Fantasy NASCAR Asterisk Mark Report – Las Vegas
Every week in NASCAR there’s drivers who have problems in the race and walk away with an asterisk mark result. Understanding misleading finishes and knowing how good drivers truly were can help give you the edge on your competition. Many fantasy racers just looked at results and assume that’s how good drivers were. This post explains who had a misleading result last year at Las Vegas, and how good they truly were.
Jimmie Johnson – Jimmie Johnson had a great car last year at Las Vegas. Performance wise I thought he subjectively had the best car. Strength wise he earned the #1 position in our exclusive PROS Rankings (Projected Ranking Of Strength). Unfortunately his afternoon wasn’t incident free. In the race he started 9th and led 45 of the first 91 laps until he made an unexpected pit stop for a vibration while leading. That dropped him into the thirties, off the lead lap (lap 91). Later in the race he had a tire go down and that led to him getting into the wall hard which caused him to finish 41st. In the three Las Vegas races prior to 2015 he had the best driver rating, a 4.7 average finish and a 4.7 average running position.
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Carl Edwards – Carl Edwards has run well at Las Vegas. Last year he was going for his 5th straight top five at Las Vegas but his race wasn’t problem free. If he would’ve had an incident free race he would’ve kept his streak alive. Performance wise he was top five good but with 75 laps to go while he was running in 5th he had contact with Kasey Kahne that sent him crashing into the wall. When the checkered flag waved he finished 42nd.
Kasey Kahne – Kasey Kahne was top five strong last year but his accident with Carl Edwards with 75 laps to go while he was running in 4th damaged his car. After that he wasn’t as strong and went on to finish 19th. Even with his problem he still had a 6th place average running position for the afternoon. In the two Las Vegas races prior to 2015 finished in the top ten.
Ryan Newman – Ryan Newman finished 3rd last year. He ran well but he wasn’t quite that good. Performance wise he was really about 6th to 8th place strong. Late in the race he used pit strategy which helped him finish artificially high.
Regan Smith – Regan Smith drove the #41 last year in place of Kurt Busch and finished 16th. I think he was likely better than his result. He started in 34th and marched his way up to about 13th before he got a pit penalty on lap 135. That dropped him a lap down back into the twenties. It’s important to note on Sunday he won’t be driving the #41, instead he’ll be driving a less than competitive #7.
For more in depth information on what happened last year at Las Vegas make sure you read our exclusive Scouting Report
