The Gamer: Cup & Trucks at Martinsville
By David Smith (on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA)
October 26, 2012
Are you a fantasy NASCAR player or regular NASCAR bettor curious for some advice on the upcoming weekend? Let MotorsportsAnalytics.com be your guide to making the right pick. The Gamer is a weekly article that will help you set your rosters for optimal performance and place your bets with confidence.
Martinsville Speedway has hosted 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races in the COT era. From those races emerge a definitive first, second and third best-producing driver according to the track-specific driver production (PEER) ratings in the chart below. When taking into account a pick for the win, pay extra attention to laps led; drivers that have the ability to lead laps typically lead a lot of laps in a given Martinsville race. Additionally, there are a few other items to keep in the back of your mind for this weekend:
- Good news for us: Goodyear is sticking with the same tire recommendations that they had at Martinsville in the spring, Code No. 4312 on the left sides and Code No. 4468 on the right sides. This means that there shouldn’t be any teams caught off guard in terms of setups, so do not expect any dramatic performance drops from the teams that ran well in the spring.
- Take one good look at the chart below – one showcasing driver production at Martinsville in the COT era – and you will notice the names of Juan Pablo Montoya (ranked 10th) and Jeff Burton (ranked 13th). While I am not attempting to take anything away from their past merits at the paperclip-shaped oval, I would like to pacify your interest in them as picks for this weekend. Yes, both drivers have been highly serviceable producers at Martinsville, but their awful seasons with their current teams – Burton and Montoya rank 27th and 28th, respectively, in season-long driver production – override past track data. They are not completely avoidable at Martinsville (a top-15 finish by either would not be totally shocking), but they are also not sleepers. They are of little relevance. You have been forewarned ... Read More
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MotorsportsAnalytics.com is a subscription-based web site that brings advanced statistical concepts created for evaluating drivers and teams to the every day race fan. The web site has been featured in USA Today and Sports Business Daily and on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s NASCAR Channel.
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David Smith is the Editor-in-Chief of Motorsports Analytics and the host of The David Smith Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @DavidSmithMA. |
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