 Hey everyone, it's Greg Sussman joined today by Jim Sannis of Fandle. We're here to talk about the next race, the cup series that takes place in Charlotte on Wednesday. What's going on, Jim? I'm doing all good, Greg. It's the second consecutive Wednesday we have had a race. Next week there is no race on Wednesday and I'm already sad about that, even though we still have two races before then, so a weird mix of emotions, but pretty excited for the short term. How are you doing? So many emotions. So many. Okay, that's how I feel right now as well. The match is in the past. NASCAR is rocking and we got some announcements here from the NHL, NLV, NVA on the way too, so I'm feeling really, really good overall, but let's get into this race in Charlotte on Wednesday. We'll begin with one of the favorites, and that's Danny Hamlin. He's your highest price player or highest price driver in your lineup here this week. Why you going with Hamlin? It kind of goes back to what we discussed last week, Greg, because when we discussed the Wednesday race last week, we mentioned that the big key for a shorter race is trying to identify drivers starting further back with the ability to finish well, because there's less upside for drivers at the front when it is a shorter race. That is what we have for this one, which is 312 miles in the race, and Danny Hamlin is starting 29, which means that he is going to be one of the better plays in the entire field. Now, we don't really know how good Danny Hamlin would have been on Sunday night because he had an issue basically before the race, and we didn't get to see him on the lead lap. He was eight laps down basically right when the race started, so we never had to see Danny Hamlin racing with the leaders and trying to jockey for position. But Danny Hamlin in that race did have 29 of the fastest laps in the race, or he had the fastest lap 29 separate times. It's a pretty good number. It's not necessarily something we can lean on because he was able to pit whenever he wanted. He was in clean air, yada, yada, yada, but it shows that at least his car was competitive. That does matter when he's coming up from the 29th starting spot. We also know that the form is really good for Hamlin because he did win at Darlington, the second race there, he had a sixth place average running position in the first race at Darlington. So I think that if you're building a cash game roster, there are a couple of drivers you're going to want to lock in right away because they fit exactly what we want for this short type of race. Danny Hamlin, very much one of them, $12,000. He is so worth it, and a lot of place differential upside, and it really sawed floor for him coming from 29th points. Upside is there for Hamlin. His car looks to be ready to go on Wednesday. He's driving well, you know, but hopefully he won't start eight laps back before this whole thing begins on Wednesday. And I mean, in position to win it or at least give you what you need to get some points over on a fad duel. Your other top driver, also one of the best drivers, of course, on the Cup Tour, it's Jimmy Johnson, always one of the favorites here. And in Charlotte, he's had some success. Just a little bit, you know, a couple of wins back in the day, for sure. But I think the main motivator, Jimmy Johnson here, it has nothing to do with what he's done at Charlotte in the past. That's to do with what he did at Charlotte on Sunday, but also where he's starting, because he is starting dead freaking last. He will start 40th. He checks every box of what we want in the driver for this type of race because he is starting in the back. And as mentioned, that's a major plus. We want drivers who can generate upside via place differential, and it worked their way forward throughout the race. The reason Jimmy is starting there, probably not as fun for him because he was disqualified from Sunday's race after the fact, which means that he lost all his points. He will start 40th. That's a bummer for him, but it's good for us because it gives us a really good high floor, high upside driver starting in the back. With other drivers starting in the back, kind of like we discussed at Denny Hammond, we don't really know what their speed would have been on Sunday night. For Johnson, that's not an issue. We saw his speed on Sunday and he finished second. He had a seventh place average running position too. So we know the car is fast. We know he's starting in the back all the way back in 40th. That's a legitimately ideal combination. So I think that Johnson, if we're talking about contest types, he is a no-brainer whether it's a cash game or a tournament. It does not matter. You want to lock this guy in. I want to be overweight on him in tournaments. I know he'll be popular. I don't care. He's starting 40th. He's really good. He ran well on Sunday. So I think that if you're looking for expensive drivers for a cash game roster, it starts with Hamlin. It starts with Johnson. And then you build your mid-range and value plays from there. This is the best part about Jimmy Johnson. Yes, he's starting in 40th. That place differential is going to be huge. But we already know what we're going to expect. Just a couple of