Dover FedEx 400 Fantasy NASCAR Top Tier Elite Picks

Jimmie Johnson – It’s hard to go wrong if Jimmie Johnson is your fantasy NASCAR pick to win the Dover FedEx 400. At this one mile concrete oval he’s a living legend. Last fall he won his record 8th race and passed Richard Petty and Bobby Allison on the Dover all-time win list. In a third of Johnson’s Dover starts he’s gone to victory lane. Last fall he showed the competition no mercy and dominated the event. He started 8th, had a second place average running position, led 243 laps and earned the best driver rating. Jimmie Johnson having one of the best driver ratings is by no means a surprise at Dover. Since 2009 he hasn’t had a driver rating worse than 2nd. His average driver rating ranking over these 10 races is 1.4. Last spring at Dover Johnson looked lost for about the first quarter of the race and almost got lapped. After that segment in the race Chad Knaus got it tuned to Johnson’s liking and he was the class of the field. His strength in the race was that his car could hug the bottom of the track better than anyone. On lap #100 he was in 13th but by lap #206 he had driven up to the lead. In the closing laps Johnson looked like a lock to win but during a late pit stop Juan Pablo Montoya beat him off pit road and then Johnson jumped a restart. That led to Johnson getting black flagged and finishing 17th with a car that should’ve won the race. In the spring race last season Johnson led the 2nd most laps (143) and earned the 2nd best driver rating. In fall 2012 he once again had a car that was capable of winning but at the end he was forced to save fuel and couldn’t drive hard. In spring 2012 Johnson went to victory lane. From a career perspective Dover is arguably Johnson’s best track. In addition to his 8 wins he also has 5 poles, 12 top fives, 17 top tens, and led 2,704 laps. One strength of his at Dover is leading laps. Over the last ten races he’s averaged leading 214.8 laps per race. This isn’t a week to be cute when it comes to making a fantasy NASCAR pick, this is a weekend where you should do the simple thing and pick Johnson to win the Dover FedEx 400. (Yahoo A Driver)

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Kevin Harvick – Kevin Harvick has been one of the best drivers at the Monster Mile in recent races. In five out of the last six Dover races he’s finished in the top ten. Over these six races he has the 3rd best average finish (8.2), 4th best average running position (9.5) and the 5th best driver rating. Last fall he had a solid race at Dover. He ran between 12th and 16th through the first 300 laps of the race but in the last 100 laps he drove hard and wheeled the #29 car to a 6th place finish. Also in the race last September he had a 13th place average running position and earned the 11th best driver rating. In spring 2013 he had a good performance. He started 7th, had a 7th place average running position, and finished 8th. In fall 2012 he finished 13th but that finish deserves an asterisk mark because he was a driver who got burned by an early caution during the pit cycle. If that didn’t happen I would put my money on him finishing in the top ten. In spring 2012 he unquestionably had one of the best cars and finished 2nd. In that event he started in 6th, drove up to 3rd, fell back to the high teens around the mid-point because of a long pit stop but rebounded by driving up through the field passing everyone except Jimmie Johnson. In 2011 Kevin Harvick finished 10th in both races. (Yahoo A Driver)

Recommended Reading: Dover Front Runner Rankings, Dover Mid Pack Predictions, Yahoo C List Preview, Who will win at Dover, Dover “Uh-Oh” Report

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