The wait is over. It is Speedweeks at Daytona and the NASCAR Cup Series is about to kick off their 62nd season with the Great American Race. The 2020 season should provide a lot of exciting racing. The strongest rookie class in years enters the Cup Series, there are many crew chief changes that should be interesting to watch and each manufacturer should have their cars figured out this year. I cannot wait to get the Fantasy NASCAR season started. The Daytona 500 can be seen Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on Fox.
NASCAR will have a unique schedule this week. The field will be set for the Daytona 500 with the running of the Bluegreen Vacations Duel Races. The first Duel Race starts at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 and the second Duel Race starts at 8:45 p.m. ET on FS1. There is a practice Friday at 5 p.m. ET on FS1. Final practice is Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The Garage Talk Notes will be posted after final practice.
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 Ratings at the Superspeedways in 2019 (We need to focus on the current aero package), Laps Completions % at Daytona (We want drivers who do not crash), Driver Rating last 8 races on Superspeedways, Average Finishing Position the Superspeedways in 2019, Average Finishing Position in last 8 races on Superspeedways and Lap Completion % on Superspeedways.
Here are the early week driver rankings for Daytona…
|
Drivers |
| 1. Denny Hamlin |
| 2. Joey Logano |
| 3. Kyle Busch |
| 4. Ryan Blaney |
| 5. Ryan Newman |
| 6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 7. Austin Dillon |
| 8. Michael McDowell |
| 9. Chase Elliott |
| 10. Alex Bowman |
| 11. Erik Jones |
| 12. Aric Almirola |
| 13. Matt DiBenedetto |
| 14. Kurt Busch |
| 15. Kevin Harvick |
| 16. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 17. Brad Keselowski |
| 18. Clint Bowyer |
| 19. Jimmie Johnson |
| 20. Chris Buescher |
| 21. Ty Dillon |
| 22. Kyle Larson |
| 23. William Byron |
| 24. Ryan Preece |
| 25. Christopher Bell |
| 26. Cole Custer |
| 27. Tyler Reddick |
| 28. Corey LaJoie |
| 29. David Ragan |
| 30. Brendan Gaughan |
| 31. * Daniel Suarez |
| 32. Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 33. John H. Nemechek |
| 34. Justin Haley |
| 35. * J.J. Yeley |
| 36. Ross Chastain |
| 37. Joey Gase |
| 38. Quin Houff |
| 39. Brennan Poole |
| 40. * Reed Sorenson |
| 41. B.J. McLeod |
| 42. * Chad Finchum |
| 43. Timmy Hill |
* Driver must race his way into the Daytona 500
I will post my final driver rankings Saturday night.
**Stats from Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet Pro
*** Photos from NASCAR Media
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