Talladega Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Jimmie Johnson – Jimmie Johnson has been a solid performer at Talladega and on Sunday he shouldn’t be overlooked. In 3 of the last 4 races at this “Wild Card” track he’s finished in the top 12. Last fall he finished 7th, but it wasn’t pretty. On lap 63 he spun and hit the inside wall which brought out a caution. Johnson was running around 10th at that time and it dropped him a lap down. Last spring he had a respectable performance at Talladega. He finished 12th, had a 10th place average running position and earned the 4th best driver rating. Additionally, he finished 10th in Stage #1 and 7th in Stage #2. In fall 2017, he had a tough race and finished 24th after wrecking in the “Big One” with 17 laps to go. One lap prior to wrecking he was running in 7th. In spring 2017, Johnson had a good race. He finished 8th and earned the 5th best driver rating. Over the last three races this season heading into the weekend, Johnson has a 9th place finish.

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Paul Menard – Paul Menard has been a steady performer at Talladega and in 4 of the last 5 races he’s finished between 9th to 13th. Over that stretch minus the race last spring when he wrecked his average finish is 10.8. Last fall, Menard started back in 30th, but raced his way up to a 9th place finish. That’s a really good result when you take into account on lap 17 he made an unexpected pit stop which dropped him a lap down. Last spring he had a pretty good car, but wrecked and finished 30th. He certainly didn’t have a bad car. He finished 5th in Stage #1 and won Stage #2. In fall 2017, Menard escaped with a 12th place finish. It’s important to note he had gear issues and if the attrition rate wasn’t sky high there’s no way he would’ve finished that good. In spring 2017 he had a good race. He finished 9th, had a 15th place average running position and earned the 15th best driver rating. In 2016 he had results of 13th and 26th. In 4 of the 5 races prior to that he finished in the top ten.

Erik Jones – Erik Jones has crashed in 3 of his 4 Talladega races, but don’t overlook him on Sunday. He ran well last fall, and over his last three races on this track type his average finish is 4th, and that includes finishing 3rd in this years Daytona 500, and winning at Daytona last summer. Last fall, Jones had his best Talladega performance and finished 8th. In his other three races he wrecked. Last spring he wrecked on lap 72 and that led to his 39th place finish. In fall 2017, he only completed 26 laps until he was collected in a wreck when Jamie McMurray was coming to pit road. In spring 2017 he didn’t have a bad race, but he was caught up in a wreck that led to his 33rd place finish. If his race would’ve been incident free he had a great chance to compete for a top ten. In the race he finished 10th in Stage #1, and 9th in Stage #2.

Make sure you read the full spectrum of our Talladega Fantasy NASCAR Rankings

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