Fantasy Nascar

Daytona 500 Preview

            Start Your Engines! Welcome to the 50^th running of the Daytona 500! First off I want to thank the first 50 people who joined my Yahoo fantasy-racing league. I’m sorry that the rest of you couldn’t get in but, Yahoo limits leagues to 50 teams. I am working on a game for next year that will have an unlimited number of contestants at www.onebadwheel.com which has a free game called Champs, Chumps and Sleepers which is still open for sign ups and has some great prizes. Yes I said Free! I would also like to announce that www.onebadwheel.com is going to sponsor a $50.00 gift card for the NASCAR Superstore to the winner of my Yahoo fantasy league.

            It looks like the Daytona 500 is going to be a fight between the Hendrick Chevrolet’s and the Gibbs Toyota’s. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Bud Shootout over Tony Stewart and the first Gatorade 150. Denny Hamlin won the second of the Duel’s over his teammate, Tony Stewart, who pushed him past Jeff Gordon for the win.

            The Hendrick teams had a leg up on the competition last year with the new car. Jeff Gordon won last fall at Talladega in the only restrictor plate race using the COT. This year that is the only car that will be used the whole year.

            Joe Gibbs Racing switched from Chevy to Toyota this season and the Toyota’s have performed better during Speed weeks this year than they did last year. This year there are 9 Toyota’s starting the Daytona 500. Last year there were only 4 Toyota’s in the starting lineup at Daytona and Dale Jarrett was the first to finish, in 22^nd place. The jury is still out on how these cars will perform without restrictor plates at California next week but all indications are that Toyota has made great strides since last season.

            Those two teams seem to be the strongest right now but that doesn’t mean that someone else can’t win on Sunday. Kevin Harvick came from nowhere last year to steal the victory away from Mark Martin. However the winning car is sitting at Daytona USA right now and Kevin can’t run it this year. Mark Martin is now driving the #8 car that has been to victory lane at Daytona a few times before.

            Kurt Busch has to start at the rear on Sunday after having to use a past champions provisional to make the race because of an electrical problem during his race on Thursday. Kurt has been very good the last few seasons at the restrictor plate tracks and a lot of the cars that ended up in front on Thursday started in the back. Starting at the rear of the field at Daytona is no different than starting in the front. There are actually more cars to draft with and you can pick which lane you want to be in to pull you to the front. My bet is that Kurt will be in the top 10  before 20 laps are over.

            There isn’t much more to say about the Daytona 500. Anyone who made the race has a shot at winning here. All they have to do is avoid the “big one” and keep their car in one piece until the end. If you are in the right place at the right time and have a little help at the end you can find yourself in victory lane like Derrick Cope did back in 1990.

            Yahoo picks for the Daytona 500

            Group A

            Tony Stewart (starter)

            Jeff Gordon

            Group B

            Dale Earnhardt Jr. (starter)

            Mark Martin (starter)

            Reed Sorenson

            Casey Mears

            Group C

            Michael Waltrip (starter)

            Joe Nemechek

            Top 5 Overall for the Daytona 500

1.      Dale Earnhardt Jr.

2.      Tony Stewart

3.      Jeff Gordon

4.      Jimmie Johnson

5.      Kurt Busch

Dark Horse: Kenny Wallace

Stay Away From: Kasey Kahne

As always you can Email me with any questions, comments or suggestions at gutsamaniac@hotmail.com. I would like to wish everyone good luck this season. May your favorite driver make the Chase and may your fantasy team end up at the top of the heap. Thanks for reading!