(To download the spreadsheet, click on the link above and save it to hard drive.)

Directions:

1. I broke down the drivers into Studs, Middle of the Road, and Others. I know that there has been some debate concerning which drivers belong in which category, but for this, it doesn’t matter.

2. The spreadsheet is pretty self-explanatory. The “starts used” column is simple the amount of times you’ve used each driver.

3. Every time you update the “starts used” column, the “totals” will update automatically.

4. The “expected starts” column is the amount of times you expect to start each driver by the end of the season. This column is not build into the “others” section because I don’t believe any of them will be used 9 times.

When you change the values in the “expected starts” column, notice how it affects the “starts needed from others” cell.

I’ve made a couple of changes to my B List breakdown, and here it is:

Studs – These guys will hands down, no questions asked get 9 starts out of me and everybody else in Fantasy NASCAR:

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
2. Kyle Busch
3. Greg Biffle
4. Martin Truex Jr.
5. Kasey Kahne

Purgatory – These guys COULD AND SHOULD get 9 starts from me.

1. Mark Martin – Martin is running well enough to get 9 starts. Like before though, I’m worried about getting 8 starts out of him when he’s only running 18 more races. But, at this point in the season, it looks like it can be done.

2. Ryan Newman – I know that most people have Ryan Newman as a stud, but I don’t. Now I want to state for the record that I fully expect to get 9 starts out of Newman. Especially with 2 more races at both New Hampshire and Dover, one at Darlington, and one at Daytona. ( All four of which are among Newman’s best tracks.) But I’d by lying if I didn’t say I was concerned about him. Since the Daytona 500, Newman only has 2 Top 10’s in the next 7 races. One was a 10th at California and the other was a 4th at Texas, when he was penalized for his car not passing post-race inspection. So take it for what it’s worth.

The Others – Everybody else who I know I will not get 9 starts out of unless things change and a driver like Mears and Ragan gets hot.

For arguments sake, I’m going to say that I expect to get 7 out of Martin (that’s 6 more starts for me over Martin’s remaining 18 races which sounds reasonable) and 9 out of Newman. As a result:

Studs + Purgatory = 61 starts
Total B List starts needed = 72 minus 61 = 11 starts from the others

So far I have 1 start each from McMurray, Labonte, Montoya, and Mears.

I need 7 more starts from the “others” for the rest of the year. I fully plan on getting at least one at Talladega, and hopefully two with Sorenson and Mears. If I can get two, that knocks the number down to 5, meaning I can pretty much stack my team each week, all the way to the race at Infineon.

1. Earnhardt Jr.
2. Kyle Busch
3. Biffle
4. Truex
5. Newman
6. Kahne

And of these 6 studs, Earnhardt, Biffle and Kyle are the only ones that we can trot out each week with confidence to start. We still have to be smart and pick and choose certain races for Kahne, Newman, and Truex, which makes the whole process even more difficult.

That leaves 18 starts from the others. The road courses should alleviate some of those starts because you should be able to pick 2 from the group of Robby Gordon, Montoya and McMurray for each road race. That knocks the number down to 14. But that is still assuming a lot. Let’s say Robby Gordon blows a motor or has to go to a backup car. Are you still going to start him if he starts the race in a backup car at the back of the pack if you have someone like Ryan Newman starting in the Top 10? I probably wouldn’t. So even though we think we can pencil in 4 B List starts from the others at the road courses, we still need to be wary that things might change.

The problem for me is that I don’t buy 9 starts out of Mark Martin. I know some people think they can get 9 out of him, and I really hope they do. I’m just not going to bank on 9 starts from Mark. If I can make it work, that’s fine. I’m just going to prepare like I won’t use him up so I don’t start forcing him into starts that I normally wouldn’t make. I honestly see myself using him about 5 times this season. So in my mind, I’m throwing him and everybody else into the “others” category.

Right now I have one start with McMurray, Montoya, Mears, and Labonte, which knocks the number down to 10 for me. Thats still 10 starts I need to get from the others and could be more if a couple of guys pick inoportune times to blow motors or wreck primary cars in practice.