Fantasy Sports Outlook

Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR: Darlington Raceway

Ready for some more Saturday night racing, this time at Darlington Raceway for the Dodge Challenger 500. Which means it’s another early deadline for selecting or editing drivers in the Yahoo! fantasy game, (May 9 2:00am PDT).

Qualifying is 5 p.m. ET Friday and the race is 7 p.m. ET on Saturday. 45 drivers on the entry list, so only two will be sent home this weekend.

The tables this week show the last 10 races at Darlington for each drivers group. Also included are the Yahoo average points scored for the season. You can click on the headings to sort the tables.

My first look goes to Jeff Gordon in group A. At some point you have to think Gordon will get out of the funk he’s in. His 9th place finish at Richmond was a step in the right direction and Darlington should continue that trend. Seven career wins and finishes of 1st, 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd in the last four Darlington races make him a good choice this week. Teammate Jimmie Johnson is another driver that has excelled at the track. In the last six Darlington races, Johnson has two wins and finished no worse than 7th (2005 race). As a matter of fact Johnson has only one finish outside of the top 10 in nine races at Darlington, a 27th place finish in the 2003 March race. If you need to spread your driver usage around here’s two that run well at Darlington and should finish strong this weekend, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.

Yahoo A list drivers.

Sure picks in group B? I’m picking Dale Earnhardt Jr. this week in group B. Top 10 finishes in the last three Darlington races and he’s just running strong this year. Last week I think he was looking at either a win or at worse a second place finish without the wreck. Ryan Newman is another pick that looks good with six top 10 finishes in nine races at Darlington. Chance for qualifying points, Kasey Kahne with 3 poles in his five Darlington races. Mark Martin had a string of four top 10 finishes before last seasons 14th place finish.

Risky pick? Even though Greg Biffle won the 2005 and 2006 races at Darlington, he’s seems to be slipping some with only one top 10 finish in the last five races.

Yahoo B list drivers.

Now it’s time for the weekly group C dart throws! Group C points leader Brian Vickers has five starts at Darlington, with the last two having finishes of 43rd and 41st. Travis Kvapil in two starts has an average finish of 32.5. Those are the only group c drivers that have a top 10 or top 5 finish this season. So here’s three drivers with an outside shot of giving you some good points this weekend, Joe Nemechek, Regan Smith and Paul Menard.

Yahoo C list drivers.

Big Props to racing-reference.info!

NASCAR wrap-up, Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR recap

You can get a good Weekend Wrap for the Richmond race over at NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest with articles from, Do You NASCAR!, Rev’Jim’s RantsnRaves and Racedriven.com

Tim from Do You NASCAR! has a great recap and rates the Richmond race.

The race restarted, and Earnhardt and Kyle Busch battled for the lead. Earnhardt - who hadn’t won a race in two years - took the high side of the track, while Busch drove around the bottom. The two cars were running virtually neck and neck, and just when Earnhardt Nation thought their hopes were about to come true - the heartbreak kicked in. The two cars just sort of met in the middle of the track, and Busch sent Junior spinning with only 3 laps left to bring out the final caution of the race.

Time for a recap on how the drivers scored in the Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR game. In case you were wondering only 4.2% of the Yahoo players had selected Clint Bowyer out of Group A. The top pick in the group was Jimmie Johnson (32 pts) with 41.62%.

In my Thursday post I recommended three drivers from group A, Jeff Burton (70 pts), Denny Hamlin (74 pts) and Kevin Harvick (76 pts). The top scores in group A, Clint Bowyer with 100 pts, Tony Stewart at 84 pts, and Carl Edwards with 78 pts. I went with Denny Hamlin and for 381 laps it looked like a great pick.

In group B my recommends were Kyle Busch (88 pts), Mark Martin (91 pts), Greg Biffle (64 pts), and Ryan Newman (80 pts). Martin, Busch and Newman had 3 of the top 4 scores on the night in group B. Martin Truex Jr. with 85 pts finished with the 3rd best score in the group. I went with Busch and Martin for my group B drivers. Good points but I’d rather have seen a Dale Jr. win.

In group C, which is always a hard group for me to select a driver, I recommended Brian Vickers (36 pts), Travis Kvapil (60 pts, tops in group C) and Sterling Marlin (42 pts). Marlin was a long shot, but I thought maybe his experience at the track would give him an edge out of the group C drivers. He did finish with the sixth highest point total in the group. I went with Travis Kvapil for only the second time this season.

What this meant for me was that in the three groups I’m in, Addict Fantasy Sports, From the Marbles and SpeedZone Racing I finished with the high score for the week in each group! Whoop! 313 points on the week.

This week it’s on to Darlington Raceway for the Dodge Challenger 500.

Sunday Headlines with FSO

Great day of action on Saturday. Big Brown showed he’s the real deal with a convincing win in the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. AP Racing Writer, Beth Harris on Filly Eight Belles.

Clint Bowyer wins in Richmond, in a race Dale Earnhardt Jr. should have, no wait, Denny Hamlin should have won. I’m a Dale Jr. fan, but Denny Hamlin easily gets the hard luck award this week. Won’t talk about Kyle Busch…yet.

Denny Hamlin led 381 of the first 382 laps in last night’s Dan Lowry 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Then, check.

A check was the shape of the cut in his right front tire. Hamlin, formerly of Chesterfield, finished 24th.

