Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Drivers start your engine.
Speaker 2 00:00:22 What's up oaks? And welcome to another episode of the NASCAR DFS podcast. Uh, our buddy Dan Malin, is on a business trip for his other job at the moment. Uh, so we are joined by Mr. Edward Rouse. What's up Ralph? How are we doing this week?
Speaker 3 00:00:39 What is going on? Sales. Um, it's a crazy week, right? We're at the point of our sports lives where everything is going on all at the same time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so of course I'm going everywhere all the same time. I'm sure you are as well. But, um, and I'm also a sad lady fan. Um, he's really a shifted down in these standings, huh?
Speaker 2 00:01:01 Yeah. It's not been, it's not been a good run for him of late. His dream of making the championship without getting a win is looking, uh, look it a little dicey right now. It's not, it's not looking.
Speaker 3 00:01:13 Let me see my dad joke again. He's a little shifting down. Yeah. In the standings.
Speaker 2 00:01:19 There he is. He is. Maybe you should try up shifting.
Speaker 3 00:01:22 Yes, yes. Um, yeah, I'm sure we'll talk about that later.
Speaker 2 00:01:25 But yeah, not a lot of that at Martinsville, though. There's not a whole lot of shifting that happens here. Um, so yeah, that's the race we've got coming up this week is, uh, at Martinsville, the Penn ultimate race of the NASCAR Cup season. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, you know, one shot left for everybody to get into the championship race of Phoenix. Um, so things are gonna get a little testy at Martinsville. We've seen it before, Uh, each of the last three, four years or so. Uh, things come down to bump and runs, uh, moving people out of the way that others don't like. Uh, we've seen fights break out here, right? Didn't, who, who started fighting during Martin TREXs, uh, raise winning interview a couple years ago. Some, somebody was, I think it was Lagano and somebody, um,
Speaker 3 00:02:16 That doesn't surprise me. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:02:18 <laugh>, um, what in doubt blame Lagano? Um, so, you know, we've, we've got a pretty interesting group of four drivers that might make it to the, to the championship unfortunately. Um, one that I didn't want to be locked in is the one that's locked in <laugh> at Joy Lagano. But
Speaker 3 00:02:38 Isn't it weird that nobody's winning and these playoffs, like I feel every year at least, almost every race one of the playoff drivers wins. But this year's been just insane. Like, nobody, none of the playoff drivers that, that have left are winning. It's
Speaker 2 00:02:52 Yeah, like Larson has the dominant car at Miami. It's like, Dude, you showed up a little too late, man. Like,
Speaker 3 00:03:00 Just a bit outside
Speaker 2 00:03:01 <laugh>. Yeah, exactly. Um, plus if you didn't have 'em for dfs, you were basically screwed.
Speaker 3 00:03:06 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:03:07 Um, so that was, that was a little unfortunate there, there was a lot of drama in the, uh, homestead race though. But, uh, true X missing his pit and then trying to blame <laugh>, trying to blame it on another driver.
Speaker 3 00:03:23 It was like, I like how he just said, screw it. I'm getting in there. Somehow. <laugh> just completely, it just spun his car <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:03:30 Basically. It was like, o I missed the off ramp. I, I gotta make a move
Speaker 3 00:03:33 Here. Yep. I'm gonna go right through the water barriers and I don't care.
Speaker 2 00:03:36 <laugh>. Yeah. And then blamed everybody else for the problem <laugh>. Um, so that, that seems like a kind of a j er thing to do at this point. Right. Um, little sad for Tyler Reddick who looked to be all set up for a very good homestead race and then mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, got bit again at an intermediate. Um, but we'll, you know, we'll, we'll move on here to Martinsville, uh, the paperclip as it's called cuz it is short and it is kind of tight corners and relatively long straightaways for such a short track. Um, so it kinda looks like a paperclip. If you look at it from the top. It is the oldest track in nascar. It's the only one that's been on the schedule every single year of the NASCAR schedule since the sport started in like 1947. Um, but I wanna start it off with this. What, what are we looking for this week, given how the next gen cars have been? Absolutely terrible. Bullet short tracks.
