The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to points racing this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Fantasy NASCAR players will have a lot of information to use for the 600-mile marathon Sunday. The series just competed on a similar track at Kansas, they held the All-Star race at Charlotte last week and they have three hours to dial in their cars. It should not be difficult to figure out who has the fast cars this week. The Coca-Cola 600 can be seen Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on Fox.
The MENCS will have a unique schedule this week. The first practice is Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET (No TV). Qualifying is Thursday evening at 7 p.m. ET (FS1). There will be two practices Saturday. The first is at 7:30 a.m. ET (FS1) and final practice is at 11 a.m. ET (FS1).
NASCAR will have a pre-race inspection Sunday. Any car that fails will start in the back in the Coca-Cola 600. These cars will be scored from their qualifying position since this is a pre-race inspection and not a post-qualifying inspection.
My early week pick for the pole is Kevin Harvick. The No. 4 car has won a series-high 3 poles this year and 2 of them came on the 1.5-mile tracks (Las Vegas and Kansas). Harvick had the fastest car in the All Star race and I expect the No. 4 team to unload with a lot of speed this week. He won the pole in 2 of the last 4 races at Charlotte and I think he will do it again Thursday.
Each week I use different stats in my model to create the best rankings possible to give you an edge on the completion. This week I used driver rankings from four 1.5-mile track races this season average finishing position on the 1.5-mile tracks, average running position at the 1.5-mile tracks this season and results from the All-Star race.
Here are the early week driver rankings for Charlotte…
|
Driver |
| 1. Kevin Harvick |
| 2. Chase Elliott |
| 3. Kyle Busch |
| 4. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 5. Joey Logano |
| 6. Brad Keselowski |
| 7. Kyle Larson |
| 8. Clint Bowyer |
| 9. Erik Jones |
| 10. Alex Bowman |
| 11. Kurt Busch |
| 12. Aric Almirola |
| 13. Denny Hamlin |
| 14. William Byron |
| 15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 16. Austin Dillon |
| 17. Jimmie Johnson |
| 18. Daniel Suarez |
| 19. Ryan Blaney |
| 20. Chris Buescher |
| 21. Paul Menard |
| 22. Daniel Hemric |
| 23. Ryan Newman |
| 24. Ty Dillon |
| 25. Ryan Preece |
| 26. David Ragan |
| 27. Matt Dibenedetto |
| 28 Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 29. Michael McDowell |
| 30. Corey Lajoie |
| 31. Matt Tifft |
| 32. Ross Chastian |
| 33. Landon Cassill |
| 34. Quinn Houff |
| 35. Reed Sorenson |
| 36. Bayley Currey |
| 37. B.J. McLeod |
| 38. Joey Gase |
* I will post my final driver rankings Saturday night.
**Stats from Driveraverages.com and NASCAR Media. Career stats from Racing-Reference.Info…
*** Photos from NASCAR Media
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