2009 Fantasy Rankings 25. Joey Logano

Fantasy Power Average*: 24.84
Wins: 1 (Lenox Industrial Tools 301, New Hampshire Motor Speedway)
Top-fives: 3
Top-10s: 7
Top-15s: 13

Joey Logano fairly well lived up to expectations in 2009. While his rookie season lacked a lot of the flash of previous freshmen such as Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch, fantasy owners will be well-served to remember that the original plan was to bring him into Cup competition in 2010 instead of last year. Tony Stewart's decision to leave Joe Gibbs Racing for his own team brought the teenager to the big leagues sooner than anticipated and yet the kid showed maturity and rarely drove over his head. In fact, Logano did precisely what NASCAR expects from a first-year driver: he improved in the second race on nearly every track that hosts two events.

Detractors will be quick to dismiss Logano's victory at New Hampshire because that race was shortened by rain while the No. 20 stretched its fuel, but they should note that his other pair of top-fives came in the closing events of 2009. Logano drove to a fifth at Lowe's in the NASCAR Banking 500 and crossed the line third at Talladega in the Amp Energy 500. Normally, we would discount any finish on the restrictor-plate superspeedways as a byproduct of luck over skill, but for a rookie to stay of trouble in the draft, it's remarkable.

Expect more of the same from Logano in 2010 as he visits tracks for the third and fourth time. As he and crew chief Greg Zipadelli develop more chemistry, the communication will only improve and Logano is learning how to describe the feel he needs. It's too soon to tell which track types will be his favorites, but in light of his strong Lowe's showing, watch him closely on the "cookie-cutter" tracks.

*The Fantasy Power Average is a formula that consists of a driver's finishing result plus other intangibles such as average running position, laps in the top 10, speed in traffic and quality passes. Each intangible is "expressed" as a finishing position (e.g. the driver with the most laps in the top 10 is given a hypothetical first-place finish), so the lower the number, the greater the strength.

25. Joey Logano

Keselowski in, Stremme out of 12 for final 3

Despite wrecking his new teammate Kurt Busch (and most of the lead lap cars) on the final lap of last week's Amp Energy 500, Penske Racing has announced that Brad Keselowski will replace David Stremme in the No. 12 for the final three races of the season, according to FoxSports.com.

Our View In the last few weeks, he has been the inciter of several incidents in both the Nationwide and Cup series. Let's hope he calms down and learns to respect his fellow drivers in the coming events.

If he can show a little maturity, he could be one of the best values in the game.

Yahoo! Qualification Story – Talladega

Rain canceled qualification on Saturday and set the lineup by points. Jimmie Johnson will the first six rows of Chase contenders to the green for the Amp Energy 500.

Our View There was not a lot to say about qualification, but you will find our insight in this week's Yahoo! story.

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Official tweets from the track

Crash-prone Edwards, Hornish already sustain damage at 'Dega

Barely eight minutes into practice, Sam Hornish Jr. and Carl Edwards slammed into one another in an accordion-style accident that was apparently started when Jeff Gordon was forced out of his drafting line.

Our View If you were listening to this morning's fantasy segment on SiriusXM radio, you would have head me predict that Sam Hornish Jr. and Carl Edwards would crash in the Amp Energy 500. It's not race time yet, but both drivers sustained crash damage in less than 10 laps.

Clint Bowyer was also spun off the track in the aftermath.

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Top-10 Avg. Running Position: Talladega #NASCAR

Average Running Position
Sum of driver position on each lap - divided by the laps run in the race.
Number of Races: 9
AMP Energy 500 Pre-Race
For point-paying races in current and past four years, at this track.
Talladega Superspeedway

Rank	Driver	Average Finish	Average Place
1	Joey Logano	9.0	12.9
2	Tony Stewart	14.0	13.3
3	Denny Hamlin	18.9	13.6
4	Juan Montoya	18.6	13.6
5	Kurt Busch	11.2	14.7
6	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	21.8	15.2
7	Matt Kenseth	16.4	15.6
8	Brian Vickers	16.8	15.8
9	David Ragan	14.0	16.0
10	Elliott Sadler	20.2	16.1

