NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR Fantasy Picks: Charlotte Motor Speedway

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

NASCAR is headed to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. This is the first race of the Round of 12 of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. With a clean slate, fantasy racing players should use this race to stock up on drivers with a chance to win and punch their ticket for the next round.

Start with Joe Gibbs Racing and Martin Truex Jr.

We are back on the 1.5-mile intermediate tracks for the next two rounds. That means, start Martin Truex Jr. and Joe Gibbs Racing cars with confidence. Here is a quick breakdown on this group of five.

Matt Kenseth will start 17th and will provide the best start-finish differential if he winds up in the top-five. In the last four races, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin have the best average finish of the five drivers with a 5.8 and a 6.2. Carl Edwards is the only driver of the five other than Martin Truex Jr. who has a win at Charlotte in the last four races. Kyle Busch has never won at Charlotte and hasn’t finished inside the top ten at Charlotte since the October race in 2014.

Choose a driver from the first three starting positions

Four of the last five winners have started from inside the top-three. The outlier in this is Kevin Harvick in 2014 when he started 7th. Still, not bad if you want to look further down to the seventh position on the starting grid.

The top three starting positions for the Saturday night race at Charlotte are Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott. Harvick can be viewed as a no brainer at Charlotte with his 3.5 best average finish in the last four races at Charlotte.

Bowman has been performing admirably substituting for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and starting second on the grid is no fluke. Bowman finished 10th at Chicagoland, another 1.5-mile speedway, and has shown speed throughout the weekend.

Chase Elliott has run strong all season long on the 1.5-mile speedways and has finished 18th and 8th in his two career Sprint Cup races at Charlotte. Start Elliott with confidence this weekend.

May 16, 2015; Concord, NC, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Tony Stewart (14) during the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Larson and Tony Stewart are still worth a look

Despite both drivers being knocked out of the Chase after the first round, Larson provides great value rolling off the grid in 25th. Larson has nothing to lose and will be going for wins.

Stewart on the other hand has a solid starting position of fifth and will look to make some noise during the final seven races of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. If you are looking for a final driver to fill out your roster, Stewart makes for an intriguing option.