IndyCar Fantasy Racing - Honda Grand Prix of Alabama

Welcome to the 360 Sports Network segment on Fantasy Auto Racing. Formula1 and IndyCar fantasy games selections will be made each race week leading up to race day.

We make our picks for Formula1 using the Pirelli GP Challenge Platform. In this setup, each week you must pick the podium finishers, the racer with the fastest lap, and the racer with the shortest time in the pits. You can pick the same racer all year round, meaning last year if you just chose Vettel to finish first each race then you probably were in the running for top finish.

The picks for IndyCar will be made following the IndyCar.com fantasy racing platform, which asks for five racers to be selected each week. The catch with IndyCar is that you can only pick a racer six times for the entire season, so a little more strategy is required to have quality picks each week, especially once your six picks per racer start to run out.



What have we learned already?

After the first week on the roads of St. Pete, a few things stood out in terms of fantasy racing:

1. Stay away from Lotus. Chevy has the early advantage in terms of engine power, with Honda close behind. Lotus so far has shown that they are truly six months behind. They do have a couple of great racers in Sebastien Bourdais and Simona de Silvestro running for them, not to mention Alex Tagliani when they get to the ovals. But until we see some serious, consistent times in the top 5 or 10 from Lotus, keep them away from your lineup.
2. Ganassi Boys not on Target.  Scott Dixon did have a good finish, and that's good. However, their poor qualifying last week and less than stellar practice times this week make me concerned to pick any of the Ganassi cars right now. That especially holds true this week at Barber where track position is at a premium with so few quality passing zones.
3. Rubens Sandwich. Now is the time to go for Rubens. He has a week under his belt, got quality practice time finally leading up to qualifying, and (probably most importantly) he is on a more familiar circuit. Barber Motorsports Park is a lengthy track, almost three miles in length, and features numerous elevation changes and flowing corners. St. Pete on the other hand is a temporary road circuit that uses an airport runway and has no elevation changes. He's already showing top five practice speed, and he's typically a poor qualifier. Come to race day, Barrichello just doesn't make mistakes.
4. Andretti is Back. The Andretti Autosport trio looks solid so far! However, early practice times at Barber make me a little nervous. There will be plenty of time to use all three of the AA team, and trust me, you'll use them all six times each. Just, not this week.

Picks

Usually, my esteemed colleague Ryan Mooney will join me in providing our picks. He's currently out of the country (jealous) so I'll just have to make the picks on my own this week. We'll be keeping track of our picks as well and see who can predict the open-wheel seasons better. So here it goes!  

1. Will Power - The Pole Man is worthy of my second early selection this week. He didn't finish so well last week, but come on, he's Will Power, he's almost guaranteed the pole, and at Barber it's usually a pole to victory lane scenario (maybe DW12 will change that? we'll see!)
2. Rubens Barrichello - Top five speeds are a good sign for somebody who normally is not a good in practice and qualifying. I hope you waited until a formula1 type course before going for him, though.
3. Helio Castroneves - Spiderman climbed the fence on Dan Wheldon Way last week. He's fast again here at Barber. Penske/Chevy is an almost unbeatable combo it appears, and Helio is on his game. Look out, everyone!
4. Takuma Sato - Rahal-Letterman finally has a legit shot at a trip to victory lane, probably for the first time since the Danica days. Sato has his tracks that suit him well, and as another former F1 racer, it's not surprising that Barber is one of those tracks. He's been quick this weekend so far, and he's a smart racer, too. You won't use him to the limit this year, but you need to use him to allow for more uses of the big names like Dario, Helio, and Will Power.
5. Sebastien Bourdais - Okay, I know I said not to go for Lotus quite yet, but here we go again with another former F1 racer who is driving the DW12 extremely well around the road course in Alabama. He was second fastest in the second session today. He took a truly terrible car last year each week and turned it to top five finishes by the end. Use him wisely. Choose him this week to save a pick elsewhere, then be ready to use him down the stretch.