The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series travels to the Irish Hills of Michigan to compete in the FireKeepers Casino 400. The racing on the 1.5-mile and 2-mile ovals have been pretty good this season so I expect a much better race than what we saw at Pocono. It looks like the new aero package does not work well on triangles. The FireKeepers Casino 400 can be seen Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.
My goal every year in the One & Done game is to have an average finishing position of 15th or better from my drivers. Denny Hamlin performed pretty much as I expected at Pocono. I did not think he would win, but I thought Hamlin would finish near the top 5. Hamlin finished 6th and moved our season average for the One & Done picks to 10.5. Still not inside the top 10 but not too bad. Hopefully our luck continues at Michigan.
Here are my picks for Michigan…
|
Pick Driver Once |
Pick Driver Twice | |||||
| Race | Driver | Result | Race | Driver |
Result |
|
|
Daytona |
Jamie McMurray | 22nd | Daytona | Jamie McMurray | 22nd | |
| Atlanta | Aric Almirola | 8th | Atlanta | Aric Almirola |
8th |
|
|
Las Vegas |
Austin Dillon | 20th | Las Vegas | Brad Keselowski | 2nd | |
| Phoenix | Kevin Harvick | 9th | Phoenix | Kevin Harvick |
9th |
|
|
Auto Club |
Brad Keselowski | 3rd | Auto Club | Brad Keselowski | 3rd | |
| Martinsville | Clint Bowyer | 7th | Martinsville | Clint Bowyer |
7th |
|
|
Texas |
Jimmie Johnson | 5th | Texas | Joey Logano | 17th | |
| Bristol | Matt Dibenedetto | 12th | Bristol | Erik Jones |
24th |
|
|
Richmond |
Kyle Busch | 8th | Richmond | Kyle Busch | 8th | |
| Talladega | Ty Dillon | 17th | Talladega | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
25th |
|
|
Dover |
Chase Elliott | 5th | Dover | Chase Elliott | 5th | |
| Kansas | Kurt Busch | 7th | Kansas | Aric Almirola |
12th |
|
|
Charlotte |
Daniel Suarez | 18th | Charlotte | Martin Truex Jr. | 1st | |
| Pocono | Denny Hamlin | 6th | Pocono | Kyle Larson |
26th |
|
|
Michigan |
Erik Jones | ? | Michigan | Clint Bowyer |
? |
|
My One & Done pick this week will be Erik Jones. This Michigan native has made it clear that he wants to win at his home track and JGR has provided him with a car fast enough to get the job done. Jones has really run well in the 550 HP engine, higher-downforce aero package. He finished 3 of the last 4 races on non Superspeedways using this package in the top 4 (Jones finished 3rd at Pocono, 3rd at Kansas and 4th at Texas). Jones was 7th-fastest in final practice with the 3rd-fastest 10-lap and 15-lap average speed. The No. 20 car is fast so I will use Jones this week.
Good luck this week!
Follow me on Twitter @MrFantasyNASCAR