Well, thanks to more rain, the Sprint Cup Series only got one practice session in on Thursday as well as qualifying. Both of the practices that were scheduled to run on Friday were washed out, and there’s a chance that Saturday night’s Bank of America could get postponed until Sunday as well. Therefore, our final rankings for Yahoo! Auto Racing didn’t change much from our Pre-Lockdown rankings (you can read those here) simply because there’s not enough practice data to change our mind on stuff.
The A Group curse struck again at Dover last weekend, as Kevin Harvick exited early with a mechanical failure and then Jamie McMurray blew up later in the race. It’s almost laughable how often this has happened to our team this season. We ended up with just 180 points in that race and now sit in the 70th percentile overall.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte 2
We said it last week and it backfired on us, but Kevin Harvick is the no-brainer pick on our team. He won the pole for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 and has a chance to lead the most laps and end up in victory lane for the fourth time here at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Our other A Group driver this week is Brad Keselowski, and while we still think he has top 5 potential, he starts back in 20th and you never know what could happen as far as early wrecks or damage sustained from coming through the field. We’re going Harvick and there’s really no debate.
One guy that jumped up in our rankings after qualifying was Kyle Busch, who will start 4th on Saturday night. This #18 team had two top 5 finishes in the Round of 16 races and that’s when they were just focusing on points racing. Rowdy has never won here at Charlotte but he has ten top 5s in twenty-five career starts (40%) and should be in the running for another one this weekend. His teammate, Denny Hamlin, has some playability value here as well, as he has posted five top 5s in the last nine Charlotte events. He starts 9th and is a nice off-sequence play this weekend.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kevin Harvick, (2) Kyle Busch, (3) Denny Hamlin, (4) Brad Keselowski, (5) Jimmie Johnson, (6) Joey Logano, (7) Matt Kenseth, (8) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Charlotte 2
It is impossible not to start Martin Truex, Jr. this weekend. He brought back the same car that dominated the Coca-Cola 600 here at Charlotte back in May, and it is also the same one that he won with at Chicagoland in the Round of 16. Truex qualified 7th for this year’s Bank of America 500 but should be running 1st or 2nd within the first 60 laps whenever this race goes green. We’re down to 3 starts left with the #78 Toyota and we’re burning one this weekend.
The next choice for our team comes down to Carl Edwards or Kasey Kahne. We’re eliminating Austin Dillon from contention simply because he starts back in 19th and probably won’t be able to crack the top 10 on Saturday night. This #3 team has been strong on the 1.5-mile race tracks overall this season, but in the last couple they have taken a step back. We like Dillon for a finish between 12th and 15th this weekend but that’s not going to cut it as far as making our Yahoo! roster.
Focusing on Edwards and Kahne, the former qualified 8th while the latter will start from 12th, so there’s not a huge difference there. However, from a speed perspective, the edge has to go to the #5 Chevrolet. Kahne had the best ten-lap average in the lone practice session of the weekend, and while Edwards’ #19 Toyota isn’t slow by any means, we have him just barely inside the top 10. That seems to be how that team is running right now and we’d rather save our 3 starts for when Edwards is a weekly top 5 threat again–something he hasn’t accomplished since the Kentucky race back in July. So we’re starting Kasey Kahne alongside Martin Truex, Jr. on Saturday night.
As we stated in our early week Yahoo! article, it’s probably not going to be a good idea to go against the “top” B Group drivers this week. Charlotte just isn’t the place to do that. Kyle Larson had pretty good speed in practice on Thursday but he ended up qualifying 25th. It’s a long race this weekend, but as we said before, anything can happen when you start back in the field. Tony Stewart and A.J. Allmendinger qualified 5th and 6th (respectively) and have some playability value if you have them and you’re desperate. We’d say the ceiling for those two is around 15th. Allmendinger was actually one of our “deep sleepers” this weekend, as he has finished 16th or better in three of the last four Charlotte races. Another sleeper is Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who has ran very well on the 1.5-mile race tracks this season and here at Charlotte (15th and 13th in the last two races). He will roll off the grid from 15th.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) Kasey Kahne, (4) Kyle Larson, (5) Austin Dillon, (6) Jamie McMurray, (7) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (8) A.J. Allmendinger, (9) Tony Stewart, (10) Ryan Newman, (11) Danica Patrick, (12) Trevor Bayne, (13) Greg Biffle, (14) Clint Bowyer, (15) Aric Almirola, (16) Paul Menard, (17) Casey Mears
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Charlotte 2
We’re down to 2 starts left with Chase Elliott but we have to use one of them this weekend. He qualified 3rd for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500 and has had quite a bit of speed during the Chase thus far. We’ve seen first-time winners break through at Charlotte before, will Chase finally be able to get to victory lane? We’ll find out soon enough. If you have Alex Bowman, we’d recommend starting him. He qualified 2nd this weekend and showed at Chicagoland that he can actually finish a race inside the top 10. It wouldn’t surprise us if Bowman had another top 10 here at Charlotte, but we’re thinking a top 15 is much more likely. Ryan Blaney also has top 15 potential, and in our eyes, those three C Group drivers are the only real viable options this weekend.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Chase Elliott, (2) Jeff Gordon, (3) Ryan Blaney, (4) Chris Buescher, (5) David Ragan, (6) Ty Dillon, (7) Landon Cassill, (8) Brian Scott, the rest
