This weekend’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500 is the second stop that the Sprint Cup Series has made at Martinsville Speedway this season, and it was Kyle Busch that dominated here back in April. Will we see a similar result this time around? A lot can change in the racing world over the course of six months, and this race means a little more this time around considering we’re now in the Round of 8 in the Chase. Martin Truex, Jr.–who was eliminated from championship contention last weekend–is on the pole for Sunday’s race with last week’s winner, Joey Logano, starting 2nd.
Our A Group woes continued last weekend at Talladega as we started Jimmie Johnson instead of Denny Hamlin. We still wound up with 285 points, though, thanks in part to Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.’s top 5 finish. Our official Fantasy Racing Online Yahoo! team is now in the 80th percentile overall.
Yahoo! A Group Pick and Final Rankings for Martinsville 2
Coming into this race weekend, Kyle Busch was our #1 ranked driver with his teammate, Denny Hamlin, ranked #2. And after qualifying and practice, those rankings have not changed. Kyle Busch is the most recent race winner here at Martinsville and has been a stud in every playoff race this year. He qualified 9th for this weekend’s race and was one of the best drivers in both practice sessions on Saturday (at least on the ten-lap average charts). Hamlin is an automatic default pick here at Martinsville, simply because he is so good here. He didn’t quite have the speed of his teammate on Saturday but that #11 Toyota should be good when we go green on Sunday. Both should challenge for the win this weekend, and we think it will be Kyle Busch in victory lane once again, so he’s going to be our A Group driver at Martinsville 2.
Jimmie Johnson is another solid A Group pick this weekend, considering he has eight wins at Martinsville and qualified inside the top 5 this weekend. He’s a legitimate threat to lead the most laps on Sunday, too. Chances are this race is going to come down to him or the two Gibbs cars mentioned above. Speaking of Gibbs, Matt Kenseth had an unusual mediocre qualifying effort this weekend (17th). He’s still one of the best racers here at Martinsville, though, so we are still expecting at least a top 10 out of him on Sunday. Kevin Harvick is another driver that qualified poorly (20th) but he too has a car capable of getting to the front. Will he be able to finish, though? Harvick hasn’t had a top 5 here in five years. His teammate, Kurt Busch, also disappoints quite often here at Martinsville, but his car has speed this weekend. If nothing goes wrong–and that’s a big if–expect a top 10 finish from the elder Busch brother.
Final A Group Rankings: (1) Kyle Busch, (2) Denny Hamlin, (3) Jimmie Johnson, (4) Joey Logano, (5) Kevin Harvick, (6) Matt Kenseth, (7) Brad Keselowski, (8) Kurt Busch
Yahoo! B Group Picks and Final Rankings for Martinsville 2
Austin Dillon hit the wall in qualifying and will start back in 32nd because of it. While we love him in other Fantasy NASCAR leagues that award points based on place differential, that isn’t the case in Yahoo!, so he’s an easy elimination from our four B Group drivers at Martinsville 2. Now that leaves us to decide between A.J. Allmendinger, who starts 4th, Carl Edwards (7th), and Ryan Newman (13th).
A.J. Allmendinger is a legitimate racer here at Martinsville Speedway and on Sunday will be looking for his fifth finish of 11th or better in the last six races here. He has a race car that can accomplish that, so now it’s just up to the race not having any surprises along the way. Allmendinger will be sprinkled on our all of our Fantasy NASCAR rosters this weekend, and that includes Yahoo!. He will be one of our two B Group starters on Sunday.
Between Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman, the better overall pick is Edwards. However, we only have two starts remaining with him, so now it comes down to whether a top 10 finish here at Martinsville is worth it, when he could possibly challenge for the win at Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. In our opinion, the answer is no, so the smarter move is to go with Ryan Newman as our second B Group driver this weekend. Newman also has top 10 potential this weekend, as was 8th in ten-lap average during the Happy Hour practice session, and he’s ended up inside that mark in three of the last four Martinsville races.
As far as the other B Group drivers, Martin Truex, Jr. is on the pole, and while we don’t seeing him dominating and winning the race on Sunday, he has surprised us by doing that before. Like Edwards, though, we don’t think it’s worth starting Truex at Martinsville when we have Texas and Homestead coming up. Even if we did have him this weekend, he would be on our bench. Tony Stewart has a whole bunch of speed this weekend and he qualified 6th for this year’s Goody’s Fast Relief 500. He’s a three-time winner at Martinsville and has finished 10th and 4th in the last two fall races here at “The Paperclip.” Another driver with a whole bunch of speed this weekend is Kyle Larson, who had the fastest lap and the best ten-lap average in Happy Hour on Saturday. He starts 11th this weekend and don’t forget that Larson finished 3rd here back in April. It’s worth noting that that is his only finish better than 19th in five career starts here, though, so there’s definitely some risk in starting him. He’s the ultimate boom or bust fantasy pick this weekend.
Final B Group Rankings: (1) Martin Truex, Jr., (2) Carl Edwards, (3) A.J. Allmendinger, (4) Tony Stewart, (5) Kyle Larson, (6) Ryan Newman, (7) Jamie McMurray, (8) Kasey Kahne, (9) Paul Menard, (10) Austin Dillon, (11) Danica Patrick, (12) Greg Biffle, (13) Aric Almirola, (14) Trevor Bayne, (15) Clint Bowyer, (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., (17) Casey Mears
Yahoo! C Group Pick and Final Rankings for Martinsville 2
Jeff Gordon has a very fast race car this weekend and is the king of Martinsville. What’s not to like? He’s the obvious choice to start in the C Group this weekend, and will probably be the starter for most teams on Sunday. Now, if the #88 team would somehow run into trouble–which we don’t see happening–this would be the perfect opportunity to fade Gordon and try to make up some points on the competition, but rationally, we can’t keep him on the bench. The thing we’re kicking ourselves over is we have four starts left between Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney and chances are we’re going to leave one of those on the table. As far as those two rookies go, Elliott had a solid qualifying effort on Friday (5th) but we’re still not convinced that he has the speed for 500 laps around Martinsville. We have him inside the top 20, but barely. The same goes for Blaney, who qualified 15th. One surprise in the C Group this weekend is David Ragan, who made it to the final round of qualifying on Friday and showed a bunch of speed during the two practice sessions on Saturday, too. He’s a great play in other Fantasy NASCAR leagues, but Yahoo!? Not so much.
Final C Group Rankings: (1) Jeff Gordon, (2) Chase Elliott, (3) Ryan Blaney, (4) David Ragan, (5) Chris Buescher, (6) Regan Smith, (7) Michael McDowell, (8) Landon Cassill, the rest
