Our strategy has been the same through the first three restrictor plate races this season, and we’re not going away from that this weekend with the Hellmann’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. With the way these races play out, any driver–and we many any driver–can wind up finishing near the front. Therefore, we think that the best strategy at Talladega and Daytona are to target place differential points and then hope for the best on race day. It worked out for our team the last time we were at Talladega, as our Fantasy Racing Online team scored 251 points back in May.
Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson ruined an otherwise great week for our FOX Fantasy Auto team at Kansas last weekend, although we still ended up scoring 159 points. We’re now in 567th place overall and still 3rd in our private group.
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the Talladega 2 Hellmann’s 500
Kevin Harvick ($13,100) – Kevin Harvick is already locked into the Round of 8, so during Sunday’s Hellmann’s 500 he can just go out there and try to win without having to think about points or anything. We like the drivers that have no pressure on them this weekend, and the fact that Kevin Harvick qualified 22nd for this weekend’s race means that there’s quite a bit of room for place differential points as well. “Happy” is a previous winner here at Talladega (back in 2010) and his career average finish of 15.3 at this track is 4th-best among all active drivers with more than one start here. Additionally, Harvick hasn’t finished worse than 15th in the last six races here at Talladega and has posted two top 15s in the three plate races this season. He knows how to avoid trouble at these types of tracks and definitely has a car that could challenge for the win on Sunday.
Kyle Busch ($10,700) – One strategy with these restrictor plate races is to go with the hot hand, and there hasn’t been anyone better than Kyle Busch this season. No, he hasn’t won the first three races at Daytona and Talladega, but he has an average finish of 2.3 in those events, which is actually a quite impressive without a win. Anyway, Rowdy qualified 14th for this weekend’s Hellmann’s 500, so while there’s not a whole lot of room for place differential points, there’s still some. He hasn’t finished worse than 8th since this Chase started, and while it’s very difficult to guarantee, we don’t see that changing this weekend. Kyle Busch has finished 12th or better in six of the last eight races here at Talladega, including his 2nd-place finish when we last raced here back in May.
Jimmie Johnson ($10,400) – Like we said before, we like the drivers with no pressure on them this weekend. Johnson is the only other Chaser that is guaranteed a spot in the Round of 8, and he qualified back in 17th for Sunday’s race here at Talladega so there’s some room for place differential points. We could definitely see him and Harvick charging up through the field and trying to keep a guy like Denny Hamlin or Brad Keselowski out of victory lane. As far as Talladega, Jimmie Johnson is a two-time winner here, and in last seven races here, he’s only had one event where he had a driver rating under 99.6. That says that the #48 Chevrolet has been very good during the races here lately, but unfortunately Johnson hasn’t really gotten the finishes. But with the way this #48 team is running right now, we wouldn’t bet against them this weekend.
Clint Bowyer ($7,400) – Clint Bowyer was our anchor with our last Talladega roster in this FOX Fantasy Auto game and we’re sticking with him. This track has been very, very kind to Bowyer throughout his career, and that continued through this season despite the fact that he’s now in lower-tier equipment. That really doesn’t matter at Talladega or Daytona, though. Bowyer has five top 10s in the last six Talladega races and has wound up inside that mark in twelve of his twenty-one career starts at this track (57.1%). The #15 Chevrolet will roll off the grid from 36th when this weekend’s Hellmann’s 500 goes green, so if he can get up there and grab another top 10 finish on Sunday we’re looking at a huge points day from Bowyer. Let’s not forget that this #15 team has been building some momentum over the last couple of months, too, with an average finish of 22.2 over the last six Sprint Cup races overall.
A.J. Allmendinger ($7,300) – Speaking of momentum, this #47 team has found quite a bit of speed lately, and finally got a good finish with their 8th-place run at Kansas last weekend. Now, we know that doesn’t mean a whole lot for this race here at Talladega, but don’t underestimate things like that. As far as Allmendinger’s plate record, it actually isn’t too terrible. In the three plate races thus far in 2016, the #47 Chevrolet has averaged a finish of 16th, and Allmendinger has wound up 17th or better in four of the last six races here at Talladega. He’s going to start way back in 32nd when the Hellmann’s 500 goes green this Sunday, but as we said before, we’re targeting place differential points specifically with this FOX Fantasy Auto team. This might be an off-the-wall pick (only 3.2% of teams have A.J. as of this post), but this is really the last week of the season where you can get creative with your rosters, so why not?
