Fantasy NASCAR Top Tier Elite Picks – The Clash
Kyle Busch – In the Clash At The Coliseum, Kyle Busch should be on your short list of favorites. Busch is without a doubt one of the premiere performers at short tracks, and he’s proven to be a quick adapter. Closing out 2021 at short tracks, Busch finished 2nd at Martinsville and had a great chance to win Richmond #2 if he didn’t get a speeding penalty. Busch also has quite a track record of being a quick adapter. Busch won the first COT race, and he also won the first Gen6 car race held in California (race #5 of 2013). Another attribute you have to like about Busch is that he’s raced all across the country at all sorts of short tracks throughout his career as recreation, so his level of experience at super short tracks is probably as high as anyone in the field. I’ll also note, I’ve theorized all throughout the off-season that JGR might have an early edge at optimizing the NextGen for speed. Look for Busch to be tough to beat.
Chase Elliott – Chase Elliott will be trophy hunting and in the Clash there’s no question he’ll be one of the drivers to beat. Elliott’s emerged into one of the premiere performers at Martinsville, and I think he can dial up the aggression level needed. Martinsville is the closest of the already existing tracks on the schedule, but by no means is it a perfect comparison. At Martinsville, Elliott won in fall 2020, finished 2nd in spring 2021 and last fall, Elliott won the first two Stages, led 289 laps but finished a misleading 16th after getting spun while running in 3rd with just under 50 laps to go. Between the combined Martinsville races last year, Elliott had the best Total Speed Ranking.
Denny Hamlin – My long running Denny Hamlin rule of thumb is, “If its short or flat, pick Hamlin.” The Coliseum is super short (.25 miles) and flat, and I think that principle will hold true. Martinsville is the closest already existing track on the schedule, and last year Hamlin was super impressive in both races. In the spring he had the best Total Speed Ranking (finished 3rd), and in the fall he started in the back but was spun out late while leading which led to his 24th (6th best Total Speed Ranking). In 2021 across all the Shorter-Flat Tracks + Martinsville, Hamlin ranked #1 in Total Speed Rankings across all the combined events. Also, just like Busch mentioned above, I theorize JGR will have an early edge at developing the NextGen.
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