The next NASCAR race is the Auto Club 400, on Sunday, March 20th. Before you pick your daily fantasy NASCAR team, take a look at our breakdown on the top five ranked drivers that are entered for the event.
Kevin Harvick: Last week, we told you that Harvick was racing hot and was worth every penny of his salary. He ended up winning last week, proving that point. This week, he’s again the number one ranked driver, and his salary of $10,500 is a little lower than it was last week. For us, this one’s a no brainer. He’s averaging a finishing position of 7.8, and has made the top ten on 5 of his 6 races for the season. The only downside to Harvick is that he’s likely to have a good starting position, so he might not score a ton of fantasy points in the differential category, but that shouldn’t be a major concern, especially as there’s almost nothing stopping him from another top ten finish on Sunday.
Jimmie Johnson: When it comes to salary, Johnson is right behind Harvick with a price tag of $10,400. The problem with him is that he’s starting to post negative differentials in races. Last week, he had a start position of 5th, yet finished 11th. His average finishing position is 11.0, too, which is not great at this salary, especially so early in the season. Hopefully the differential issue is a short lasting thing, but right now, Johnson is too expensive with too little to show for it. We said something very similar last week, and his price has gone up slightly since then. The positive to takeaway from Johnson is that he’s showing increases in his fantasy point output, but with Harvick having proven results already and only being $100 more in salary, he’s clearly the better choice. Johnson is only worth drafting if you can’t afford Harvick in any way, and that’s almost never going to be the case because of the tiny difference in salary.
Kyle Busch: Again, Busch is the number three ranked driver for this race with a salary of $10,300. His stats back up the high salary, and might even indicate that he’s undervalued. His average finishing position is 5.3, he’s made 5 of 6 top tens, and of all the entrants for the weekend, he’s the number two fantasy point scorer, behind only Harvick. He’s cheaper than he should be, but the real question is: who’s the better draft choice, Busch or Harvick? Ideally, you would like to have both, but that’s not going to be a reality for all rosters. The deciding factor is the start to finish differential. Busch started 1st last week and finished 4th. Harvick started 18th, and finished 1st. Busch is showing more consistency here, but isn’t showing the finishing strength of Harvick. However, if you must choose one or the other, Busch is consistent and cheaper. That gives him the edge and will give you more buying power in other areas.
Joey Logano: Logano come in at the number four slot with a salary of $10,000. He finished 18th last week, which is weaker than you’d like to see, but his average finishing position is 7.0. He has potential for this race, but he’s not ready to compete with Busch and Harvick with consistency, despite a strong 2nd place finish a couple weeks ago. He’s a good racer and has a ton of potential this season, but we’re passing on him for this weekend.
Matt Kenseth: We’re also passing on Kenseth. He is priced at $9,900, which will probably be a discount later in the season, but right now, it’s too pricey for what he’s shown. Of his 6 races, he has 1 top ten finish. Last week, he finished 7th, but that was with a 6th place start. He’s capable of better, but we don’t like to draft drivers until they’re likely to demonstrate that. This isn’t the right week for Kenseth.
