The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is six races in. The new Fantasy Live format has been a blast and some truths have been uncovered in the initial run of races. NASCAR.com’s fantasy expert RJ Kraft shares six of his findings and fantasy beliefs that have been reinforced to help you get ready for the next batch of races after the off-week.
RELATED: Sign up for Fantasy Live today | Driver stats | How the new Fantasy Live works [caption id="attachment_112300" align="alignright" width="300"]1. The Garage Driver Can Save Your Day Thanks for this one, Captain Obvious. You never want to make a swap because someone is underperforming or wrecks out, but that extra spot is such a security blanket to play a hunch or to offer some insurance. For example, my Fontana lineup got saved by my garage driver – who was Clint Bowyer. I had Kevin Harvick in my lineup because I felt not having the winner of the previous three races, who also looked strong all weekend, was too risky not to do. Harvick was in a wreck of his own doing early, and I swapped in Bowyer for a solid 11th-place result to save the day. The garage pick is also a nice spot to use someone that has to start at the back like Martin Truex Jr. did at Atlanta. Having the ability to place him in the garage gave me some added comfort as he drove up from 36th to fifth.
2. Bonus Picks Matter Big Time Fantasy Fastlane’s Steve Letarte (of NBC Sports) and Jessica Ruffin have discussed this at length on our weekly show, but it bears repeating: The bonus picks in this game are huge. I've been fortunate to get the qualifying pick right twice – once at Daytona (Alex Bowman) and once by guessing qualifying would be washed out at Martinsville (Martin Truex Jr.). Those five points apiece are nice to have tucked away. The stage winners and race winners are far from an exact science. For the entire NASCAR Goes West swing, I put Harvick down for nearly everything. That worked out pretty well twice, not so well once. At some point, I will be trying that with Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch. For the plate races, I will make my race winner someone not in my six driver picks -- mainly due to the fact that those races are so unpredictable, I like increasing my odds with a defacto seventh play for 30 points.
[caption id="attachment_112301" align="alignright" width="300"]3. Maximize Your Stars The importance of maximizing the top drivers like Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson (to name several) are vital to one's success. Races you start them in need to produce a high number of points from those individual drivers otherwise it’s a wasted use. I missed an opportunity with Truex at Fontana – he had the max 60 points a driver can earn – and I didn’t have him in since I stayed steadfast to my usage plan on him. Coincidentally, its also the only race that the winner has not been in my lineup. The point is if one of those guys is running in the back of the top 10 or worse and in your lineup, get them out and save them. I’ve been conservative in my early season use of Larson for this reason.
RELATED: 2018 season schedule | Latest Monster Energy Series news [caption id="attachment_112302" align="alignleft" width="300"]4. Use The Data At Your Disposal This concept helped me place Bowyer in my lineup for Martinsville -- a move that paid off very well. I studied his past history at the short track and his 2017 results with SHR heading into the weekend. Studying stats has led me to determine that one driver that I plan to use more when the series returns is Ryan Blaney. I’ve only used him twice and YRB is third in points with an 8.5 average finish thus far. Texas, Talladega and Kansas all are solid places to get him into my lineups. Ford has been fast nearly everywhere so I will be looking for strategic opportunities to deploy Kurt Busch, Bowyer, Aric Almirola and Paul Menard as well. By the opposite token, I am looking to be more conservative with my usage of the Chevrolet camp (Larson, Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson to name a few) until the summer when I expect that stable to find its footing with the new Camaro.
5. Plan, Plan And Plan Some More At the start of the year, I mapped out my usage for Harvick, Truex Jr., Busch, Larson and Brad Keselowski. To be honest, I plotted out a lot more than that but those were the five I zeroed in on exactly where I wanted to use their 10 races. Harvick’s hot streak caused me to call an audible at Fontana that his early wreck corrected. I stuck to my usage plan around Truex – the intermediates along with Dover and New Hampshire -- and didn’t use him at Fontana to my detriment. His California performance has me re-thinking how to get him in for at least one of the Michigan races. Getting to the point though, having a plan keeps you organized heading into each race weekend. But like with any good plan, you need to be willing to adjust as necessary based on what you are seeing on track. [caption id="attachment_112303" align="alignright" width="300"]6. Plenty Of Time To Make A Move With everyone on a different usage plan, standings will move around plenty in the coming weeks and months. Some race weekends are going to go better than others. It's happens. So if you are in an early hole, DO NOT PANIC. There is plenty of time to gain ground on your competition. The bonus picks are a great way to potentially move up. And if you are out in front a bit, don’t start writing checks that your fantasy team can’t cash just yet. There’s still 20 weeks to go. As is the case on track it’s a marathon not a sprint.