Homestead Fantasy NASCAR Mid Pack Predictions

Ryan Newman – Ryan Newman has had a poor season at 1.5 mile tracks. Unless something goofy happens in the race I would expect the status quo for him to continue. This year at tracks of this length minus The Coca Cola 600 which turned into a fuel mileage race all of his results are 17th or worse. On Sunday at Homestead I would look for Newman to be a high-teens to low-twenties driver. Last year Newman was having a respectable performance but was involved in a late restart accident which led to his 25th place finish. Prior to that it looked like the would finish around 10th. Additionally from the race it should be noted Newman had an 11th place average running position and earned the 13th best driver rating. In 2015 Newman was a mid-teens driver. In the race he finished 16th, had a 14th place average running position and earned the 15th best driver rating. In 2014 when he competed for the championship he started in 21st but slowly climbed his way up through the running order. Late in the race he was challenging for the win but Harvick was just too strong. In the race Newman finished 2nd, earned the 4th best driver rating and had an 8th place average running position. (Yahoo B Driver)

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Aric Almirola – Aric Almirola should be a mid to high-teens driver at Homestead. He’ll be closing out his tenure at RPM and he’ll be looking to go out on a high-note. One of the main reason’s why Almirola had the #43 ride dates back to an impressive 4th place finish at Homestead in 2010 when he drove the #9 in place of Kasey Kahne, and came home with a 4th place finish. Recently times haven’t been that good for him here. Last year he finished a very disappointing 40th. I’m not quite sure what exact problem he had but I think it was some type of parts failure. Regardless I don’t think he was going to be that good. In 2015 it’s hard to say how good he was because on lap 46 he was taken out in a big multi-car wreck. In 2014 he didn’t have a great performance. He finished 19th, had a 23rd place average running position and earned the 22nd best driver rating. In 2013 he didn’t have a great race either. He started in 19th, had a 16th place average running position, finished 16th and earned the 14th best driver rating. In 2012 in his first race as a full-time driver he finished 7th. (Yahoo B Driver)

Paul Menard – Homestead will be Menard’s final race in the 27, next year he’ll be driving for the Wood Brothers. On Sunday I would look for Menard to likely be a mid to high-teens driver. At Homestead since 2010 minus a 2013 accident he has a 14.2 average finish. Last year finished 14th but don’t overlook his 23rd place average running position. If it wasn’t for the late carnage he probably would’ve finished around 20th. In 2015 he finished 21st, had a 21st place average running position and earned the 20th best driver rating. In 2014 he finished 4th but that result didn’t come easy for him. In that event he started in the rear of the field because of an unapproved adjustment. That wasn’t a huge issue for him and he climbed up through the field at a steady pace until he reached the low teens. Also in the race he made an unexpected pit stop with 80 laps to go after he got into the wall while running in 13th. Strength wise I would estimate he was really about 13th place good but late in the race he used pit strategy. (Yahoo B Driver)

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