talladega pre-qualifying

I'm not going to do much more with driver targets until after qualifying this week.  At these plate tracks, so much of what I want to do is decided by qualifying position that I can't even narrow things down in a useful way until we see where drivers will start.  We really want to focus on position difference potential this week and we have no idea what that will be until we know the starting lineup.

As far as the weekend schedule goes, it's unique this week.  On Friday, there are two 50-minute practices but no qualifying.  On Saturday, there is qualifying but no practice.  Unlike a normal week, practice at the plate tracks really doesn't tell us a whole lot about who's going to have success on Sunday.  So, unless some huge news breaks on Friday, I'm not planning on a post-practice update.  The next update will likely be a final update with DraftKings and FanDuel targets late Saturday.

Here's just a few more driver notes to keep in mind:

• Paul Menard has finished all the laps in the last five plate track races and has four Top 10 finishes in those races.
• AJ Allmendinger has three Top 10 finishes in the last five plate track races.
• Bubba Wallace has finished 2nd and 15th in his only two plate track races in the Cup series.
• Ryan Newman has three consecutive Top 10 finishes at plate tracks.

As always, tweet questions or comments @illinisjc