Picking a team for the NTT IndyCar Series Fantasy Challenge driven by Firestone at the Texas Motor Speedway can be tough. First, I really want to go with a veteran line-up, but I also need to play the driver’s that qualified well and showed good speed on what can be a tricky 1.5mile quad-oval.

That makes my first choice easy – it’s Scott Dixon. He’s won here three times (2008, 2015, and 2018). Winning anywhere is tough, but especially when you take in to account that those were three substantially different cars/aero packages for all those wins. At $30, he’s not even the most expensive driver here, that goes to Josef Newgarden at $33.

Add in that Dixon qualified 2^nd and he checks all the boxes for my number one pick.

My number two pick is far more of a “hunch” or let’s just call it what it is – a guess! I’m going with Takuma Sato. This is really more about playing a driver that’s been hot of late. Sato is 5^th in points entering this race, he ran a very strong 3^rd at the last oval – Indy – and he is the pole sitter this weekend. He ran 3^rd and 13^th at Detroit, but when he’s qualified well, he’s finished well. Remember he took the pole and the win at Barber Motorsports Park, started and finished 8^th at Long Beach, and has moved forward in pretty much every race.

The knock against Sato is really his Texas specific record. He’s got 5 DNF’s in 10 starts here, and some of his actual finishes were nothing to write home about either. But, he finished 7^th in 2018 with his current team Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and 10^th in 2017 with Andretti Autosport. So, his very recent trend line at Texas is good. And I just like taking someone that’s currently running well, and right now, Sato is fast!

My next pick is also not one I would have made a few days ago, but I’ve discovered another driver with a fast car and a strong trend line – Sebastien Bourdais. The Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan driver has only run Texas 5 times, but he’s consistently notched better finishes. Bourdais ran 20^th in both 2013 and 2014. Then he finished 14^th in 2015, 10^th in 2016 and then ran 8^th last year. (Missed 2017 due to Indy qualifying injuries).

And at just $22.00, Bourdais is a cheap buy for the 3^rd qualifier. Again, not something I could have predicted earlier this week, but now that we’ve had qualifying, an attractive price.

As usual, the fourth pick is a driver with a low salary and a lot of “hope” for a good weekend. That’s why I took Spencer Pigot. His price was $21.00, and while I could have gone for a few of the less expensive veterans (Kanaan, Daly, Kimball), they all had things happening with their situations that made me apprehensive – team struggles in general.

Rookies Colton Herta and Santino Ferrucci were also the right price and attractive pics, but I decided to go with a little more experience, plus Pigot is the 2^nd highest qualified Chevrolet at 6^th position. He’s behind Simon Pagenaud who was too expensive for my team now or I would have taken the Indy 500.

Pigot started 18^th and finished 11^th in his debut at TMS last year, running all but one lap. If he can repeat or better that result, I’ll be happy.

We’ll those are my pics, who are you taking for tonight?