Pure Michigan 400 Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Austin Dillon – Don’t overlook Austin Dillon. He’s a very solid performer at high-speed intermediate tracks. From a strength perspective I would rank him slightly below the elite performers. For the season on this sub track type he’s scored the 8th most points and has a 12.6 average finish. Currently at MIS he has back to back top tens. This spring at MIS he started 8th and finished 8th. Throughout the race he ran well earning the 9th best driver rating and having an 11th place average running position. Last August at MIS using the high-downforce package Dillon had a strong showing. He started in the back but used pit strategy which got him up towards the front of the field. Eventually he got back into sync with the competition and was then a consistent front runner. When that race reached its conclusion he finished 4th and led 19 laps. In the two Michigan races prior to that he had forgettable performances of 20th and 22nd. (Yahoo B Driver)

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Jimmie Johnson – Jimmie Johnson is a strong performer at Michigan but trouble never seems to be far from him. In his career at Michigan he should have about 5 wins but because of trouble in quite a few races he’s only been to victory lane once. Recently at Michigan he’s been a hero or zero driver. Since 2011 he has four results in the top ten. In the seven races he’s finished outside the top ten his average finish is 28th. This spring Johnson finished 16th. Performance wise he showed top ten potential having run a ton of laps inside the top ten. Unfortunately his race wasn’t incident free. With 38 laps to go shortly after a restart he was battling Bayne for 16th but that led to him getting into the wall hard. Prior to the caution that led to the restart he was running in 7th. In August 2015 when the high-down force package was used his race was plagued with problems. He made an unexpected pit stop for a flat, missed his pit box, and then later spun and damaged his car. All of those problems led to a 39th place finish. In June 2015 he damaged his car during an early restart. When that race reached its conclusion he finished 18th. In August 2014 Johnson had a very strong car. He started 30th, finished 9th and led 21 laps. In the race he was better than his result but he broke his shifter on lap 49 and for the remainder of the race he used vice grips to shift. In June 2014 Johnson won his first Michigan race. He started in 7th, had a 5th place average running position, earned the 2nd best driver rating and led 39 laps. (Yahoo A Driver)

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