Joey Logano 2011 Fantasy NASCAR Preview
2010 Stats: Points Finish 16th, o Wins, 7 Top Fives, 16 Top Tens, Average Running Position 16.9, Average Finish 16.8, Laps Led 53, Driver Rating 80.3
2010 was a big year for Joey Logano. He showed glimpses of brilliance throughout the season and in the last eleven races he had seven top tens and nine top twenties. In the two races where he didn’t finish in the top twenty he was involved in wrecks (New Hampshire and Homestead).
Strengths – Sliced Bread’s “bread and butter” are the intermediate tracks, flat tracks and short tracks.
Weaknesses – Joey Logano has never cracked the top fifteen at road courses. I also think another weakness of Logano’s is that he doesn’t have the respect of many of his competitors. His actions at Homestead will be a further set back for him in terms of earning his peers respect. Wrecking Montoya under caution then staying in his car until Montoya returned to the track was not a smart move.
Intermediate Track Grade- B+, Logano was very strong on intermediate tracks in 2010, but he also finished 17th or worse seven times. In NASCAR it’s impossible to take the next step if you’re finishing that badly consistently on this track type.
Flat Track Grade- B+, In the seven flat track races of the year Logano finished in the top ten four times. His “true” worst finish of the years on this track type was 25th at Pocono. In the Chase New Hampshire race Logano crashed early and at the spring Pocono race he had a run in with Harvick while racing in the top five.
Restrictor Plate Track Grade- B-, In three of his four races at Talladega Logano has finished in the top ten. At Daytona things really couldn’t be worse. His average finish at NASCAR’s most historical track is 27.75.
Short Track Grade- B+, Logano was batting .500 at short tracks in 2010 in terms of finishing in the top ten. I like him at Martinsville and Richmond but at Bristol not so much. His two worst short track finishes were at Bristol (27th and 18th).
Road Course Track Grade- C+, He was consistent in 2010 on the serpentine tracks. He finished 33rd in both races. In 2009 he finished in the high teens in both races. Check out his Yahoo race charts for both races and then you’ll see the whole story. He simply wasn’t competitive (Infineon chart, Watkins Glen chart).
How to use Joey Logano from a Fantasy NASCAR Perspective in 2011? Use Logano at intermediate tracks and flat tracks. Logano finished the season strongly but overall his inconsistency is a real problem for fantasy racers.
