Fantasy NASCAR Preview: Texas

Ragan quietly amassed another top 10 this past weekend in Atlanta with an 8th place finish. He has been solid with top 10's at Chicago, Kansas, Charlotte (fall race), and Las Vegas. However, whenever you can say a guy "quietly" scored another top 10 he falls into a category of guys that probably won't win the race. That's not what you want from a class B group that includes several contenders.

Harvick was 13th in Atlanta after finishes of 6th in Kansas, 3rd in Chicago, 4th in Las Vegas, 7th in the spring race at Atlanta, 9th in Texas, and finishes of 13th and 14th in Charlotte. Solid, but not great enough to place on your class A roster.

Truex has been one guy who has been stronger than his finishes indicate on the intermediate speedways. He finished in the top 10 at Chicago and led at Kansas before a transmission failure relegated him to a DNF. He was 14th at Charlotte and 15th in Atlanta; he has run well in Texas before and could be another class B sleeper.

Vickers was 21st at Atlanta in a race where the 83 team figured to score a top 10. He was just 18th in Charlotte a couple weeks ago but did lead 64 laps. He is still the top class C fantasy pick without question, but there are some chinks in the armor of this group and they can't seem to finish as well as they run on a weekly basis.

Martin scored top 10's in Las Vegas, Texas, and Charlotte just a couple weeks ago. He struggled in Atlanta in both events there and looked very average last weekend in finishing 22nd. I'm not sold on him for Texas this weekend.

Mears' 12th place finish in Atlanta proves he isn't packing things in for the year. He had top 15's in Las Vegas and Kansas, but has no other finishes worth mentioning. His consistency has been the primary issue for fantasy players, and he shouldn't be on your roster.

Kahne won at Charlotte in the spring and finished 2nd there a few weeks ago. He was 6th in Vegas, but has 4 finishes of 20th or worse on 1.5 mile tracks after his 33rd place finish in Atlanta.

Bowyer was 6th earlier this year at Atlanta, but ended up 20th last weekend there. He was 12th in Kansas, 10th in Texas, and 12th a couple weeks ago in Charlotte. Still, he's just not strong enough to consider in that class A group.

Newman hasn't improved like his teammate Busch in recent weeks, but he was 4th at Texas in the spring. He scored a top 10 in Chicago, but has not appeared capable of running in the top 10 anywhere else.

Sadler had finishes of 12th in Vegas, 8th in Charlotte, 12th in Chicago, and 10th in Kansas. Recently, he was 20th in Charlotte and 25th in Atlanta. He's an inconsistent and risky class B choice.

Labonte was solid at Charlotte this year (11th/17th) and was 12th in Atlanta the first time there. He was 26th last weekend, but did score a top 20 at Texas earlier this year. It's just hard to put him on your roster when you know he is in inferior equipment.