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NASCAR Fantasy Experts Picks: Toyota-Save Mart 350 from Infineon Raceway

NASCAR Fantasy Racing Preview: Save Mart 350

Greetings On Pit Row readers,

Last week I added value plays for salary cap owners looking for cash-saving options to the NASCAR Fantasy Racing Preview. This week I’ve marked drivers who are top qualifiers at the track. Several fantasy formats, including the Yahoo! Fantasy Auto Racing game, pay bonus points to drivers who qualify up front. In the Y! game, the top-four are paid out. Even if you don’t start the driver, you still get the points. If you’ve burned through a lot of starts on a top qualifier just keep them on your bench and hope for a good qualifying run!

For this week, a lot of focus will be on the road course ringers. Among the C drivers, Marcos Ambrose, in limited starts, has shown the most ability on the road courses- don’t overlook him. Boris Said and Ron Fellows are the only ringers worth considering.

The rankings are spilt by using the A, B and C drivers from the Y! game. Enjoy the rankings and feel free to add your comments below!

A List

1. Jeff Gordon… Strong qualifier: qualified inside the top-four on seven occasions. Last 14 races at Infineon: five poles, five wins, 10 top-fives, 12 top-10s. Finished worse than seventh only twice in that span.
2. Kyle Busch… Won at Infineon and Watkins Glen last year. Eleventh or better in three straight Infineon races.
3. Clint Bowyer… Two consecutive fourth-place finishes. Last three weeks: 11th, 12th, 10th.
4. Carl Edwards… Top-10s in two of the last three at Infineon. Has led laps in two straight. Qualifying runs have improved in four straight. Last four weeks: fourth, seventh, second and fourth.
5. Mark Martin… Last 13 races at Infineon: one win, five top-threes, 10 top-10s, all top-20s.
6. Greg Biffle… Finished 14th or better in five straight races, two top-fives over the last three. Last three weeks: third, 11th, fifth.
7. Jimmie Johnson… Laps led in three straight but finished 15th, 17th and 10th.
8. Jeff Burton… Capable but inconsistent. Last five: 13th, third, seventh, 30th, ninth.
9. Matt Kenseth… Coming off a career-best eighth-place finish last year, zero top-10s in the previous eight starts.
10. Kevin Harvick… Eight career starts at Infineon: 12th or worse on six occasions.

B List

1. Tony Stewart… Ten career starts at Infineon: two wins, six top-10 finishes, laps led in seven races.
2. Juan Pablo Montoya… Won in 2007, finished sixth last year.
3. Ryan Newman… Five top-10s in seven career starts at Infineon.
4. Kurt Busch… Strong qualifier. Eight career starts at Infineon: qualified inside the top-four four times, three top-five finishes, but 22nd or worse in five other races.
5. Denny Hamlin… Three career starts: 12th, 10th, 27th.
6. Martin Truex Jr…. Strong value play. Three career starts at Infineon: 15th, 24th, 16th. Owns fifth and sixth place finishes at Watkins Glen
7. Casey Mears… Finished a career-best fifth last year, has only one finish better than 20th in five other starts.
8. Brian Vickers… Enters with two consecutive 14th-place finishes.
9. Elliott Sadler… Weak value play. Three top-10 finishes over the last five starts. Moderate results at Watkins Glen.
10. Joey Logano… Nationwide road course starts: Watkins Glen- seventh, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve- 17th.
11. Dale Earnhardt Jr…. No top-10 finishes but has finished between 11th and 13th on four occasions.
12. David Gilliland… Long shot value play. Runner-up last year at Infineon, finished 25th and 32nd in two other starts.
13. Jamie McMurray… Good qualifier. Qualified first in 2007, second in 2006. Has finished better than 13th once only.
14. Kasey Kahne… Won the pole last year at Infineon but has never finished better than 23rd.
15. David Ragan… Two career starts at Infineon: 29th, 24th.
16. Paul Menard… Finished 34th in his first career start at Infineon last year.
17. David Reutimann… Qualified 42nd, finished 40th following an accident in his first career start at Infineon last year.
18. David Stremme… Finished 32nd in only career start in 2007.
19. Michael Waltrip… Not entered, Patrick Carpentier will drive the No. 55.

