Kansas Speedway is one of those race tracks where the best drivers truly shine. It was repaved back in 2012 and has since produced some pretty good racing for a 1.5-mile cookie cutter race track. And with the low downforce package, we think it’s going to be a great GoBowling.com 400 race here on Saturday night. You can’t go wrong with night racing, right? As far as the FOX Fantasy Auto game goes, this isn’t one of those tracks where you need to start up front to finish up front; in this race last season, four of the top 6 finishers started outside of the top 10. In the fall race, three of the top 4 finishers started 14th or worse.
Last week at Talladega the Fantasy Racing Online FOX team had its best week of the season, scoring 251 points thanks in big part to Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, and Kyle Busch. We have cracked the top 1,000 overall finally, sitting in 987th place, and we rank 3rd in our private (and very competitive) group.
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Kansas GoBowling.com 400
Jimmie Johnson ($13,500) – We’d like to jump up there and grab Kevin Harvick this week–considering he starts way back in 26th–but we could not make a serious roster with his $14,200 price tag, so we’re going to go with the 2nd-best option and that is Jimmie Johnson. The #48 Chevrolet will roll off the grid from 15th here at Kansas Speedway on Saturday night but should be a top 5 threat when the checkered flag waves. Johnson owns the best average finish among all Sprint Cup drivers here (8.7) and has three wins in nineteen career starts. Even more impressive? He has finished inside the top 10 in sixteen of those nineteen starts. He’s a virtual lock for a solid finish. This #48 Chevrolet has been solid on all intermediate tracks so far this season and there’s no reason to think that will change here at Kansas. In Practice #1 on Friday Johnson has the best ten-lap average.
Carl Edwards ($12,400) – We debated a long time here between Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (who is $100 less), but our gut says Edwards. We think that Junior is going to end up being a solid top 10 pick despite starting 22nd, but we think Edwards has a shot at potentially winning this race. Carl will roll off the grid from 12th on Saturday night, too, so there’s some room for place differential points there. Looking back at Texas–the other Saturday night race of the season–Edwards led 124 laps before finishing 7th. Here at Kansas Speedway he has a 10.6 career average finish and has finished 8th or better in four of the last five races ran here. This #19 team has been one of the strongest all season long so we don’t see why you would go against them in the GoBowling.com 400. This is Edwards’ home track.
Kasey Kahne ($8,200) – He can’t be that bad…right? The #5 Chevrolet has been slow since they took it off the truck, ranking 30th in Practice #1 on Friday before posting the 36th-best lap in Happy Hour. Like we said, he can’t be that bad, right? Kahne starts 27th for this year’s GoBowling.com 400 and we’re just hoping he’s inside the top 20 when the checkered flag waves on Saturday night. A 20th-place finish would net us 28 fantasy points in the FOX Fantasy Auto game and we’re okay with that. Want to know why? Because the potential for more is pretty high. You never really know what you’re going to get when you pick Kasey Kahne, and he has the tendency to surprisingly find something on race day. He also finished 4th in the fall race here at Kansas last season and has six top 10s in the last nine events here.
Chase Elliott ($7,200) – The sky is the limit for this kid and there’s no reason to think that he can’t finish inside the top 10 here on Saturday night. Chase finished 5th at Texas last month–another Saturday night race–and has the best average finish among all Sprint Cup drivers over the last six races. He’s never ran here at Kansas in NASCAR’s top series but he did wind up 7th in the Xfinity race last year while driving for JR Motorsports. The way we look at, Chase Elliott isn’t going to finish outside of the top 15 on Saturday night unless he has mechanical issues or wrecks. He’s probably going to finish inside the top 10, and that’s going to be a nice little payoff in points for his low $7,200 salary. As of this post, almost 60% of FOX Fantasy Auto players have Elliott on their roster, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
Matt Kenseth ($8,700) – Looking at it purely from a speed standpoint, Matt Kenseth would probably have the car to beat for Saturday night’s GoBowling.com 400. The #20 Toyota was pretty fast in Practice #1 on Friday and then really turned it up in Happy Hour, posting the 2nd-best lap along with the best ten-lap average. Add in the fact that Matt probably should have won the fall race here last season (or at least finished 2nd) and his 6th-place run in this spring event one year ago, and you’d have a great fantasy pick–especially at this $8,700 price point. Unfortunately, there’s more to consider. This #20 team had another disappointing day at Talladega, giving them just two top 10s through the first ten races of 2016 and ZERO top 5s. Still, we’ve been saying for a month or two now that this #20 team could wind up in victory lane any week now, and it’s going to happen eventually. We’re hoping they avoid the bad luck at Kansas this weekend and get the top 5 finish they deserve. Yeah, Kenseth starts 2nd, but he’s pretty cheap and you don’t lose points for place differential in the FOX Fantasy Auto game.
