Darlington Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Aric Almirola – Don’t overlook Aric Almirola at Darlington. His track record is poor, but like nearly everywhere else on the schedule you can completely disregard his prior track history. On Sunday I would look for him to be a low-double digits driver who’ll have a great chance to compete for a top ten. At “The Lady In Black” his best result is 11th and his other five finishes are 19th or worse. Last year there was nothing special about his performance. He finished 20th and had a 21st place average running position. In 2016 he was right around 20th place good but finished 32nd after crashing hard into the wall with 18 laps to go while running in 20th. In 2015 he had his best Darlington finish and came home 11th. Additionally, he earned the 13th best driver rating and had a 15th place average running position. In the three Darlington races prior to that he had results of 24th, 20th and 19th.

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Alex Bowman – I have high hopes for Alex Bowman at Darlington. I’m viewing him as a low-double digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten. He has two previous starts under his belt but neither should be viewed as relevant. I’m basing his fantasy value off his 2018 weekly level of performance. Bowman’s prior results at Darlington, which shouldn’t be viewed as relevant are 24th (2015) and 29th (2014).

Jimmie Johnson – At Darlington I would look for Jimmie Johnson to be a low-double digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten. That’s essentially how he stacks up against the competition on a week to week basis right now. At Darlington, Johnson has been a good performer. He’s a three-time winner who’s finished in the top five 47% percent of the time and in the top ten 63% percent of the time. His overall average finish is 10.5. Last year I would say he had a respectable race. He finished 12th, had a 13th place average running position and earned the 13th best driver rating. In both Stages he finished just outside the top ten. In 2016 Johnson had a good car and was top ten strong but his race wasn’t incident free. Around lap 95 during pit stops his crew made an unapproved adjustment to his car and NASCAR then made his team fix it. This dropped him a lap down and then after it was fixed NASCAR made him do a pass and go penalty. Prior to his problem he was in 7th, after his problem he was two laps down in 26th. He never really recovered from that and later in the race he spun and wrecked which led to his 33rd place finish. In 2015 he was around 10th place good but finished 19th because his race wasn’t incident free. On lap 134 while he was running in 10th he spun but didn’t get any notable damage. In the three Darlington races prior to that he finished in the top five and had a 2.7 average finish.

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