Fantasy Update: Martin Truex Jr. continues recent hot streak leading into Goodyear 400
The results might not show it, but Martin Truex Jr. has arguably been the best driver at Darlington in recent years. In the 2021 Goodyear 400, he stomped the field by leading 248 of 293 laps from the pole. Oh, what‘s that? Truex will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday, and the polesitter has won consecutive spring Darlington races. Don‘t be surprised if it‘s a No. 19 Toyota runaway again.
RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday | Set your Fantasy Live roster
Dustin Albino‘s race-day lineup:
Starter 1: Martin Truex Jr.
Starter 2: Denny Hamlin
Starter 3: Ross Chastain
Starter 4: Kyle Busch
Starter 5: Kyle Larson
Garage pick: Bubba Wallace
NEXT IN LINE: William Byron, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick.
RISING: While Ricky Stenhouse Jr. didn‘t make the cut for my lineup or even the next in line, the No. 47 team continues to put together its best season to date. The third-place qualifying effort is Stenhouse‘s best on a non-superspeedway since joining JTG Daugherty Racing in 2020. His Darlington stats aren‘t ideal, with just one top-10 finish in 14 starts and an average finish south of 23rd.
Much like Stenhouse, Wallace doesn‘t have the best statistics at Darlington, with a single top-10 finish in nine starts (last September). Getting reps around the egg-shaped oval is one of the primary reasons why he ran the Truck Series race for Tricon Garage on Friday evening. But the No. 23 Toyota is fast this weekend, as Wallace earned his best starting position of the season in second. On the long run, Wallace was among the best in the field as well, ranking second on 20- and 25-lap averages.
FALLING: For the second consecutive week, Stewart-Haas Racing put two of its entries outside of the top 25 in qualifying with Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece turning the 31st and 32nd quickest times, respectively. But let‘s focus on Kevin Harvick, who ranked 20th in qualifying and 24th on single-lap speed in practice. The No. 4 Ford turned up the wick on longer runs, but he isn‘t the quickest Ford this weekend. Before catching fire last fall, Harvick hadn‘t finished outside the top 10 at Darlington since 2012. Entering the race, it‘s questionable whether he will get back inside that threshold.
While the Fords primarily looked quicker in practice — though Keselowski was the lone blue oval to make it to the final round of qualifying — Logano has dropped from my lineup. The defending winner of the Goodyear 400 ranked 20th on 10-lap averages and qualified 15th. The No. 22 team has been sluggish in recent weeks, plummeting from the regular season championship leader to 11th in points over the last seven events.
MORE: Read all info for the Darlington showdown
FEATURED MATCHUPS
Denny Hamlin vs. Kyle Larson: Expect good races from both drivers on Sunday, as Darlington is one of their best tracks on the circuit, despite Larson not visiting Victory Lane yet. The Nos. 5 and 11 cars looked similar on pace on Saturday while making a long run, but my gut tells me to stick with Hamlin. He‘s so good at Darlington.
Christopher Bell vs. Erik Jones: Neither driver stood out during practice or qualifying, but Jones ranked 31st out of 32 drivers that made a 10-lap run. Not ideal for the most recent Darlington winner. Bell has gone quiet about the season and gets the job done repeatedly. Give me the No. 20 team this weekend, though it wouldn‘t surprise me for Jones to flip the script and have a solid outing.
Kevin Harvick vs. Joey Logano: Welp, these drivers both fell into my falling category, so I‘m not particularly high on either entering Sunday. But in a straight-up duel, I‘m taking Harvick to outrun Logano at Darlington. Out of all the Ford drivers, Harvick has arguably been the most consistent, though Ryan Blaney has a slightly better average finishing position.
Noah Gragson vs. Daniel Suarez: The rookie season for Gragson continued to languish, as the No. 42 car qualified 29th. And though Darlington is not among Suarez‘s best tracks with one top-10 effort in 10 races, he should have enough sheer pace to outrun Gragson on Sunday.
