Welcome back everyone to this week’s edition of the Frontstretch Fantasy Insider. This week NASCAR returns to the heart of the American automotive industry for the Carfax 400 from Michigan International Speedway. Michigan has so many times come down to fuel mileage and no one does that better than the Roush Fenway Racing teams. The battles, however, are won by the Indians and not the chiefs. So let’s delve into the numbers to see which support drivers are gonna give you those big points totals yet still be cheap enough to put on your team.
Studs
When it comes to fuel-mileage racing, RFR has one of the best track records out there and these guys seem to be getting their act together. So this week you want to make sure you’ve got Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards on your rosters. Edwards has run here 12 times, finishing in the top 10 all but once. His worst effort was a 22nd and he has compiled seven top fives and a pair of wins to go along with an average finish of seventh.
Biffle has two things going for him. He has run well here historically and has run well everywhere lately. Two career victories at Michigan to go along with six top fives and nine top 10s prove he’s been good here, and two top fives with a win in the last three events shows he’s running well now. He also ran 10th at California which is usually a good indicator of Michigan success. Definitely grab these two for Sunday (Aug. 15).
Who Will Carry You
Once again, this week you’ll spend a lot of points getting the big names on your team and are going to need some cheaper middle of the road drivers to fill out that last spot or two. So when setting your line-ups this week take a good look at the Earnhardt-Ganassi duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray along with RPM’s AJ Allmendinger. I strongly believe the ‘Dinger is gonna win a race this year.
He has made such huge strides since leaving Red Bull Racing and now has a new contract in hand allowing him to concentrate even more without worrying about next year. He’s having a career year, had a career-best 11th-place run last time at Michigan and since I was at the Glen I don’t know how much TV time he got, but his fourth-place run was unchallenged by anyone behind him and eye opening. I say a top 12-15 this weekend.
For McMurray, the Chase begins this weekend. He has parlayed the huge Brickyard win into a springboard that has launched top-six finishes in three of the last four races moving him from 19th to 15th in points. He has four top 10s at Michigan and a fifth will put him right there with the last few drivers battling for a spot in the Chase.
It’s been a season of maybes for Montoya in 2010. Maybe he wins the Brickyard with a different strategy on tires late. Maybe he, and McMurray for that matter, are both in serious Chase contention if they don’t run into each other at Vegas.
I know Montoya is mathematically alive, but he isn’t going to make it to the Chase. But winning erases a lot of things and maybe not only winning at the Glen but the way he did it will give this team the momentum it needs to finally win an oval race before 2010 comes to a close. Last time out Montoya qualified 10th and finished 13th at Michigan so maybe he’s worth taking a shot with this weekend.
Who Will Bury You
This weekend you’ll want to steer clear of Ryan Newman. Newman has just a pair of top 10s since 2003 and in those 15 races he’s been worse than 20th seven times and four of those were finishes worse than 30th. One of those was a 32nd last time here and a 36th at California also isn’t very supportive of grabbing him this weekend.
Well, normally three drivers in the top 10 and a winner would make for a good week, but not last week as my team only ranked 31st in the weekly standings. But many people believe that success is just going from one failure to another without any loss of enthusiasm.
So it is with great excitement that as soon as I finish this I am gonna go set my lineups for this weekend’s race and hope to get some better results than I got last week. I suggest y’all go do the same as the standings for the Frontstretch’s Game of Tomorrow have been updated and its ready to go for Michigan. Hope everyone has a great weekend and we’ll see ya back here next Thursday.
The Frontstretch Staff is made up of a group of talented men and women spread out all over the United States and Canada. Residing in 15 states throughout the country, plus Ontario, and widely ranging in age, the staff showcases a wide variety of diverse opinions that will keep you coming back for more week in and week out.