Las Vegas Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Chase Elliott – Chase Elliott has a 27.8 average finish at Las Vegas, but don’t let that scare you away. He’s performed at a high-level, but trouble has never been far. In 3 of his 4 races he’s wrecked. If he can have an incident free race I think he’ll compete for a top ten. I will note his performance at Atlanta wasn’t confidence inspiring, but this is a whole new race with the aero ducts being put in place. Last fall at Las Vegas he was top ten good but finished an asterisk mark 36th after wrecking on lap 212 while running in 6th. If his race would’ve been incident free he was poised to finish very well. Last spring, Elliott had a good car but finished a misleading 34th. In the race he finished 8th in Stage #1, 9th in Stage #2 but with 85 laps to go while he was running just outside the top five he had contact with Kurt Busch and totaled his car. In 2017, Elliott ran extremely well. He finished 3rd, earned the 3rd best driver rating and had a 5th place average running position. Additionally, he finished 5th in Stage #1 and 4th in Stage #2. In 2016 at Las Vegas he had a strong showing but finished a misleading 38th. He was easily top ten good but was collected in a wreck shortly after a restart that led to his poor result.

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Paul Menard – Paul Menard is a quality dark horse option at Las Vegas. Among drivers of his tier he’s been a standout performer at Las Vegas. It’s been a very solid track for him and since 2011 he’s only once finished outside the top fifteen. Over the last five Las Vegas races his 13.0 average finish ranks as the 8th best. Last year at Las Vegas he had a great car and was one of eight drivers who swept the top ten. Last fall, he finished 10th but don’t overlook his 20th place average running position. Until the end he really never got that close to the front. With 25 laps to go he was back in 19th. Late cautions and mayhem really helped him. Last spring he was solid. He finished 9th, earned the 9th best driver rating and had a 10th place average running position. Additionally, he finished 10th in both Stage #1 and Stage #2. In 2017 he didn’t run well. He finished 19th and had a 19th place average running position. In the six races prior to that he was pretty good. In those combined races he had a 9.8 average finish, a 12.7 average running position and earned the 11th best driver rating. At Las Vegas I would view Menard as a mid-teens driver who’s capable of finishing marginally better.

Daniel Suarez – Daniel Suarez shouldn’t be overlooked at Las Vegas. Last fall he walked away with a good finish, but in his first two races at Las Vegas he was forgettable. In his new ride which I view as more competitive I think he has a great chance to be a low-double digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten. Last fall when the checkered flag waved he finished 8th, but don’t overlook his 17th place average running position and 18th best driver rating. Realistically I would say he was about mid-teens good but attrition helped him. Before late mayhem broke out he was back in 15th with 25 laps to go. Last spring, Suarez finished 26th. You can’t read into that result because he had multiple problems. His first problem happened around lap 125 during green flag pit stops when he had to make a second pit stop because of a tire gun issue. That dropped him 3 laps down back to the low-thirties. Prior to his problem he was running around the high-teens. To add insult to injury with 5 laps to go he ran out of fuel and had to make an unexpected pit stop. In 2017, extremely early in his career he didn’t have a good performance. He finished 20th and had a 22nd place average running position. At Atlanta, Suarez had a good performance. He finished 10th and had a 12th place average running position.

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