Fantasy NASCAR Racing

Fantasy NASCAR practice recap: Quaker State 400

July 8, 2011 @ 16:45:10

Heavy rains early in the day threatened to cancel a pair of Cup Series practice sessions at Kentucky Speedway Friday, but in the end, a 90-minute Happy Hour was squeezed in just before qualifying. Despite the track time, Mother Nature couldn’t have picked a worse weekend to cause problems. Drivers and teams are already scrambling to find the right setup for the inaugural race at the 1.5-mile bumpy track, and one fewer practice session won’t help matters any. Unfortunately for fantasy owners, it looks like one practice is going to be all there is to go by when setting lineups for Saturday night’s race.

In the lone practice session, it was Kyle Busch leading the way with a lap of 182.803 mph. Busch had led more laps than any driver at Kentucky in the Nationwide Series, and he won the Truck Series event at the track Thursday night. Despite his boom or bust tendencies at 1.5-mile tracks throughout his career, it is tough to bet against the driver that turned the fastest lap in the only practice. Busch definitely deserves to be in the fantasy discussion.

He was followed by Juan Pablo Montoya and Kurt Busch. Of the two drivers, Kurt is the much better play. For starters, he has led more laps at 1.5-mile tracks in the last 10 races than any other driver. More importantly, he enters the race as one of the hottest drivers in the series. Meanwhile, Montoya has been dreadfully inconsistent at 1.5-mile ovals in his career, and it doesn’t appear to be getting any better. He has just four lead-lap finishes in his last 10 starts.

Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top five, and both could be helpful to fantasy owners this weekend. Despite a slow first half of the year by his standards, Johnson is still capable of winning at any track, not to mention the fact that he and crew chief Chad Knaus could have the advantage because of their ability to dial in a car during a race. Kahne is more of an under the radar option, but he has won at multiple 1.5-mile tracks during his career. A top-10 performance isn’t out of the question.

In terms of 10-lap average speeds, Tony Stewart was by far the class of the field. In fact, he posted the best overall average speed in the session of the drivers in race trim despite running more than 40 laps. It is looking like Stewart could have a breakout performance Saturday and finally get his first win of 2011. "Smoke" should be high up on the list of fantasy options.

The suddenly hot Brad Keselowski ranked second in the average speed category, leading a charge of potential sleepers. Regan Smith, David Ragan and Paul Menard rounded out the top five. With the exception of Menard, all the drivers have won a race this season, and Menard has actually scored the most points of the bunch in the last 10 races at 1.5-mile tracks. Owners can take their pick of the bunch with a slight edge going to Ragan and his Roush Fenway Racing equipment. In fantasy leagues that limit the number of starts per driver, this could be a perfect week to load up some underdogs and still put up solid numbers.

Greg Biffle was among the big names that failed to impress during practice, ranking outside the top 20. Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and A.J. Allmendinger ranked outside the top 15 as well. Owners will have to think twice before picking Denny Hamlin. He ran just two laps of practice before having an engine issue. Not only will he have to start dead last Saturday, but he will do so with almost no practice laps under his belt. Hamlin is certainly talented enough to overcome the tough break, but the odds aren’t in his favor.

Happy Hour Speeds (sorted by Avg. Speed)