Speaker 3 00:04:43 Ooh. Um, Yeah, I don't <laugh>. What are we looking for? I, I really don't know. Um, it's hard to pass right? Once you get behind. Yes. I've noticed that on, on the short tracks that once you get behind, you're not coming back. Any mistake at all, Ryan Blaney, you're not coming back. It's, so that's the one thing I noticed where it seems like the older cars, you're able to get back into a race a lot easier than you can with these. And that's, that's one thing I've noticed. Um, what else have you noticed with them on these short tracks?
Speaker 2 00:05:10 Yeah, you're right. It, it is been relatively tough to pass at these short, flat tracks this year. Um, which kind of stinks cuz short tracks used to be a whole lot of, like you could pass, it was tougher, obviously a whole lot less room to do it, but you could pass. But this next gen car seems to have taken that ability away from people and I'm not sure exactly why, uh, that's the case. I don't know if it's an arrow thing or the wider wheels just don't work as well on short tracks. I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 00:05:48 Maybe it's evened out the playing field a little bit more. And that's why we've also seen more winners this year as well.
Speaker 2 00:05:53 I mean that's true. It has, it has even that out. But like, like even the guys that are fast are the ones we kind of expect to be up there on short tracks. It's just like if you're leading, you cannot, like, nobody's gonna dig it from you unless your pick roof screws up or you get beat on a restart. Um, so keep that in mind. There are 500 laps in this race, um, so it's gonna be a long, long grinding race here at Martin
Speaker 3 00:06:24 Long Sunday.
Speaker 2 00:06:25 Yeah, they're gonna be clicking 'em off pretty quick. But I expect stage three to have a whole lot of cautions as guys try to uh, make moves to make the playoffs. Cuz every, every spot on that race track is gonna matter. It's a pretty tight, pretty tight field. Um, in terms of points. So that's a little bit of what we're looking for is uh, you know, a whole lot of lap led here and I'm not looking to play a whole lot of people starting towards the back because again, it's tough to pass. So if it's tough to pass and it's a short track, that means you're probably gonna get lapped pretty quick. I don't want guys that are getting lapped cuz that caps how far up in the field they can move. So
Speaker 3 00:07:10 Yeah, this is a hard race to judge to put any type of lineup together. I was trying last night without seeing the qualifying and it is just, yes because of that reason. It's just a really tough one.
Speaker 2 00:07:21 Right. Cuz if we go based off track history, that's great. But like, if you go based off of what happened here in the spring, it was a little counter to what, you know, what track history said, like guys were not moving up. Um, you could just hold the lead for a couple hundred laps at a time. Um, and speaking of that, there are new tires this week for a good year at Martinsville. They changed the tires from the spring, so, um, so that's another little wrinkle tossed in here too. Um, so with that, why don't we start breaking down, breaking down some of the drivers here. Who are the top guys, the top, the top price guys you're looking at obviously Blaney's on that list. Uh, but who, who else?
Speaker 3 00:08:06 I don't know. I, I'll be honest with you. Well, let's just start with Blaney right now. Obviously, um, the last two races, he's kind of done it to himself, right? He was dominating two weeks ago and then last week he was up there again and still he just makes mistakes. And every year in the playoffs he find a way, he finds a way to make some sort of mistake to take him out or his team does, like when he got docked a hundred points or whatever, three years ago, uh, or last, I forgot what happened last year, but he made a mistake as well last, it's like this conent thing and if he's gonna be racing hard and the key of your, your lineups is to finish a race. Um, I don't know if he's a must play as he's always been in my book this week. Um,
Speaker 2 00:08:48 So you bring up, you bring up some good points. He's been fading a little bit down the stretch here that this
Speaker 3 00:08:55 Plot. Well just in the third stage, in the first two stages, he's fantastic.
