampshire. He led 42 laps and finished third at the track in 2018, and he finished third and first in the two stages here last season. Starting on the pole, I’m riding the Almirola train until it comes off the tracks. Matt DiBenedetto (B) He had the best run of his career at New Hampshire last season, logging a