Rowdy Dragon's Fantasy NASCAR Picks Atlanta

Hey everybody, Rowdy Dragon back for this week's Final Lap Weekly Fantasy Update.

Well we made it out of the Lady in Black, quite the unpredictable race there, at least

the finish.

Let's take a look and see who dominated the stages and took the win over there.

We've got Tennessee Mountain Girl taking the first stage there, straight out of the Ozarks.

For your second stage, we've got a three-way tie, Smoking Crazy, French Fries and Barbecue,

and atop the Pit Box.

So the way that worked out, it looks like Smoking Crazy, French Fries and Barbecue were

atop the Pit Box.

Sounds good to me.

Good job, guys.

Alright, your winner this week, Razor Sharp in Virginia, finished with 227 points, 43

stage points.

Pretty good, maximum points on the day was 266.

Good job, Razor Sharp.

You're looking pretty Razor Sharp this week.

Okay, looking at Rowdy, Toby, Kerry and our sponsors.

This week I finished in the 70th spot.

Pulling up to the 6th spot.

6th position in the league, always a good day when those you are racing are having a

bad day.

Toby Christie finished P110, sitting in the 180th spot in the league.

Kerry Murphy finished P5 this week with a strong lineup.

All-star picks.

Good way to save, Kerry.

Good job.

He moves up almost 20 positions, up to the 67th spot in the league, closing in on that

first page.

Okay, looking at our sponsors, Joe Bike, good day for him, finishing P56, moving up to the

116th spot in the league.

And Devin, DL Racing King, finished P173, currently stands at 114th in the overall standings.

We've got a good sponsor battle kicking off here for the playoffs.

All right, let's move on to Atlanta Motor Speedway.

We've got a pseudo speedway this weekend.

Let's take a look at some driver picks for you.

I got three good ones, starting with the 12 car, Ryan Blaney.

He's got 12 races run at Atlanta.

His average finish is 10.6.

He's got five top five finishes.

Finishing in the top five.

Finishing in the top five in 42% of his runs.

He finishes up in the top 10, finishing seven times out of 12 in the top 10.

Ryan has 141 laps led and one win to his credit.

Stage points has him collecting stage points in 15 out of 24 tries.

Two stage wins for him.

So starting the playoffs this week, you'll need some good drivers to stay out of trouble,

to solidify your position in the standings and power forward.

Atlanta is a wild card and it's best to play it safe as we start the playoffs run.

So a safe bet here at Atlanta Motor Speedway is to roster.

The current leader of the average finish at the Pseudo Speedway in Ryan Blaney.

In the last five races while running in the gen seven, he tops the charts in top 10 finishes,

average finish and points collected.

Looking back at his fall race last season, Blaney led in average run position.

He had the highest average driver rating finishing the race in P9.

Earlier this season, he had a good run, again, leading in average running position and again,

scoring the best driver rating in the field.

This time finishing P2 on the day.

I like what I see in the 12 car.

He's a good roster for this Sunday's race.

Okay, another good one to look at, the 24 car William Byron.

He's got 10 races run at Atlanta.

His average finish is 17.7.

He's got two top five finishes, puts them up there in the top five and 20% of his runs.

He's got three top 10s, that's 30%.

Laps led, he's got 174 and Byron has two wins at Atlanta.

His stage point collection has him collecting stage points in 10 out of 20 tries.

He manages to collect stage points at least once in every race.

And he's got one stage win.

Now, Willie B has had both success and failure at Atlanta, but I see him as a safe pick this

week as well.

Looking at all the super speedways run this season, Byron is ranked third in average finish.

Taking a look back at this race last season, his average running position had him in 15th

with the fourth best driver rating.

William managed his way up to the P1 spot when all was done and said.

In his last attempt earlier this spring, his run was average at best, finishing P17 with

the 15th best driver rating.

Before this, he had a couple of bad races.

Getting taken out in incidents, as accidents tend to be frequent at this track type.

He did however win the inaugural race in the next gen car, leading 111 laps on the day.

This is a risk reward track for this driver as shown by his recent finishes.

Are you willing to take the risk for a possible reward this Sunday?

Maybe give Byron a spot in your roster.

Alright, our final driver to look at.

The 8 car, Kyle Busch.

He's got 29 races run in Atlanta with an average finish of 13.2.

He's collected 10 top 5 finishes.

Finishing up in the top 10 in over 34% of his runs.

He's got 14 top 10 finishes.

Finishing up in the top 10 in over 48% of his races.

Kyle knows how to lead laps.

He's got 586 and 2 wins, to his credit.

Looking at his stage point picture, he's collected 11 times out of 22 tries.

Basically averaging points one stage per race.

Just like Willie B.

He has one stage win.

Ok, so Kyle is a risky pick at Atlanta this week, right?

We're talking about safe bets.

But he has a stellar record.

That car has shown a lot of speed lately.

In the 24th season, Busch has the top ranked average finish at the super speedways at 10.8.

In the gen 7, he's got 2 top 5 and 3 top 10 finishes.

Last season's fall race, he ran the second most fastest laps on the day where he had

good speed late, finishing up in P5.

His run in the spring this year, he shows the 5th best driver rating.

He led the 4th most laps on the day, leading to his P3 finish.

Kyle has only finished outside the top 10 two times in his last 10 attempts.

That ranks him 2nd with a 9.3 average finish.

He still wants to get a win to keep his streak alive.

This is where he will be pushing the issue.

He could be a good roster for your team on Sunday.

Ok, looking back at the league, we've got 574 players currently.

That ups us by one.

And it looks like we had one more points scoring team as well, so they hung around.

Last week, however, nobody dropped off.

298 teams played and we lost nobody.

Although there is a handful of people.

We have less than 10 points, so I suspect we won't see them next week, unless of course

you start playing for the playoffs trophy.

Points are reset.

Get back in here folks.

Ok, since we're fixing to start the playoffs run, why don't you say we take a look at the

top 10 to see how things have shaped up.

Starting in the 10th position, we've got Elliott Van Wagen down there in P9.

Number 9, let's go.

8th place belongs to El Diablo, number 62.

In 7th, you've got KissMyWhale.

KissMyWhat, P6, you already heard, RowdyDragon sitting there.

In 5th, you've got AAFC, P4, Autoworker4.

In the 3rd place, you've got Moonshiner3.

In P2, LarsenTai25.

And that brings us to our current leader, who still owns the top spot, Suds, with the

silent K. He's got a 40 point lead over 2nd place.

Ok, so that's how the league shapes up and looks at this juncture.

If you need any help with those.

Bonus points, come on over and check out RowdyDragon's NASCAR fantasy sportsbook over there at tobychristie.com.

Breaking these head to heads down to try to make your decisions easier.

Come on over and have a listen.

Alright folks, that about does it for me over here today.

So as usual, thanks for hanging out and listening to the Final Lap Weekly fantasy segment of

the show.

I am RowdyDragon, we'll talk to you again next week.