Martinsville Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Jimmie Johnson – Jimmie Johnson is a legendary performer at Martinsville, but his days of dominance are a thing of the past. In his career at Martinsville he’s a 9-time winner who’s finished in the top five 54% percent of the time and in the top ten 69% percent of the time. Since 2017 at Martinsville he’s had a drop in performance and over the last five races he has four results between 12th to 15th, a 15.6 average finish and a 14.0 average running position. Earlier this year at Martinsville, Johnson was very uncompetitive and he complained that his car wasn’t able to turn good. He finished 24th, had a 20th place average running position and earned the 20th best driver rating. Last fall, Johnson ran well and finished 12th. Also in the race he earned the 14th best driver rating and had a 16th place average running position. In spring 2018 he was an OK performer. He finished 15th, had a 12th place average running position and earned the 13th best driver rating. In both Stage #1 and #2 he finished 10th. In 2017, his results were also 12th and 15th. On Sunday, I’m going to view Johnson as a low-double digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten.

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Daniel Suarez – Daniel Suarez has been a solid performer at Martinsville. He currently has back to back top tens and minus his debut his average finish is 13.0. On Sunday, I would view him as a low double-digits driver who’ll compete for a top ten. This spring at Martinsville, Suarez had a solid showing. He finished 10th, earned the 10th best driver rating, had a 12th place average running position and finished 9th in Stage #2. Last fall, Suarez had his best Martinsville performance. When the checkered flag waved he finished 9th, earned the 13th best driver rating and had a 15th place average running position. In the two Martinsville races prior to that he had mediocre performances and had results of 15th and 18th.

Kyle Larson – Kyle Larson is under a lot of pressure to perform well at Martinsville. It hasn’t been a good track for him and over his 11 races he’s only finished in the top ten once. A typical Martinsville finish for him is a result in the teens, and over his last four incident free races he’s finished between 14th to 18th. Earlier this year, Larson finished 18th, but I thought he was better than his result. His average running position was 13th and he earned the 14th best driver rating. I will note his race wasn’t incident free. Around lap 330 while he was running just outside the top ten he had contact with Erik Jones. After that he just didn’t seem to run quite as well. Last fall, Larson walked away with an asterisk mark 37th place finish after having an engine failure. “Performance Wise”, I would say he was likely low-double digits to mid-teens good and would’ve finished around that range if his race was incident free. In spring 2018 he was a low to mid-teens performer throughout the race. When the checkered flag waved he finished 16th, earned the 15th best driver rating and had a 14th place average running position. On Sunday, I think it would be wise to view him as a mid-teens performer.

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