The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Michigan International Speedway this weekend. This is race No. 23 on the Cup Series schedule and that means there are only four races left in the Fantasy Live regular season. Two of the races are on road courses (Indianapolis and Watkins Glen) and one is on a Superspeedway (Daytona). The race Sunday at Michigan is our best chances to post a high score in the Fantasy Live game.
What happened last week at Richmond? Many of the drivers who were slow in practice, ran up front in the race. The drivers who looked good in practice, had a hard time running in the top-10. The picks are still outscoring 99.7% of the entries on nascar.com. We need to good race Sunday in order to reach my goal of outscoring 99.9% of the players in the game.
Here are the Fantasy Live Points so far this year….
STRATEGY FOR MICHIGAN
Three of the four races left in the Fantasy Live season are wild card races. We can use some road course ringers (AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and Shane van Grisbergen) at those tracks. I am not worried at all about allocations for Daytona. That means the race Sunday is the last race where we need to use out top drivers. I will simply play the best lineup possible Sunday and not worry about running out of starts with my drivers. I can get by the final three races with drivers I have not used much in 2023.
CUP SERIES PRACTICE SPEEDS
The Cup Series had a 20-minute practice session to shake down their cars for Sunday’s race. Michigan is a two-mile oval track. Some teams decided to run the entire practice and make some long runs (this probably means they liked their cars). Other teams made short runs and then came into the pits for adjustments. Seven of the top-10 drivers in practice were also able to finish the race in the top-10 at Michigan last year. It will be important to look at the practice speeds this week
Here are the practice speeds for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan….
FANTASY LIVE LINEUP FOR MICHIGAN
MARTIN TRUEX JR. (1): I thought about saving my last allocation with Truex for one of the road course races, but I can get through though races with other drivers. I will use my last start with the No. 19 car Sunday. Truex has an average finishing position of 4.8 in his last six races at Michigan. He also has an average finishing position of 7.2 at the large intermediate tracks this season. Truex posted the fastest speed in practice and qualified fifth for the race. You need to use Truex Sunday if you can.
KYLE BUSCH (2): The inconsistency for Busch is frustrating, but we have to use him in our lineups this week. The most similar track to Michigan is Auto Club Speedway. Busch won at Auto Club earlier this year and the No. 8 car looks fast again this weekend. Busch posted the 10th-fastest speed in practice and qualified eighth for the race. I have two allocations left with Busch and I only need one of them. I will take a chance with the No. 8 car Sunday and hope the good version of Rowdy Busch shows up.
ROSS CHASTAIN (4): Can we trust Chastain this week? His average finishing position in his last five races is 23.4. Chastain was one of the best drivers at Auto Club Speedway in February (the most similar track to Michigan). Chastain posted the fifth-fastest speed in practice and qualified second for the race. I will take a chance with the No. 1 car Sunday.
RYAN BLANEY (5): The Fords have found some speed this summer and that will make Blaney a good pick this week. Blaney won the race at Michigan in 2021 and he finished fifth in the race last year. He also won earlier this year at Charlotte. The No. 12 car posted the sixth-fastest speed in practice and qualified ninth for the race. This is a good race to use an allocation with Blaney.
CHASE ELLIOTT (4): Elliott has a slim chance to make the playoffs on points. He is 40 points behind the cut line, with two road courses left on the schedule. The No. 5 team will likely play it safe this week and try to use strategy to score as many Stage Points as possible and put Elliott in position to finish in the top-10. This strategy will make the No. 9 car a great choice for your Fantasy Live lineups. There are four races left in the Fantasy Live season and I have four allocations left with Elliott. I will likely have him in my lineup for every race.
* I am out of allocations with William Byron. He has been the best driver on the intermediates tracks this year. I would use Byron over Chase Elliott if you have any allocations left with the No. 24 car.
(GARAGE PICK) DENNY HAMLIN (1): Hamlin is starting to heat up and now he heads to one of his best tracks. Hamlin finished first (Pocono) and second (Richmond) in his last two races. He has the series-best Driver Rating on the large intermediate tracks this year and he has the second-best Driver Rating in the last six races at Michigan. Hamlin did not look good in practice, but it had a lot to do with some ammonia smell in his car. I am sure they will get it fixed. I will have Hamlin as my insurance policy in the Garage Sunday.
* I cannot believe I am fading KEVIN HARVICK at Michigan. He has been awesome at this track, but he looked slow in practice and he qualified 22nd. He will probably still finish in the top-10, but I will play Harvick in DFS and play the drivers who start up front in Fantasy Live.
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.