Fantasy NASCAR Asterisk Mark Report – Darlington #2 2021

Chase Elliott – Chase Elliott had a strong car last fall at Darlington and was a top five contender, but his race was far from incident free and he finished an asterisk mark 31st. In the race, Elliott started in 4th, but then during the lap 25 competition caution he hit the tire of another team’s tire carrier and that led to a second pit stop which dropped him to the back. When Stage #1 ended, Elliott rebounded back up to 11th. Then in Stage #2 during green flag pit stops when he was in 9th, Elliott had a failed attempt at coming to pit road and had to make an extra lap around going slowly. When Stage #2 ended, Elliott finished 8th. Then in the final Stage on lap 326 when he was in 7th, Elliott got into the wall hard which was a knockout blow.

William Byron – Last fall at “The Lady In Black”, Byron looked great, but his race was far from incident free. In the race, Byron clipped a spinning Bowman on lap 16 which did notable damage, but he battled back. On lap 187 he was up to 7th, but then during a green flag pit cycle on lap 200 he got into the wall hard and that doomed him to a 34th.

Ryan Blaney – Darlington is one of those tracks that has Blaney’s number, but he was a top contender last year in race #2. Last fall, Blaney started on the pole, finished 4th in Stage #1, 9th in Stage #2, led 17 laps, had a 9.6 average running position but finished 22nd. During Stage #2 pit stops after just finishing 9th, Blaney got an uncontrolled tire penalty. Then later on lap 319 when he rebounded back up to 11th, Blaney spun and brought out the caution.