Phillies Chase Utley hit his MLB leading 13th home run against the San Francisco Giants, but the Giants came away with a 10 inning, 3-2 win.

The Giants pushed across the go-ahead run in the 10th on an RBI single by Bengie Molina to grab a 3-2 victory in front of a chilled sellout crowd of 43,804 at Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies had problems in areas other than starting pitching. They managed only three hits, none after the fifth, against four San Francisco pitchers, and the Giants touched them for four stolen bases, including one by Randy Winn that helped Winn become the deciding run in the 10th.

They have to be rockin in New Orleans right now as the Hornets beat the San Antonio Spurs 101-82 in game one of the Western Conference semifinals

Neither the San Antonio Spurs nor a ring of fire gone awry could derail the Hornets on their first night in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Hornets used a third-quarter comeback against the Spurs, then beat them 101-82 before a sellout crowd of 18,040 on Saturday night at the New Orleans Arena. A game that was oddly delayed in the first half by on-court residue from a fire extinguisher gave the Hornets a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series against the Spurs.

Hey Oscar is back! Oscar De La Hoya looking for another big payday came out of retirement to beat Steve Forbes in a 12-round decision.

The win set up a September rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat De La Hoya by split decision last May in what was the richest fight ever.

Of course…

Mayweather has yet to sign for the rematch, though De La Hoya expressed confidence that the money would be too great for him to refuse.

David Beckham, yeah he’s that good…Ric from over at The World’s Beautiful Game sent this over, Video: REAL SALT LAKE v GALAXY, Beckham’s two goals.

His first two-goal game in MLS is good for a tie.

Yahoo! Fantasy Nascar: Richmond International Raceway

Time for some Saturday night racing at Richmond International Raceway! Saturday night dirt track racing is what I grew up with here in the Pacific Northwest, so anytime the Sprint Cup series runs on a Saturday night it’s always fun to watch.

Behind the power curb on getting this out, but here are some tables I made for each of the driver groups at Yahoo! NASCAR.

In group A, hard to go against Jeff Burton right now with the way he’s driving. With an average finish of 7.6 this season and 15.5 average finish in 27 races at Richmond he might be the safest bet in group A. Denny Hamlin is another driver that looks to be a safe bet…if there is such a thing…with an average finish of 6.5 in four races at Richmond and 11.1 on the season. Kevin Harvick is another driver to think about using this weekend.

Kyle Busch in group B is all you need to know. Unless you’ve already used up your nine races for Kyle then he’s the pick. In six races at Richmond he has five top 5 finishes and the way he’s going this season, this just might be the weekend he picks up his first win on the Richmond track. Having to pick four drivers from the B group, here’s three you should consider, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle, and Ryan Newman.

Group C is a dart throw this week. Brian Vickers is leading the C drivers with an average finish of 18.2 this season, but only has an average finish of 28.4 at Richmond. Two drivers I’m going to slot this weekend are Travis Kvapil and then I’m going to take a chance with Sterling Marlin (19.2 average finish at Richmond in 43 races).

Here’s the entry list for the race from nascar.com with the qualifying set for Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Yahoo A list drivers and their stats for Richmond International Raceway. Also included are the stats through nine races for 2008.

Yahoo B list drivers and their stats for Richmond International Raceway. Also included are the stats through nine races for 2008.

Yahoo C list drivers and their stats for Richmond International Raceway. Also included are the stats through nine races for 2008.

Last week’s picks from Talladega Superspeedway (points are for the Yahoo game, highlighted drivers are the one’s I started last week)

Group A
* Jeff Gordon qualified 20th finished with 19th with 64 pts.
* Tony Stewart qualified 2nd finished 38th with 41 pts. (if started, 5 if not started)
* Jimmie Johnson qualified 10th finished 13th with 76 pts.
Group B
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. qualified 9th finished 10th with 82 pts.
* Kyle Busch qualified 5th finished 1st with 100pts.
* David Gilliand qualified 40th finished 15th with 72 pts.
* Bobby Labonte qualified 34th finished 34th with 24 pts.
Group C
* Travis Kvapil qualified 14th finished 6th with 80 pts.
* Brian Vickers qualified 8th finished 5th with 92 pts.
* Sam Hornish Jr. qualified 37th finished 35th with 22 pts.

Big props to racing-reference.info!

Yahoo! Fantasy NASCAR: Talladega Superspeedway

Taking a look at this weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, there’s a lot of good story lines happening this week.

Is this the week that Dale Earnhardt Jr. rolls into victory lane? Was the weeks worth of “are you leaving JGR to start your own team?” enough of a distraction that Tony Stewart won’t find his way into victory lane? Jeff Gordon is looking for his third straight Talladega win, but has an average finish of 18.9 in the first eight races this season.

My early picks for this weekend,

Group A

• Jeff Gordon
• Tony Stewart
• Jimmie Johnson

Group B

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Kyle Busch
• David Gilliand
• Bobby Labonte

Group C

• Travis Kvapil
• Brian Vickers
• Sam Hornish Jr.

Here’s a look at the user picks from earlier today at Yahoo! racing.

This table shows the top ten drivers by average finish at Talladega Superspeedway.

This table shows top ten drivers by average finish at tracks similar to Talladega (Superspeedways)

Full drivers list for Talladega Superspeedway
Full drivers list for upcoming track type
XML courtesy of onebadwheel.com