Virginia may be for lovers, but for the second week in a row, it’s about good old-fashioned short-track racing.
Last week, Denny Hamlin brought home the win in my lineup and I had a pretty solid week outside of a few misses. Let’s hope we get similar, if not better, results as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the old-fashioned bullring at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday (April 7).
One of the oldest tracks in the sport, Martinsville is 0.526 of a mile in length, with long straightaways and tight corners. This design gives it its distinct and famous “paperclip” shape. A large number of NASCAR Hall of Famers from multiple eras have been masters at this place, including Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Rusty Wallace and Richard Petty.
The key to running well requires that teams set up their cars to be able to enter the corners at speed, roll the center and exit with control and pace. It’s a very delicate balance, much like the one needed at places like Richmond Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Qualifying will once again be very important this week, as traditionally, the preferred line at this place has been the bottom groove. This makes passing very, very difficult at times, unless you’re willing and able to move someone off the bottom groove with the front bumper. However, last fall, Ryan Blaney locked himself in the Championship 4 utilizing the the top lane. I had personally never seen anything like it in 25 years of watching races here. I hope we get to see some more of that this weekend.
If you couldn’t tell, this is my favorite race track, and I’m always jazzed up for some hard-nosed, old-school style racing at the Paperclip!
Coverage of the Cook Out 400 begins at 3 p.m. ET on FOX.
Now, before we talk about setting a lineup this week, here’s a quick rules recap:
Points will be awarded on DraftKings for finishing position, position differential, fastest laps and laps led. The driver who wins the race scores 45 fantasy points, while second gets 42 points, third gets 41 points and so on, at least through the top 10. The 11th-place finisher scores 32 points, 21st gets 21 points and 31st gets 10 points.
However many spots they lose or gain on the track is added to or subtracted from the score. Then, if the driver leads a lap, they will earn 0.25 points for each lap led and 0.45 points for each fastest lap.
DraftKings NASCAR Scoring Rules
Fantasy Forecast
- Ryan Blaney ($10,500)
Stats…
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