The Daytona 500 is in the books. The accident with Ryan Newman really put everything into perspective. Although we all love Fantasy NASCAR, this is only a game. It was really tough to focus on fantasy picks while knowing Newman was in the hospital. It is good to know that he is not facing life threatening injuries. I pray he gets well soon. We are all sad about what happened but the show must go on. The Pennzoil 400 can be seen Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on Fox. Newman will be in all of our hearts during the race.
NASCAR will have a normal schedule this week. There will be two practices Friday. The first practice is at 4 p.m. ET on FS1 and final practice is at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Qualifying will be Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
My early week pick for the pole is Kevin Harvick. The No. 4 car has won 4 poles last season and they all have occurred using the 550 HP aero package. Harvick has not qualified outside the top five at Las Vegas since 2017 (Four races in a row). Harvick won the pole for this race last year and I think he will do it again Saturday.
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 1.5-mile tracks in 2019, Driver Rankings from the two races at Las Vegas last year, Driver Rankings from the Steep Tracks in 2019, Fastest Green Flag Speed in the two races at Las Vegas (we want the fastest cars), Green Flag Pass % at the two races at Las Vegas last year (We want cars who can move through the field and Average Running Position in the two races at Las Vegas last year (we want drivers who run up front). This should give us a good idea of who should be fast Sunday.
Here are the early week driver rankings for Las Vegas…
|
Driver |
| 1. Joey Logano |
| 2. Kevin Harvick |
| 3. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 4. Kyle Busch |
| 5. Chase Elliott |
| 6. Brad Keselowski |
| 7. Kyle Larson |
| 8. Denny Hamlin |
| 9. Ryan Blaney |
| 10. Aric Almirola |
| 11. William Byron |
| 12. Kurt Busch |
| 13. Alex Bowman |
| 14. Erik Jones |
| 15. Clint Bowyer |
| 16. Jimmie Johnson |
| 17. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 18. Austin Dillon |
| 19. Cole Custer |
| 20. Christopher Bell |
| 21. Matt DiBenedetto |
| 22. Chris Buescher |
| 23. Tyler Reddick |
| 24. No. 6 Car |
| 25. Ty Dillon |
| 26. John H. Nemechek |
| 27. Darrell Wallace Jr. |
| 28. Ryan Preece |
| 29. Michael McDowell |
| 30. Corey LaJoie |
| 31. Daniel Suarez |
| 32. Ross Chastain |
| 33. Justin Haley |
| 34. Brennan Poole |
| 35. Quin Houff |
| 36. Joey Gase |
| 37. B.J. McLeod |
| 38. Timmy Hill |
I will post my final driver rankings Saturday night.
**Stats from Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet Pro
*** Photos from NASCAR Media
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