We love the parity between all of the Fantasy NASCAR leagues out there, and that’s what makes it so much fun to spread the love around and participate in all of them. Typically at Martinsville, the best drivers start up front and finish up there as well. Drivers that miss in qualifying but have a great car can still make their way through the field, but it’s tougher. This is a short race track with tight racing and virtually no margin for error. So, while it’s better to go with the drivers starting up front in the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game, you want to pick the cars that will make their way through the field for games such as DraftKings, Fox Fantasy Auto, and NASCAR.com Fantasy Live. It’s all about knowing how the scoring works, and for Yahoo! you just have to pick the best cars you have. So here we go…
The final rankings that we have for each driver grouping in the Yahoo! Auto Racing game for Martinsville can be found below, right after our picks. We arrived at these taking into account the practice results from Saturday (more so Happy Hour, which was in the afternoon) along with how each driver qualified. Don’t forget to check out ifantasyrace.com for practice speeds/notes and other great fantasy content this weekend and every week.
Yahoo! A Group Final Rankings for Martinsville
Although we were pretty confident in going with Jimmie Johnson this weekend, we made a last minute switch with our Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team and decided to pair Denny Hamlin with Joey Logano for the STP 500. We were pretty sure we were going to start Logano anyway, and Hamlin provided a better opportunity for qualifying bonus points. Anyway, the #22 Ford took the pole on Friday and looks poised to potentially dominate another event at Martinsville Speedway. Hopefully Joey can finally put together a whole race and get that elusive first victory at “The Paperclip” here on Sunday. With a 1st-place starting spot, a decent possibility of leading the most laps, and that #1 pit stall, the choice here is a no-brainer: we’re starting Joey Logano.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Joey Logano, (2) Kyle Busch, (3) Jimmie Johnson, (4) Denny Hamlin, (5) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (6) Kevin Harvick, (7) Brad Keselowski, (8) Matt Kenseth, (9) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Final Rankings for Martinsville
In the B Group this week, we stayed with our gut feelings and loaded up on some out-of-the-box picks with A.J. Allmendinger and Aric Almirola to go along with two of the more popular options–Jamie McMurray and Martin Truex, Jr. In case you missed our earlier Yahoo! post this week, you can read it here.
First lets start with McMurray. This is a guy that is coming off of his first top 10 of the season a couple of weeks ago at Fontana and the guy who finished 2nd in last year’s fall race here at Martinsville. He also ended up 10th in the spring race here last season. That makes it four top 10s in the last six Martinsville races for Mr. McMurray, and he looks poised to have another solid run in Sunday’s STP 500 as well. Jamie will start 15th, which is a decent spot, and was 8th in ten-lap average during that final practice session on Saturday. Say no more, we’re locking him in. This #1 team tends to make the race car better as the day goes on on Sundays so it honestly wouldn’t surprise us at all if we got another top 10 out of McMurray this week.
Now comes the choice between Martin Truex, Jr. and A.J. Allmendinger, because Aric Almirola looks to be a top 20 choice at best on Sunday. Truex starts 16th while Allmendinger starts 6th, so advantage Dinger there. In terms of practice speed, Truex had the 3rd-best ten-lap average in Happy Hour, so advantage #78. However, A.J. was right there with the 6th-fastest ten-lap run, and that’s saying a lot with this mediocre equipment. Truex finished 6th in both Martinsville races last season while Allmendinger came home 43rd and 11th. Advantage Truex.
Based on pure strength and possible finish, Truex is the better choice between him and Allmendinger. However, we have to take into consideration the fact that we have to use our starts strategically in Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing. If we have the opportunity to get a potential high-teens finish out of a guy like A.J. Allmendinger, we should probably take it 9 out of 10 times. Our rule with Martin Truex, Jr. in B Group is that we’re going to save him for when he can potentially win a race unless there are no other options. We think Truex has the car to potentially run 6th or 7th on Sunday, but it’s going to take a lot for him to be a contender for the STP 500 grandfather clock. Our choices for this week: Jamie McMurray and A.J. Allmendinger.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Jamie McMurray, (3) Ryan Newman (4) Carl Edwards, (5) A.J. Allmendinger, (6) Paul Menard, (7) Kasey Kahne, (8) Aric Almirola, (9) Kyle Larson, (10) Austin Dillon, (11) Casey Mears, (12) Greg Biffle, (13)) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (14) Trevor Bayne, (15) Clint Bowyer, (16) Danica Patrick
Yahoo! C Group Final Rankings for Martinsville
This choice is pretty much a no-brainer as well, just like the A Group. Brian Vickers in the #14 Chevrolet has been super fast all weekend–1st in ten-lap average during Practice #2 and 4th on that chart in Happy Hour–and he qualified 3rd to top it all off. Martinsville is not a very kind race track for rookies, and although I think the potential is there for Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney to have some good runs on Sunday, the best choice in this group is Brian Vickers–both from a strategic standpoint and a potential finish standpoint. In his last four starts at this track, Brian has finished 27th, 16th, 11th, and 8th. If we can get another top 15 result out of him here on Sunday, we’ll be more than happy. Let’s just hope Vickers doesn’t end up in the wall (again). Our choice: Brian Vickers.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Brian Vickers, (2) Chase Elliott, (3) Ryan Blaney, (4) David Ragan, (5) Regan Smith, (6) Chris Buescher, (7) Brian Scott, (8) Matt DiBenedetto, the rest
Thanks for the great site and advice..Have a Big Mac on me!