Today’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 is at Chicagoland Speedway, which is a 1.5-mile race track that we only visit once a year. This is also the first races of NASCAR’s 2016 Chase, which means those that are in the playoffs would especially love to get to victory lane to lock themselves into the next round. We predict a pretty mellow race for the first 200 laps but in the final 67 laps things could get crazy, whether it be wrecks or pit strategy or what have you. Good luck to everyone today!
Lineup #1
We can call this “The Young Guns Lineup (with Jimmie Johnson).” Every single driver on this roster has top 10 potential today at Chicagoland, and with Blaney and Kahne you have some very good place differential FPTS potential. The only thing that this Lineup lacks is a dominator, but if Jimmie Johnson has the car that we think he does, he could very well go out and lead a bunch of laps in this year’s TMNT 400.
Lineup #2
This Lineup gets a little risky down at the bottom, but the potential here is very high. We’re taking Kevin Harvick on here despite his very high price, simply because he has the car that could go out and dominate the race today. Matt Kenseth ran a bunch of laps and seemed happy with his car, and when that happens it’s usually not a good sign for the competition. As far as the three low-dollar guys, you can read our thoughts on them over in our Drivers to Target post.
Lineup #3
Martin Truex, Jr. has led a whole bunch of laps this season and the #78 team has been one of the best at the 1.5-mile intermediate tracks. Perfect combination, right? With this Lineup, we’re fading Jimmie Johnson because his ownership potential is going to be pretty high, so if something would happen to that #48 Chevrolet, this roster should be golden. If Trevor Bayne is his normal self, we should see a mid-30s FPTS performance from him.
Lineup #4
We’re very high on Kasey Kahne and Ryan Blaney in DraftKings this weekend, in case you couldn’t tell. This Lineup is very similar to Lineup #3 except we’re throwing Jimmie Johnson back on there (we’re expecting a statement race from that team today) and dropped Chase Elliott. Additionally, we’re going with Joey Logano, who starts back in 9th (decent place differential FPTS potential). He has finished 7th or better in three of the last four Chicagoland races and should be up there once again today.
Lineup #5
Paul Menard starts back in 26th today because that #27 team has been so terrible this season, but he has a lot more speed than that here in the Windy City. Now it just comes down to whether or not that team will be able finish the race–not exactly their strength. This Lineup is able to afford both Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex, Jr. (the two most likely to dominate) and we have Jamie McMurray on there, who hasn’t looked great this weekend, but that team has been top 10 good for the last few months and he has some place differential potential (starts 16th).