As soon as we saw the qualifying results for this weekend’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway, we knew it was going to be difficult to put together a good FOX Fantasy Auto roster. You see, most of the drivers that should finish up front on Sunday (or Monday, when we’ll likely race due to rain), qualified up front. So we can either take a chance on some drivers that start further back and hope they make their way up through the field, or we can be safe and choose the best drivers this week and hope for the finish points (and minimal place differential points). With that being said, Pocono is earning a reputation of a strategic race track. That means we could see plenty of surprise finishers up front when the checkered flag waves, so it might not be a terrible idea to take some risks with some drivers that will start further back.
Last week at Charlotte, we had a great roster until Kyle Busch had his mechanical issues and ended up finishing 33rd. Still, our Fantasy Racing Online FOX team scored 188 points in the Coca-Cola 600, putting us into 597th place overall and keeping us 2nd in our private group. We hope to crack the top 500 this weekend.
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Pocono Axalta 400
Martin Truex, Jr. ($10,000) – It’s going to be hard to leave Martin Truex, Jr. off of your roster this weekend. Not only is he coming off of that dominating performance at Charlotte last weekend, but he’s also the defending winner of this race at Pocono. He also starts 17th for this weekend’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400, and at a price point of $10,000, it’s going to be hard to find a better pick. So we might as well go with the flow here and take Martin Truex, Jr. We expect over half of the FOX Fantasy Auto teams to have him on their roster at Pocono. This #78 team was one of the few that tested here at Pocono before this race, and that should play dividends for them on Sunday. Also, the speed of the #78 pit crew should help Truex a lot. He has ran very well here at “The Tricky Triangle” over the last four races and has top 10 finishes in each of the last two summer races to show for it. We’re expecting Truex to finish solidly inside the top 10 on Sunday (or Monday) and that means quite a bit of points in this FOX Fantasy Auto game.
Kyle Larson ($7,700) – Here’s another no-brainer pick. At such a low salary this weekend, there’s going to be quite a few people that pick Kyle Larson this weekend. As of this writing, nearly one in three had them on their FOX Fantasy Auto roster, and that should only go up. In four career starts here at “The Tricky Triangle,” Larson has never finished worse than 12th, and if that continues this weekend, we’re looking at a nice amount of points for a low dollar amount considering he starts back in 21st. Larson was just 11th-fastest in Happy Hour on Saturday, but if he can finish there in the actual race, we’ll be more than happy. By the way, he’s another one of those drivers that tested here at Pocono, for what it’s worth. This #42 team has been running really well here in the Sprint Cup Series as of late, but we question their ability to make the car better during the race. That’s going to be key here at Pocono on Sunday/Monday, but we still expect Larson to run top 15.
Kurt Busch ($11,800) – If you can block out the fact that Kurt Busch is going to be without his crew chief, Tony Gibson, this weekend, you won’t even think twice about throwing him on your Fantasy NASCAR rosters. Since this track was repaved back in 2011, Kurt has been one of (if not the) best drivers at Pocono. In his last six starts here at “The Tricky Triangle,” he has finished 7th or better in four of them along with a 13th-place result in 2014 and a 37th-place finish in the fall race last year. However, if you remember back to the latter, Kurt led 13 laps that day but got caught up in a wreck. He had at least a top 10 car that day, if not top 5. This weekend, he’s going to start from 9th–which gives us a small opportunity for place differential points–and was 2nd-fastest in Happy Hour with the 3rd-best ten-lap average. This #41 Chevrolet has been one of the most consistent and strongest race cars this season, and that shouldn’t change here on Sunday.
EDIT: We’re swapping out Kurt Busch for Jimmie Johnson.
A.J. Allmendinger ($7,600) – There’s a lot to not like about A.J. Allmendinger this weekend. We know. But like we said earlier, we feel like this is the race to take some risks. So let’s go with the guy that starts way back in 32nd for this year’s Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 and ended up 10th on the speed chart during the Saturday Happy Hour session. Yes, we’re talking about A.J. Allmendinger. Now, most people are going to look all The Dinger’s record here at Pocono and completely write him off, but we have faith in this guy. Yeah, he’s only finished better than 21st once here in the last seven races, but that was in last season’s fall race, where A.J. came home 7th. In the summer race, Allmendinger finished 38th but let’s not forget that he was fighting for a top 10 finish before wrecking with 20 laps to go in that race. To top it all off, Allmendinger has finished 16th or better in three of the last four Sprint Cup races with a worst finish of 23rd (at Dover). A 20th-place finish out of A.J. this weekend will net us 34 points in FOX Fantasy Auto–a nice haul for his salary. Another driver you could put in his place is Danica Patrick ($6,100) who starts 33rd and has been a place differential gold mine this season.
Kyle Busch ($12,000) – Here’s where we have a choice to make. With the remaining money we have to compile this roster, we can afford Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., or Jimmie Johnson (or lower-priced drivers if we wanted). Each of these three have their positives and negatives. With Kyle Busch, he starts 12th (nice place differential point opportunity) and had the best car in Happy Hour, both on the overall speed chart and the ten-lap average chart. But he hasn’t had a top 5 finish at Pocono since 2011. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has five top 5 finishes in the last six Pocono races but was just 17th-fastest in Happy Hour this weekend and starts 8th. Finally, Jimmie Johnson starts 7th and had one of the better cars in practice. He has also finished 6th or better in three of the last four Pocono races. We don’t think you can really go wrong with any of these picks, but right now we’re leaning toward Kyle Busch just because he starts further back.
