STP 500 Fantasy Preview
The Sprint Cup Series travels back to the east coast this Sunday in the STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway for some rugged short track racing. Martinsville Speedway is a paper clip shaped half mile track that races like a super speedway. Drivers will be beating and banging against each other for the inside racing lane which is the fastest lane on the track. Unlike other tracks with multiple racing grooves, drivers must protect the inside groove or they will go backwards which leads to a lot of hard-nosed racing focused around track position.
Last week our top pick for the Auto Club 400 was Jimmie Johnson. Johnson was cruising to victory with less than 10 laps to go before blowing out a tire in an excruciating stroke of bad luck. Therefore, our staff at NASCAR Wagers is eager to get back on track and back into the profit. Fortunately this week should be a good opportunity to bounce back because Martinsville Speedway has been one of the easier tracks to handicap on the Sprint Cup circuit in recent years.
If you are looking to put drivers on your fantasy roster or betting slip this weekend, then you must start with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Both Gordon and Johnson have been nothing short of dominate leading all active drivers with 8 career victories at Martinsville. Johnson has accomplished 8 trips to victory lane in just 24 starts compared to Gordon’s 42 career starts. Both Gordon and Johnson were in position to win last week’s Auto Club 400. We mentioned Johnson’s bad luck with a blown tire but Jeff Gordon was also cruising to victory after Johnson’s troubles before a late race caution with 2 laps to go shook the finish up with drivers having to make late race pit stops. Therefore expect both Johnson and Gordon to be a little more hungry after having that taste of victory taken away from them last week.
Outside of the obvious favorites, Denny Hamlin has been very strong at Martinsville with 4 career victories. All of Hamlin’s victories came within his last 12 starts and he has 9 Top 5 finishes in his 16 career starts. Hamlin missed last week’s race with a sinus infection that was reportedly affecting his vision but all signs point to Hamlin being full recovered by the drop of the green flag this Sunday. Tony Stewart has also put together some solid finishes in the last two weeks to silence critics that believed he was not 100% healed from last year’s leg injury in a Sprint Car. Stewart has posted back to back Top 5 finishes and has 3 grandfather clocks on his resume.
Obviously the guys that have a winning history are more appealing than others when it comes to NASCAR handicapping. However, there are a few drivers that are due to score their first Martinsville victory. Dale Earnhardt Jr has 10 career top 5’s at Martinsville without a win. Brad Keselowski has been strong in recent trips and Clint Bowyer maybe the best bet of them all. Bowyer has finished inside the top 5 in 3 of his last 4 trips to the half mile paperclip and has the highest average finish of all active drivers that have never won at Martinsville Speedway. Be sure to keep all of these guys on your radar throughout the week.