Talladega 2 Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions
Talladega Superspeedway is the site of this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, as the final “wildcard” race of the year is taking place in the middle of Round 2 of the Playoffs. The races at Talladega and Daytona are “wildcard” races where pretty much anyone can finish up front, and with three races already in the books this year, I’ll be relying heavily on that data to make picks this weekend.
If you’d like a statistic recap of the three superspeedway races of 2019, please click here.
Hendrick Motorsports went 1-2-3-4 in qualifying on Saturday with Chase Elliott winning the pole. He’s also the most recent race winner here at Talladega. You can view the entire starting lineup by clicking here. There were two pre-qualifying practice sessions held on Friday, and the speeds from those can be found here: Practice #1 — Happy Hour. You should also read our in-depth notes for those sessions: Practice #1 — Happy Hour. [themify_box ]Want to be a better fantasy racer? Get the ifantasyrace advantage and read all of our full, exclusive content. We offer tons of content every week to help you dominate your leagues, both season-long and DFS weekly. Click here to Join Now.[/themify_box]
Final Top 25 Fantasy NASCAR Rankings for Talladega 2
1. Chase Elliott – Starts 1st – DraftKings Price: $10,100 – FanDuel Price: $12,000 – Slingshot Price: $11,500
Chase Elliott has made seven career Cup Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, and thus far he has three top 5 finishes that include his win here back in April. The bad news? He’s never finished better than 12th in this fall race. That could easily change this weekend, though, because the #9 Chevrolet has been solid on the superspeedways this year (surprise, surprise) plus Chase really needs a good run to keep his Playoff hopes alive. Looking at the two Daytona and one Talladega race ran this year, Chase has the 3rd-best average running position (10.3) in those races and the 4th-best average driver rating (93.1). His career average finish is 14th here at Talladega, and that makes him 2nd-best in that category behind Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (11.8).
2. Joey Logano – Starts 10th – DraftKings Price: $9,400 – FanDuel Price: $14,500 – Slingshot Price: $12,000
Right now, Joey Logano is pretty much the automatic #1 when it comes to Fantasy NASCAR and superspeedways. He’s one of, if not the best driver in the garage on this track type right now, and we all know how strong those Ford engines are–and we’re at a track that requires a lot of horsepower. As far as Talladega specifically, Logano is a three-time winner here and has finished inside the top 5 in six of the last eight ‘Dega events (including each of the last four). At Daytona and Talladega combined this year, Joey has an average running position of 8.7 (series-best) with an average finish of 11.0 (4th-best). If there was a “safe” Fantasy NASCAR pick this weekend, it’d be Joey Logano.
3. Brad Keselowski – Starts 5th – DraftKings Price: $9,600 – FanDuel Price: $12,500 – Slingshot Price: $11,300
Brad Keselowski has quite the history at Talladega Superspeedway. In 21 career starts here, BK has won the race five times while also posting a total of seven top 5s and eleven top 10s. He last won here in the fall race of 2017, but unfortunately for Keselowski fans, he hasn’t finished better than 13th here since. With that being said, all three Penske Fords are going to be super fast here on Sunday, and with his track history, it’d be foolish to go against Bad Brad. Looking at the Playoff Standings, Keselowski has a 24-point cushion heading into Sunday, and should be able to at least maintain that this weekend.
