A season of fantasy racing has once again come and gone. Jimmie Johnson was the best at the end of the year, and came home with his third consecutive Cup Championship. But while Johnson was on top when the Chase wrapped up, he was far from the best fantasy driver on the race track. Instead, the wheelman with the best average finish for the entire season — who should have scored the most fantasy points for gamers — was Carl Edwards. His average finish was 9.5, more than a full position better than second place Johnson, who came home with a 10.528 average for the year.
The highest average finishing non-Chaser, and a person who should be very high on gamer’s lists for their 2009 season draft, is Mark Martin. While he only ran 24 races in the No. 8 U.S. Army Chevrolet for DEI, his average finish was a solid 13.333. That number has to be tempered a little bit by the fact that Martin did not run the tracks that he does not enjoy running; however, he will be running the full schedule next year, and that will give fantasy players a chance to reap big rewards from his presence in 2009.
David Ragan was the best of the non-Chase drivers to run the full schedule. His 15.556 average finish was actually higher than that of teammate Matt Kenseth, who finished in 14th place in that category — last among the 12 drivers who competed for the championship during the final 10 races.
When gamers look ahead to 2009, some of the drivers to consider are also those drivers who made the best improvements this year over 2007. Those wheelmen who competed in all of the races this season and moved up the most in average finish were: David Reutimann +17, Ragan +11, and Kevin Harvick +9. On the flip side, the drivers that had off years and either should be avoided or considered for rebound seasons are: Matt Kenseth -11, Jeff Gordon -9, and Kurt Busch -9.
Here are the final pick averages for your fantasy authors:
Bryan:
Crank – 13.7
Sit – 20.9
Roll – 21.5
Mike:
Crank – 10.0
Sit – 21.0
Roll – 17.7
Win totals for your fantasy experts: Mike (10) — including the last four straight — Bryan (4).
Since Bryan joined for the last 23 races of the season, the totals only include those races in which he was involved.
We’d like to thank all of our loyal readers for taking the time to visit our articles each week, and we hope that we were able to help you in your efforts to win your fantasy leagues this season. See you all for Daytona in 2009!
