COTA Fantasy NASCAR Front Runner Rankings

Alex Bowman
COTA Bottom Line – At COTA, Alex Bowman should have a solid showing. “Performance Wise”, I would project Bowman to be a high-single digit to low double-digit driver. In Hendrick equipment, he’s consistently performed within that range.
Road Course Racing Prowess – In Hendrick equipment, Alex Bowman has been a solid performer and in 12 of his 15 races on this track type he’s finished in the top 14. I’ll note, in 10 of those 15 races he’s finished between 8th to 14th. Last year at road courses, Last year on this track type, Bowman had four results between 8th to 10th, and then in the other three races he finished between 17to 22nd. For the season across the seven races held at road courses, Bowman had a 13.7 average finish, a 15.1 average running position and his Track Type Total Speed Ranking was the 11th best.
COTA 2021 – Alex Bowman showed up with speed last year at COTA and was racy. In the race, Bowman finished 10th in Stage #2, 8th overall, led 3 laps and was the 5th fastest driver late in a run. I’ll note, Bowman was the leader with 6 laps to go, but then shortly after that he had to pit for fuel. Him finishing 8th despite that is a testament to him having a healthy lead.

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Christopher Bell
COTA Bottom Line – At COTA, I have high expectations for Bell. Bell has proven himself to be a strong performer on this track type and if he has an incident free race, I think he’ll finish in the top ten. That said, incident free races have been rare for Bell in 2022, even in races where he doesn’t crash.
Road Course Racing Prowess – Christopher Bell is a strong performer at road courses. Bell of course had his highlight win at the Daytona Road Course, and then over his incident free races (minus COTA, Sonoma and Indy) he swept the top ten and had a 4.5 average finish. That even underrates him some since he spun at Watkins Glen while battling for 2nd which led to his 7th place finish.
COTA 2021 – Last year at COTA, I think Christopher Bell looked racy, but he also had a short afternoon after crashing on lap 19 in the rain. In the race, Bell finished just outside the top ten in Stage #1 and was running in 10th on lap 18 which was just before his demise. In practice prior to the race, Bell was 6th on the speed chart.

Austin Cindric 
COTA Bottom Line – Austin Cindric’s road course results left a lot to be desired on the Cup level in 2021, but I wouldn’t hit the panic button about that. Cindric is a great road course racer and behind the wheel of the #2, I think he’s a top ten contender.
Road Course Racing Prowess – Last year on the Cup level, Cindric competed in three road course races, and things weren’t pretty. For the season, Cindric finished 9th in a high-attrition race at Indy, had problems under his hood at Road America (38th, looked great though) and then finished a clunker 25th at COTA after running well for the first two Stages. In 2021 in the Xfinity series at road courses, Cindric had 1 win, 6 results in the top 8 and a 5th place average finish over the combined events.
COTA 2021 – Austin Cindric was racy last year at COTA, but he finished a clunker 25th. In the race, Cindric finished 5th in Stage #1, 4th in Stage #2, led 4 laps and had a 10.4 average running position. Towards the end, Cindric just wasn’t at his best, and his pit strategy game was also off which led to his disappointing afternoon. On lap 52 he was in 27th, and then the next lap he spun which was then followed by the race ending red flag. Last year in the lower series at COTA, Cindric finished 5th.

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