Chad's Fantasy NASCAR Blog

Richmond is a ¾ mile track without much banking in the straight-aways or turns, similar to Phoenix.  There are 16 active drivers that have won at Richmond, so guessing who’ll win Saturday night will be a tough one.  Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. lead the way with 3 career wins each. 

This Week’s Recommendations:

Chaser: Jeff Gordon
The competition with Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson has Jeff fired up.  Maybe that will get him driving with an edge again and more aggressive on the track.  At Richmond Jeff has the 9^th best average finish (14.5) along with 2 wins, 13 top fives, and 22 top tens in 34 career races.  He’s also sporting a 6 race streak at the track for finishing in the top ten.  If he doesn’t get caught up in a wreck, Jeff will be contending for the win.

Alternate Chaser: Mark Martin
The only driver with more top ten finishes than Jeff Gordon is Mark Martin.  He has 27 of them in 48 career races along with 1 win, 17 top fives, and an average finish of 11.8 (6^th best).  Mark is also sporting a streak of top ten finishes at Richmond. His is 4 races.  Mark is 6^th in points and has finished in the top ten in the past three races and should keep that up this weekend in Richmond.

Kyle Busch
No one has a better average finish at Richmond than Kyle.  His 6^th place average finish is easily the best.  He has 8 top fives in 10 career races at Richmond with one win.  8 top fives in 10 races; pretty good record.  Kyle has also been hot lately, averaging a 10.2 place finish over the past 5 races, second to only Jimmie Johnson.

Kevin Harvick
Kevin has top ten finishes in 9 of the last 10 races at Richmond with one win.  That alone should warrant putting Kevin on your team this week.  He’s been great so far this year and only trails Jimmie Johnson by 26 points for the top spot in the points standings.

Dark Horse: Sam Hornish Jr.
Sam is definitely a dark horse in this race.  He’s buried, 29^th in points and doesn’t have a top ten finish yet this season.  This could be the week that he gets his first one.  Sam has only raced at Richmond four times, but managed to finish in the top ten in both races last season.  Hopefully that carries over to this weekend and give him the confidence he needs to turn in a good run and at least finish in the top 15.