NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway

Last weekend, Carson Hocevar showed us all that the No. 77 team had what it took to put all the pieces together to be a NASCAR Cup Series winner. The victory celebration wasn't too shabby either. 

Carson became the 13th driver to earn his first NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega. He also became the second first-time winner this season, joining Ty Gibbs, who won at Bristol Motor Speedway. The victory was Spire Motorsports' second in the Cup Series. 

Oh, and as a follow-up, Carson won the Craftsman Truck Series race last night here at Texas Motor Speedway. 

 

This Week's Pick Strategy: Texas Motor Speedway rewards drivers who are skilled at running different lines and who are not afraid to make aggressive passes. My roster will be a mix of drivers with dirt track experience, aggressive drivers who have demonstrated success in making moves that should not be possible, and drivers who have been quietly mastering Texas Motor Speedway. My picks will weigh heavily on drivers who have a high potential to earn qualifying points.

 

Active Drivers with Most Top 10s

Last 3 Points Paying Races 

2023-2025
Daniel Suarez - 3
All with 2 - William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Brad Keselowski, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Austin Dillon

    

Active Drivers with Most Top 3s  

Last 3 Points Paying Races 

2023-2025

Both with 2 - William Byron and Ross Chastain 

All with 1 - Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney 

 

Last Year's Pole Winner: Carson Hocevar

 

Last Year's Race Winner: Joey Logano

  

The Likely Suspects: My Texas elite drivers include William Byron, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, and Kyle Larson.  

 

My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick this week is Tyler Reddick. My next picks are William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, and Joey Logano. I will round out my roster with Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez.

My Final Four: William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, and Carson Hocevar.

Second-Look Driver: This week's second look driver is Erik Jones. While Erik has not won here yet, he has consistently run well, earning four Top 5s and eight Top 10s for an average finish of 11.786, third-best among active drivers. Last year, Erik finished fifth in this race after starting 14th on the grid.

 

Points to Ponder: 

• Brad Keselowski leads all active drivers in NASCAR Cup Series poles at Texas with two (2015, 2022). 
• Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in poles at Texas Motor Speedway with eight poles among six drivers. 
• Eight of the 45 NASCAR Cup Series races (17.7%) at Texas Motor Speedway have been won from the front row: five from the first starting position (11.1%) and three from the second starting position (6.6%). 
• Chevrolet has posted four consecutive Cup Series wins at Texas Motor Speedway, the longest streak of consecutive wins by a manufacturer at the track – 2021-2024. 
• Brad Keselowski leads all active Cup drivers in runner-up finishes at Texas with three. 
• Kyle Busch leads all active Cup drivers in top-five finishes at Texas with 14 Top 5s. He also leads all active Cup Series drivers in Top 10 finishes at Texas with 19 and in laps led at Texas with 1,069. Busch ranks second on the all-time list as well.
• Tyler Reddick leads active Cup Series drivers in average finishing position at Texas with a 11.0 in seven starts.

If you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your initial picks by 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 2nd, and make your final picks by 3:30 p.m. ET on race day, Sunday, May 3rd.

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.