Shootout & Qualifying - What To Look For

This weekend the Bud Shootout and Daytona 500 Qualifying kicks off the 2011 season. Many people ask about picking drivers on a plate track, is it all up to luck or is there some skill involved in picking drivers? The answer, both.

The 500 pays the same amount of points as the rest of the Fantasy NASCAR Season, and you can't afford to throw away a race on a whim or a hunch on a driver. You need to look heavily into the past to see the future on plate tracks, there are some guys that are just better drafters and better plate racers than others, so you need to take that into heavy consideration.

But you also need to look at the Bud Shootout for reference. However, it should not be the benchmark for how you set your team. Far too many people get locked onto the Bud Shootout and use that as a heavy factor in determining their 500 team. Fact is, many teams use a completely different car for the 500, and the driver mentality is usually much different from the Shootout to the 500.

What you do need to look for in the 500 is how a driver is handling the new surface. Not so much the moves, passes, and aggression level, because again the mentality and the car will change from the Shootout to the 500. You need to watch which drivers consistently get help from their fellow drivers for a push in the draft, and which drivers play the correct strategy game in the closing laps.

The following day we roll out with 500 qualifying. Remember, there are no bonus points in Yahoo Fantasy for the 500, and you have right up until the green flag to change anyone and everyone on your team. Really all you need to look for in qualifying is the guys in the C-List outside the Top 35 in points, who can lock themselves in on time, that way you can narrow your list of C-Drivers to watch for in practice and in the Gatorade Duels.

We are all excited for the season to start, but don't make the critical mistake of blowing your excitement on the Bud Shootout and locking down your 500 team based on Shootout results. Take a deep breath and leave your team empty, you'll have plenty of time between the Duel's and the 500 to make your decisions.