Look for some surprise winners this week in Fantasy Racing.
This week the Sprint Cup Series heads to California for the Auto Club 400. Last year, Kevick Harvick passed Jimmie Johnson on the final turn to win this race in one of the most exciting finishes of the year. While Harvick figures to be a factor again this week, it is Johnson who comes in to this week with some added momentum. Johnson returns home to California and heads to Fontana six spots further ahead in the standings than where he found himself after last week’s race at Bristol. The decision to overturn the suspension of Chad Knaus and to rescind the 25 point penalty against the 48 team moves Johnson just outside of the top ten to start the race this week. Johnson is coming off a strong race at Las Vegas where he finished second and a top ten run last week at Bristol. Johnson heads to a track where he has won five times and finished second another five times. Given the fact that he will still have Chad Knaus on top of the pit box calling the shots this week, one has to consider Johnson a heavy favorite to take another checkered-flag at Fontana.
If Johnson is going to win this week, he will also have to contend with the Toyota contingent who took the first three spots in qualifying. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch put the Joe Gibbs racing team on the front row in qualifying on Friday, and Mark Martin heads up the Michael Waltrip Racing Team starting in third. For Kyle Busch, this is an opportunity to get back into the picture for the race for the chase on a track where he has had tremendous success in the past. Although Busch hasn’t won at Fontana since 2005, he does have nine career top-ten finishes. Busch led this race last year until he was passed by Johnson and Harvick in the final three laps. Busch hasn’t had a Sprint Cup win since Michigan last August, and figures to be a strong challenger for a win this week. Fellow Gibbs teammate Joey Logano finds himself starting in the eighth position on Sunday and desperately needs to continue to run strong and remain in the chase. Logano is now in his third full year with Gibbs Racing, and if he wants to see a fourth year, he needs to show the consistency that everyone expects out of him at this point in his career.
The Michael Waltrip Racing team clearly has gotten much stronger this year as evidenced by their five top-ten finishes in the first three races of the season. Last week at Bristol the team saw Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, and Brian Vickers finish third, fourth, and fifth respectively after Vickers dominated much of the middle part of the race. Truex Jr. currently sits fourth in the point standings and desperately needs a chase run to ensure his sponsorship and his ride for next year. With all three MWR cars qualifying in the top 13 this week, they figure to be near the front of the field barring any on-track mishaps.
From a fantasy perspective this week on the fantasy racing pick ‘em game, I like the choices of Jimmie Johnson over Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin over three-time Fontana winner Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle over Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart over Jeff Burton, Kyle Busch over Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon over Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer over Brad Keselowski, Kasey Kahne over Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. over David Regan, Juan Pablo Montoya over Aric Almirola, and Mark Martin over Joey Logano. As for the salary cap game, even with Denny Hamlin sitting on the pole I think the big money would be more wisely placed on Jimmy Johnson and Kyle Busch this week. I like rounding out the team by using Mark Martin, Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr.
