We’re in a situation that is a little out of the ordinary here at Martinsville this week. The path to success in the FOX Fantasy Auto game is to capitalize on the place differential points, meaning pick drivers that start further back and who will work their way toward the front. A driver that starts 25th and finishes 10th will earn you more points than one who starts 5th and finishes 5th. Now, the reason this week’s Martinsville STP 500 is a little out of the ordinary is because we typically don’t see a lot of drivers come through the field here. Usually, those considered “the best” at “The Paperclip” will both start up front and finish up front. So that makes putting together a great roster a little bit tougher this week–but it’s still possible. We’re just glad that you don’t lose points based on place differential in this game.
As far as our official Fantasy Racing Online team goes, we had a pretty good week at Fontana and ended up with 208 points. However, it has been our consistency throughout the first five races of the season that has really paid off and put our team P1 in our private group and 448th overall. How’s your team doing? Let us know in the comments section at the bottom of this page!
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Martinsville STP 500
Denny Hamlin ($11,400) – It seems like every week in this game there is a driver that is incorrectly priced that you absolutely need to put on your roster. That’s the case with Denny Hamlin this weekend. Despite being one of the best drivers here at Martinsville Speedway, Hamlin is just the 9th-highest-priced driver in FOX Fantasy Auto this week, at a cool $11,400. And there’s some potential to score 40+ points at that price as well. Denny qualified 8th for Sunday’s STP 500, and if he posts a top 5 finish like we’re expecting, that should give us right around 40 points, not even taking into account laps led or anything. Hamlin is a five-time winner here at Martinsville Speedway and finished 1st and 3rd in the two races here last season. Enough said. Next!
Martin Truex, Jr. ($11,800) – This #78 Toyota was bad fast in Happy Hour on Saturday and don’t think we didn’t notice. Truex didn’t have that speed on Friday during qualifying (he will start 16th on Sunday) but he found it overnight. Here’s a guy that finished 6th in both Martinsville races last season and now has an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, the organization that has been dominant at Martinsville over the years. Sounds like a win-win situation to us. Truex was 3rd in ten-lap average in that final practice session on Saturday and should be able to easily post a top 10 finish on Sunday–if not better. With his 16th-place starting position, there’s potential place differential points up for grabs as well. Our only concern is that this #78 team hasn’t had a top 10 finish since Atlanta, but we think that will change this weekend.
Matt Kenseth ($8,700) – Yeah, we’re getting tired of picking him, too, but at that price point it’s really hard not to. The other drivers in this price range are Paul Menard and Kasey Kahne, both of which start inside the top 4. Then you get down to guys like Clint Bowyer and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and we want nothing to do with them. So we’re going to roll with Matt Kenseth once again and hope for the best. The good news is that he has finished 6th or better in four of the last five Martinsville races, and that lone exception is the fall race last year when he took out Joey Logano. The potential is there for this #20 team they just need to put a whole race together. Will that happen this weekend? Kenseth was just 14th on the ten-lap average chart in Happy Hour but he posted the 8th-best overall lap and the team sounded happy with the car. He starts 9th in this Sunday’s STP 500.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ($13,100) – We really wanted to try and fit Jimmie Johnson in this roster spot but it just wasn’t possible. JJ’s price point is $13,700 this week and that just makes it impossible to fit him on our roster unless we switched out Martin Truex, Jr. for someone like Kurt Busch–not something we’re going to do. So We’re going with Johnson’s teammate in Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who should be able to provide us with nearly the same amount of points. Junior will start 21st for Sunday’s STP 500 (while Johnson starts 24th), but you should know by now that it doesn’t really matter where this #88 Chevrolet rolls off the grid. In fact, Earnhardt has three top 5s in his last four Martinsville races and he started in the mid-20s in all three of them. The #88 Chevrolet wasn’t exactly to Junior’s liking after Happy Hour but he tweeted that he’s happy with the race car. In case you didn’t know, Dale is one of the most honest drivers on social media, so he should be just fine during the race on Sunday.
Chase Elliott ($5,000) – We have exactly $5,000 left, and really the only viable option we have in this price range is Chase Elliott. He’s going to start 10th for Sunday’s STP 500, which is a lot higher than we would have liked, but unless you’re going to roll the dice with a guy like Michael McDowell or Brian Scott (not recommended), Elliott is really the only option you have. On a positive note, he’s in the #24 Chevrolet, which went to victory lane in the fall here at Martinsville last season. And you can’t lose points based on place differential, so if Chase comes home with a 15th-or-so finish on Sunday, we’ll still get around 25 fantasy points.
