Fantasy NASCAR Contender Or Pretender: Daytona 2
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Tony Stewart (Contender) – No driver has been better in the Daytona summer race over the last half decade than Tony Stewart. He’s the defending champion of this race and he’s won it on two other occasions (2005 & 2006). The summer race at Daytona is extremely slick and it plays right into Tony Stewart’s driving style. All of his career Daytona wins have come in the July race.
In 2007 “teammate issues” took Tony Stewart out early and in 2008 Tony Stewart raced competitively but was relieved by JJ Yeley midway through the race. Essentially Tony Stewart is three for three in the last five years when he completes the whole race.
Jeff Burton (Pretender) – I don’t care if Jeff Burton wins the pole, has the best handling car in practice, and guarantees a win. I’m simply not going to pick him this week. My evidence for not picking him can be found at New Hampshire, Infineon, Dover, Darlington, Talladega, Texas and Martinsville. One of my fantasy racing theories is that if a driver is having consistency issues restrictor plate tracks are not the place where its going to turn around.
Kevin Harvick (Contender) – No driver has been more consistent this season than Kevin Harvick. At tracks where car survivability is an issue I like to pick drivers who avoid DNF’s. In 2010 Kevin Harvick has zero DNF’s and throughout his career he’s done a good job avoiding them.
In the Daytona 500 this year Kevin Harvick had perhaps the best handling car in the field but circumstances at the end didn’t play out his way. From all of the restrictor plate races we’ve seen this year there’s no doubt that Kevin Harvick is going to be one of the drivers to beat Saturday night.
Ryan Newman (Pretender) – In the what have you done for me lately world of fantasy racing Ryan Newman hasn’t done anything at Daytona since his 2008 Daytona 500 victory. His average finish at Daytona since the biggest moment in his career is 31.5. In seventeen career starts at this track Newman has only finished in the top ten three times.
Carl Edwards (Contender) – Carl Edwards is very good in the summer race at Daytona. In the last three years his average finish in the Coke Zero 400 is 3.33. If NASCAR wasn’t so quick to throw out a caution in the summer 2008 race and let it play out like the 2007 Daytona 500 then I think Carl Edward’s would’ve won that race.
Denny Hamlin (Pretender) – In ten career starts at Daytona Denny Hamlin only has one career top ten. His lone top ten is also his only career top fifteen at Daytona. If you’re a big fan of qualifying then perhaps you’ll be happy to hear that Hamlin has only started outside the top twenty once at Daytona, but unfortunately qualifying means little here.
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