NASCAR FORUM

Sun, March 18th
3:30 PM ET

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES AT CALIFORNIA
Auto Club Speedway

Admin Note: The mod team is working to keep these weekly threads more on topic – Nascar strategy talk for this week’s contest. Post referring to last week’s contest will be moved to the correct thread. Any off topic posts or posts containing full lineups will be deleted..

For those who consider practice and qualifying data in lineup construction, below please find a table with results for all drivers for qualifying and each practice session.

While multiple lap runs during practice sessions are generally a better indicator of race performance, after the table below, please find summary data for each practice session.

Given space limitations, I’m only including 10 consecutive lap data. All 10-lap data is listed in rank order and includes driver speed.

Auto Club Speedway: 2018 Practice and Qualfying Rank and Speed

Practice 1: 10-Lap Run Two (2) Drivers

Denny Hamlin, 181.278
David Ragan, 177.070

Practice 2: 10-Lap Run 18 Drivers

Kevin Harvick, 181.009
Brad Keselowski, 180.460
Erik Jones, 180.303
Kyle Larson, 180.060
Ryan Blaney, 179.801
Kyle Busch, 179.714
Clint Bowyer, 179.501
Chase Elliott, 179.468
Austin Dillon, 179.343
Jamie McMurray, 179.265
Martin Truex Jr, 179.071
Denny Hamlin, 179.051
Kurt Busch, 178.901
Jimmie Johnson, 178.463
Paul Menard, 178.437
Darrell Wallace Jr, 177.534
Kasey Kahne, 177.167
Michael McDowell, 176.876

Practice 3: 10-Lap Run 28 Drivers

Kevin Harvick, 180.161
Kyle Larson, 179.417
Martin Truex Jr, 179.285
Kyle Busch, 179.108
Austin Dillon, 179.086
Erik Jones, 178.611
Denny Hamlin, 178.558
Jamie McMurray, 178.545
Brad Keselowski, 178.433
Ryan Blaney, 178.429
Jimmie Johnson, 178.262
Paul Menard, 178.169
Kurt Busch, 177.968
Joey Logano, 177.944
Alex Bowman, 177.785
Clint Bowyer, 177.596
Daniel Suarez, 177.459
Aric Almirola, 177.398
William Byron, 177.265
Chase Elliott, 177.258
Ricky Stenhouse Jr, 177.240
Ryan Newman, 177.127
Kasey Kahne, 176.297
Chris Buescher, 176.123
Ty Dillon, 175.848
Michael McDowell, 175.802
David Ragan, 175.484
Darrell Wallace Jr, 174.170

Guess ill see how fading Lupton works out for me..50% owned…might’ve been a pretty bad idea

Edit: yeah, it was a bad idea

For what it’s worth, I do my own Cup projections for each race. Since I’m not sure what RG rules are I’m only posting my Base Fantasy Points (FPts) projections (i.e. Finish Position FPts + Place Differential FPts).

Regarding, Dominator FPts, (i.e. Fast Laps FPts + Laps Led FPts) I did indicate my projected likely primary dominators (Dom-1) and secondary dominators (Dom-2).

Thus…. if anyone is interested….

Lost my MMA contest early so entered an Xfinity lineup – currently in 27th with 100 other people lol odd that with ZERO knowledge I end up in a train – guess they were obvious picks. Really need Vinnie Miller to move on up to the east side!

Ugh Lupton, really?

Thanks for posting the link coop

Played one lineup today with no time to research. Literally just put my team together in five minutes at 4:30 today. Finished 16th in the Beast, 2nd in the Donut and 20th in the Slingshot.

I think that might be the way to go – I had no idea and finished tied for 55th. *In the $8 Beast

@Cooper08 Another great article, THANKS !!

Bump the link: https://rotogrinders.com/blog-posts/coop-s-auto-club-400-preview-2428991

Keep them coming !!

Congratulations

Good luck tomorrow !!!

Thanks, You too

You just have to make your team after qualifying. And that window is short.

Gray Gaulding qualifying 20th is funny.

Elliott at 25th in last practice gives me no confidence.

Thanks, appreciate it.

Damn man, give the guy a break. We all knew what he meant. It was a good article, end of story.

So is Earnhardt at 23.

You guys know that 13 drivers didn’t take a qualifying lap, right?

I’m aware. And it still amuses me.

Gotta throw that one in there just for kicks! Thanks Bill!

Really struggling this week.. I mean could this be the track Harvick doesn’t dominate or does it continue

Been doing some research.. no one seems to be on truex. Anybody here think he can lead quite a few laps to start this race?

Hamlin/Byron or JJ/Suarez in cash…?

This is his track. This is the track Harvick said he had penciled in before the season began as the race that would secure his spot in the chase. As much as I want to fade him, it’s almost impossible. He was the fastest in practice, had by far the fastest 10 lap average and is once again starting far enough back to get you the place differential points. I know if he doesn’t finish in the top 5 there will be fools that come here and say they knew fading Harvick was the way to go. Yeah it’s only the way to go if you want to throw out a total gamble. There are no stats that suggest you should fade Harvick.

Just based on recent races here, one of the 2 guys on the front row should lead 50+ laps. Larson last year on the pole lead 110 laps, year before Harvick started 2nd and lead 142, year before Kurt Busch on the pole lead 65 while Harvick started 2nd and lead 34. Two fastest cars in last practice were Busch and Truex, both Toyotas. Only thing that scares me about Truex is Erik Jones in the 4th spot I expect him to push his JGR teammate when the green flag drops. Will Truex be fast enough to stay ahead of Busch?