Speaker 2 00:08:58 Well that's true <laugh>. That's true. That's long been a
Speaker 3 00:09:01 Problem isn't when you race this though.
Speaker 2 00:09:02 The stage racing is that we have the first two stages figured out and then we all just gotta hang on for the third stage. Um, now I will say that in these six shorter flatter tracks that they've run on this year, like Gateway and couple of Richmond races and um, obviously the first Martinsville race Phoenix can be tossed in there. New Hampshire, um, you know, places, places like that. Blaney has three top fives in those six races this year. He has the second best average finish of anybody in the field.
Speaker 3 00:09:38 He does need to win though, right? To have any type of chance? Not necessarily, but
Speaker 2 00:09:42 Let's see, let's double check the NASCAR standings here cause I don't
Speaker 3 00:09:45 Remember them. He's 18 below the cut. And William Byron Hamlin or minus five, plus five Elliots plus 11
Speaker 2 00:09:54 Necessarily need a, he doesn't necessarily need a win. Um, I would say that Briscoe and Bell definitely do. They're 33 of.
Speaker 3 00:10:03 Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:10:04 They're 44 below. Although technically Bell doesn't, it depends on stage points, but like if Blaney wins the first two stages and then beats, but let's say Byron doesn't get any stage points, Blaney wins the first two stages and then he finishes two spots ahead of Byron. He's tied him
Speaker 3 00:10:23 And he has the advantage cuz he has the stage one
Speaker 2 00:10:26 And he would, if they have, I don't know where their average finishes or what their finishes have been so far this stage, but that would be the tiebreaker would be the highest finish.
Speaker 3 00:10:39 Uh, okay. But he's gonna be pushing for the wind so he'll be up there racing hard and
Speaker 2 00:10:43 Yes. So there, there's a shot. Obviously the wind solves all of his problems.
Speaker 3 00:10:48 Yes.
Speaker 2 00:10:49 Um, but there's a shot for him to make it without uh, without getting the win. Now the more interesting one to me is Denny Hamlin.
Speaker 3 00:11:02 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:03 Who is currently below the cutoff.
Speaker 3 00:11:05 Yeah. Minus five.
Speaker 2 00:11:06 Minus five. So again, doesn't need a win, just needs a solid day and somebody else to screw up.
Speaker 3 00:11:11 Byron most likely
Speaker 2 00:11:13 Yes. However, he hasn't paid Chestain back was second in the standings, right? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:11:24 He hasn't, I he hasn't really gotten the opportunity because he's been in all these races to make the finals. Right. And ultimately a championship is more important to him than getting watermelon out, you know. Well, so,
Speaker 2 00:11:38 Okay, but let's say that Denny Hamlin has a bad day at, at Martinville let's
Speaker 3 00:11:43 Say, and he's like minus 40 at the time. And
Speaker 2 00:11:45 Let's say the car isn't great because if we look back at the last six
Speaker 3 00:11:50 Yeah. He hasn't been good at the short
Speaker 2 00:11:52 Tracks has he? This year? Denny Hamlin has not been good.
Speaker 3 00:11:57 Yeah, he has not been good
Speaker 2 00:11:58 At all. Um, in the average. I mean he is been, he's been okay, but like 14.3 isn't great. He does have a win, but it's a little bit hit and miss for him. Right. So he has a win, a fourth place finish, a six place finish, and then he is got like a 28th and a 34th. So,
Speaker 3 00:12:16 Mm, narrative The narrative, I like it
Speaker 2 00:12:20 If it's a bad race for him and he is complaining like he did the last time we were at a short flat track where he was wondering why the hell he was running 30th. And
Speaker 3 00:12:33 He technically also every race he complains as well.
Speaker 2 00:12:35 Yes. Well that's true <laugh>, but Chastain does not need a win to seal his, he just needs to have a solid race. He's 19 points to the good. Correct. So if Ham's having a Craptastic day, which is not like out of the realm of possibility, does he target Ross Chastain
Speaker 3 00:12:57 Knock him out and then Blaney and, and Byron Giggi will get
Speaker 2 00:13:01 In because at that point Hamlin's like, I'm not making it, neither are you and knocks out Chastain.
