Daily Fantasy NASCAR Race Preview - Auto Club 400

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Auto Club 400

Auto Club Speedway - Fontana, CA
Track - 2 Mile D Shaped Oval Superspeedway
14° Banking in the Corners

Another exciting race at Phoenix this past weekend saw Ryan Newman grab a late race lead and his first win in awhile. If you haven't already, be sure to check out my Recap Article over at JagerBombs Fantasy Sports Blog. The blog site is going through some updates so some of the videos and links are not showing up. Just so you don't ask why I have gone crazy and forgot to include them. LOL. On to Fontana!

This week the NASCAR haulers have taken the 320 drive West to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California for the 2017 Auto Club 400 on Sunday afternoon. Auto Club Speedway has a long history in NASCAR and one that dates back to World War II. The site of the speedway was an old steel mill that was used during the second World War to build ships that sent troops overseas. In 1995, Roger Penske started construction of the speedway and in 1997 the racing started at what was then California Speedway. The first ever winner was none other than future Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon who ended winning two of the first three races. For seven years from 2004 to 2010 the track was home to two races in the NASCAR Cup series as it became hard to fill the seats for two separate events. It turned out to be a great move as the fans have continued to show up in bunches every since. As the track surface has gotten older over the years, the racing has continued to get better. A track that was prone to long green flag runs and spread out race cars has now seen a last-lap pass for the win in three of the last four years. Add to it a new lower downforce package and we should be in for another exciting finish this year.

Coming into this week there are a handful of drivers who will be looking to get back on track or at least onto the track. After a huge penalty was upheld for the #47 team, AJ Allmendinger sits way back in 31st in the points. He isn't the only driver off to a poor start as both Austin and TY Dillon sit in 24th and 25th respectively with no Top 10 finishes. Most notably would be the #88 of Dale Earnhardt Jr. who has also failed to pick up a Top 10 through four races and sits back in 23rd in the standings. Matt Kenseth has managed to pick up two Top 10 finishes so far but also has two finishes outside of 35th, putting him in the 20th position in the points.

Before getting into my early week picks, let's take a look at some of the top trends from Auto Club Speedway.

 Top 10 Track History at Fontana (2 Year)

Go figure. Another intermediate track dominated by Kevin Harvick. Although he hasn't picked up a win over the past two years, he has finished runner-up both times and dominated the laps led department. Jimmie Johnson is the defending champion here at his home track and finished 9th the year before. Brad Keselowski finished 9th last year and won this race the year before. Joining those three drivers as the only four with Top 10's in both the last two years is Joey Logano.

Top 10 Track History at Fontana (Career)

Chase Elliott shows up right at the top with his impressive 6th place finish in his rookie season last year but it has been Jimmie Johnson that has dominated his home track. In 22 career Fontana races, ol' seven-time has six wins, 13 Top 5's and has only finished outside the Top 20 once. Right behind Jimmie is a pair of JGR teammates in Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth who both have three career wins and very similar average finishes.

Top 10 Two-mile Intermediate Track History (2 Year)

Starting to notice a trend? Young gun Chase Elliott is starting to show up at the top of the stats at a lot of tracks. Welcome to the future, would like to purchase a #24 t-shirt? Besides his 6th place finish here last year, he also finished runner-up at Michigan in both races.  Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano have been near dominant at the 2-mile tracks(Fontana & Michigan) over the last two years. Keselowski finished 9th and 1st at Fontana and 3rd, 4th, 9th, and 6th at Michigan while Logano finished 4th & 7th at Fontana and 10th, 1st, 7th and 5th at Michigan. Logano led 172 laps but no one led more laps than Kevin Harvick who tallied 287 and while he hasn't won at a 2-mile track he has five Top 5 finishes in those six races.

Early Week Picks 

Kevin Harvick ($10,800) & Brad Keselowski ($10,000) - My wife really thinks it's funny that I have to keep writing about Harvick week after week. It's her favorite driver and due to fantasy, I haven't come accustomed to his domination on intermediate tracks. I will leave it at that. I mentioned how dominating the Penske drivers have been on 2-mile tracks and I lean Bad Brad this week as he comes into this week with three straight Top 5 finishes including his win in Atlanta and has finished Top 10 here at Fontana in back to back years, winning it two years ago.

Kyle Larson ($9,100) - I think Larson makes a fantastic GPP play this week at Fontana. Despite three straight runner-up finishes, Larson ranks 17th in average GPP ownership and 6th in average Draftkings points per race. He should be lower owned again this week as he comes back to Fontana with back to back finishes outside the Top 25.

For a limited time, I am offering a copy of my DFS NASCAR cheathsheet which includes Track History, Current Form, Odds, Track Type History, Practice/Qualifying Ranks and much more. Get it HERE. I also have available my Race by Race Trends sheet you can view as well. 

If you have any questions scroll down to the comment section and join the conversation.Good Luck everyone!

 
Chris Durell has been playing Daily Fantasy Sports for three years and fantasy in general for more than a decade. He is active player in college football, NFL, NBA, PGA, and of course NASCAR. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada with his wife and two daughters. You can follow him on Twitter at @jager_bombs9 for advice, strategy, answers to any NASCAR questions or how he copes with the winters up north.