Fantasy NASCAR Asterisk Mark Report – Atlanta

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 look at results and assume that’s how good drivers were. This post explains who had a misleading result last year at Atlanta, and how good they truly were.

Matt Kenseth – No driver had a more misleading result than Matt Kenseth last spring at Atlanta. He had a great car and was a serious contender to win but crossed the finish line with an asterisk mark 19th place finish. His misleading result is the product of getting a pit penalty and then not serving it in a timely manner which led to him getting black flagged. Just prior to getting penalized he was the race leader. Also it should be noted he started in 13th and led 47 of the first 118 laps until he was penalized. In our member exclusive PROS Rankings we have him listed as having the 3rd best car.

Ryan Newman – Last year Newman entered Atlanta with a 3 race top ten streak, if he would’ve had an incident free race he likely would’ve extended it to four. Unfortunately his race wasn’t incident free and as a result he finished 24th. His first problem happened with 40 laps to go when he was running in 10th but was penalized when his crew went over the wall too soon. Then with 3 laps to go when he was running in 12th he had a cut tire and spun which resulted in heavy damage.

Ryan Blaney – Ryan Blaney had a solid car last year at Atlanta but crossed the finish line in 25th. He was mid-teens good but on the final lap while he was running around 15th he was collected in a wreck. Additionally from the race it should be noted he had a 15th place average running position and earned the 16th best driver rating.