Speaker 3 00:13:07 Well I'll tell you what we all need to watch on Sunday cuz that's gonna be exciting. That happens. That'd be ought to be fun, but I mean I'll be watched anyways.
Speaker 2 00:13:14 Yeah, I mean it's, I mean it's happened in Martinsville before, right? Hamlin has done it personally like three times in the last four years. He did it to Chase when he got on the restart and then he got booed by his own home.
Speaker 3 00:13:27 Oh <laugh>, I
Speaker 2 00:13:28 Remember that when he was sent Chase Elliot and he was like, well look Tipped from behind, which was a load of crap. There was no one behind him. He was behind him. Um, and then he also blocked Bowman from celebrating here. He's petty and obnoxious. Um, so yeah, Martinsville has a thing for getting under Denny Hamlin's skin and I could totally see that happening again this week.
Speaker 3 00:13:52 Well I'm, well I'm counting on it now that you said it. I'm counting on it. So let's
Speaker 2 00:13:56 Go. He's also by the way, 11 four, so that's a little steep.
Speaker 3 00:14:00 He is expensive. Yeah. He's the most expensive playoff driver. That's, I don't know if I'm paying up 11 four for Hamlin.
Speaker 2 00:14:08 Yeah. I don't know that I'm, I find it so hard to pay up for like a lot of these guys.
Speaker 3 00:14:18 I mean Elliot can just kind of coast in the top 10 his way to the championship. He doesn't, Byron needs to race. Blaney needs to race. Lagano can just do nothing. He could just sit on the sidelines or he could help Blaney. Exactly. That would be nice if one of Blaney's teammates actually helped him for once. I I I heard that laugh so I was I heard that laugh. Uh, chest. Dan's gonna be looking out for Hamlin. Maybe this is a week where you just kind of
Speaker 2 00:14:45 Mid tier
Speaker 3 00:14:46 It go just mid tier, the whole lineup. Well it depends on qualifying like Aster. But you
Speaker 2 00:14:50 Could Right. Is this is
Speaker 3 00:14:51 A, oh by the way P Wallace is back after his suspension, correct? Yeah, he's back.
Speaker 2 00:14:55 Yes he is back. Um, the one race suspension is done. Speaking of that, Stuart Haass lost their appeal in the suspension for Col cus well the, uh, the penalties for Col Custer, um, with his crew chief and the a hundred thousand dollars fine and the, you know what they lost that appeal. So
Speaker 3 00:15:14 Col Custer's probably not coming back next year. Now,
Speaker 2 00:15:18 Um, there is apparently a fight between Tony Stewart and Gene Haas as to what they're doing with Col Custer.
Speaker 3 00:15:24 He, he's been terrible. I mean I've said this on this podcast before he had, he, he luck into one win got rookie of the year. Other than that he's been straight trash
Speaker 2 00:15:32 <laugh>. Yeah, he got, he got Rookie of the year cause of very good final two laps at Kentucky. That was
Speaker 3 00:15:37 It. Correct. That was it.
Speaker 2 00:15:38 That track's not even on the schedule anymore.
Speaker 3 00:15:41 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:15:42 <laugh>. Um, so yeah, there, there's a debate going between do they wanna stick with Custer at work, call somebody up from the lower levels? Um,
Speaker 3 00:15:51 I've seen enough of Kuster in two years getting out here <laugh>. That's what I say.
Speaker 2 00:15:56 I think most people agree with that, that it's a waste of a, what we would call a big team
Speaker 3 00:16:01 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:16:01 Seat. But I, I don't know, it's, it's clearly not up to us to decide if Kuster keeps the sponsorships and the money then he'll keep the ride. Cuz that's what it, that's what it comes down to.
Speaker 3 00:16:14 And I'll continue to not play him in dfs.
