Homestead Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions

It all comes down to this. It’s been a long Fantasy NASCAR season, and after this weekend, we’ll finally have crowned champions in our leagues. Oh, and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will also crown its champion (obviously). As always, thank you for following along and reading all of our articles here at ifantasyrace, I hope they helped you with your picks!

Thanks to rain on Friday, qualifying this weekend was cancelled and the starting lineup was set by owners points. That means Denny Hamlin will lead the field to the green on Sunday, and you can see the full starting lineup by clicking here. There was only one practice this weekend, and those speeds can be found here: Practice #1. Don’t miss out on our in-depth notes for that session either: Practice #1.

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Final Top 25 Fantasy NASCAR Rankings for Homestead

1. Kevin Harvick – Starts 2nd – DraftKings Price: $10,800 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $13,200

Two of the four remaining Championship drivers are performing exceptionally well in the Playoffs: Martin Truex, Jr. and Kevin Harvick. When you take Talladega out of the equation, Harvick is averaging a finish of 4.8 in Playoff races this year, which is 5.4 spots better than his season average finish of 10.2. On the 1.5-mile tracks specifically, Harvick is averaging a finish of 8.7 (2nd-best behind Truex) with his most dominating performances coming at Texas and Atlanta, two other worn-out tracks somewhat comparable to Homestead-Miami Speedway. Speaking of which, “Happy” is a previous winner here at Homestead and has finished inside the top 5 in 10 of his 18 career starts here–including each of the last five. He’s also led 46+ laps in four of the last five races here. Coming into this week, I said Harvick was my favorite to win the title, and I’m sticking with it. The #4 Ford was 9th-fastest in Practice on Saturday and had the 7th-best ten-lap average.

2. Martin Truex, Jr. – Starts 3rd – DraftKings Price: $10,600 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $13,300

As mentioned before, Martin Truex, Jr. has the best average finish on 1.5-mile tracks this season, which is actually kind of surprising considering he has finished 12th or worse in three of the ten races. However, over the three Playoff races at 1.5-milers, this #19 team hasn’t finished worse than 6th, and they will definitely be a contender here at Homestead on Sunday evening. Like Harvick, Truex is a previous winner here and also came home 2nd in the race last year. Over the last eight, he’s finished 6th or better five times. As far as this weekend goes, I think the limited amount of pre-race track time actually helps Truex, because this #19 team tends to race with the setup they prepare heading into the weekend and not deviate from it much. Of course, that being successful is dependent on Cole Pearn hitting it right, but from an overall perspective, I think that’s a small benefit for Truex. Speed-wise, the #19 Toyota was 2nd-fastest in Practice on Saturday with the 3rd-best ten-lap average.

3. Denny Hamlin – Starts 1st – DraftKings Price: $11,100 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $13,000

All four Championship drivers have won at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but only one has went to victory lane twice: Denny Hamlin. Unfortunately, it’s been six years since Hamlin has not only won here, but posted a top 5 finish, as Denny hasn’t been able to put up a result better than 6th at this track since 2013. Additionally, Hamlin has just two top 5s in his last eleven Homestead starts, but it’s worth noting that both of those were his wins. As far as this weekend goes, the NASCAR gods were helping out the #11 team a bit on Friday, as Hamlin was awarded the pole (and top pit selection) thanks to the rain, both of which should give him a very good advantage on Sunday. Speed-wise, Denny was 3rd-fastest overall and also had the best ten-lap average. As far as 1.5-mile tracks this year, Denny’s average finish is at 11.9, which obviously isn’t super, but let’s not forget that he won at both Texas and Kansas this year. Hamlin will definitely have the advantage to start on Sunday but it’ll be interesting to see how his car drives whenever he loses the lead. One thing to note is that Hamlin has won three of the last four poles at Homestead (now four of the last five), and has 41 total laps, all of which came in last year’s event.