Quick Notes From The Duels

The Duels were pretty uneventful.  A few incidents, but also a lot of single file rim riding around the top of the track.  For fantasy purposes, most of what we already talked about in our previews below is looking spot on.

First, as we've talked about, it looks like the Fords will continue to dominate at plate tracks.  In the first Duel, the Penske Fords ran 1-2-3 most of the race.  Keselowski crashed out late, but Ford still scored the win and four of the top five spots.  In the second Duel, the Fords of Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and even Paul Menard all looked strong.  Fords will make up 6 of the Top 12 starters on Sunday.

Second, some of our under the radar driver targets looked strong.  Guys like Clint Bowyer, Trevor Bayne and AJ Allmendinger looked solid and finished in the Top 10 in the second Duel.  They will start in the top half of the field on Sunday.  In the first race, Logano and Stenhouse scored Top 5 finishes.  And Aric Almirola was crashed out when Jimmie blew the tire, but the 10 car looked good at the start and Almirola spoke very highly of the car in his post-crash interview.  In a nutshell, he said they felt they could contend for the win and that they were just riding and biding their time until the end of the race.

The closest thing we have to a new development for fantasy purposes is a few big names starting at the rear of the field Sunday after crashing out.  That gives them solid potential for bonus points for position difference from start to finish.  Guys like Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski will all start 30th or worse on Sunday.  Given his success at plate tracks, I think that moves the 2 car of Keselowski right to the top of the board.  JJ and Larson don't have the same history of success at plate tracks, but this gives them a chance to really return great value if they can avoid the big one and finish in the Top 15 or so.

We'll watch practice tomorrow, crunch some more numbers and do an updated/final driver target list on Saturday.

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