Speaker 2 00:16:16 That's true <laugh>. That is, that is true. Um, I don't know what we're doing with Truex this week to be perfectly honest.
Speaker 3 00:16:24 See I know what I've been doing with Truex for while now. He's uh, he's
Speaker 2 00:16:28 Priced in 95. He's had nice speed recently on the mile and a
Speaker 3 00:16:31 Halfs. He has no 90 five's a pretty decent price for him for a gpp. You know, he's not in that tent tier where he has been. Um, he's a pretty good short track driver.
Speaker 2 00:16:44 Uh, he is won here a couple of times in the last, yeah, few in the last few races. It's
Speaker 3 00:16:49 Named, he's named after the course basically. So there's, there's that narrative. So 95 you could put, put him as your top price driver and then do the mid tier for gpp. This is, by the way, I don't play double ups in nascar. I think everyone goes that by now.
Speaker 2 00:17:06 Um, I
Speaker 3 00:17:06 Like it.
Speaker 2 00:17:08 Yeah, he's had four top seven finishes, the short tracks this year.
Speaker 3 00:17:11 Yep. Butter tracks. I like that right now. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:13 Um, that's kind of his bread and butter most years. Um, he really wants to keep his winds streak going like, you know, consecutive years with wins. Um,
Speaker 3 00:17:27 And who's he's teammate's? Uh, Hamlin
Speaker 2 00:17:31 And Kyle Bush.
Speaker 3 00:17:32 So Hammond's still the playoff driver, Like does the teammate thing matter?
Speaker 2 00:17:36 Bell bell's still in the playoffs,
Speaker 3 00:17:37 But Oh, bell too. Yeah. Well, yeah. Does a teammate thing matter this late? Like will Truex try to like help out Hamlin or Bell if he can to help them win or something to get into to the final? Or is he just still kind racing for himself? I've always like,
Speaker 2 00:17:51 I mean technically speaking you're not allowed to give team orders in NASCAR without getting a penalty, right? Like in F1 you could get a guy back off and, and let the other driver go past because they have,
Speaker 3 00:18:03 Oh you know how many times I've seen
Speaker 2 00:18:05 <laugh> in nascar? You can't say it in so many words, but there are ways to kind of kind of set it up that way. Um, would Truex do it?
Speaker 3 00:18:21 Probably not. He's assume like that type of guy that
Speaker 2 00:18:22 Would, I don't know, maybe, maybe. I mean Hamlin, Hamlin did help him out at Daytona when he pulled out a line in the stage to help Drx get stage points to try to point his way into the playoffs. Um, which wound up not necessarily mattering by like a couple of points. Um, so I, so I don't know that's a reasonable question, but it is an intriguing way to start a lineup at 9,500 bucks if you're just saying I don't really wanna pay dudes that are $11,000 this week, cuz a
Speaker 3 00:18:55 Lot and your average remaining player just now is 81. Like
Speaker 2 00:18:59 That's if you went with Truex at 95, you could also take a shot on Kyle Bush in hopes that he finds speed
Speaker 3 00:19:09 Or finds his head. He's just been,
Speaker 2 00:19:12 But he does have the best tempera finish in the field at short, flat tracks this year.
Speaker 3 00:19:16 So Yeah, but not in the last two months.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Yeah, not, not so much recently, but again we're building for a gpp so let's
Speaker 3 00:19:23 Actually recently he has three, his last three races were top 10 finishes.
Speaker 2 00:19:27 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:19:28 So maybe you're on something ninth, third and third.
Speaker 2 00:19:31 There
Speaker 3 00:19:31 You go. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:19:33 Um, I gotta keep playing almond dinger cuz I just think he's fast. The car is fast.
Speaker 3 00:19:38 He used to be someone to watch next year if he gets a full-time.
