Thanks to an early lockdown this week, we really didn’t have the chance to change our Yahoo! picks for this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but we’re not too upset about that. We’re still going into this race with the mentality that the most stable teams are definitely going to be the ones to beat on Sunday night. It may not seem like a whole lot, but 100 extra miles is 100 extra miles. The two major things to remember this weekend are: 1.) This is a long race, and we’re going from late afternoon into night. The track is going to change a lot. And 2.) the practices held on Saturday were both in the middle afternoon, so we aren’t relying on those speeds as heavily as some other weeks.
In the last race, our Yahoo! team finally had a good week with 322 points at Dover. The bad news? We had race winner Matt Kenseth on our bench. The good news? We got a 2nd-place finish out of Kyle Larson and a nice 17th-place finish from David Ragan. We’re now in the 42nd percentile and going for another big points week at Charlotte on Sunday with the “heavy hitters.”
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte
The two choices we have in the A Group are Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth, and it’s pretty much a no-brainer choice for us: we’re starting Kurt Busch. Not only does he start higher up (13th compared to 27th) but the #41 Chevrolet was faster than the #20 Toyota (by a pretty wide margin) in both practice sessions on Saturday. Also, Kurt Busch has been a top 10 machine all season long and we see no reason why that would change this weekend. In an ideal world, we would start Jimmie Johnson, but we left him off this week. He’s got the best car in the A Group by far. Harvick is always a top 5 threat but we’re not sure we would use him this week even if we had him. He’s good but not great. Joey Logano is on the front row for this year’s Coca-Cola 600 and is a nice play as well, and if you have Brad Keselowski he should be solid on Sunday night, too. We wouldn’t waste a Kyle Busch start this weekend.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Jimmie Johnson, (2) Kevin Harvick, (3) Joey Logano, (4) Kurt Busch, (5) Kyle Busch, (6) Brad Keselowski, (7) Denny Hamlin, (8) Matt Kenseth, (9) Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Charlotte
Yeah, we’re already down to 6 starts left with Martin Truex, Jr., but we’re going to have to start him this weekend. The #78 Toyota is definitely the car to beat heading into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, and we’re not going to pass up the chance at all those points for a win and the most laps led. Truex arguably had the best car here at Charlotte last season, and he might be even better this time around now that he has switched to Toyota. He had the best speed in both practice sessions on Saturday–which is significant because the track conditions were very different between the two–and has been fast off the truck. We have start saved for many races this season but we just can’t do it with this weekend’s Coke 600. Truex is a lock.
Our second B Group pick is where things become a little interesting. We have Carl Edwards on our roster, but honestly we don’t see the #19 Toyota as a legitimate threat to win on Sunday night. Yeah, he’s going to have a solid top 10 car and will probably end up inside the top 5, but not race-winning material. Our other choices are Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, who have both had up-and-down weekends.
Between the #42 and #3 Chevrolets, the obvious pick is Larson. Not only did he race very well during the All-Star Weekend one year ago, but he has just had a bunch of speed over the last three or four weeks overall. If he can keep his car off the wall on Sunday night, there’s definite potential there for a good finish. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon typically isn’t that great of a Fantasy NASCAR pick unless he starts 15th or better, and he’s going to roll off the grid from 28th for Sunday’s race. Not ideal.
If we were going for max points, we would pair Carl Edwards with Truex this weekend. However, we still have the strategy aspect to consider with this Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game. So we’re going to go with Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Larson as our B Group drivers for this year’s Coca-Cola 600. If you have Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. on your team this weekend, there hasn’t been a better time to use him. He starts 3rd and looks to have the speed for another solid top 15 finish. The other Roush-Fenway drivers–Greg Biffle and Trevor Bayne–are also some good start-saving sleeper options this weekend, and Paul Menard could surprise some people as well.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Kyle Larson, (4) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (5) Austin Dillon, (6) Ryan Newman, (7) Greg Biffle, (8) Paul Menard, (9) Trevor Bayne, (10) Jamie McMurray, (11) A.J. Allmendinger, (12) Tony Stewart, (13) Kasey Kahne, (14) Aric Almirola, (15) Casey Mears, (16) Danica Patrick, (17) Clint Bowyer
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte
Chase Elliott is the best pick in the C Group this weekend. Heading into Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, he has a legitimate shot at a top 5 finish. Ryan Blaney is looking at a high teens finish with a possible top 10 if luck is on the #21 team’s side–which it has been as of late. However, we still have to look at this Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game from a strategic perspective, and we’re already down to 6 starts remaining with Chase Elliott. We have 8 left with Ryan Blaney. So, because of that, we’re going to roll with the #21 Ford and Ryan Blaney on our Yahoo! team this weekend. If you have 7 or more Chase Elliott starts remaining, we’d recommend going with him, though.
As far as start saving options, we really wouldn’t recommend starting anyone else this weekend. This is a 600-mile race that is going to take a toll not only on the drivers but also the race cars. Sorry but we don’t want to rely on some underfunded team in a race like this. Brian Scott is typically the one other C Group driver that we might look at, but he starts way back in 30th so there goes that. Chris Buescher qualified 22nd for Sunday’s Coke 600 but that seems to be about the only thing he can do well this year: qualify.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Ryan Blaney, (3) Brian Scott, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) Regan Smith, (6) David Ragan, (7) Landon Cassill, (8) Michael McDowell, (9) Matt DiBenedetto, the rest
