Fantasy racing junkies are at their wits end because there's only three weekends of racing left before the end of the season, leading to lots of angst over the thought of no more motorsports until 2011, while championships for a select few drivers and many game players are still on the line. Which drivers are the top picks for NASCAR at Texas and F1 in Brazil? In SPEED's Wind Tunnel Super 7 Sweep game most players are picking three F1 drivers and some combination of NASCAR stars to fill out their seven-starter rosters. It's a percentage deal; F1 fields are half the size of NASCAR's and unless there is a crash or DNF the chance of a GP driver scoring points is greater -- especially when there are really only a handful of open wheelers with a chance to win, and if they don't win or crash or break they almost always score fantasy points. NASCAR lovers do the opposite and pick two each from Cup, Nationwide and Trucks with one lone F1 racer on their roster, just because they have to pick at least one driver per scheduled race each weekend. The top three drivers in the Chase are the top three picks for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Jimmie Johnson (32% of all players) has one win at Texas and have never finished outside the top 10, Denny Hamlin (20%) won this past April and Kevin Harvick (12%) has never visited victory lane at the fast one and half mile just outside Ford Worth. But Harvick is hot and Richard Childress Racing desperately wants to prevent JJ from getting a record fifth title in a row. Fellow previous winners Tony Stewart (8%) and Jeff Gordon (7%) were followed by Kyle Busch (6.9%), three-time winner Carl Edwards (2.2%), 2000 winner Dale Earnhard Jr. (1.7% or 78 players), last year's winner Kurt Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya and Greg Biffle. No other driver was picked by one percent of the nearly 3000 players who submitted rosters for this weekend. For Saturday's NASCAR Nationwide Series race Brad Keselowski (38% of all players) and Kyle Busch (37%) are the runaway pick favorites; Carl Edwards (12%) was the only other driver with a percentage in double digits despite an average start of 8.7 and an average finish of 13th. Keselowski will give Roger Penske his first NASCAR championship with a 21st place finish. Most players obviously believe he and/or Kyle will get to the checkers first, as does your humble Commish (started Kyle) but I do believe Edwards is due. We'll see. Kevin Harvick (4%) and Joey Logano (3.7%) were the only other drivers on more than one percent of the players' lineups with Danica Patrick getting a few there's-nothing-wrong-with-hoping picks. Seven players picked Denny Hamlin, five players picked Tony Stewart and five players picked Jimmie Johnson although none of those Cup stars on the entry list. Doh. Kyle Busch (on 47.7% of all rosters) will be going for a record sixth NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series win in a row so it's no surprise he's the runaway top pick; likewise with next-most-popular pick Todd Bodine (25%) who has six wins at Texas and Ron Hornaday (13% of all rosters, two wins, all-time truck series lap leader at the track) the only other drivers with double-digit pick percentages. Austin Dillon (5.5%) and Aric Almirola (2.6%) were next ahead of Elliott Sadler (1.9%) and Kevin Harvick (picked by 1% or 38 players and sadly sitting out the race in favor of Sadler). Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, and Timothy Peters were upset specials for a few loyal players as were Geoffrey Bodine (back working on his bobsleds), Ken Schrader (probably somewhere in Missouri), Johnny Benson (praying he'll have a ride in 2011 but not suiting up), Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin, who aren't scheduled to race on Friday either. Oops. Paying attention almost always pays off with points. But I can't throw stones. I've started non-racing drivers too. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (38%) is the top pick for the Brazilian GP with Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel (29%) and Mark Webber (15%) next in pick popularity with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton fourth ahead of Felipe Massa. Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg are also on some rosters; no doubt picked by those players who are betting a turn one crash eliminates one or more favorites. With only two races left and the top three picks still in contention for the World Driving Championship I'd say there's just as good a chance of a crash or DNF during the race. Those banned, non-existent team orders may come into play, both Red Bull and McLaren have had reliability issues at the most inopportune times this season and there's always a chance for rain at Interlagos this time of year. And all those things are out of each fantasy game player's control.
-Bill
Read more of Bill Tybur's thoughts on fantasy racing at FMFL
Photo Credit: Bristol Motor Speedway & Dragway
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