The round of 12 kicks off this weekend with the Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This is a 1.5-mile race track that is one of the most storied venues on the Sprint Cup circuit. As you probably remember, we were last here back in May for the Coca-Cola 600, a race that Martin Truex, Jr. dominated in every sense of the word. He is also on quite a roll right now and has won three of the last six Sprint Cup races overall, so it’s hard not to consider him the favorite heading into the race weekend. As far as Charlotte goes, typically the drivers that qualify up front also finish up there, so qualifying is going to be pretty important on Thursday. Also, Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 is the last scheduled night race of the season, and it’s sure to be a good one.
Yahoo! A Group Picks and Rankings for Charlotte 2
Kevin Harvick (4 starts remaining) – Unfortunately our bad luck in the A Group continued at Dover last weekend when Kevin Harvick had mechanical issues early in the race, but that’s just how our season is going. He’s once again the best A Group pick here at Charlotte, and it’s very rare for this #4 team to have two bad races in row, so we’re expecting at the minimum a top 5 finish out of Harvick on Saturday night. He was a great Fantasy NASCAR pick at this track before joining Stewart-Haas Racing, but since making the move back in 2014, Harvick has become a must-own when we stop at Charlotte. In the five races that he has ran here at Charlotte while in the #4 Chevrolet, Harvick has one win, three 2nd-place finishes, and a worst result of 9th. Yeah, he’s that good. He’s going to be the most popular A Group driver in Yahoo! once again this weekend, but that’s just how it goes. We wouldn’t recommend avoiding him to try and gain an edge.
Brad Keselowski (6 starts remaining) – All of the talk in the Sprint Cup garage is around Martin Truex, Jr., but let’s not dismiss this run that Brad Keselowski is currently on. With his 4th-place run at Dover 2 last weekend, Brad now has four straight top 5 finishes in Sprint Cup action and has finished inside that mark in seven of the last nine. Here at Charlotte, he has just three top 5 finishes, but one of those came when we raced here back in May, and Keselowski went to victory lane in this race just three years ago. We thought about going with Denny Hamlin in this spot, and we still might. However, as of now, Brad Keselowski is going to be our second A Group driver alongside Kevin Harvick.
Denny Hamlin under-performed in the first round of the Chase but this is still a championship-caliber team. He has also finished 4th in the last two Charlotte races and inside the top 10 in eleven of the last twelve at this track. Hamlin is a very safe Fantasy NASCAR option this weekend. Another safe option is Joey Logano, who is the defending winner of this race. His career average finish at Charlotte is an impressive 8.5 (best in the series). In four of the last six races here, Matt Kenseth has finished 7th or better. He’s also coming off of back-to-back top 5s at Loudon and Dover, and may be able to make it three in a row on Saturday night. His teammate, Kyle Busch, has an impressive record here at Charlotte (ten top 5s in twenty-five starts) but has never been to victory lane. And finally Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time winner here but that #48 team keeps shooting themselves in the foot and we don’t like that. If they can have a mistake-free race, though, a top 5 is within reach on Saturday night.
Pre-Lockdown A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Brad Keselowski, (3) Denny Hamlin, (4) Matt Kenseth, (5) Joey Logano, (6) Kyle Busch, (7) Jimmie Johnson, (8) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Rankings for Charlotte 2
Carl Edwards (3 starts remaining) – If the #19 team wants to really challenge for the Sprint Cup championship this season, they’re going to have to turn things up a notch here soon. Hopefully it’s this weekend. We’re still sitting on three Carl Edwards starts with seven races left, but the fact that he hasn’t had a top 5 finish in the last eleven Sprint Cup races makes us glad that we have saved them. Carl won last year’s Coca-Cola 600 and has finished 8th or better in four of the last five events at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We only plan to start Carl Edwards if he has a top 5 car this weekend, but Charlotte isn’t a track where you want to stray too far from the strongest teams, and we’re not going to do that.
