Richmond Raceway is a 3/4-mile flat race track, meaning it’s technically considered a short track but it kind of races like an intermediate venue. Still, one mistake by either the driver or the pit crew can easily find the car a couple of laps down, and if the team is off on the setup when the race goes green on Saturday night, it could be a long evening for them. We last raced here back in April, and in that race it was Joey Logano who went to victory lane despite Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth leading most of the race. Coincidentally, that was the last time Logano was even competitive in a Cup Series event, too. He needs a win this weekend to make it into the playoffs, will we see the season sweep?
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My team points last week (Darlington): 170
Overall team standings: 89th
Total team points for the season: 4,394
FOX Fantasy Auto Picks for the 2017 Federated Auto Parts Race
Kyle Busch ($12,000) – The Busch brothers love Richmond Raceway, and it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise considering they have a combined six Cup Series wins at this track. Four of those victories belong to Kyle, though, and after a somewhat disappointing qualifying effort this weekend (7th), he should be one of the highest-scoring drivers in this FOX Fantasy Auto game. There’s no such thing as a ‘sure bet’ in Fantasy NASCAR, but it’s close with Kyle Busch at Richmond. In 24 career starts at this track, Rowdy has captured 15 top 5 finishes (62.5%) and has just one result worse than 20th. That’s pretty damn good. This #18 Toyota has been super fast for the last couple of months, too, and Kyle Busch looked stout during the practice sessions here on Friday, ranking 6th- and 2nd-best in terms of ten-lap average. He should contend for the win on Saturday night.
Martin Truex, Jr. ($10,100) – Martin Truex, Jr. is grossly under-priced in FOX Fantasy Auto this weekend, and has been all season, really. However, any time this guy doesn’t qualify on the pole, you have to take him in this game, simply because it’s rare to get positive place differential fantasy points out of him. This weekend, the #78 Toyota wound up 5th in qualifying on Friday, but honestly might be the best car; Truex was 2nd-fastest in the opening practice session of the weekend and then wound up 4th-best on the Happy Hour speed chart. He didn’t make a long run in that first session but did have the best ten-lap average in the final practice. Truex led the most laps and finished 3rd in this race one year ago and should be able to post a similar performance here on Saturday night as well.
Brad Keselowski ($9,700) – The last time we were here at Richmond Raceway, Brad Keselowski qualified back in 15th but rallied to a 2nd-place finish before it was all said and done and even led 110 laps along the way. This weekend, the #2 Ford wound up 15th in qualifying but actually looks to have top 5 speed in race trim. BK ranked 5th- and 7th-fastest during the two practice sessions here on Friday and wound up inside the top 5 in terms of ten-lap average in each of those practices as well. He loves this race track and has four top 5 finishes in the last seven races here, including a win in this race three years ago. So, under $10,000 in salary with a shot at a top 5 finish and 10+ place differential fantasy points? Yep, Brad Keselowski is a must-own in FOX Fantasy Auto this weekend.
Daniel Suarez ($8,600) – Daniel Suarez and this #19 team have posted great finishes on the flat tracks thus far in 2017–7th at Phoenix, 6th at Loudon, 7th at Indianapolis, and 12th at Richmond earlier this year–and will be looking to come away with a solid result on Saturday night once again. Suarez ended up 16th in qualifying for this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts 400, and that wasn’t really all that surprising considering he ranked 17th-fastest in the opening practice session earlier that day. With that being said, Suarez looked damn good in Happy Hour when he was working on race trim, posting the 3rd-best lap and ranking 6th-fastest in terms of ten-lap average. He’s a bit pricy this weekend but the #19 Toyota does have top 10 potential here on Saturday night.
Other viable options: Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
FOX Fantasy Auto Fade Option
Joey Logano ($8,400) – To answer my earlier question, no, we’re not going to see the season sweep. Joey Logano is a very good race car driver here at Richmond Raceway and even has shown quite a bit of speed here this weekend, ranking 2nd-fastest in the Happy Hour practice session while posting the 5th-best ten-lap average. But let’s take a step back and remember who we are talking about. This #22 Ford has shown speed the last month, but in every single race the car just starts fading around the halfway point. It’s almost like clockwork. There’s a reason that Logano hasn’t finished better than 13th since that wreckfest of a race at Indianapolis. And while his record here at Richmond is good–he has seven straight top 10 finishes currently–a race team doesn’t just turn things around overnight at a track like this. Over 42% of FOX Fantasy Auto players had Logano on their roster as of Friday night, and I’ll gladly go against the crowd this weekend and stay away from “Sliced Bread.”
