Richmond is in the books, and Kyle Busch proved once again why you never doubt him, especially at Richmond or Bristol. The dominance by Busch and Yahoo's bonus point system helped make up for some of the inevitable disappointment people experienced in their B-List. We picked Kyle as the race winner, which makes us 3 for 9 this year on predicting the race winner.
Denny Hamlin proved to be a solid pick, although he gave up 12 points Vs. Kyle. It should still be noted that even though he had a good run, a bad pit stop early on shifted the momentum, which Hamlin and crew could never fully get back. This still gives me doubts about Hamlin and his team moving forward.
Jeff Gordon had a decent run going until being caught up in the big wreck. Team mate Jimmie Johnson's performance was downright frightening most of the race, and we even heard unusual frustration between Johnson and Knaus on the radio. I'd sit Johnson at Darlington, but he'll make the team at Dover, however he is not a lock to start until we see some turnaround from this team, especially since we know they are historically more valuable down the stretch.
Kevin Harvick and the "Mr. Where-Did-He-Come-From" strategy never materialized. The cautions fell the way they did and helped many, but Harvick could not overcome his struggles he had all night.
Not that there was many reason's to start Kurt Busch anyways, but he is a much bench at this point. The Penske program is terrible this year, and Kurt is not shy to let everyone know. Couple that with the fact that Kurt has been a wrecking ball on the track, hitting everything but the pace car. You can guarantee that many of the drivers on track will not be cutting Kurt a break anytime soon.
In the B-List, Clint Bowyer proved to be an excellent start once again, and much like Kyle, proved that he is a must start at Richmond. But the real story was the disappointing runs by most of the other favorite B-Lister's. The dust up between Juan Pablo Montoya and Ryan Newman skewed their stats, as both drivers had top 10 runs going. It is important to note that Newman's record at Darlington is outstanding, and I would not leave him off your team this week in fear of further retaliation. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was also underwhelming this week, the off week, for whatever reason, seems to have completely killed the momentum this team had.
On the flip side, there were a few pleasant surprises. Kasey Kahne ended as the top B-List driver, which came as a bit of a surprise. This team is such a yo-yo in performance, it seems they are either Top 10 or 30th, and not much of a middle ground in between. We correctly predicted the sleeper of the week would be A.J. Allmendinger who continues to impress on the short flat tracks. He should continue to make your team as a sleeper at places like Loudon and Richmond, and maybe even Dover coming up.
The teams that struggle with "keeping up with the race track" during the day races as track conditions change proved to be teams that excelled at Richmond. Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr. are notorious for strong practices but failing to stay ahead of the curve in the race. However with a more consistent track, both teams showed some muscle. Martin got shuffled out of the Top 10 late in the race, and Truex had a wheel left loose, derailing a possible Top 10 for that team.
There is absolutely nothing to get excited about in the C-List coming off of Richmond. Although David Ragan came up big with a 4th place run, his performance in the early and middle parts of the race was awful. A few well placed cautions and lucky dogs saved Ragan from a 20-something place finish. Likewise many people are looking at Dave Blaney and Tommy Baldwin Racing now that they have funding and Blaney comes home with a 13th place run. But again, this was a team that was multiple laps down, and well timed cautions are the only thing that got them back into the hunt.
Paul Menard proved he is a must bench at these short flat tracks, the team really struggled most of the night before getting damaged in the big wreck. The only 2 names that showed any type of consistency were Regan Smith and Bobby Labonte. Regan was able to hang in that Top 20 position most of the night, while Labonte was just outside the Top 20 and had potential to be better, but poorly timed cautions got him caught out on a different pit strategy and trapped numerous laps down.
Our team this week included:
Kyle Busch (8 Starts Remaining)
Clint Bowyer (8 Starts Remaining)
Ryan Newman (8 Starts Remaining)
Bobby Labonte (8 Starts Remaining)
With 23 bonus points factored in, our score this week was 299 points. This makes 4 races in a row where FNG has scored 298 points or more (and the 5th race total this year above 298). This score moved us up 4% in the Yahoo Overall to 89th Percentile.
No comments:
Post a Comment