Fantasy Nascar

Coca-Cola 600 Preview

           The All-Star Challenge is over and it comes as no surprise that the race was dominated by the Roush/Yates engine teams and Hendrick Motorsports. Both of these teams have been at the top of their game the entire season and have always been good at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in the past. Look for more of the same this coming weekend.

            Engines will be at a premium for the longest race of the year and the track will change considerably throughout the event. The race starts in the afternoon and ends up under the lights which will cause the track temperature to cool down as the race progresses. Teams will have to keep making the right adjustments to their cars in order to keep up with the changing track conditions.

            Jimmie Johnson has dominated at Lowe’s during his short career with 3 wins in his 7 starts at this track and I look for him to be the driver to beat. During this span he has led 836 laps. The only active driver to lead more laps then Johnson is Mark Martin but, he has run in 40 races and has led 1,148 laps. Jeff Gordon has won 4 times at Lowe’s in 24 starts but has only led 391 laps. This just shows you how much Johnson has dominated. Johnson also slid through his pit stall during the Coca-Cola 600 in 2002 and it most likely cost him the win that time also.

            Now if we go back to last weekend’s races again we see that the 2 teams we are talking about took the top 7 spots in the All-Star Challenge and placed their 3 best cars in the top 10 in the NEXTEL Open with Brian Vickers winning, Kyle Busch finishing 4^th and Ricky Rudd coming home 8^th. The top 7 drivers in the Challenge were Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Brian Vickers, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Kurt Busch. I suggest you load up your teams with drivers from these teams and hope their engines hold out.

            The Dodge teams got their first win in the new Charger in the last race run for points and will still try to challenge for the win this weekend but, it just seems to me that they need more work on the aerodynamics before they are really able to compete. With the race being as long as it is there will be more trash out on the track and the Dodge’s have had trouble with their cars picking up the loose wrappers on their grill openings. This leads to over-heating and in a 600 mile race your engine will never last.

            I’m keeping this article short and sweet this week because there really isn’t a lot to tell you. Just remember Roush/Yates and Hendrick.

Yahoo league picks for the Coca-Cola 600

Group A

Jimmie Johnson (starter)

Ryan Newman

Group B

Mark Martin (starter)

Greg Biffle (starter)

Carl Edwards

Ricky Rudd

Group C

Brian Vickers (starter)

Kyle Busch

Top 5 for the Coca-Cola 600

Jimmie Johnson

Mark Martin

Elliott Sadler

Jeff Gordon

Greg Biffle

            As always you can Email me with any questions, comments or suggestions at gutsamaniac@hotmail.com. Next week the article might be a little late because I am going to Charlotte for the race this weekend and I am not going to get back home until late on Tuesday night. I will get the article submitted as early as I can on Wednesday though.