DFS NASCAR: Can-Am 500 Track Breakdown

We’re here. The last race before the championship race at Homestead-Miami is this weekend at Phoenix International Raceway. PIR is a 1.022-mile layout with relatively flat banking in the turns but does have a unique “dogleg” section of the backstretch that allows for wide-swinging passing maneuvers coming off turn two. It’s a similar to track to Loudon in it’s flat banking all the way around, which can help to figure out who to play as well. Phoenix uses metric measures for their distance and the race is 500 kilometers as opposed to miles or laps.

Track Breakdown

Key Drivers on 1-mile Tracks

Drivers to watch this week:

Kevin Harvick: Here we go again with him dominating on a track. However this case is a bit different than the past tracks. In the last three years, Harvick has won four times in five tries and finished second in the other race. He has also led 994 of the 1,468 laps run in the last five races (a race was shortened to 219 from 312). He also won the November 2013 race as well, which isn’t factored in the data presented, but offers another notch in his belt for being the best driver on the track this week.

Joey Logano: Arguably the second best driver on the track in the last five races has been Logano with two top-fives and four top-10s. He also has the second most laps led at 123, despite him being 871 laps behind the aforementioned Harvick. No finish worse than 18^th measures his consistency well as does his second best average finish at 7.8.

Carl Edwards: Edwards is fresh off a win at Texas and locking his way into the championship race. Now comes a track that he has found solid success at in the past. Finishes of 8^th, 15^th, 13^th, 12^th, and 2^nd, in order from oldest to most recent, demonstrate his consistency. The runner-up finish in May this year also provided 65 of his 66 laps led in this span.

Jamie McMurray: McMurray is another consistent performer at Phoenix five finishes at 16^th or better in the last three years. A top-five and two top-10s are also included it that. McMurray has been up and down this season but if played on the right tracks, he can be a big boost to a lineup.

Aric Almirola: Almirola has one of the best positional differentials in the field at +4, moving from 19^th to 15^th on average. He has also snuck into the top-10 during this span as well. In the bottom half of the salaries this week, he could be well-worth the price if he can get into the top-10 once again on Sunday.