Dover AAA 400 Fantasy NASCAR “Top Tier Elite” Deadline Post Qualifying Analysis

Jimmie Johnson

What to expect / Areas of concern:

Jimmie Johnson likes the feel of his car and no one’s better than him at  Dover. He’s vying for his record 8th win and he’s coming off back to back 2nd place finishes. Johnson has been quiet this weekend but I have faith in the 48 team. He’s starting a little deeper in the field than I like but he’ll be fine.

Starting Position:

11th

Average Practice Speed Ranking:

6th

PROS Ranking:

1st

Chassis Selection:

Jimmie Johnson will be using the chassis he won with in June.

What I said about him earlier this week:

Jimmie Johnson will be the favorite to win the AAA 400. You don’t need a crystal ball to make that prediction. This spring Jimmie Johnson had the best PROS Ranking and won his 7th race at the Monster Mile. He started in 2nd, led 289 laps and had an average running position of 1st. His driver rating was just .2 away from being perfect. When it comes to leading laps at Dover Johnson is in a league of his own. He’s led the most laps in 8 of the last 12 races. In the last seven races alone he’s led 1,719 laps. From a career perspective the case could be made that this is Johnson’s best track. In 21 races at the Monster Mile he’s finished in the top five in nearly half (10) of them and he’s won a third of the races (7). Johnson will be a very popular experts pick to win the AAA 400.

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Kyle Busch

What to expect / Areas of concern:

I think Kyle Busch is now the favorite to win the Dover AAA 400.  In practice yesterday he had the best 10 lap average and the fastest average speed. The competition has also taken note of how good he was. Biffle’s crew chief said the 18 was really good and Kasey Kahne in an interview said that his car wasn’t as quick as the 18’s.  In June Kyle Busch had a top five car but his engine blew up. One concern about Kyle Busch is that just because he might have the best car doesn’t mean he’ll win.

Starting Position:

5th

Average Practice Speed Ranking:

1st

PROS Ranking:

5th

Chassis Selection:

Joe Gibbs Racing doesn’t report chassis selections.

What I said about him earlier this week:

Kyle Busch had a car that was capable of finishing in the top five in June but he had a couple problems (Yahoo! Race Chart). Around lap #170 he was running in the top five but during a pit stop he had a loose wheel which dropped him deep in the field. A little later in the event his engine unexpectedly gave way. Kyle Busch has been very good at Dover. When you exclude his June result his last four finishes here 1st, 6th, 4th and 6th. In that stretch of races he had the best average finish in the series (4.3). In fifteen races at Dover Busch has two wins and seven top five finishes. Jimmie Johnson is the best driver at Dover but Kyle Busch is in the conversation of who’s next.

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