Let’s talk a little NASCAR Fantasy Live, shall we? The main rules of the game involve picking five drivers while staying within a $100 salary cap. You also get two bonus picks of a winning driver and a winning manufacturer for 30 and 10 points, respectively. How do you collect points? Well, you get .5 points for a lap led, .5 points for the fastest driver each lap, and other points are awarded for finishing position based on the NASCAR points system and, finally, place differential.
We ended up doing a great job last week and we want to keep that momentum rolling this week. We are back to some kind of normalcy at the track and should be able to let our analysis shine this week. We didn’t have any crazy qualifying drama and everything seemed pretty standard for the first race week this year . The desert is missing two big bullets with the Busch brothers side lined at their home track and that makes picking fantasy drivers a little bit easier.
It looked like status quo in the first practice with the Hendrick affiliated cars and the Penske cars running fast. With 267 laps this week we are going to focus on the fastest cars trying to score lap led points. After watching the first practice and qualifying it seemed pretty obvious who has a fast car this week.
No.22 Joey Logano $28.00
Logano has been fast everywhere this year and Las Vegas is no exception. The Penske Racing duo of Logano and Brad Keselowski ran well here last year with Keselowski wining and Logano finishing fourth. I wouldn’t be surprised if he improved on that finishing position and led quite a few laps this year. Logano is already in the Chase based on his Daytona 500 win and will be rolling the dice in Vegas this week hoping it comes up double deuces.
No. 4 Kevin Harvick $28.00
After Jeff Gordon’s practice crash Kevin jumped onto my team. His car looked really good over the last long run they ran in happy hour. He is starting 18th so those place differential points will be a nice bonus. As a side note or a substitution I also liked the way Dale Jr. looked in the final practice today.
No. 48 Jimmie Johnson $27.50
With his performance last week, it’s hard to overlook the No. 48 this week. Johnson has traditionally been good at this track and was even able to string three wins in a row together in Vegas a few years ago. Last year wasn’t his year at several tracks, but 2015 has already brought new life to the 48 group. Expect to see Johnson up and challenging for the win.
No 18 David Ragan $9.00
Just like last week, Ragan is starting a little too far up on the grid for my taste. That being said, we purchased him for nine bucks last week and he is already up a dollar and a half. With Ragan in this car for the next few races, this investment will be paying dividends for those who picked him up early.
No. 41 Regan Smith $7.50
Smith starts 34th this week and that is perfect for us. Expect him to move up throughout the race and I wouldn’t be surprised by a finishing position in the low teens. Combine his great starting spot with our bargain basement locking in price and Smith will be a winner for weeks to come.
Race Winner: Jimmie Johnson
After last weeks’ performance and his speed in practice, its hard to not pick him as the race winner this week.
Manufacturer: Chevrolet
It’s pretty hard to root against the bowtie bunch after last weeks performance.