NTT IndyCar Series fans, it’s time to pick this week’s team for the Fantasy Challenge driven by Firestone. I’m still doing ok, so far this season, but the wheels could come off at any time, so I’m going to keep mixing things up.
I decided to park Josef Newgarden for the week, mostly due to that $34 salary he is commanding. If I go with him, it gets tougher to get some others on the team I really want. But, I do believe you always gotta have a Penske driver on a street circuit, so this week it’ll be Will Power.
Yes, I think he’s overpriced at $30.00 for a guy sitting ninth in the points, but his record on this type of circuit is just too good. He won this race in 2008 for KV Racing in what was the final Champ Car World Series event (though it also counted for IndyCar Series points). 2012 saw him win it again while driving for Team Penske.
Since ’08 and only counting IndyCar Series races, he’s got an average starting position of 6.5 and average finish of 7.0. While that seems pretty respectable, I actually believe Will is “due” to win this thing again, or at least podium like he did last year (2nd). So, he’s the big ticket guy this week.
Just behind him I’m going with Alexander Rossi, currently 4th in points but like Power, winless so far this season. Oh wait, that’s gonna be a trend!
Because I’m also taking Graham Rahal. He seems cheap at just $23, but then I see he’s just 13th in the points. But Graham and all of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have been looking better and better each week, including picking up the win with Takuma Sato last week at Barber Motorsports Park. Graham had some bad luck prevent him from capitalizing on a front row starting spot.
Now I wanted to pick Jack Harvey as my final driver, based on costing just $19 and considering the part-time Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM team has gone 10th, 10th, 13th this year, I am hoping they keep this relatively solid run going.
Alas, I was a dollar short. So I’m again going with Patricio O’Ward for my fourth driver. This is a bit of a tough pick to make, mostly because the improved speed we’ve seen from Carlin Racing has mostly shown up on the natural terrain circuits.
But, I think O’Ward, from Mexico, will have tons of support in Southern California (think back to Adrian Fernandez – he was revered at this event during his prime), and if I’m guessing right he’ll use that as motivation to run in the Top 10 – which is all I ask from driver’s costing less than $20 in salary. We can’t always get lucky with a Colton Herta $18 price tag and then race winner, but hey, we can dream.
Anyway, those are my picks for this week, what are yours?