| Fantasy NASCAR returns on Valentine's Day, and is | | | | Speedway, one of just five such finishes for him on |
| there a better way to spend the most romantic of | | | | the year. Bowyer started off well at these tracks |
| holidays than sitting in front of your television | | | | last season, placing fourth in the Daytona 500 and |
| watching the preeminent NASCAR race? We didn't | | | | second in Las Vegas, and a quarter of his 16 top-10 |
| think so. And just think of how happy your loved one | | | | finishes came in the season's first six races. Newman, |
| will be when you tell them you're on your way to | | | | on the other hand, had a miserable start to his year, |
| making a tidy sum of money after the drivers you | | | | and finished no better than 25th in any of the three |
| selected in the NASCAR Challenge have taken the | | | | races to start the year. |
| top spots! And who knows, maybe that will lead to | | | | Driver 6 |
| an even bigger reward later that evening. To help | | | | - Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Brian Vickers |
| you accomplish that, here is our forecast for the | | | | Harvick has already gotten off to a solid start this |
| initial fantasy NASCAR contest of the season. | | | | season, winning the Budweiser Shootout after |
| (Note: Fantasy NASCAR contest covers three races | | | | starting in the second position. He won the same |
| - Daytona on Feb. 14, Fontana on Feb. 21 and Las | | | | event in 2009, and went on to take second place in |
| Vegas on Feb. 28). | | | | the Daytona 500. Young Mr. Logano will be in just his |
| Driver 1 | | | | second Daytona 500, and it was a rough one for him |
| - Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart | | | | last year, as he wound up in 43rd place after starting |
| Gordon has 33 Sprint Cup wins to his name since | | | | ninth. He progressively got better, even in the next |
| 2000, but just one of those has come in the last two | | | | two races, with a finish of 26th in Fontana and 13th |
| seasons. He does have six career wins at various | | | | in Las Vegas. Vickers, whose six poles in 2009 was |
| Daytona International Speedway events, which is | | | | the second-most among Sprint Cup drivers, improved |
| five more than Johnson and three more than | | | | on his 39th-place finish at Daytona last year in the |
| Stewart. Johnson, the reigning four-time Sprint Cup | | | | next two races as well, taking the pole and finishing |
| champion, finished 31st in the Daytona 500 last year, | | | | 10th in California, followed by an eighth-place finish in |
| which was his fifth-worst finish of the season. | | | | Vegas. |
| Stewart finished eighth in that race and had the lead | | | | Driver 7 |
| for 15 laps while Gordon had a third-place finish and | | | | - Marcos Ambrose, David Reutimann, Martin Truex Jr. |
| led 14 laps. As for Fontana (California), Gordon has | | | | Truex has won four pole positions during his career, |
| three career wins and two poles at the track, | | | | and one of those came last season at the Daytona |
| Johnson has been in the winner's circle four times | | | | 500, though he promptly 11th, followed by two |
| with one pole, but Stewart has never won a race or | | | | finishes outside of the top-25 in Fontana and Las |
| held a pole position there. Stewart hasn't had better | | | | Vegas. Reutimann finished in the top-15 at each of |
| luck in Las Vegas, either, coming up blank on that | | | | these races last season, including a fourth-place finish |
| racetrack as well. However, Johnson has three career | | | | at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one of the five |
| victories at the track, and Gordon has one. | | | | times he was in the top-five. Ambrose didn't have |
| Driver 2 | | | | quite the same success last season at these tracks, |
| - Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin | | | | finishing inside the top-20 only once despite starting in |
| Martin is on the pole for the Daytona 500, qualifying | | | | the fifth position in Vegas. |
| for that position with speeds over 191 miles per hour. | | | | Driver 8 |
| He started second in last year's race only to finish | | | | - Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears |
| 16th, but Martin's 2009 season was highly successful | | | | Before the final two races of the season in which he |
| overall, as he placed second to Jimmie Johnson in the | | | | placed second, Burton's best finish in 2009 was third |
| final Sprint Cup standings. Martin has never won a | | | | place in Las Vegas, a track where the veteran has |
| race at Daytona, but he does have victories in | | | | won twice in his career. McMurray finished ninth in |
| Fontana and Las Vegas. Kyle Busch has won a race | | | | that race, one of his five top-10 finishes for the |
| at Daytona International Speedway, as well as one at | | | | season. He did start in the third position in Fontana, |
| Fontana and two in Las Vegas, including last season, | | | | which was his best starting spot all year. Mears is the |
| in a race he also took the pole position in. Kurt Busch | | | | only driver in this group who did not have a top-five |
