The Cup Series will join the Xfinity Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend. This will be the last race in the Round of 12 for the Cup Series and the last race in the Round of 12 for the Xfinity Series. William Byron has advanced in the Cup Series to the next round with his win at Texas and Ryan Blaney advanced with his win at Talladega. It will be fun to see who can advance in the playoffs after the race on the Charlotte Roval. Here is the schedule for the races at Charlotte this weekend.
POST SCHEDULE
The race on the Charlotte Roval was nearly incident free last year. The only cautions in the race were for the Stage breaks and for debris on the track. That is probably why NASCAR decided to return to the Oval in 2024.
The race was dominated by four drivers. Chase Elliott led a race high 30 laps, Joey Logano led 27 laps, A.J. Allmendinger led 24 laps and Tyler Reddick led 21 laps. Ty Dillon spun out in the final laps causing the race to go into overtime. Christopher Bell out-raced Kevin Harvick for the win. Chase Briscoe passed Cole Custer on the final lap to advance in the playoffs and ended Kyle Larson’s chances of repeating as the champion. There was a lot of drama in the final laps because of the points battle.
You can watch the highlight of last year’s race at Charlotte here: CHARLOTTE ROVAL RACE REWIND
CUP SERIES PLAYOFF STANDINGS
William Byron and Ryan Blaney are locked into the Round of Eight with their wins in the playoffs. Denny Hamlin can clinch if he can score seven Stage Points of finish in the top-30. Kyle Busch is nearly in a “must win” situation. The rest of the drivers are close enough in points to make the end of the race Sunday filled with drama. It should be fun to see how it all plays out.
STATS FOR CHARLOTTE ROVAL
The Charlotte Roval is a 2.28-mile track that uses the high banks of the over track and the tight turns of the road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The track that is most like the Charlotte Roval is the Indianapolis Road Course. I gave the race at the Brickyard extra weight in the model to help handicap the race Sunday. I also used the data from the races at COTA, Sonoma and Watkins Glen. I added in the data from the last two races at the Charlotte Roval to give us some track history into the model.
Here are the Driver Ratings for the drivers on the Road Courses this year and the last two races at Charlotte…
NASCAR STRATEGY
The strategy for the Driver Group Game is to simply use the drivers with the best history of running well on the road courses. I am focusing on the drivers who have had success this year. I am not using Denny Hamlin or Kyle Larson this week, since there are better choices and they are so good at the oval tracks. I am simply playing the best drivers possible in Groups B and C. Make sure you have at least three allocations left with Tyler Reddick if you plan to use him Sunday. You will need Reddick at Las Vegas and Homestead, but he can still be used for qualifying points.
The strategy for Fantasy Live is easy the same as the strategy for the Driver Group Game. We need to use our best road courses drivers this week. I am fading Denny Hamlin and William Byron because I only have two allocations left. I will need them at Las Vegas and Homestead. The rest of the field is in play this week.
The strategy for DFS Contests is to select as many drivers as possible who have a good chance to finish in the top-12. This will likely mean we will have to build a balanced lineup, instead of a stars and scrubs lineup. Four drivers lead over 20 laps at the Charlotte Roval last year. We will score a lot of DFS Points if we are able to select these four drivers for our lineups and the other two drivers’ finishes in the top-12.
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR CHARLOTTE ROVAL
ONE & DONE PICK: A.J. ALLMENDINGER
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: CHASE ELLIOTT, CHRISTOPHER BELL, CHRIS BUESCHER, MICHAEL MCDOWELL, KYLE BUSCH, TYLER REDDICK, A.J. ALLMENDINGER, TY GIBBS
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: CHASE ELLIOTT, TYLER REDDICK, CHRISTOPHER BELL, CHRIS BUESCHER, MICHAEL MCDOWELL, (GARAGE) A.J. ALLMENDINGER
Good luck this weekend!
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