The NASCAR Cup Series will travel to Music City this week to race at Nashville Superspeedway. There are only 10 races left in the regular season and in the Fantasy Live season. The picks are currently outscoring 99.6% of the entries. There are many unpredictable tracks coming up on the schedule (Chicago Street Course, Atlanta, Pocono, and Daytona), so we are going to need some luck over the summer.
Here are the Fantasy Live Points for the season….
STRATEGY FOR NASHVILLE
The top teams have dominated the races on the intermediate tracks this year. There are only two intermediate tracks left in the Fantasy Live regular season (Nashville and Michigan). I will use many of the drivers from Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports this week and then try to save my allocations with these drivers at the unpredictable tracks listed above.
CUP SERIES PRACTICE SPEEDS
The Cup Series had a 55-minute practice session for the teams to dial in their cars for Sunday night’s race. NASCAR typically do not give the teams that much time to practice, so now we have a lot of data to work with. The practice was during the day and the race is at night, but I still think the speed from practice should translate into race speed at Nashville.
Here are the speeds from Friday’s practice at Nashville….
FANTASY LIVE LINEUP FOR NASHVILLE
MARTIN TRUEX JR. (6): Truex will have momentum after his win at Sonoma. The most similar track to Nashville is Dover and Truex won that race this year too. Truex dominated the race at Nashville last year by leading 82 laps and winning both Stages. There is a good chance that Truex could dominate the race Sunday. I have enough allocations left with the No. 19 car to get me through the regular season, so I will burn one of them Sunday night.
DENNY HAMLIN (4): Hamlin dominated a large portion of this race last year. The No. 11 car won the pole, led 114 laps, scored 18 Stage Points and finished sixth. Hamlin posted the seventh-fastest speed in practice and qualified eighth for the race. Hamlin should be able to run up front, score many Stage Points and have a good chance to finish in the top-five in the Ally 500.
KYLE LARSON (3): Nashville should be a good track for Larson to get into Victory Lane. He led 264 of the 300 laps, scored 19 Stage Points and went to Victory Lane at Nashville in 2021. The No. 5 car looks that fast again this weekend. Larson was lonely 14th-fastest on the single-lap speed chart, but his car kept getting faster at the end of practice (meaning his team was making good adjustments). I want to use my last three allocations with Larson at the intermediate tracks (Nashville, Michigan and Richmond). I will fade Larson at the Chicago Street Course, Atlanta, Pocono, Indy Road Course, Watkins Glen and Daytona.
ROSS CHASTAIN (5): This is a home race for Trackhouse Racing. The team builds their cars just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, but the team has its headquarters in Nashville. Chastain has been good in the two races at Nashville. He finished second in 2021 and fifth last year. Chastain posted top-three speed on all of the speed charts in practice (single lap speed, 10-lap speed and 20-lap speed charts). This is one of the best tracks for Chastain, so it would be a good idea to use one of your allocations with the No. 1 car Sunday night.
TYLER REDDICK (5): I wasn’t expecting to use an allocation with Reddick this week, but I cannot ignore the speed he had in practice. The No. 45 car posted the fastest speed in practice. Reddick also posted the fastest 10-lap average speed and the second-fastest 20-lap average speed. Reddick qualified second for the race, so he should score a lot of Stage Points and have a great chance to finish in the top-five Sunday night.
(GARAGE PICK) BUBBA WALLACE (9): The Toyota’s dominated this race last year and they look fast again this weekend. Wallace has been good on the intermediate tracks this year. He finished 12th at Dover, fourth at Kansas, fifth at Darlington and fourth at Charlotte. He also finished 12th at Nashville last year (Wallace is having a better season in 2023 then he had last year). Wallace spun in qualifying, but the car looked OK. If he has to start from the back, I will replace Wallace with CHASE ELLIOTT.
* I would love to use William Byron, but I only have one allocation left with the No. 24 car. I would use Byron in the Garage if I had more than one allocation with him.
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.