C List

1. Marcos Ambrose… Qualified seventh but finished 42nd (accident) in his first career start at Infineon last year. Finished third at Watkins Glen.
2. Boris Said… Nine career starts at Infineon: won the pole in ‘03, four top-10 finishes over his last six starts. Finished 41st last year (shocks).
3. Ron Fellows… Seven career starts at Infineon: three top-15 finishes, 25th or worse in the remaining four. Four road course wins in the Nationwide Series.
4. Robby Gordon… Won back in ‘03 but no better than 16th in the five races since.
5. Dave Blaney… Eight career starts at Infineon: three top-20 finishes.
6. AJ Allmendinger… Finished 37th in his first career start at Infineon last year. Finished 11th at Watkins Glen.
7. Bobby Labonte… Last top-10 was in ‘03, no better than 18th in the five races since. Last year, started fourth but finished 39th due to an electrical issue.
8. John Andretti… Long shot value play. ‘98, ‘99- third, ‘02- 10th.
9. Patrick Carpentier… Finished 23rd in his first career start at Infineon last year.
10. Max Papis… Finished 25th in his first career start at Infineon last year.
11. Sam Hornish Jr…. Qualified 17th, finished 31st in his first career start at Infineon last year.
12. Scott Speed… Only NASCAR road course start: eighth-place finish at New Jersey Motorsports Park, ARCA series.
13. Brian Simo… Four career starts at Infineon: started and finished 43rd last year (transmission). Started in ‘05- 10th, ‘01- 42nd (another transmission), ‘00- 36th.
14. Joe Nemechek… Zero top-10s in 13 career starts at Infineon, has not finished better than 23rd in six straight.
15. Chris Cook… ‘05- 28th.
16. Reed Sorenson… ‘06- 29th, ‘07- 40th.
17. Tony Raines… ‘03- 31st.
18. Tom Hubert… Six career starts at Infineon: DNFs in four.
19. Brandon Ash… ‘04- 41st, ‘06- 38th, ‘07- failed to qualify. Fourteen DNQs in 17 career Cup attempts.

NASCAR Power Rankings: Michigan

Pocono

Who's Up	Who's Down
Biggest Gain This Week: Carl Edwards: 10th to 6th	Biggest Drop This Week: Kyle Busch: 4th to 7th
New This Week: David Reutimann	Dropped Out This Week:

Rank: 1st Tony Stewart #14 Last Week: 2 Change: +1 Driver Page | Articles

Tony Stewart- Pole Victory (sort of) Tony Stewart started from the pole at Pocono (before one to go) in his backup car and went on to become the first owner driver to win a race since Ricky Rudd won at Martinsville in 1998. The win also propelled Stewart to #1 in the Power Rankings.

Rank: 2nd Mark Martin #5 Last Week: 1 Change: -1 Driver Page | Articles

Mark Martin- 4 wins at Michigan On Sunday Mark Martin will be competing in his 47th race at Michigan. Over 46 races Martin has an average finish of 13.1, 4 wins, and 28 top tens. What will happen in race 47 at Michigan for Martin? My guess is a solid top ten.

Rank: 3rd Jimmie Johnson #48 Last Week: 3 Change: 0 Driver Page | Articles

Jimmie Johnson- Ran out of gas at the end Johnson had a winning car at Pocono but a penalty for pitting under caution hurt the 48 team. Johnson was able to move up to the front of the pack again but his Impala SS didn't have enough gas. In 14 races at Michigan Johnson only has 2 top fives.

Rank: 4th Ryan Newman #39 Last Week: 6 Change: +2 Driver Page | Articles

Ryan Newman- Recovered from early Pocono problems Ryan Newman was very successful at Michigan early in his career. In fact the first top 5 of Newman's career happened at Michigan in the June race during his pre-rookie 2001 season. Newman has 2 career wins at Michigan.

Rank: 5th Jeff Gordon #24 Last Week: 5 Change: 0 Driver Page | Articles

Jeff Gordon- 899 laps led at Michigan Gordon has been very successful at Michigan over the course of his career. In 32 races Gordon has 2 wins, 15 top fives, 20 top tens and 5 poles. The bad news is that in 2008 Gordon's best finish was 18th.

Rank: 6th Carl Edwards #99 Last Week: 10 Change: +4 Driver Page | Articles

Carl Edwards- Getting closer to a victory The 99 team is starting to get hot and at Michigan they will be entering the weekend as the car to beat. In 9 career Michigan races Edwards has an average finish of 6.6, 2 wins, 5 top fives, and 8 top tens.

Rank: 7th Kyle Busch #18 Last Week: 4 Change: -3 Driver Page | Articles

Kyle Busch- Finished 2nd at Michigan last year NASCAR rockstar wannabe Kyle Busch had a 15th place car at best at Pocono. With his 22nd place finish Kyle fell 3 spots in the points standings down to 9th. Over the last 4 races Kyle's average finish is 21.5.

Rank: 8th Greg Biffle #16 Last Week: 8 Change: 0 Driver Page | Articles

Greg Biffle- Successful at Michigan in the past Michigan is a Roush Fenway track and Ford is getting closer to victory lane all the time. If the weather in Michigan (changes every 5 minutes) warms up and the track gets slick Greg Biffle might just be the car to beat.