| started second in that race but finished 23rd, and | | | | to his name in 2009, and his four top-10 finishes were |
| though he's never won at the tracks in Daytona or | | | | the lowest as well. |
| Las Vegas, he does have a win in Fontana, a place | | | | Driver 9 |
| where he also has started in the pole position a | | | | - A.J. Allmendinger, Sam Hornish Jr., Elliott Sadler |
| career-high three times. | | | | Sadler is the only driver in this group with a victory at |
| Driver 3 | | | | any of the three tracks this fantasy NASCAR |
| - Greg Biffle, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne | | | | contest covers - one win in Fontana - but his racing |
| Biffle had 16 top-10 finishes last season, and two of | | | | career has been longer, so that is to be expected. |
| those came in the season's first three races, as he | | | | Sadler finished fifth in last season's Daytona 500, and |
| placed fourth at Fontana and seventh in Las Vegas. | | | | it was the only top-five of his entire season. |
| For his career, he has one victory at the Auto Club | | | | Curiously, Allmendinger had just a single top-five finish |
| Speedway in California, and one at Daytona. And | | | | in 2009 as well, and that was also at the Daytona |
| though he's never won in Vegas, he has taken the | | | | 500, as he finished third. Hornish had two top-fives |
| pole position there once in his career. Hamlin has not | | | | for the year, but none of them came on these |
| won at any of these tracks in his career, and his only | | | | tracks, as he didn't even finish in the top-15 at these |
| pole at any of the upcoming locations was in Fontana. | | | | tracks. |
| He finished sixth there in the race last season, but | | | | Driver 10 |
| that was sandwiched between two finishes outside | | | | - Brad Keselowski, Bobby Labonte, David Ragan |
| the top-20 in Daytona and Vegas. Kahne didn't finish | | | | Labonte is 20 years older than either Keselowski or |
| in the top-10 at any of these events last season, but | | | | Ragan, and he's got 20 more wins than Keselowski |
| for his career he has one win and one pole in | | | | and Ragan combined, but interestingly, he's never |
| Fontana, and two poles in Las Vegas. | | | | taken the checkered flag at Daytona, California or |
| Driver 4 | | | | Las Vegas. He did have his only top-five of last |
| - Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya | | | | season in Vegas, however, whereas Keselowski |
| Edwards was on the pole for the Budweiser | | | | finished 38th and Ragan finished 42nd. Ragan did |
| Shootout, and led 41 laps, but crashed and finished | | | | have some success at the Daytona 500, coming in |
| 17th, 10 places behind where he finished last season | | | | sixth, which wound up as his highest finish of the |
| in the same race. Edwards doesn't have any career | | | | year. |
| wins in Daytona, but he has one each at Fontana and | | | | Driver 11 |
| Las Vegas. Kenseth has been much more successful | | | | - Robby Gordon, Reed Sorenson, Michael Waltrip |
| at these tracks, with three wins at the Auto Club | | | | Both Sorenson and Waltrip had their best finishes of |
| Speedway, two in Las Vegas, and one in Daytona, | | | | the 2009 season at the Daytona 500. Waltrip's |
| which was last season when he found himself taking | | | | seventh-place finish was one of his two top-10's, |
| a victory lap in both the Daytona 500 and in the next | | | | while Sorenson came in ninth place for his only top-10 |
| race at Fontana. He won those races despite never | | | | of the year. Gordon had one top-five finish, but they |
| having claimed the pole position at any of the three | | | | didn't come at any of these tracks. He finished 34th |
| tracks. Montoya's resume is shorter, so as you might | | | | at Daytona, 30th in California and 15th in Vegas. |
| expect, he doesn't have the history of the others in | | | | Driver 12 |
| this group, and has just one career win. That said, he | | | | - Paul Menard, Joe Nemechek, David Stremme |
| did finish eighth last season in the final Sprint Cup | | | | None of these racers had even one top-10 finish in |
| standings. | | | | the 2009 Sprint Cup season, and looking at their |
| Driver 5 | | | | respective starts to the season, you could see why. |
| - Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman | | | | Menard didn't finish better than 35th at Daytona, |
| The most popular racer in the sport, Earnhardt was a | | | | California or Las Vegas. Nemechek's best finish at the |
| major disappointment last season and failed to win a | | | | tracks was 41st, though Stremme at least had a |
| race, but his Hendrick Motorsports team took steps | | | | top-15 at Fontana and top-20 in Vegas. On the bright |
| to try and correct that for the 2010 season, and | | | | side, Menard's only career pole position came at |
| Junior has made that paid off, at least in the short | | | | Daytona International, and the veteran Nemechek |
| term, as he qualified to start in the No. 2 position in | | | | also has taken one pole there, as well as one in |
| the front row for the Daytona 500. He did claim his | | | | Fontana. |
| first top-10 last season at the Las Vegas Motor | | | | |