New Hampshire Fantasy NASCAR Contender or Pretender
[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=jimmie+johnson+new+hampshire&iid=9237209″ src=”http://view.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9237209/lenox-industrial-tools-301/lenox-industrial-tools-301.jpg?size=500&imageId=9237209″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]Jimmie Johnson (Contender) – Now that the Chase started the 48 team will be up to their normal tendency of stepping up their performances. Jimmie Johnson won at New Hampshire earlier this year and you can bet he’ll be even better this time around. In the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Johnson raced 99.7% percent of the laps inside the top fifteen and had an average running position of fifth.
Mark Martin (Pretender) – Mark Martin is the defending race champion but this team will be lucky to even finish inside the top fifteen. They’ve really struggled lately and the last time they finished better than nineteenth was six races ago. Earlier this year at New Hampshire Martin finished 21st and I don’t see any reason to expect better results. At Richmond which is similar Martin finished twentieth.
Jeff Burton (Contender) – Jeff Burton had New Hampshire won earlier this year until a late caution came out while he was leading. Under the late caution Jeff Burton stayed out during the last round of pit stops and everyone else came in. He was a sitting duck.
Throughout his career New Hampshire has been a good track for him. Back in the day (2000) Jeff Burton once led all 300 laps en route to victory.
Matt Kenseth (Pretender) – New Hampshire is not a good track for Matt Kenseth. Since 2008 statistically speaking this has been his second worst track (24.0 avg finish). The only track where Kenseth has a worse average finish over this time period is Talladega. I tend to shy away from Roush cars on short flat tracks and this weekend will be no exception.
Kyle Busch (Contender) – Earlier this year Kyle Busch finished 11th at New Hampshire. His eleventh place finish isn’t indicative at all in how he performed (Yahoo race chart). A late race incident with Jeff Burton took Kyle Busch out of contention.
The real confidence booster for fantasy racers should come from how well he’s performed on similar tracks this year.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Pretender) – Richmond was just ugly for this team. I wonder if Hendrick wants to un-express his confidence now. In the Coca Cola 600 before Eury Jr. got fired he only finished two laps down. At Richmond he managed to finish six laps down.
New Hampshire once was a very good track for Earnhardt Jr. but don’t bite the apple. I know he finished good earlier this year (8th), but proceed at your own peril.
