The Cup Series will join the Truck Series at Talladega Motor Speedway this weekend. This will be the second race in the Round of 12 for the Cup Series and the second race in the Round of 8 for the Truck Series. William Byron has advanced in the Cup Series to the next round with his win at Texas. Corey Heim advanced to the Championship Round in the Truck Series with his win at Bristol. It will be fun to see who can advance in the playoffs after the race at Talladega. There is no practice this weekend. Here is the schedule for the races at Talladega.
CUP SERIES PLAYOFF STANDINGS
The Cup Series Playoff Standings were shaken up after the race at Texas. Kyle Larson looked like he was going to advance with a win at Texas, but he wrecked with 17 laps to go. Now Larson is only two-points above the cut line. The only drivers who look safe are William Byron (advanced with his win at Texas) and Denny Hamlin (based on his points and his success at Talladega). The playoff drivers will do their best to score as many playoff points as possible Sunday, so the hole will not be too deep if they wreck late in the race. This will make the playoff drivers good plays in your Fantasy NASCAR contests this week.
STATS FOR TEXAS
Talladega is one of the most unpredictable tracks on the circuit. There are some drivers who have figured out how to navigate this track. It would be a good idea to select these drivers for your Fantasy NASCAR lineups Sunday.
Here are the average finishing position for the drivers on the Superspeedways this year and the last three races (Gen-7 car races) at Talladega…
NASCAR STRATEGY
The strategy for the Driver Group Game is to save your top drivers for the more predictable tracks. I am not too worried about saving allocations in Group A, since there is enough talent in that group to get us to Phoenix. Group B is where I will be playing many of the drivers who I have many allocations left. Group C is tricky because drivers like Todd Gilliland and Ty Dillon typically stay out of trouble and then finish in the top-15 at Talladega. Do you have the guts to play them though?
The strategy for Fantasy Live is easy the same as the strategy for the Driver Group Game. We need to save our allocations with our top drivers (Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and William Byron). These drivers are too good at the other tracks to be played at Talladega. The rest of the drivers are in play Sunday.
The strategy for DFS Contests is to score as many place differential points as possible. I typically do not play any drivers who start inside the top-15. Most of the drivers I use in my lineups will start outside the top-20. Do not chase dominator points this week. Simply, select the drivers who start in the back and then wait until the end of the race to see how it all plays out.
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR TALLADEGA
ONE & DONE PICK: AUSTIN CINDRIC
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: RYAN BLANEY, DENNY HAMLIN, CHRIS BUESCHER, ERIK JONES, ARIC ALMIROLA, DANIEL SUAREZ, RICKY STENHOUSE JR., TY GIBBS
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: RYAN BLANEY, BRAD KESELOWSKI, CHRIS BUESCHER, CHASE ELLIOTT, ERIK JONES, (GARAGE) BUBBA WALLACE
Good luck this weekend!
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