Fantasy NASCAR: Bank of America Roval 400

Brief Playoff overview: the first three races will taper the 16 eligible playoff drivers down to 12. The next three races bring the field down to 8. Three more races will bring it to the final four who have one race at Homestead-Miami to decide who the 2018 Monster Energy Cup Series Champion will be.

Race Information

Race: Bank of America Roval 400
Laps: 109
Date: September 30^th
Venue: Charlotte Motor Speedway
2017 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. (3:38:00)
Broadcast: NBC (Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Steve Letarte)
Most Race Wins: Jimmie Johnson (4)

Course

Charlotte Motor Speedway. Opened in 1960 by Bruton Smith and Curtis Turner, this 1.5 mile quad oval asphalt track is home to two races each year. The turns are at 24 degrees and the straights bank at 5 degrees. This track was the first modern superspeedway to host night racing

Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

Favorites

1) Martin Truex Jr (6^th selection this year). Average finish of 11^th over his last four years at Charlotte. His history here includes two wins, two third places and a fifth place over the last three years. Back to back third place finishes coming into this playoff race.

2) Brad Keslowski (6^th selection this year). Average finish of 14^th here over his last four years. Take out the most recent 39^th place finish last year and it’s five top ten finishes with three finishes that were worse than tenth but still inside the top 20. He has three wins and a ninth place finish in his last four races.

High Risk/High Reward

3) Austin Dillon (3^rd selection this year) Average finish of 14^th at Charlotte. He struggled mightily with a 34^th place finish earlier this year but his two playoff races were both top 12 finishes. He won here in the regular season last year.

4) Kurt Busch (5^th selection this year) Average finish of 14^th over the last four years. This includes seven finishes inside the top 12, one 40^th place finish and a 22^nd place finish in last year’s playoffs. His playoffs thus far have not been great – 21^st and 18^th.

Dark Horse

5) Jamie McMurray (6^th selection this year ) Average finish of 11^th over the last four years. Recently he has every finish inside the top 20 with three inside the top five. He needs to rebound – two top ten finishes going into the playoffs but he had a 35^th and 21^st place finishes in his last two races.

2018 Stats

Favorites: avg finish 10th (27th percentile)
High Risk/Reward: avg finish 16th place (43rd percentile)
Dark Horse: avg finish 19th place (50th percentile)

The rules I have implemented for myself are:
1.I will not pick a driver more than 10 times this season.
2.Due to #1 these are “Power Rankings” (in quotations) I’m looking for value here.

My general format for my power rankings:
•Top 2 picks will generally be the favorites, the ones who should be top 5 or top 10 finished
• #3 and #4 will be your riskier picks, could be top 5 or bottom 15.
• Pick #5 is the dark horse.