Top-10 Driver Ratings: Talladega

Driver Rating
Formula combining the following categories: Wins, Finishes, Top-15 Finishes, Average Running Position While on Lead Lap, Average Speed Under Green, Fastest Lap, Led Most Laps, Lead-Lap Finish. Maximum: 150 points per race.
Number of Races: 9
AMP Energy 500 Pre-Race
For point-paying races in current and past four years, at this track.
Talladega Superspeedway

Rk.	Driver	Avg. Fin	Best Rating	Avg.
1	Brad Keselowski	1	98.9	98.9
2	Denny Hamlin	18.9	125	94.8
3	Tony Stewart	14	117.2	92.4
4	David Ragan	14	121.5	92.3
5	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	21.8	119	90.1
6	Brian Vickers	16.8	107.6	90.1
7	Joey Logano	9	88.8	88.8
8	Kurt Busch	11.2	107.3	87.7
9	Matt Kenseth	16.4	120.1	86
10	Jeff Gordon	20.6	135.5	85.9

Percentage Laps in top-10 and -5 at Talladega

The fewer drivers there are in front of your driver, the fewer there are to make a mistake.

Here is a list of the drivers who have spent the most time at the front of the pack:

Driver	Top-10 Laps	%	Top-5	%	Possible Laps
Dale Earnhardt Jr	585	62%	399	42%	946
Denny Hamlin	567	60%	373	39%	946
Tony Stewart	469	50%	348	37%	946
Kyle Busch	418	44%	278	29%	946
Juan Montoya	411	43%	205	22%	946
David Ragan	398	42%	172	18%	946
Brian Vickers	305	40%	152	20%	754
Joey Logano	76	40%	35	19%	188
Elliott Sadler	379	40%	163	17%	946
Kurt Busch	358	38%	175	18%	946
Jimmie Johnson	337	36%	194	21%	946
Jeff Gordon	322	34%	211	22%	946
Martin Truex Jr	309	33%	159	17%	946
Matt Kenseth	292	31%	119	13%	946
Ryan Newman	284	30%	142	15%	946
David Stremme	224	30%	93	12%	756
Brad Keselowski	53	28%	12	6%	188
Reed Sorenson	264	28%	74	8%	946
Jeff Burton	260	27%	131	14%	946
Paul Menard	243	26%	127	13%	946
David Reutimann	238	25%	97	10%	946
Casey Mears	233	25%	89	9%	946
Kasey Kahne	196	21%	83	9%	946
Jamie McMurray	188	20%	107	11%	946
Michael Waltrip	149	20%	50	7%	754
Kevin Harvick	156	16%	61	6%	946
Marcos Ambrose	29	15%	5	3%	188
Greg Biffle	129	14%	77	8%	946
Sam Hornish Jr	49	13%	17	5%	376
Clint Bowyer	122	13%	32	3%	946
Joe Nemechek	117	12%	43	5%	946
Bobby Labonte	113	12%	43	5%	946
Tony Raines	60	11%	28	5%	570
Regan Smith	77	10%	19	3%	758
Carl Edwards	84	9%	24	3%	946
Dave Blaney	29	8%	11	3%	378
Scott Speed	11	6%	6	3%	188
Michael McDowell	11	6%	0	0%	188
John Andretti	11	3%	4	1%	376
Mark Martin	5	3%	3	2%	188
Robby Gordon	19	2%	6	1%	946
A J Allmendinger	1	0%	1	0%	376
Max Papis	0	0%	0	0%	188

Allmendinger charged with DWI

A.J. Allmendinger failed a field sobriety test, according to ESPN.com, after blew a .08 on a Breathalyzer test. He immediately apologized for the incident and is taking full responsibility for it.

Our View According to unconfirmed sources, Richard Petty Motorsports expects to allow him to race this weekend at Talladega, where he finished 35th this spring.

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Yahoo! Talladega Preview

Go find your lucky quarter and prepare for this week's Amp Energy 500 at Talladega SuperSpeedway. Oh yeah, and read this preview that I wrote for Yahoo! Games (.pdf).