days ago, he finished second. And yeah, so he was disqualified. Sucks for him, but not for us. Let's take advantage of him and get Jimmy Johnson. You know our lineups on Wednesday. Up next for us, a bit of a middle tier here. It's Clint Boyer that gets into the lineup. Where's he starting, Jim? And why is it worth it? Well, he's next to Jimmy Johnson. He's starting 39th and he's starting there because he wrecked. So the reasoning for Boyer is not quite as fun as Jimmy Johnson. A wreck is not quite as sexy as a disqualification. But hey, it gets the job done. Put him at the back of the pack for us. And we will certainly take that. The other, the big reason that we liked Johnson was because we knew what the speed would be with Boyer. That's not necessarily as much the case because he did wreck pretty early on in that race. It was the opening stage. He wrecked, didn't get to see him across a full race. What we do know with Clint Boyer is that he has really good equipment with Stuart Haas racing. They didn't look all that great on Sunday, but they all started in the back and it was tough for them to work their way forward. Boyer has that issue for Sunday's race as well. But there will be a lot of restarts given that this is still going to be a three stage race. So at least a couple of restarts baked in there, be shorter runs to help Boyer work his way forward. And again, that speed should be there with the Stuart Haas racing cars. We saw him run really well in Darlington in the first two races back from the COVID-19 layoff. He had a top 10 ever turning position in the first one. He won the opening two stages and the second race as well. So the speed is there, place differential upside is there. And he comes in a bit of a discount relative to Johnson and Hamlin at $9,000. So to me, I think all three guys are kind of must haves for cash games. I think that they are awesome place for tournaments too. The unknowns, definitely they're more so with Boyer than they are with Hamlin and Johnson. We get a bit of a salary reduction to account for that. So Boyer, definitely someone I want to build around once again here on Wednesday. Right next to Jimmy Johnson. We like those that place differential. Obviously works out the wreck. Certainly not as fun as a disqualification, but still in a position to do some damage for us in or a fan to align us on Wednesday. Clint Boyer obviously makes a lot of sense starting at 39th. Moving on, sticking in the middle of a pack. We get to Matt Kenseth who's had some success here as well. Why do you like Kenseth? He's not quite starting as far back as Johnson and Boyer because he will start 26th. So more of a middle of the pack guy. And the reason that Kenseth is starting there is because he slapped the wall pretty hard and finished poorly. Finished 26th on Sunday night. So it was not a good race for him, but we did see speed from Kenseth as well. And again, that's kind of what we want here. We want to find drivers who were fast on Sunday, but didn't get finishes to show for it. As far as Kenseth goes, he showed the speed in qualifying because he qualified fourth for Sunday's race and had a lot of speed in a single lap run there. This is also the same team that won the all-star race last year at this track in this package. Now it was now with Matt Kenseth driving. It was with Kyle Larson. And Kyle Larson is better able to elevate the equipment than that Kenseth is in his age 48 season. However, Kenseth showed at Darlington, he's not a slouch. He's still a really good race car driver. You're putting him in good equipment, putting him back in 26th, and you're getting him at $7,600. There's a lot to feel good about there. Kenseth has had some wrecks the past few races. So the transition back into the Cup Series hasn't necessarily been all that smooth, but I think there's a good amount of safety and upside here with Matt Kenseth. $7,600, he is one of the better value plays on the board. We'll talk about the other one here in just one second. But I think that Kenseth has shown enough to me in these first three races back to feel pretty good about him in this middle starting position for Wednesday's race. Maybe not starting as far back as the other drivers that we've discussed even in this tier, but Kenseth doesn't always show his age. Maybe a little bit rust there for the 48 year old, but obviously a good driver is Matt Kenseth. And we'll see in that fast car, as well as he's been driving it, how successful he could be on Wednesday. Sticking in this tier right around the same price, it's another driver that you're in on here. And it's Ryan Newman, who you like, at least the same as Kenseth, is not a little bit more than you like Matt Kenseth. Yeah, I think that's already to phrase it because they're basically even because Newman will start one spot behind Kenseth, going with his partner there. He is starting 27, whereas Kenseth is 26, actually driving the car that Kenseth throw two years ago, Baroush Fenway Racing. And the reason that I think that we can like Newman is for similar reasons here, because we can expect, reasonably project him, to get a top 15 finish with the upside for a top 10. That is the exact same thinking for Kenseth, except