The drivers head to the St. Louis area Sunday for the Enjoy Illinois 300. Let’s take a look.
Location
World Wide Technology (WWT) Raceway at Gateway
Track Length
1.25-mile oval
Track Type
Different degrees of banking in each corner
Last 10 Track Winners:
This is the first NASCAR Cup Series race at WWT Raceway.
Illinois 300 Preview
For those who missed the excitement of the Coca-Cola 600, I will be re-living it here in this article by interrupting this preview with 18 caution footnotes1 and writing one sentence upside down2 (hat tip to Chris Buscher for being ok and igniting every ounce of claustrophobia present in the world). I will never stop being amazed at the safety measures and emergency responders who help keep everyone safe.
The best part of the caution footnotes is that some will have meaningful information, and some will not. And you’ll never know which is which until you read them.
I don’t have a lot of choices3 because Sunday afternoon’s Enjoy Illinois 300 takes place at a track with no NASCAR Cup Series history. The World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway used to be Gateway International Raceway4 and Gateway Motorsports Park.5 It is a 1.25-mile asphalt oval track6, so when it comes to picking driver recommendations, we’ll be pulling from those track histories in addition to looking at the car version of “Who’s Hot, Who’s Not.” 7
The following is an overview of drivers I look to roster in DFS and season-long formats at the Enjoy Illinois 300.
Fantasy Drivers: The Contenders
After managing pure survival, the Hamlin-Busch-Harvick finish last week took me all the way back to 20198 when these previews would have listed them every week as contenders. There is no reason to believe that they’ve figured out the secret to getting their cars across the finish line or that anyone has. In fact, only one driver has managed to finish every race this season.9
Hamlin10 and Harvick11 have excellent records on intermediate tracks of this length, and I’ve come around to their experience12 beginning to matter more as the season continues. Busch doesn’t have quite the same consistent success as the other two, but I love how he is currently racing.
Fantasy Drivers: The Accelerators
Shortly after that trio sits the trio of Larson-Truex-Logano, who each has finished in the Top 10 in over 75 percent of their races at intermediate tracks in the past three years13. I suggested fading Larson last week, and I still think he will be overpriced, but he overcame what he described as his “worst race ever” in the second stage and probably should have won last week.14 Truex also won on this track15 an eon ago, and he ran well last week. Logano exited stage right early last week, but his record on intermediate tracks is impressive, with 13 Top 10 finishes in his last 16, too.
According to the standings, Ross Chastain is the new projected winner of the Cup Series. He, too, was running well last week and even sneaked back into the picture near the end before finishing 15. He seems to be the opposite of Larson concerning pricing, and I would typically prefer him over, similarly-salaried drivers.16
Fantasy Drivers: The Brakes
Brad Keselowski is currently 30th in the Cup Standings, and he is projected to finish 30th. His only single-digit finish other than the All-Star Race was Daytona all the way back in February.17 He has been dirt cheap for a driver of his pedigree, and he still has not lived up to that value. I figured that he would improve after what seemed like his lowest point, but it’s just not happening for him this year.18
I’ll be back Sunday morning to see whose value changed following Saturday’s qualifying races. Thoughts? Opinions? Wondering how and why you should play NASCAR fantasy? Hit me up on Twitter at @thewonkypenguin.
Footnotes
(1) Because all NASCAR DFS Players just love footnotes
(2) My editor says that I will not be writing one sentence in this fashion.
(3) My mother, while reading this, may say out loud, “We all have choices, Kelly.”
(4) There is an arch, I hear, that has something to do with this “gateway” thing.
(5) I’ve been up in The Arch twice in my life, and both times, I thought the elevator lift might flip sideways and shoot out the side like a rocket.
(6) Other intermediate tracks with similar specs: Dover, Phoenix, and New Hampshire.
(7) This should be a slightly less awful version of the one meant to decimate young people’s self-concepts.
(8) Every generation finds their “I’m old” marker at some point, and it’s the thing that really levels home the passage of time. For me, it was when I realized “Shrek” was 20 years old last year.
(9) Aric Almirola
(10) In his previous 16 races at intermediate tracks, Hamlin has finished in the Top 10 eleven times.
(11) Harvick is a solid 16/16 in Top 10 finishes at similar tracks in the same time span.
(12) Harvick also won an Xfinity race on this track the same year “Shrek” was released.
(13) Yes, I know this sounds like a baseball stat. “This pitcher has walked fewer than three batters every third Wednesday in June since 2015 when the wind blew less than 25 mph.” But I promise this one is real and statistically relevant.
(14) All four Hendrick Motorsports drivers are in the Top 10 in the Cup Standings. Somehow, Larson is the lowest-ranked at 9.
(15) In 2004, three years after Harvick won and the year “National Treasure” was released.
(16) And yet, when push comes to shove, I will still feel inclined to choose a different Chevrolet for whatever reason.
(17) February is officially “all the way back” now that it’s June.
(18) The way my “calls” have been going, you can look forward to Keselowski’s Enjoy Illinois 300 victory.