ifantasyrace.com Texas Top 20 Rankings

1. Jeff Gordon– Gordon collected his first win at Texas this spring. Gordon also has the best average finish this year on similarly configured tracks (5.8).
2. Kasey Kahne– Kahne won at Atlanta recently and he also had arguably the fastest car at Lowes. Intermediate tracks are his specialty so look for him to be good Sunday at Texas.
3. Mark Martin– The 5 team will dig deep at Texas and Martin is a driver who very well could get the job done this weekend. Martin won at Texas in 1998.
4. Jimmie Johnson– Johnson will have a car good enough to win except I personally don’t think the 48 will risk anything at Texas. Johnson has the best average finish in the series at here (8.5).
5. Juan Pablo Montoya– Don’t underestimate the 42. Montoya has been strong everywhere recently and that includes Lowes despite his bad finish there.
6. Kurt Busch– The blue deuce dominated at Atlanta earlier this year but unfortunately they have never been able to duplicate that performance. Kurt finished 8th here earlier this year.
7. Clint Bowyer– RCR is starting to really get into gear now and Clint had a strong race at Lowes finishing 6th.
8. Matt Kenseth– Matt Kenseth has led more laps at Texas then any other driver in NASCAR history (497). He also has one career win at this track.
9. Denny Hamlin– Hamlin has the 3rd best average finish here (11.6). I would be concerned about his ability to finish races. In 2007 Hamlin was leading this race but he managed to take himself out hitting the outside wall.
10. Greg Biffle– Biffle won here in 2004 and he has had a top 5 finish the last two times the series has visited Texas.
11. Tony Stewart– Stewart is third to Matt Kenseth in career laps led at Texas (469).  Stewart has one win and 9 top fives in 15 races at Texas.
12. Carl Edwards– Carl swept this track last year but things have changed since then. The 99 just isn’t on par with competitors anymore at these tracks. Also take note how far off the 99 was off at Lowes before they blew up.
13. David Reutimann– Reutimann won the pole this spring and finished 11th.
14. Brian Vickers– Before the Chase started I would have told you Vickers would be a good pick for Texas, but since the Chase started I’m not sure if I would pick him anywhere.
15. Ryan Newman– Newman won at Texas in 2003 on two tires and he out dueled Earnhardt Jr with 4 new tires. Things sure have changed since then.
16. Kyle Busch– Kyle will have a new crew chief Sunday so proceed with caution. FEAR the unknown.
17. Dale Earnhardt Jr.– Junior might have the “Dictator” that he claims he needs now but I don’t think he’ll be able to duplicate his first career win which happened at Texas in his first career start at the track.
18. Jeff Burton– Burton has two career wins at this track but with the way they’ve performed this year there are a lot more safer picks out there.
19. Martin Treux Jr.– Treux runs great at a lot of these intermediate tracks but he doesn’t always finish good. He ran strong at both Atlanta and Lowes recently.
20. Jaime McMurray– McMurray nearly won this race last year but lost on fuel mileage.

Make sure you check out my Texas Fantasy Tip so your team won’t be Texas Toast this weekend.