The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competes at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Sunday. There are only 9 races left in the season and most fantasy teams are running low on allocations with their top drivers (if not you are probably not very high in your league standings).
The best strategy is to use your top drivers at the 1.5-mile tracks and take some gambles at the short tracks and Superspeedways. I will be saving some of my top drivers this week but I still want to focus on the drivers who are competing for the championship. Nine of the drivers who finished in the top 10 last week were playoff drivers. We should see playoff drivers dominate the top 10 again at the Magic Mile.
Here are my picks for New Hampshire…
GROUP A
Denny Hamlin (8): Hamlin was the race at New Hampshire 9 weeks ago and the No. 11 car is fast again. Hamlin qualified 3rd and his car was 9th fastest in final practice. I have 8 allocations with Hamlin so this is a good week to use him and save Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch for the 1.5-mile tracks.
Group A Rankings: 1) Martin Truex Jr., 2) Kyle Busch, 3) Kevin Harvick, 4) Denny Hamlin, 5) Matt Kenseth, 6) Brad Keselowski, 7) Jimmie Johnson, 8) Joey Logano, 9) Dale Earnhardt Jr.
GROUP B
Kurt Busch (2): The No. 41 car has been running very well the last month. He has finished 4 of the last 5 races in the top 5. Busch finished 8th in the first race at New Hampshire and should run well Sunday. Busch qualified 7th and he was 15th fastest in the final practice but he had the 5th best 10-lap average. This is a good week to use an allocation with the No. 41 car.
Clint Bowyer (4): Bowyer will be my second Group B driver. This has more to do with my other two options then it has to do with my confidence in Bowyer. I selected Kyle Larson for qualifying points only and he came through for me. I will save my 2 allocations with Larson until later in the season. My other driver is Chase Elliott and he has had a horrible week (Finish last week was encumbered, lost his crew chief and crashed his car). I will save Elliott for a race when he has more going for him. So Bowyer gets the spot. He finished 7th at New Hampshire in July.
Group B Rankings: 1) Kyle Larson, 2) Kurt Busch, 3) Ryan Blaney, 4) Chase Elliott, 5) Kasey Kahne, 6) Jamie McMurray, 7) Clint Bowyer, 8) Ryan Newman, 9) Austin Dillon, 10) Danica Patrick, 11) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 12) AJ Allmendinger, 13) Paul Menard, 14) Chris Buescher, 15) Aric Almirola, 16) Trevor Bayne
GROUP C
Ty Dillon (2): Once again Dillon struggled in qualifying. The No. 13 car will start the race from the back in a backup car because he wrecked his primary car . The good news is that Dillon is averaging 11 positions gained in the last 5 races. I only have one start left with Daniel Suarez and I do not want to use it when he starts deep in the pack. I am rolling with Dillon and hoping for the best this week.
Group C Rankings: 1) Erik Jones, 2) Daniel Suarez, 3) Ty Dillon, 4) Michael McDowell, 5) David Ragan, 6) Landon Cassill
Good luck this week!
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