Rank: 9th Matt Kenseth #17 Last Week: 9 Change: 0 Driver Page | Articles

Matt Kenseth- 9.1 finish average at Michigan In February Kenseth won at Michigan's sister track California. What will this early season win translate into Sunday? Kenseth will be a contender for the checkered flag and anything less then a top 5 will be a disappointment.

Rank: 10th Kurt Busch #2 Last Week: 7 Change: -3 Driver Page | Articles

Kurt Busch- When will the Blue Deuce get win #2? The keys to victory at Michigan are 1) Horsepower 2) Fuel Mileage. Kurt's Dodge has the horsepower to win but Dodges for whatever reason never have the fuel mileage edge in NASCAR. Kurt does have 2 career wins at Michigan so expect a rebound Sunday.

Rank: 11th Kasey Kahne #9 Last Week: 11 Change: 0 Driver Page | Articles

Kasey Kahne- Fast but not enough gas At Pocono the 9 car was fast, but they didn't have enough gas. At Michigan the 9 car will be fast again (thanks to R6 engine) and Kahne will continue his charge for a Chase appearance. Kahne has 1 career victory at MIS.

Rank: 12th David Reutimann #00 Last Week: NR Change: N/A Driver Page | Articles

David Reutimann- 3rd place finish at Pocono Fuel mileage races always are full of surprises at the end. The surprise finish of the race for me was Reutimann's 3rd place finish. While other drivers were idling the 00 had plenty of fuel for the race to the finish line.

NASCAR Fantasy Experts Picks: Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway

NASCAR Fantasy Experts Picks: Crown Royal Russ Friedman 400 at RIR

NASCAR Fantasy Experts Picks: Aaron’s 499 at Talladega

New On Pit Row

We’re pretty excited about some new additions to OnPitRow.com and I haven’t done a very good job of getting the word out. So pay attention. My job depends on it.

We have added some stats for fantasy racing players. These NASCAR fantasy racing stats are almost to the point of overkill and won’t be for everyone. But if you want to dig deep into past performance of specific drivers and particular race track stats for fantasy racing, check out our - still developing - drivers pages. You can view - and download - a complete set of NASCAR Loop data stats for any driver in our One and Done fantasy NASCAR pool. More content will be added to those pages soon. Watch this space, as they say. Here is David Ragan’s page for example.

And we have track stats for NASCAR fantasy gamers too. Check out the Phoenix International Raceway page for 40 pages of NASCAR Loop stats on PIR alone. The Talladega Superspeedway page is available too. As with the drivers stat pages, we will be adding more fantasy racing stats and information soon.

On the video front, check out our Bench Racing TV page when you have a chance. We’re posting Mindy Monday’s latest Monday Morning Crew Chief video there each week along with any other cool stuff we find. The folks at Shell Gasolines sent us an early copy of Kevin Harvick’s Old west Showdown spoof, which is now all over the place. But when we get them, we’ll post them for you.

Finally, if you haven’t noticed yet, the ON PIT ROW radio show is now available On Demand. We are finally hosting our own archived shows right here at OnPitRow.com on the Listen Live page. For a long time, ON PIT ROW’s web home was at RaceTalkRadio and we will always value that relationship. But we’ve wanted to host our own from the time we first started OnPitRow.com.

Stay tuned ’cause there’s more to come but if there’s anything that you want to see or hear, let us know. Thanks for joining us On Pit Row.

If you are thinking of doing any actual NASCAR betting you may be better served by finding actual NASCAR odds at a service that is involved in online wagering or something. We, most assuredly, are not.

Photo credit: Ring - or Round Girl Jen by BethAnne Heisler - OnPitRow.com

NASCAR Fantasy Racing: One and Done from Atlanta

race 4: hotlanta My favorite NASCAR track. Of course, I’ll say that when we get to Richmond too. And maybe Bristol. Michigan? Probably. Ten  players had race winner Kyle Busch picked last week. Nice job. You must all be very astute observers of the sport. You could have gone for Matt Kenseth to win three in a row. Right Steve? One and Done tends to even the field though, since those of us - cough cough - who picked the Shrub last race, can’t use him at Atlanta, where he’s the defending race winner. You can view all the results for One and Done week three here. prizes for your picks Here is the prize list for the One and Done Spring Thing The player who finishes with the most points, and survives any tie-breakers will receive a Dale Jarrett Racing Adventure package, good at several NASCAR tracks, including Talladega Superspeedway. You can read the experience of one of our past winners at that track right here. That’s a great prize, for any game. And second through tenth ain’t too shabby neither. 2nd - Autographed Jamie McMurray Crown Royal team hat and embroidered Crown Royal team golf shirt (size mens medium) 3rd - Denny Hamlin Limited Edition Memorial Day USMC 1/24th Scale Diecast from Fed Ex 4th - Michael Waltrip No. 55 Hat and autographed Picture Card 5th - “50 Years of ARCA” Coffee Table Book and ARCA Hat 6th - Gillette Young Guns Hat and Golf Shirt (mens size large) 7th - Geico Racing Max Papis No 13 Hat and T-Shirt (mens size x large) 8th - Denny Hamlin “First Win T-shirt” (mens size large) from Fed Ex 9th - Crown Royal Dan Lowery 400 Roush Racing Hat 10th - Kevin Harvick Bobblehead from Shell Gasolines On Friday or Saturday I’ll announce the first three weekly winners, chosen randomly from One and Dunners who make a pick for that week’s race.  Weekly winners will be determined by  the ONPitRow.com  random drawing method.