Speaker 2 00:19:40 He nailed the top 10 at, at Gateway earlier this year on a short flat track. So while everybody says he's a road racer, that is true. He does actually have, um, you know, okay. Stuff at short flight tracks. Um, so he's, he's gotta watch,
Speaker 3 00:20:00 Well la well I mean last week he started 10th finish third. Right. 52 points. Uh, the South point 400 started 21st finish ninth 48 points. Now the Roal obviously that's a, a road course. So, but still 60 points. Uh, and then before, I mean he 44 before that 49 fifth, he's been on a streak of over 44 as as lowest as as last since July.
Speaker 2 00:20:31 I like that.
Speaker 3 00:20:32 I think you're on to something there. And I I and he's probably not gonna be high on me cuz most people they say Oh, not a road course not a dinger. So I like it.
Speaker 2 00:20:42 Yeah. Um, and so to finish, to finish this off here, I put in Eric Amarillo cuz he's a short, flat track racer. He's done very well.
Speaker 3 00:20:53 He's been kind of those screwing with me all year type of guys. But I
Speaker 2 00:20:57 Mean, Yeah, but he, this is right up his alley for the type of track it is. And in terms of average finish this year, he is got three top tens including one here in the spring race. So, um, so I like him Austin Dylan is gonna be guy who know
Speaker 3 00:21:14 I was gonna say Austin
Speaker 2 00:21:15 Dylan pays attention to this week, but he's been very good at this time of track Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:21:19 This year. And he's kinda on a roll too. So Yeah. Also three top tens in his last three.
Speaker 2 00:21:24 Yeah. And then that gives us $9,300 to finish off this lineup, which gives us Bel Harvick Reddick Suarez Brisco Bobs back cuz Lasky cause
Speaker 3 00:21:41 Laskys 7,500. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:21:44 Yeah. Cuz Osky is 7,500. I'm not that intrigued by that price. I'd rather go with Buscher at 6,900, um, for the nice play of the week. But what about a guy like Eric Jones who's kind of had an every other, he's had, Listen, he's had an every other race thing going.
Speaker 3 00:22:02 He does. And
Speaker 2 00:22:04 He's in every other race.
Speaker 3 00:22:05 Well, no J not, Oh no, he's been actually he went 66, 51, 50 50 then four last week. So he's actually, but he never, he's never done two terrible in a row.
Speaker 2 00:22:19 Right.
Speaker 3 00:22:20 Like never. And
Speaker 2 00:22:23 He did it that in Martinsville. He's been pretty good now. He did, he has had bad runs Edge short, flat tracks this year. Okay. I'll grant you that. He's had one, he's had two finishes inside the top 15 at a sixth. Not great, however, at, uh, at Martinsville he's been a little better. He's finished eight and 13th in the last two Martinsville races. So he's, he's intriguing. I'm not saying I'm finishing my lineup with him. See he's intriguing. Um, it's too bad. Like I could, I could go with like Austin Crick to put four dudes with a names in the lineup.
Speaker 3 00:23:05 <laugh>, I'll give you an a name right now for that.
Speaker 2 00:23:07 You got a Eric roll? Austin di all in the line. So you go with, wait, where you go <laugh> go with Austin Crick.
Speaker 3 00:23:15 Yeah. Cedric's been too inconsistent man for me.
Speaker 2 00:23:19 I would, I
Speaker 3 00:23:20 Would recently he had, he had his run in July where he was like, you had to play him ever since July ended. He's just been straight two inconsistent.
Speaker 2 00:23:28 Okay. That being said at short, flat tracks this year, Crick the first two were 24th and 20th. Not great, right? No. Since then. 11th. 11th, 13th and 12th.
Speaker 3 00:23:41 Okay,
Speaker 2 00:23:42 So if he's starting,
Speaker 3 00:23:45 Yeah, it depends on where if he qualifies the top,
Speaker 2 00:23:47 You're not touching. Finished 13th and 12th, but he started 28th and 33rd. So that was way too good a PD not to go after,
Speaker 3 00:23:59 Even though we talked about how hard it is to pass in the new car fund. Yes. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:24:03 He still did it. I don't do
Speaker 3 00:24:05 It.
