Michigan Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Aric Almirola – At Michigan, look for Aric Almirola to have a strong performance and be a low double-digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten. Almirola hasn’t exactly been a top ten machine. To find his most recent top ten not at a plate track, road course of Pocono you have to go back to Texas in March. At Michigan, Almirola has been pretty solid in recent races and in 3 of the last 4 he’s finished between 7th to 12th. Earlier this year at MIS, he showed speed but finished a lackluster 17th. In the race he earned the 7th best driver rating, had a 10th place average running position, finished 4th in Stage #1 and 5th in Stage #2. At the end of the race he simply wasn’t at his best. Last summer at Michigan, Almirola had his best performance at this 2.0 mile oval and had his first top ten. When the checkered flag waved he finished 7th, earned the 8th best driver rating and had an 11th place average running position. Additionally, he finished 7th in Stage #1 and 8th in Stage #2. Last spring he ran well. He finished 11th, earned the 9th best driver rating and had a 13th place average running position. In summer 2017 he finished 12th.

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William Byron – William Byron will be a driver to watch at Michigan. His track record isn’t appealing, but you have to like how well the #24 team is running right now. At Kentucky, the last high-speed intermediate track visited he looked like a contender to win until he got a restart penalty which led to a misleading 18th place finish. Earlier this year at Michigan, Byron didn’t have a great race. He finished 18th and had a 16th place average running position. Nothing happened to him, it just wasn’t that great of a showing. Last summer at MIS, Byron had a tough race and finished 36th. On lap 16 while he was running just outside the top ten he spun after contact with Truex Jr. and it dropped him two laps down. He never bounced back from that. Last spring he had a quality performance and finished 13th. Additionally, he earned the 8th best driver rating, had a 9th place average running position, finished 8th in Stage #1 and 9th in Stage #2. Prior to the last caution coming out which ended the race he was running in 12th.

Jimmie Johnson – There’s a lot of pressure on Jimmie Johnson to come up big at Michigan. His points situation isn’t ideal, and over the last four Michigan races he’s finished 15th or worse. Michigan has historically been a track where trouble strikes him all too often. Earlier this year, Johnson didn’t have a race to brag about. He finished 15th, but take note his race wasn’t incident free. He had contact with other cars on pit road twice and during his first incident during the competition caution just after lap 20 he was running in the mid-teens. That did a good amount of damage to his nose which hampered his afternoon. Last summer at Michigan, Johnson ran well, but finished an asterisk mark 28th. With 6 laps to go while he was running in 13th he made an unexpected pit stop that doomed him to his poor result. From the race I’ll note his average running position was 15th. In spring 2018 he was in a slump and didn’t run well. He finished 20th, earned the 20th best driver rating and had a 22nd place average running position. He didn’t have problems, he was just that bad. One attribute I like about Johnson is that he’s been pretty good at high-speed intermediate tracks in recent races. Over the last five races on this sub-track type he has 3 top tens and 4 results in the top fifteen.

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