NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Indy road course racing

 

Road racing this season has meant first-time winners – Circuit of the Americas, Ross Chastain; Sonoma Raceway, Daniel Suárez; and Road America, Tyler Reddick. Will lightning strike a fourth time? Stay tuned.

 

This week's pick strategy: Road racing elites don't much care where they are racing, just that they're making lefts and rights. I'm sticking with the tried-and true, proven Cup road racers and sprinkling in those drivers on the bubble or just below. It's desperado time and there's nothing like a road race to give you an extra shot of courage. Don't forget to include those drivers who just love to shift. 

Drivers with Most Top 10s on Road Courses
Includes 2021 inaugural Road Course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and last two races at Watkins Glen, Sonoma, Road America, Daytona Road Course, Circuit of the Americas, and the Charlotte Roval.

 

Chase Elliott - 11
All with 7 - Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman, and Tyler Reddick

All with 6 -  Martin Truex Jr., Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Busch
All with 5 - Erik Jones, Kevin Harvick, and Christopher Bell

Last Year's Race Winner: AJ Allmendinger

The Likely Suspects: Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Alex Bowman, and Tyler Reddick.

My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick is Chase Elliott. My next picks are Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. I will complete my team with AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric.

My Final Four: Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe, and AJ Allmendinger.

Second-Look Driver: My sleeper pick this week is Chris Buescher. Chris finished 12th in the debut of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course last year after starting 19th. He earned a third on the ROVAL in 2021, and the year prior ran fifth on the Daytona road course.

This season, Chris' road course performances over his last two starts have been stellar -- a runner-up finish at Sonoma and sixth at Road America. Overall, in 23 starts on road courses in his Cup career, Buescher has four Top 10s, all of which have come in the last three seasons. He currently sits in 23rd place in the standings, but can almost taste a win. 

 

“We’ve had this weekend circled on our calendars for a while now. It’s no secret our road course program has really seen a huge improvement, and we’ve shown that in the last couple outings. We know we’re more than capable, it just takes a complete weekend to get the job done, and that is our focus heading into Indy to get a W in the Violet Defense machine.”

Remember, if you're playing Driver Group Game, make your initial picks by 8 a.m. ET on Saturday, July 30th and your final picks by 2:30 p.m. ET on race day Sunday, July 31st.

 

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 16 years. She launched  NASCAR Fantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to arm fans with analysis and picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they got so smart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond Raceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International Speedway. She is also part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet.

When she isn’t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you’ll find Carol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or executing downtown revitalization projects for a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.