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AustYn

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season has been dominated by Chase Elliott. After his 3rd win of the year last week at Atlanta, Elliott’s points lead grows to 47 points over Ryan Blaney. Next up, we have New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which is very different than Atlanta last week. There really isn’t a track that is comparable to New Hampshire, so our strategy will consist of studying history and practice. In other NASCAR news…Tyler Reddick announced that he will be leaving RCR after the end of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season…which will leave a very awkward stretch of a year and a half for the #8 team and the RCR organization. It will be interesting to see what RCR decides to do at the end of this season…Reddick apparently signed an extension with the team through next year, but you must seriously doubt the mindset of the team. I do believe that he will stay there, but I firmly believe the performance will be off compared to this year even. In my opinion, it seems like a horizontal move, 23XI isn’t performing amazingly to be honest, not to mention they are fully reliant on JGR and I feel like you are burning bridges with any Chevy manufacturer support in the future. I hope Toyota is really behind Reddick, because it will be interesting to see what happens after he becomes a sub-par driver with 23XI. Do not get me wrong, I think Reddick is a good driver and has earned his keep in the NASCAR Cup Series, but I don’t even think he’s a top-10 driver to be honest.

Enough of that rant and let’s study Loudon. We will be watching 301 laps on the 1.0 Mile Oval today and teams have 8 sets of tires to use on this track. Track position has always been key, but there have been winners that started outside the top-20 before. Ford has come away victorious in the last 4 races, but this is a new car, so that could very well change. The great thing about us analyzing qualifying is that we can have some fun with possibilities and drivers. There are plenty of great drivers starting towards the back and ownership is going to be tricky to dissect. In tournament settings, it will be important to decide where to fade the popular choices and pay down for the options that will yield just as many points. After my selection’s you will see what I mean. Anyway, let’s do it!

Top Pick: Martin Truex Jr. ($10,400) Starting P1

Here it is…my choice to win this race Truex has an average finish of 12.0 at Loudon and starting up-front is the best place to be. Even though Truex has never won here…he hasn’t finished outside the top-20 since 2010. This track is all about patience and Truex may be one of the best at conserving equipment. I look for the #19 to stay out front most of the day today and win.

Supporting Cast: Austin Cindric ($7,600) Starting P28 & Harrison Burton ($5,200) Starting 31st

I want some Team Penske engines here at this spot. Austin Cindric is a great fade option to Chase Briscoe. He is starting 1 spot ahead and is $800 cheaper. Keselowski always did well in the #2 car and Cindric has been very consistent lately with 4 straight top-10s in the Cup Series. Harrison Burton is another Penske powered machine and is a great fade option to Ty Dillon who is $200 higher. It’s all about ownership and I think Burton could squeak out a top-20 for us.

FanDuel Preview

Yacs

We’re heading up North for our next race today at Loudon, New Hampshire. The track is a change from last week’s action-packed newly configured Atlanta, but it still should be an interesting race. It will be interesting to see how this track will be with the new cars today. Last week, Chase Elliott picked up the win. I really wanted to see Corey LaJoie pick up his first win, but it wasn’t to be. This will be the first race with the new build at New Hampshire, so much like the rest of the tracks, it will be interesting to see how they look in their first race action with the new car.

Unlike last week, we did get some practice times in so that could be very beneficial in making our lineups this week. Ford has won the last 4 races here, so that could be something to keep an eye out for. FanDuel this week won’t be as much about picking the lap leader as much as picking guys that will finish the race and finish well. Laps led aren't going to be very crucial this week because the race is just going to be a little over 300 laps. I think we have a good lineup for you this week, so good luck. Here are my picks for FanDuel this week.

The Fords: Kevin Harvick ($8, 200) Starting 10th; Austin Cindric ($6,500) Starting 28th

Referring back to what I said earlier, Ford has won the last 4 races. Fords were fast in practice for the most part and I think these are two good picks this week. Harvick is great at New Hampshire and his price and starting position are good for a pick this week. As for Cindric, it is a risky pick, but not really. I’m riding off of that momentum that he has right now. He has 4 straight top 10 finishes and if you can get that at his price, that’s a fantastic return.

The Chevrolets: William Byron ($10,000) Starting 6th; Kyle Larson ($10,500) Starting 8th

Chevys were fast in practice too especially the Hendrick cars. William Byron was fastest in practice and the 6thstarting spot doesn’t yield too many passing spots, but my strategy picking him will be thinking that a lot of people are going to grab Chase Briscoe starting just below him with 23 more starting spots behind him and possibly Bowman just under him in pricing. As for Larson, if you see Larson outside of the Top 5 most expensive drivers, just grab him up. As long as he doesn’t get into trouble, he will be fast and will finish well.

Final Pick: Kyle Busch ($12,500) Starting 17th

Kyle is our most expensive driver and our final pick. He had a good practice session and he’s one of those guys that you can pick at any track and feel confident that he will do well. Loudon isn't Kyle’s best track by any means, but it’s far from his worst. He’s tallied 3 wins here in his career and hopefully he can contend for his 4th win today.

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