Speaker 2 00:24:05 Um,
Speaker 3 00:24:07 It depends where, where he qualifies strictly. If he's in a top 10 qualification, I'm not touching him with any type of pole. See where he and he, he's been in the top 10
Speaker 2 00:24:19 Qualifi. He 13th and finished 11th with seven fastest laps back here in Correct. April. Yeah. Which was 37 points at 7,300 bucks. He's now 7,100. So it, oh yeah, it basically hits five. If he does that again, you basically hit five
Speaker 3 00:24:41 X and the fact he's been so inconsistent means he's a great GPP player with that too. Okay. All right. You're selling me,
Speaker 2 00:24:52 So I'm I'm just saying if we're building for a gpp we could go four A names here. We could do <laugh>, we could fit four A names in two Jgr drivers.
Speaker 3 00:25:01 Go the full a name
Speaker 2 00:25:02 And still have 22. Hun. I just put Truex, Kyle, Bush, Almond, Dinger, Ola, Austin, Dylan and Shedrick and Atlanta.
Speaker 3 00:25:09 You have about $2,000 I
Speaker 2 00:25:10 Dollars left.
Speaker 3 00:25:12 See I got x I would eat Bush. Dylan Shedrick. I don't believe in Adilla too much, but then I'm looking at Tyler Reddick right here at 8,400 to finish this out and wondering what are your thoughts on Tyler Reddick this
Speaker 2 00:25:25 Week? He's, he's very tempting considering he blew up last week, right? Like everybody was on the literally week and then he didn't deliver <laugh>.
Speaker 3 00:25:33 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:33 But I will say that he's been trending in the wrong direction on short, flat tracks this year. So his first finish was third then 12th, then 18th, 16th, 21st and 31st.
Speaker 3 00:25:48 Okay. Yeah. That's not the right way. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:49 <laugh>, that's not, that's not the way you wanna see the red dog going. Right? Like you, you wanna see it going somewhere else. Um, so I think he's, I think he's intriguing but
Speaker 3 00:26:07 Yeah, it's tough that like, like this whole,
Speaker 2 00:26:09 The trend is going the wrong. How about, uh, your boy Klowski there?
Speaker 3 00:26:15 I don't, I to say about boy Klowski. Um,
Speaker 2 00:26:18 I mean you've been the one that's hire on him this year than I am to
Speaker 3 00:26:22 Start. Well he's been on a roll lately, last three races and, and even on a road course too. Um,
Speaker 2 00:26:28 Last two short flight tracks. He's finished seventh and 15.
Speaker 3 00:26:33 Yeah. What he's, wow, what's his uh, salary here? 7,500 That leaves
Speaker 2 00:26:40 Me's in the last five races. Granted all of these except for one were with Penske.
Speaker 3 00:26:47 This is gonna be one of those where I use the fancy alarm lineup generator and just say max salary, 10,000 and lowest salary. I'd go probably right at above 10 house at, so at 6,000 and say use it. Yeah. I really want any, use everyone 10% of the time at 50 lineups
Speaker 2 00:27:05 <laugh>. Yeah. I don't want any junk, junk drivers tweet
Speaker 3 00:27:08 <laugh>, just, just use everyone 20% in 50 lineups of all who's left and just, you know, do like the the $4 to what? 20 max? That's what I'm filling this week.
Speaker 2 00:27:20 Yeah. Heading into uh, qualifying in the, in the weekend practices and whatnot. I'm kind of living in the mid tier right
Speaker 3 00:27:28 Now. That's, so I'm looking
Speaker 2 00:27:28 At you. Obviously that can change if you get a guy who's cheap, who qualifies well like Harrison Burton has been known to, to qualify in the top 10 occasionally, then I'll be looking at the cheap guy. Cuz if you're starting that high, the odds of you falling way back here is pretty slim still can happen. Um, but I don't want, I'm not banking on the guys that start 30th and then bank that they're gonna move up.