Rk indicates Best Lap standing

Rk	Car	Driver	Team	Best Lap	Best Time	Avg. Speed	Laps
26	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Ground Toyota	180.264	29.956	179.979	2
25	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Toyota	180.415	29.931	179.719	11
30	30	David Stremme	Inception Motorsports Chevrolet	179.886	30.019	179.366	8
31	51	Landon Cassill	Security Benefits/Thank A Teacher Today	179.736	30.044	178.897	15
32	15	Michael Waltrip	Aaron's/Darrell Waltrip Hall Of Fame Toyota	179.456	30.091	178.466	13
33	87	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports Toyota	179.075	30.155	178.393	9
9	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet	181.580	29.739	177.971	45
7	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	181.824	29.699	177.683	20
29	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet	179.940	30.010	177.668	20
8	6	David Ragan	UPS Ford	181.696	29.720	177.635	36
39	38	Travis Kvapil	Long John Silver's Ford	178.501	30.252	177.530	16
3	22	Kurt Busch	Shell/Pennzoil Dodge	182.346	29.614	177.405	39
6	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	181.861	29.693	177.275	36
38	46	J.J. Yeley	Red Line Chevrolet	178.660	30.225	177.193	11
28	5	Mark Martin	Quaker State/GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	180.114	29.981	177.132	42
12	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Chevrolet	181.439	29.762	177.005	34
14	24	Jeff Gordon	DuPont Chevrolet	181.287	29.787	176.949	22
13	17	Matt Kenseth	Crown Royal Ford	181.433	29.763	176.945	33
40	66	Michael McDowell	Standard Publishing/Relentless Hope Toyota	177.959	30.344	176.824	12
11	9	Marcos Ambrose	Porter-Cable Ford	181.507	29.751	176.820	31
27	83	Brian Vickers	Red Bull Toyota	180.246	29.959	176.808	34
19	29	Kevin Harvick	Budweiser Chevrolet	180.995	29.835	176.774	25
4	4	Kasey Kahne	Red Bull Toyota	182.291	29.623	176.719	38
15	20	Joey Logano	Home Depot Toyota	181.269	29.790	176.713	39
21	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	180.650	29.892	176.665	29
10	27	Paul Menard	Sylvania/Menards Chevrolet	181.561	29.742	176.656	46
1	18	Kyle Busch	M&M's Toyota	182.803	29.540	176.653	47
5	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Chevrolet	182.285	29.624	176.653	37
17	00	David Reutimann	TUMS Toyota	181.111	29.816	176.599	40
24	47	Bobby Labonte	Cottonelle Clean Care Toyota	180.511	29.915	176.538	26
23	43	A.J. Allmendinger	Valvoline Ford	180.542	29.910	176.498	39
2	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	182.500	29.589	176.477	45
20	33	Clint Bowyer	Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet	180.953	29.842	176.436	28
22	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	180.650	29.892	176.401	38
42	95	David Starr	Jordan Truck Sales Ford	177.526	30.418	176.388	16
18	39	Ryan Newman	Tornados Chevrolet	181.008	29.833	176.328	34
43	71	Andy Lally	Cool Works Cup Ford	177.462	30.429	176.140	20
41	50	T.J. Bell	Green Smoke Toyota	177.871	30.359	176.111	14
16	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Good To Go Toyota	181.232	29.796	176.095	46
44	77	Robby Gordon	SPEED Energy Dodge	177.369	30.445	175.363	9
35	60	Mike Skinner	Big Red Toyota	178.761	30.208	175.146	9
36	1	Jamie McMurray	McDonald's Chevrolet	178.666	30.224	175.072	35
45	81	Scott Riggs	Whitney'sCollision.com Chevrolet	176.459	30.602	174.949	11
34	36	Dave Blaney	Big Red Chevrolet	179.033	30.162	174.918	39
46	37	Tony Raines	Front Row Motorsports Ford	175.518	30.766	174.858	14
37	34	David Gilliland	Taco Bell Ford	178.666	30.224	174.310	16
48	7	Scott Wimmer	SPEED Energy Dodge	174.893	30.876	173.793	12
47	32	Mike Bliss	Big Red Ford	174.921	30.871	172.700	49

10-Lap Average Speeds (must run 10 consecutive laps)

Rk	Car	Driver	From Lap	To Lap	Avg. Speed
1	14	Tony Stewart	24	33	178.513
2	2	Brad Keselowski	22	31	177.409
3	78	Regan Smith	3	12	177.321
4	6	David Ragan	26	35	177.314
5	27	Paul Menard	5	14	177.179
6	31	Jeff Burton	7	16	176.916
7	22	Kurt Busch	12	21	176.847
8	17	Matt Kenseth	9	18	176.794
9	00	David Reutimann	6	15	176.791
10	5	Mark Martin	28	37	176.783
11	56	Martin Truex Jr.	32	41	176.655
12	18	Kyle Busch	38	47	176.453
13	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	25	34	176.368
14	4	Kasey Kahne	25	34	176.277
15	33	Clint Bowyer	19	28	176.117
16	39	Ryan Newman	25	34	176.064
17	48	Jimmie Johnson	26	35	175.967
18	9	Marcos Ambrose	9	18	175.778
19	43	A.J. Allmendinger	14	23	175.51

Author Bio

Brian Polking

Racing has been part of Brian's life ever since he can remember, and he spent his childhood at dirt tracks throughout Ohio and Kentucky watching his father race. NASCAR naturally became his favorite sport, and he has been following the Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series for most of his life. Brian majored in journalism and economics at Ohio State University and becoming a sports writer has always been his dream. Although he has covered everything from minor league baseball to the NCAA tournament, his passion has always been NASCAR. Brian has served as a NASCAR writer for a variety of sites, eventually becoming head editor of the NASCAR section for Fanball.com. His knowledge of NASCAR comes from his life-long love of racing, and he tries to add a personal touch to every article he writes. Brian is always up for talking NASCAR with anyone that wants to. Brian joined KFFL's team in 2011.