Gordon and Hamlin Look to Rebound. Stewart Heading to the Point.
Kasey Kahne led the final 66 laps of the LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Credit: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Congratulations to Brad Keselowski for winning the first race of this year’s Chase and taking a 3-point lead over Jimmie Johnson in the standings. Jeff Gordon took the hardest hit of all the Chase drivers when the throttle stuck on his car and he hit the wall. He ended up 35th. Denny Hamlin ran out of gas on the last lap and dropped to 16th on the day also.
This week the series heads back to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the running of the Sylvania 300. This is a short, flat track that Kasey Kahne won on back in July. Can he repeat the feat and launch himself even higher in the standings?
Sylvania 300
Tony Stewart: Tony is my pick to win this week’s race at New Hampshire. He has excelled on this type of track this season and won this race in last year’s Chase. He came away with a great finish last week at Chicago and will try and build on that momentum this week.
Denny Hamlin: Denny will be looking to rebound from an unfortunate finish last weekend. He has finished in the top-3 in four of the last six races run at this track and would like to get another win here to get him closer to the top of the standings.
Jeff Gordon: Jeff hasn’t finished outside of the top-15 at Loudon since July of 2005. He needs a win in the worst way to get back in contention after his throttle stuck and sent his car into the wall at Chicago.
Kasey Kahne: Kasey won this race in July and look’s to be close to peaking right now. He always qualifies well at this track and just needs to stay out of trouble early in the race to give himself a shot at the end of the race this week.
Brad Keselowski: Brad currently leads the points race and has finished in the top-5 in his last two starts here. He doesn’t have a lot of experience at this track, but that doesn’t seem to affect him much. Look for him to have another good race car this week.
Jimmie Johnson: Jimmie dominated much of the race last weekend, but came up just short of getting the win. This team looks like they are still the team to beat on a weekly basis. They are looking for any slip up they can find in other teams, so that they can take advantage.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Dale hasn’t been consistent at this track and this race will be a big one for him. If he can come away with another top-10 finish this week he will be positioned well as the Chase progresses.
Clint Bowyer: Clint won this race two years ago and finished 3rd here in July. He fought a poor handling car last week and came away with a decent finish. He will be looking to make a move this week in the standings.
Greg Biffle: Greg is another driver that hasn’t run consistently well at this track. He needs to get a top-10 finish this week to stay within sight of the leaders. No driver wants to dig a big hole this early in the Chase.
Matt Kenseth: Matt had a shock break-off of his car in the race last week during the race and needs to come away with a great finish this week. I think that if he falls quite a way back in the standings he might not get all of the support from Roush/Fenway seeing that he is moving to JGR next season.
Martin Truex Jr.: Martin is another driver that struggled for much of the race last week, but fought his way to a top-10 finish anyway. The flat tracks are not his bread and butter, so he needs to fight once again this week to get every position that he can get.
Yahoo Fantasy NASCAR Picks for New Hampshire
Yahoo Driver Group A
- Tony Stewart
- Denny Hamlin
Yahoo Driver Group B
- Kasey Kahne
- Clint Bowyer
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Kurt Busch
Yahoo Driver Group C
- Brian Vickers
- Sam Hornish Jr.
My Top-5 For New Hampshire
- Tony Stewart
- Denny Hamlin
- Brad Keselowski
- Jeff Gordon
- Kasey Kahne
Dark Horse: Brian Vickers
Stay Away From: Martin Truex Jr.
Hi, Jeff.Great job every week.Thanks for your help with my fantasy leagues.I’m on ESPN’S and Speed’s.Next year i’ll try Yahoo. Best wishes and oh by the way,ya look like Bruce Willis!Get that a lot I guess? Thanks again, Billy Funkhouser.
I would like to thank you and everyone that reads my column. I try to give out the best information that I can and just hope to help everyone have a little more fun in their fantasy leagues.
I have heard Mr. Clean, Mark Messier, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Bruce Willis just to name a few.
