Fantasy NASCAR Asterisk Mark Report – Daytona

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 summer at Daytona, and how good they truly were. Here’s a link to the Asterisk Mark Report for the 2018 Daytona 500.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – Last summer at Daytona no driver had a bigger impact on the race than Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He had the best car, and he also caused many of the drivers below to wreck. In the race he won Stage #1, won Stage #2, led a race high 51 laps, caused two big ones but then karma caught up to him at the end. He got some damage when Kyle Larson had a blown tire on lap 124 and then with 11 laps to go he had a flat tire of his own which led to his 17th place finish.

Kyle Busch – Kyle Busch is a strong performer at Daytona, but trouble has struck far too often. Over the last four races he’s finished 20th or worse. Last summer, Busch had a great car that was probably one of the best but he finished an asterisk mark 33rd. In the race he finished 2nd in Stage #1 and was 2nd at the time of his demise on lap 65 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wrecked him. If he would’ve had an incident free race I think he probably would’ve been a factor to win.

Ryan Blaney – Ryan Blaney was the class of the field in the 2018 Daytona 500. He earned the best driver rating, led 118 laps and probably would’ve won if there wasn’t a late caution (finished 7th). Last July he didn’t get the chance to backup his performance and instead finished dead last after wrecking in the lap 54 “Big One.” I’ll note prior to Stage #1 ending he easily looked top ten good and ran many laps inside the top five.

William Byron – At Daytona, no place on the track is safe and that includes the lead. Last summer at Daytona, William Byron led 12 laps but while he was leading on lap 65 he crashed while pacing the field after Stenhouse Jr. caused a mutli-car wreck that collected him. When Stage #1 ended on lap 40 he finished 4th. If his race would’ve been incident free its more than fair to assume he would’ve been a top ten contender.