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.

Jimmie Johnson – Atlanta is a great track for Jimmie Johnson, but last year he finished a misleading 19th. Around lap 133 while he was running around 6th he was caught speeding on pit road, this dropped him a lap down to 18th. Later in the race with 120 laps to go he was caught speeding again. Then near the end after he took the “wave around” he pitted which resulted in a 1 lap penalty dooming him to his poor result.

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Kevin Harvick – Last year at Atlanta, Kevin Harvick put on a display of domination, but walked away with an asterisk mark 9th place finish. His misleading result is the product of getting a late speeding penalty while leading with about 15 laps to go. That put him back in the pack but he was still able to slice and dice his way to a respectable result. From the race it should be noted he earned the best driver rating, led a race high 292 laps and earned the best PROS Ranking. If Kevin Harvick didn’t get that speeding penalty I have no doubt he would’ve won.

Denny Hamlin – Atlanta is becoming one of those tracks where Denny Hamlin has a hard time catching a break. In 3 of the last 5 years he’s finished an asterisk mark 38th. Those were all odd years, so hopefully bad luck can’t strike this year! Last year Denny Hamlin had top ten potential but finished a misleading 38th after having burned up his right rear hub. With 7 laps to go in Stage #2 he made an unexpected pit stop which ended up sending him behind the wall. Prior to his problem surfacing he was running in 8th. In Stage #1 he finished 8th so it’s more than reasonable to assume he was top ten good. During a post DNF interview Hamlin said he thought he was around 7th to 8th place good.