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experts Every week we’ll ask a few folks from around the NASCAR internet community to share who they think would be a good pick for the next race. Dustin Long NASCAR beat writer for the  Landmark Newspapers told us ON PIT ROW last night that he thought Kyle Busch was the choice. Then he kind of switched up and started talking up Tony Stewart. I’m still not sure who he really thinks will win. Church of the Great Oval’s Clance’ McClannahan thinks that stars are alligned for Matt Kenseth. “Matt’s aspects are all quite good, and his Sun is in the 10th House, which is the House of Profession and Standing. Matt has had this aspect in his chart in every race he has ever won.” Monday Morning Crew Chief’s Mindy Monday thinks ” Dale Earnhardt Jr is going to win, ’cause he’s hot and wears Wranglers and Cowboy boots.” I can just see Steve and the DieCast Dude rumaging for their old boots and blue jeans now.

Homestead Fantasy Picks: Throw Away the Loop Stats

Use your heads NASCAR fans. With only three races in the NASCAR Loop stat database for Homestead-Miami Speedway, you will need to look at more trends than the Loop Data give you. In fact, make it easy on your self and just pick a Roush-Fenway Racing driver.

I’ll admit that after last week when Jimmy Johnson again put a stompin’ on the field at Phoenix International Raceway, I am shell shocked. Johnson and Chad Knaus have shown no signs of stroking it and running for points at all. Will this week, with only a 36th place finish needed to clinch a third straight Sprint Cup Series championship change anything? Jimmy’s average finish in the last three Homestead-Miami finales is only 18.7. He was, in two of those races, leading the championship going into the event. That may show a trend toward being conservative. Actually, it may not matter.

The Roush-Fenway drivers have been very good at Homestead. Greg Biffle once won here in three consecutive years. Greg is tops in Fastest Laps Run (80) and Laps in the Top 15 - 688 - in the last three races too.

Matt Kenseth has an average finish of 3.3 and has led the most laps - 214 for 26.7 percent -  in the three Loop Data races. And Kenseth is one of only three of the 2008 Chase qualifiers to have won at Homestead. Biffle and two-time winner Tony Stewart are the others.

But Carl Edwards is my pick this time. Carl has shown that he and crew chief Bob Osborne have no quit in them. They are the only team with any mathematical chance to upset the Lowes No. 48 apple cart. They have to win the race. They can win the race. Carl has an average finish of 5.7 - only third best among the Roush drivers - and the fourth best Driver Rating at 107.2.

So Carl is my pick. And Jeff Gordon is my “I can’t believe I’m calling him an upset”, upset special. Gordon has never won at Homestead-Miami - there are only two of those tracks left on his to-do list. It’s just a hunch that Gordon may get the job done here, this time around.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

Texas Motor Speedway is the Alamo for Richard Childress’ Drivers

Anybody got a coon-skin helmet? Ask the guys who drive for Richard Childress Racing. They may feel about as besieged at Texas Motor Speedway as Davey Crockett and the Texicans did at the Alamo. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. With a total of only seven laps led in the last seven races between the lot of them, TMS hasn’t been good to Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer.

The RCR trio are the worst of the Chasers, Driver Rating-wise with scores that put them 13th-15th of the rated drivers. That, in itself isn’t all bad. Jeff Gordon is only 12th himself. But if you are looking to pick a winner for Texas, Gordon has at least led 194 laps.

Only Greg Biffle, of the Chase contenders - and after Atlanta, that is a very loose description - has run smaller percentage of Laps in the Top 15 - 46.6 - than the RCR boys, who range from 54.6 to 55.9 percent. But Biffle has 280 Laps Led.

Other drivers with poor stats at Texas include Ryan Newman - DR 67.3 and 5 Laps led with an Ave Finish of 22.3. Elliott Sadler - 68.1 DR and 23.1 Ave Finish and Brian Vickers with a Driver Rating of 62.9 and 25.1 for an Save Finish.

Be safe. Take Jimmy Johnson.

Photo credit: Icon Sports Media, Inc.

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