NASCAR returns after a week off to race at Nashville Superspeedway. This will be the third race for the Cup Series in Music City and it will be the first race of the season for NBC. Be sure you have your TV Guide ready because the Truck practice, qualifying and race are on FS1, the Xfinity practice, qualifying and race are on USA, the Cup Series practice and qualifying is on USA and the Cup Series race is on NBC. Way to keep it simple NASCAR. Luckily, I will be here to guide you through your Fantasy NASCAR lineups and help ensure you are on the right channel for the race.
NASCAR STRATEGY
The Gen-7 car has produced some great racing on the intermediate tracks this season and the race at Nashville last year was really good too. Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the race by leading 250 of the 300 laps. Denny Hamlin dominated the first Stage by leading 114 laps, Martin Truex Jr. dominated the second Stage by leading 82 laps and then Kyle Busch (he was in a JGR car last year) came to the front in the final Stage and led 54 laps. Chase Elliott stole the show with pit strategy and made his way to Victory Lane.
You can watch the extended highlights of the last year’s race at Nashville here: NASCAR Race Rewind
The most similar track to Nashville is Dover. The Joe Gibbs Racing cars ran well at Dover this year with Martin Truex Jr. winning the race, Denny Hamlin finishing fifth and Christopher Bell finishing sixth. I expect the Joe Gibbs Racing cars to be fast again this week.
We cannot count out the Hendrick Motorsports cars. William Byron and Kyle Larson have been fast at all of the intermediate tracks this year and Chase Elliott went to Victory Lane at Nashville last year. This should be another battle between Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendricks Motorsports, so we are going to have to play our top drivers once again in our season-long leagues.
The sleeper team this week is Trackhouse Racing. The race Sunday night is a home game for the Nashville based team. Yes, Trackhouse has their shop in Concord, North Carolina, but the headquarters are in Nashville. Tootsie’s (a popular Nashville bar) is a major sponsorship for Daniel Suarez, so expect Trackhouse Racing to treat this race like the Daytona 500. Ross Chastain finished second and fifth in his two races at Nashville and Daniel Suarez finished seventh and 15th. I will target the two Trackhouse Racing drivers in DFS contests this week.
STATS FOR SIMILAR TRACKS
Nashville Superspeedway is 1.33-mile, tri-oval track. There really isn’t any track the same size and shape as Nashville, but Dover is a 1-mile, oval track and both have concrete surfaces. NASCAR will use the intermediate aero package this week (used at the 1.5-mile tracks and at the races at Dover and Darlington). Goodyear is also expected to bring the same tire that was used at Dover for the race Sunday. I will use the data from the two races at Nashville, the race at Dover and the race at Darlington for the model this week. This should give us a good idea of which drivers will run up front Sunday.
Here are the stats from the previous races at Nashville and the races at Dover and Darlington this season….
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR NASHVILLE
ONE & DONE PICK: DANIEL SUAREZ
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: KYLE LARSON, DENNY HAMLIN, MARTIN TRUEX JR., KYLE BUSCH, KEVIN HARVICK, DANIEL SUAREZ, TY GIBBS, RICKY STENHOUSE JR.
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: KYLE LARSON, MARTIN TRUEX JR., KYLE BUSCH, KEVIN HARVICK, ROSS CHASTAIN (GARAGE) DENNY HAMLIN
* I will be watching WILLIAM BYRON, CHASE ELLIOTT, CHRISTOPHER BELL, RYAN BLANEY and JOEY LOGANO in practice. They could end up in the Fantasy Live lineup this week.
Good luck this weekend!
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