Good luck to everyone once again this week!
Just got out of the hospital, all is good. Missed my line up. stuck with last weeks drivers. Wish me luck Jeff. I guess you did…LOL. I have to use my last Dale entry. 2 drivers not running this week on my team. Just my luck. But on the bright side all 6 of my NASCAR.com teams are in first place for the chase segment. For Segment 2, 1 team was 1st, 4 teams 2nd. and 1 team 3rd. Thanks Jeff, Darren and the Fantasyracingcheatsheet.com for all your help this year. I will be re-newing my ownership status.
Sorry to hear that you were in the hospital, but I’m glad you’re alright! We do our best to give you our insight and hope that it helps in some small way during the season. Thanks for being a loyal reader and good luck the rest of the season!
When did they decide to have Dave Blaney drive the 22?. Sam is not running this week, He is concertrating on Nationwide. When I checked the standings early in the week the only driver that I had that wasn’t running this week was Mark Martin.
As you have said before thats the way racing goes. sometimes it works for you, sometimes you get pummeled. Good racing. Thanks Jeff.
Because he is fourth in the standings for the Nationwide series they want him to not have to worry about the Sprint Cup series, as he doesn’t receive driver points for those race anyway. They just want him to do his best in the Nationwide series. They are trying to find sponsorship to run a third car at Penske next year for him though. The 22 ride went to Joey Logano for next season a couple of weeks ago.
Thats great to hear that Sam will or may have a ride for next year. The way he drove in the 22 since the AJ Allmendinger(spelling) incident was really good fortune for penske racing. It was a shame to think a talented driver like him may be shut out of the sprint car series in 2013. Hats off to Penske for recognizing the talent he has. I have a feeling he may do better than Joey, even though he is from the state I live in now. I also worked in Middletown till just a couple of weeks ago, and met him. but you already know that. As always thanks Jeff, good luck tomorrow.
Howdy Jeff,
Some info your your readers: If you play NASCAR.com fantasy face 0ff (Head to Head) they still have Sam Hornish Jr against Ambrose, pick Ambrose and move it to the 10 point spot that will be a shoe in. My team this week in NASCAR.com is going to be Tony, Kyle?, Jeff, Aric, and Dave Blaney, $100.00 cap. I may change Kyle since he doesn’t seem to do well in New Hampshire. I’m going to look at it again with fresh eyes this morning. since moving up from the rear in New Hampshire is very difficult, This week my choices are from the front of the line up. Your # 4 and 5 drivers should be Aric and Dave. I’m not an “expert” but, I have been doing very well with NASCAR.com the last 2 years. In fantasy face off I am #81 in the country for the year out of approx 100,000 entries. Good racing to all!!
Since in NASCAR.com you lose points, for each position you go back, from the starting line up. I’m going to replace Kyle Bush with Clint Bowyer. Remember, anything can happen. Also, I should of been clearer with my pick of Jeff, I mean Jeff Gordon. Jeff Burton also looks good today.
Denny would be a good choice for your NASCAR.com team. I can’t run him in place of Clint like I want, I’m $.25 cents short to pick him. Denny did a very good job running up the field after his 4 tire change in the spring race. He was the best in all 3 practices this week. It will be fun to watch him go through the field today.
Hats off to Sam Hornish Jr. he came in 2nd in the Nationwide race.
NASCAR Raceday just announced that Sam Hornish Jr is going to race today. and starting at the back. Damm, Damm, Damm I have to change my drivers now since Dave Blaney is not racing now. I don’t know if NASCAR.com will make the changes now and so I don’t know if Dave will score points and I also have to change Yahoo.com, Too. I put Sam Hornish in the start postion.
Yahoo.com is not go to give any points for Sam Hornish Jr. I just changed my NASCAR.com drivers and I am now wondering if they are going to give points to the 22 under Dave Blaney. This is very frustrating, and the race has not even started yet.