NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Pink hot dogs and Martinsville masters at Cook Out 400

 

 

Just wow! Tyler Reddick is breathing some rare air these days. His win last week at Darlington makes him the third driver to win four of the season's first six races. The record goes back to Dale Earnhardt in 1987 and Bill Elliott in 1992. There's no telling how many wins Reddick has in him for this season, and that should intimidate the field. While I wouldn't bet against Tyler, I think this week we will see a Martinsville master in Victory Lane. Stay tuned!

 

This Week's Pick Strategy: When you come to Martinsville, it's difficult not to go all in with Hendrick Motorsports. After all, the organization has won five of the last nine Martinsville races with all four active drivers winning at least once. I am resisting the long hanging fruit, and instead leaning more heavily on traditional Martinsville masters with momentum and drivers who cut their teeth in short-track racing before coming to NASCAR. There's a lot of heavy breaking going on at Martinsville,so keep in mind that road-course racers are often very competitive here. 

Active Cup Series Drivers with Most Top 10s (Last 5 Years):
By Race

Both with 5 - Chase Elliott and Joey Logano  

Both with 4 - Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe

All with 3- Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Bubba Wallace
 

By Track 

Joey Logano -10
Kyle Larson- 8

All with 7 - Chase Elliott, William Byron,  and Ryan Blaney

Both with 6 - Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe 

All with 5 -  Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain

 

Active Cup Series Drivers with Most Top 5s (Last 5 Years):
By Race 

Kyle Larson - 4

All with 3 - Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, and William Byron

 

Last Year's Pole Winner: Christopher Bell

 

Last Year's Race Winner: Denny Hamlin 

The Likely Suspects: My Martinsville go-tos are: Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, and Brad Keselowski.

My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick this week is Denny Hamlin. My next picks are Ryan Blaney, Josh Berry, Joey Logano, Ryan Preece and Bubba Wallace. I will complete my roster with Todd Gilliland and Daniel Suarez.

My Final Four: Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Todd Gilliland.

 

Second-Look Driver: This week's sleeper pick is Ryan Preece. Ryan started the year with a win at 

the Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. While it wasn't a points-paying race, Ryan let the field know that when you come to short-tracks, the No.60 will be upfront contending for the win. In the last six Cup Series races at Martinsville, he earned three Top 10s, including a seventh place finish last spring and a ninth place finish in the 2024 spring race.

 

If you're not feeling the love for Ryan, another great sleeper pick is Josh Berry, a driver who made his name in short-track racing in other motorsports series here at Martinsville.

 

Points to Ponder:

• Eight of the 65 NASCAR Cup Series Martinsville Speedway pole winners are active this weekend, led by Joey Logano with five, followed by Denny Hamlin with four, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson tied with with two each, and William Byron, Christopher Bell, Ryan Preece and Chase Elliott with one each.
• 37 of the 150 (24.67%) NASCAR Cup Series races at Martinsville Speedway have been won from the front row: 22 from the first starting position and 15 from the second starting position. 
• The deepest in the field that a NASCAR Cup Series Martinsville Speedway race winner has started is 20th, by Christopher Bell in the fall of 2022.
• Hendrick Motorsports drivers won five of the last nine Martinsville races with all four active drivers winning at least once (William Byron is the repeat winner with three).
• Ten of the 59 total NASCAR Cup Series Martinsville Speedway winners are active this weekend, led by Denny Hamlin with six, William Byron with three, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch all with two wins, and Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, and Joey Logano with one win each. 
• Kyle Busch leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series at Martinsville with four runner-up finishes (2012, 2017, 2018, 2021). 
• Denny Hamlin leads all active Cup drivers in Top 5 finishes with 21 at Martinsville Speedway as well as in Top 10s at Martinsville with 27; followed by Joey Logano with 22. Hamlin also leads active Cup Series drivers in laps led at the Paper Clip with 2,722 (14.3%) in 40 starts.
•  Ryan Blaney leads the series among active drivers in average finishing position at Martinsville Speedway with an 8.2 in 20 races.

If you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your initial picks by12:30 p.m. ET today and your final picks by 3:30 p.m. ET on race day, Sunday, March 29th.

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 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.