I will freely admit that some weeks I pick my NTT IndyCar Series Fantasy Challenge driven by Firestone team on early in the week, and sometimes I wait until almost race day. I’m “supposed” to pick it early, but this week – I want a good result again so I wanted to wait until after qualifying!
That’s because while passing is possible in the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America, the nature of this very “pure” circuit should mean that whoever qualifies well will actually race well. At least that is what’s supposed to happen.
At in 2018, that is what happened as Josef Newgarden started from the pole and led 53 of the 55 laps. In 2017, it didn’t quite work out as Scott Dixon won from fifth, but everyone that started in the Top-5 finished there, just in a mixed up order. From a Fantasy standpoint, that would could work out quite well if you choose based on starting position. Oh yeah, 2016 pole sitter Will Power led 46 of 50 laps to win!
Fortunately for us, the 2019 NTT P1 Award winner is Colton Herta – and he only costs $20.00 this week. Herta’s upside in the Fantasy world is he’s fast and cheap. The downside is he’s cheap because he has only posted a couple decent results since that win at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. In fact his best since then are a pair of 12th place finishes in Detroit.
But, back to that first thing – he’s fast and cheap, so I’m going with him!
My next pick is fast, but he’s not cheap – Alexander Rossi. He’s going to cost me nearly the maximum at $33.00, with only point leader Josef Newgarden costing more ($34.00). But, Rossi nearly captured the pole, he is second in the points, and he has been finishing races and finishing them up front. Besides his win at Long Beach, Rossi has a trio of second place results this season. So the number 27 car, is starting second after finishing second on three occasions in his third season – I say the numbers are good.
But, now it gets hard as I’m down to just $47.00 left to spend. The next highest qualifier that looks like a reasonable value is Graham Rahal at $24.00. Sato at $27.00 is highly intriguing, but it leaves me picking someone for $20 or less, and none of those drivers qualified very well (except Herta and I already have him!)
Rahal has history on his side as he’s got 2 podiums here (2007 and 2016), plus an eighth in 2017 and a sixth last year. That’s a good trend line to me, so Graham Rahal it is!
As usual, the final pick is a compromise, but it’s helped by the solid qualifying efforts of the Ed Carpenter Racing drivers. With Spencer Pigot in 8th and Ed Jones in 11th, it appears both drivers have reasonable speed and an overall good platform to work from in the race.
In this case I’m simply going to go with track position and take Spencer Pigot for $21.00. Everyone else available with my remaining $23.00 had a bad qualifying effort except for Sebastien Bourdais who timed in 7th quick.
That made this a bit of a coin flip, but the Coyne cars have had their struggles this weekend even though Bourdais did a masterful job in qualifying. His teammates car, Santino Ferrucci has had engine related mechanical issues in both practice and qualifying – so that makes me nervous! The Carpenter cars just seem to be having an easier time of it, and Pigot finished 8th here last year!
So, that’s it, I’m going with Spencer Pigot with my final pick. It’s not a confident choice, but those are my four drivers….who are yours?