Speaker 3 00:27:53 Okay. What if and what if like, and this seems like it happens every freaking qualification, what if Kyle Bush has something happens and he starts 30th or below, does it make him more valuable or less valuable in this race?
Speaker 2 00:28:08 That's a very good question
Speaker 3 00:28:09 Because he has a tendency to start or have terrible, I mean look, look at his, his qualifying. It's not been great this year at all.
Speaker 2 00:28:19 No, no. I mean so at Nashville, which was the ally 400, he started 36 and moved up to, Okay so there is gonna be a lot cuz he finished 21st but that was the race where he should have won and then pitted with like four laps to go and then was stuck in the
Speaker 3 00:28:36 Twenties. Yeah, but he had like 40 fast laps that ended up with like 67 points in that race though, right?
Speaker 2 00:28:41 Yeah. Cause he also had 54 laps led. Yeah, he should have, he should have won the race or finished. That was the race where he and Truex were leading and then the
Speaker 3 00:28:51 Oh yes,
Speaker 2 00:28:51 Yes, yes. The restart happened with like four to go and he pitted cuz he thought tires were gonna help him but like nobody else pitted. So he started 20th on the restart <laugh>. Um, so that's a little bit he drove up there, but it's also Nashville. You could pass there Richmond. He started 29th and finished ninth.
Speaker 3 00:29:10 Okay. So
Speaker 2 00:29:12 Maybe in that case I'm gonna play him in cash because he's going to be
Speaker 3 00:29:17 Chalk I think, I think you're right.
Speaker 2 00:29:19 You play him in cash and you avoid him in GPP because you avoid that ca that chalk in GPS to get leverage in case it doesn't work. But in case kicked
Speaker 3 00:29:28 Outta my lineup
Speaker 2 00:29:30 In cash, he would be chalk. And so you play him because if he goes off you need him to compete and if he sucks he's gonna hurt everybody the same way. So that's what you do if Kyle Bush sucks at qualifying.
Speaker 3 00:29:43 So I took him outta my lineup for my G P P A similar to yours and it gave me enough money for Blaney. It's a, it's a sign.
Speaker 2 00:29:51 I mean it is a sign <laugh> like you were like I'm shocked he wasn't in your lineup to begin with
Speaker 3 00:29:56 Man. He is. Now I have true X for fad
Speaker 2 00:29:58 Dinger president of the Fresno Blaney
Speaker 3 00:30:00 Association. I am the president and my daughter's the vice president. Um, Mar I have true ex the Dinger Blaney, Dylan Shedrick Keslowski.
Speaker 2 00:30:12 I don't know, I have a sneaking suspicion that Lagon is gonna weasel his way into one of my lineups. At some point
Speaker 3 00:30:17 I you're gonna have to like the you
Speaker 2 00:30:19 Guy has been too consistent.
Speaker 3 00:30:21 The Fords and the Penskes have been fast at short tracks too.
Speaker 2 00:30:24 Yes.
Speaker 3 00:30:26 So I know, I mean
Speaker 2 00:30:28 Is an expert. I have enough to put him in there now cuz he's 10,000. So if I have more faith I could take out either Kyle Bush or Truex and put liano in.
Speaker 3 00:30:41 Let's do one lineup with one. Just switch him, right?
Speaker 2 00:30:45 Yeah. Why the rest of the, the core. Yeah. And then switch. Yep.
Speaker 3 00:30:49 If you're on like these one guys or whatever and this is the week to just switch those guys, do one and don't worry about really salary too much. Right? Cuz it's, yeah, it's, it's gonna be interesting. I I'm just, this will all change when it's qualifying happen. So <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:31:02 For sure. So with that note, uh, pay attention to the content that's coming out this weekend. Once practice and qualifying is done, we'll have playbooks out projections. Uh, prize pick video will be out, uh, probably Saturday. Um, so check that out. Dan will be back in time to do his normal content load for um, the lower races. And so with that we will say good luck FA Nation and enjoy the Xfinity 500 from Martinsville this weekend. Woohoo.