Martin Truex, Jr. (3 starts remaining) – Just like Carl Edwards, we have done the same “start saving” strategy with Martin Truex, Jr. this season, but this one isn’t working out quite as well considering the #78 Toyota has got to victory lane in three of the last six Sprint Cup races overall, including its dominating performance here at Charlotte back in May. Truex is once again going to be one of the drivers to beat here on Saturday night, and we wouldn’t be surprised if he once again gets the win. He’s currently on a three-race streak of top 5 finishes here at Charlotte, and the #78 Toyota has been the best car on the 1.5-mile race tracks this season. If you have any Truex starts remaining, he has to be on your roster this weekend, no questions asked.
Austin Dillon (3 starts remaining) – Austin Dillon has been a consistent performer here at Charlotte Motor Speedway ever since he made the jump to the Sprint Cup Series, and we expect that continue–if not improve–here on Saturday night. Thanks to a little luck, this #3 team has made it to the Round of 12 in the Chase, and you know Richard Childress will be pulling out all of the stops in order for his grandson to run well. Also, it’s right around this time where we see the “Chase Effect” really show–meaning those still involved in NASCAR’s playoffs have a bit of a bump in performance. Austin has never finished worse than 16th in five career starts here at Charlotte and posted a career-best finish of 7th in this race one year ago. He’s also had an average result of 11.9 on the 1.5-mile tracks this season.
Kasey Kahne (5 starts remaining) – The #5 team didn’t extend their top 10 streak to five at Dover 2 last weekend, but they still wound up finishing 12th and that makes it eight results of 15th or better in the last nine Sprint Cup races for them. And we’re going to keep rolling with Kasey Kahne until he gives us a reason not to. On top of all of that, he’s a four-time winner here at Charlotte Motor Speedway and has finished inside the top 10 in six of the last ten races at this track. Kahne should be good for at least a top 15 finish in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 but it honestly wouldn’t surprise us one bit if he wound up inside the top 10 before the checkered flag flies.
As we stated earlier, this isn’t the race track that you want to try and avoid the elite drivers and hope they have problems. We’re honestly only considering the top 6 drivers we have ranked in the B Group this weekend. If you are completely out of starts with two or three of those guys, Ryan Newman has seven straight top 15 finishes here at Charlotte, but that #31 team has been a huge disappointment all season long, and we don’t see that changing on Saturday night. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. has been running well lately and has ended up 15th and 13th in the last two Charlotte races, so he’s a sleeper option this weekend. Tony Stewart is the same story as Ryan Newman and he hasn’t finished better than 21st in the last four Charlotte races. If you want a very deep sleeper, A.J. Allmendinger isn’t terrible: he has three finishes of 16th or better in the last four races at this track and has performed pretty well on the 1.5-mile venues this season.
Pre-Lockdown B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Kasey Kahne, (4) Austin Dillon, (5) Kyle Larson, (6) Jamie McMurray, (7) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (8) Ryan Newman, (9) Tony Stewart, (10) A.J. Allmendinger, (11) Aric Almirola, (12) Trevor Bayne, (13) Danica Patrick, (14) Greg Biffle, (15) Paul Menard, (16) Clint Bowyer, (17) Casey Mears
Yahoo! C Group Picks and Rankings for Charlotte 2
Well because we started Jeff Gordon at Dover 2 last weekend, our Fantasy Racing Online team now has 2 starts remaining with Chase Elliott and 5 starts remaining with Ryan Blaney. In other words, those are going to be our C Group starters for the remaining races of 2016, unless something crazy happens. If you are out of either of those two rookies, Alex Bowman is the really only other viable option in the C Group on Saturday night. Chris Buescher would be your next best choice but he’s a mid-20s finish at best. Bowman, on the other hand, has run well in relief of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and could easily challenge for a top 15 finish in this year’s Bank of America 500. As far as Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney go (our two C Group drivers this week), the former wound up 8th in this year’s Coca-Cola 600 while Blaney wound up 20th. We expect both of those drivers to improve a bit this weekend.
Pre-Lockdown C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Alex Bowman, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) Landon Cassill, (6) Regan Smith, (7) Brian Scott, (8) Michael McDowell, the rest
