The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Indianapolis this weekend to race on the road course. This will be the third season the Cup Series has competed on the road course at the Brickyard. Will this be the final road course race on the track? The Gen-7 car has run well on the intermediate tracks, so NASCAR is thinking about giving the Cup Series another chance on the traditional track at the Brickyard. We will find out in a few weeks what NASCAR decides to do with this track. The Verizon 200 can be seen Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
There are only three races left in the Fantasy Live season and so far the picks are performing well. That should not surprise anyone. Fantasy Live has been my best game. The picks have outscored 99% of the entries in every season since 2011. The picks are currently outscoring 99.8% of the entries on the nascar.com site. I will do my best to finish at the top of the standings, but we are going to need some luck at Daytona.
Here are the Fantasy Live Points so far this year….
STRATEGY FOR INDIANAPOLIS
I used my allocations with the top drivers in the Fantasy Live game. I still have many starts left with the drivers who are very good on the road courses though. These drivers includes Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, Shane van Gisbergen , Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney. You should be in good shape if you simply stick to this list of drivers Sunday.
CUP SERIES PRACTICE SPEEDS
The Cup Series had a 20-minute practice session to shake down their cars for Sunday’s race. Indianapolis is a large road course, so the drivers did not have much time to make many long runs. Traffic also comes into play during practice on the road courses too. That makes it tougher to gage which drivers actually had the best cars. We can get a better understanding of the speeds each car has by looking at which cars were fastest in practice and showed up with the same speed in qualifying. The drivers who are at the top of both speed charts are the drivers you will want in your lineup Sunday.
Here are the practice speeds for the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard….
FANTASY LIVE LINEUP FOR INDIANAPOLIS
TYLER REDDICK (3): Reddick smoked the field in this race last year. He led 38 laps and went to Victory Lane. He also won at COTA earlier this season. The No. 45 car posted the fifth-fastest speed in his group in practice and qualified second for the race. Reddick should have a great chance to kiss the bricks Sunday.
CHASE ELLIOTT (4): I have plenty of allocations left with Elliott and I plan to use one of them Sunday. Elliott has not been as good in the Gen-7 car on the road courses as he was in the previous car, but he is still one of the drivers to beat. Elliott has finished six of his last nine road courses races in the top-eight. The No. 9 team needs a win. Crew Chief Alan Gustafson will call an aggressive race to give Elliott the best chance to kiss the bricks Sunday.
CHRISTOPHER BELL (5): Bell is no stranger to Victory Lane on the road courses. He won at the Daytona Road Course and the Charlotte Roval. Bell also had one of the best cars at the Brickyard last year. Bell qualified fourth, led 17 laps (second-most in the race), won Stage 2, but a flat tire caused him to finish 12th. I have plenty of allocations left with Bell, so I will use one of them Sunday.
DANIEL SUAREZ (7): I wasn’t planning on using Suarez for this race, but the No. 99 car was the fastest in the field Saturday. Suarez has a lot of talent on the road courses. He won at Sonoma last year. Suarez worked with his teammate (Shane Van Gisbergen) in the simulator this week and it worked. Suarez starts from the pole, so he has the track position (and pit stall) to score a lot of points Sunday.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL (8): McDowell is having a career season and I would love to see him make the playoffs. The No. 34 team has gambled more this season than any other team in the Cup Series. I expect the same Sunday. McDowell will likely use an aggressive strategy to win the race Sunday. McDowell finished eighth at Indianapolis last year. He will have a good chance to be one of the highest-scoring drivers in the Fantasy Live game Sunday.
(GARAGE PICK) SHANE VANGISBERGER (10): SVG won the street course race at Chicago. Can he do it again at the Brickyard? The tracks are completely different, but SVG has the talent to finish in the top-10, with the upside to win the race Sunday. SVG posted the 12th-fastest speed in practice and qualified eighth for the race. He is the most talented road course driver in the field Sunday. I will have SVG as an insurance policy in the Garage Sunday.
* I have allocations left with Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, but I will save them for Watkins Glen. They are better at Watkins Glen than they are at the Brickyard.
* Other drivers I like include Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Chris Buescher (In that order). Use one of these drivers if you are out of the allocations of the drivers I have in my lineup.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on Twitter @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.