Newman is $600 cheaper and will certainly take those savings wherever we can get them because guys like Johnson and Boyer were all priced up due to where they are starting for this race. So we'll take some salary savings where we can get them and Newman does provide us with those. Now Newman starting poorly because again, he finished poorly, but he had an issue during the race. He was running well prior to that. He finished with a 19th place average running position. So 19th starting 27th, I think that's a pretty good combination to bake in some place differential expectation for Ryan Newman. We also saw Newman have a top 16 average running position in both the Dalton races. So his comeback from his injury has gone very well so far and he's showing there's not a lot of rust to knock off for him at this track. His teammate, Chris Buescher, got a top 10 finish on Sunday. So we know the Roushvinder racing equipment can hold up here. So Newman can push for something similar to that on Wednesday. If he gets that for $7,000 at the starting spot, you'll be looking pretty good. I think that both Newman and Kenseth are cashing considerations depending on how much salary you have left over. I think you could use either or both within the same lineup and they are core options for tournaments because a lot of the guys in the salary range are starting a bit too close to the front for them to be cash game considerations or core plays for tournaments. That is not the case for Newman and Kenseth. They give you that cushion but also have upside. So I think if you're looking for guys to build around who are cheap, to me it's gonna be Kenseth and Newman above everyone else. Both around the same price, both really nice building blocks for your lineup, cash game considerations, tournaments as well. They're sitting far enough back in the pack and they are still really nicely priced and they're much cheaper. Denny Hamlin's and Jimmy Johnson's over the wall. A lot to like here are with both Matt Kenseth and Ryan Newman here in the $7,000 range. All right, let's get into a long shot here that you like that is a value play, really. About $5,000, that's Ryan Priest. Why is Priest worth putting in there over so many other high value plays we've talked about in the past? Yeah, I think with Ryan Priest there are a couple of things here and the allure of spending down to $5,000 is also imminent because again, some drivers we want to use got priced up specifically Johnson, specifically Clint Bowyer. Those guys got their prices jacked up. So we got to find savings. I think that Ryan Priest has decent finishing upside for this salary at $5,000. So he's starting 22nd, that's not super low in the pack and it's definitely a bit of a concern but you get a 23rd place average running position on Sunday, that's not too bad. And Priest is also a really good passer on this track deck. That is one of his strengths as a driver is he can make moves on this track type. I think that's pretty alluring when he's just $5,000. Last year in this exact same car, Chris Buscher finished sixth at Charlotte, driving for the same team. We saw Priest and Ricky Stendhouse Jr. his current teammate run well in Las Vegas earlier this year. So the equipment can hold up on this track type. They've kind of put all their eggs in one basket trying to get their program acclimated to the one and a half mile track. So it's paid off because Buscher had four top tens in this car last year. Now Priest piloting the number 37 car. So I think that he works well at $5,000. I also want to mention Bubba Wallace because he's starting back in 38th spot. He has the exact same salary as Ryan Priest. You get a lot more finishing flexibility from Bubba because he's starting so deep. The problem is Bubba's team is not good. His equipment is pretty bad. His brakes blew out on Sunday. That's the second time his brakes have blown out which is always kind of scary for sure to not have brakes in an ass car car but that's why Bubba is not necessarily in this spot with Ryan Priest but the driver talent is there. The starting position is there. So Bubba is a consideration but I think if you're looking for better finishing upside I would go Ryan Priest at $5,000. So a couple of options down here if you want to jam in all the studs that you want turn to Priest, turn to Bubba and see the flexibility that they give you because both those guys have paths to a really solid race. Well those guys not only have passed a solid race but solid amount of points over on Fando here. Just $5,000, a lot of room to get other drivers in and for them to do enough. Make it worthwhile to having them in your lineups. That's gonna do it for us here on the Fando Hurri at Jim. We appreciate the time. Enjoy the race. I most certainly will Greg. We have Charlotte Wednesday and then Bristol on Sunday so can't be a whole lot better than this. I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully you chin in and enjoy them as well and I'll talk to you again soon. Sure. Maybe I will. For Jim Sada's, I am Greg Sosford. We'll be back tomorrow as we take a look at UFC for this weekend. Have a great night, stay safe and we'll see you next time right here on the Fando Hurri out.