I need to first go ahead and explain what I meant a couple of weeks ago when I had Mark Martin in my “others” category of B Listers. I apparently hit a nerve with that statement, so I want to go ahead and explain myself. At no point was that a reflection of my expectations of Martin’s performances for the rest of the season. The reason he was in my “others” category is because I didn’t know FOR SURE if I could get 9 starts out of him when he’s only running 24 races.
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.
Hopefully at Infineon, I can get 2 more “others” starts out of the group of Montoya, Robby Gordon, and McMurray, which knocks the number down to 3. If that happens, I feel like I’ll be in great shape for the rest of the season. It should be very easy to get 3 starts from the “others” with 2 more plate races, one road course, and Ragan at some 1.5 milers.