This weekend’s schedule for the Duck Commander 500 was good for players in the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game because we got to see a practice session before locking in our rosters on Thursday night/Friday morning. However, although practice speeds are definitely important, we believe it’s best to take track history into consideration a bit more this weekend. Let us explain: with only two, long practice sessions, we get very limited data–especially since our access to lap-by-lap speeds is non-existant. The only speed data we have is what each driver’s fastest lap of the session was, and their average over a ten-lap run…if they made one. No driver ran ten consecutive laps in that first practice on Saturday.
The final rankings that we have below for each driver grouping in the Yahoo! Auto Racing game are below, right after our picks. Please note than some weeks it is better to “start save” with some drivers, so that may be why we use a driver ranked lower than one who is (in reality) a better pick. If you have questions on that, feel free to email us. And don’t forget to check out ifantasyrace.com for practice speeds/notes and other great fantasy content.
Yahoo! A Group Picks and Final Rankings for Texas
As we mentioned in our previous Yahoo! post, we really only put Brad Keselowski on the roster this weekend to try and score some qualifying bonus points. However, we picked the wrong Penske car because it was Joey Logano that will start 2nd on Saturday night. Our other option alongside Brad Keselowski is the Texas King himself, Jimmie Johnson. He starts 11th (compared to Kez’s 8th), and ranked 8th in ten-lap average while the Blue Deuce was 3rd on that chart. However, the smart move here is starting Jimmie Johnson. Seriously, he’s a six-time winner at this track and has won five of the last seven races here. Not to mention the #48 team went to victory lane at Atlanta earlier this year. The fact that the Penske Fords seem to disappoint every other race weekend and it’s a done deal: we’re starting Jimmie Johnson.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Jimmie Johnson, (2) Kevin Harvick, (3) Kyle Busch, (4) Brad Keselowski, (5) Joey Logano, (6) Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (7) Matt Kenseth, (8) Denny Hamlin, (9) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Texas
This week in the B Group we have a few fast race cars and plenty of sleeper options that could surprise here on Saturday night. We really wish we would have stuck with our original roster (don’t you always?) because Carl Edwards looks like he can win this year’s Duck Commander 500 while Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. could easily pull off another surprise top 10 finish like he did at Atlanta earlier this year. Alas, we dumped both of those guys and now we have to choose between Martin Truex, Jr., Austin Dillon, Kasey Kahne, and Greg Biffle for our B Group starters on Saturday night.
One obvious option here is Austin Dillon. He starts 10th for the Duck Commander 500 and had the best ten-lap average during that final practice session on Friday. He also finished 11th here at Texas last November, and this #3 team has been on an absolute roll. However, we only have six starts left with Austin Dillon, and while we do think he is going to fizzle out here soon, there’s a lot of intermediate track races left and it’d be nice to have him available later on.
We’d also like to save Martin Truex, Jr., but that #78 car might have the most speed this weekend. Truex was 5th in ten-lap average during that final practice and he also posted the best lap (by a three-tenth margin!) over Carl Edwards. Not to mention he was probably the 2nd-best car at Atlanta earlier this year. Kasey Kahne is unpredictable but he wound up 2nd in ten-lap average during Happy Hour. He did finish 8th in this race one year ago, though. And Greg Biffle has been solid here at Texas, with thirteen top 10s in twenty-four career starts. The #16 Ford also ranked 11th in ten-lap average in that final practice.
This is a tough one because we really don’t know how the changes in the racing surface on Saturday are going to affect these teams. Even though he has speed, the fact that Kasey Kahne has finished 22nd or worse in four of the last five Sprint Cup races is concerning, so we’re going to bite the bullet here and go with Martin Truex, Jr. and Greg Biffle while saving an Austin Dillon start. Don’t make us regret this, Truex…
Edit: We’re going with Kasey Kahne and Greg Biffle tonight.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Carl Edwards (2) Martin Truex, Jr. (3) Austin Dillon (4) Kasey Kahne, (5) Greg Biffle, (6) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (7) Ryan Newman, (8) Jamie McMurray, (9) Paul Menard, (10) Kyle Larson, (11) Danica Patrick, (12) Trevor Bayne, (13) Aric Almirola, (14) Casey Mears, (15) A.J. Allmendinger, (16) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Picks and Final Rankings for Texas
We decided to go with Brian Vickers and Ty Dillon as our two C Group drivers this weekend, but that’s just because we’re saving our Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney starts. It’s frustrating not using those rookies right now, but strategically it is the right move. While we do think Chase Elliott is going to have a great race here on Saturday night, that’s not our focus: we have to decide between Vickers and Ty Dillon. We thought the latter would qualify around 20th after the speed he showed in first practice, but Ty will be rolling off the grid in 30th on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Vickers will start 13th and he clearly has the superior car. Vickers hasn’t finished worse than 16th in his last three starts at Texas (although his most recent was in 2014), and he also has two top 10 results in that span–his only finishes inside that mark in his seventeen career starts here. Vickers ran 13th at Fontana and followed that up with a solid 7th-place finish at Martinsville last week. You never know when he’s going to hit the wall, but the choice is clear: we’re starting Brian Vickers.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Brian Vickers, (4) Ty Dillon, (5) Brian Scott, (6) Regan Smith, (7) Chris Buescher, (8) Matt DiBenedetto, the rest
