Fantasy Update: Sit vs. start debate on Denny Hamlin at Nashville; Josh Berry a prime spoiler candidate

It‘s no surprise to see Joe Gibbs Racing be lights out in qualifying. Denny Hamlin won his second pole of the season at Nashville Superspeedway — and it wasn‘t even close. The No. 11 Toyota was nearly a tenth of a second faster than second-best Christopher Bell. With the new qualifying procedure by groups, Bell will line up third. Josh Berry was the fastest of the Group A cars in the final round of qualifying, tying his best career starting position of second.

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineups 

Dustin Albino‘s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Brad Keselowski
Starter 2: Tyler Reddick
Starter 3: Ty Gibbs
Starter 4: Chase Elliott
Starter 5: Josh Berry
Garage pick: Ross Chastain

NEXT IN LINE: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, William Byron

RISING: With three straight finishes of 24th or worse, Hamlin has fallen to third in the Regular Season Championship standings, 40 points behind the Hendrick Motorsports teammates of Elliott and Larson. The No. 11 car was in another zip code in qualifying and Hamlin believes his car is better at Nashville than it was last year, when he led 81 laps and finished third. Looking ahead, though, Hamlin has some of his best race tracks on the circuit coming later in the regular season at Pocono, Richmond and Darlington, so I‘ve got to save him here. If you have at least four starts remaining for him, I’d advise you to start him this weekend. I’m right below that threshold at three starts left.

It took nearly a third of the way into Berry‘s rookie season, but it‘s no longer unexpected to see the No. 4 car run toward the front of the field. Since finishing third at Darlington Raceway in mid-May, Berry has four top-10 finishes across the last six Cup events. Rodney Childers is the mastermind atop the pit box, and the veteran crew chief had a car capable of winning last year‘s Nashville race with Kevin Harvick, but a tire puncture foiled the No. 4 team’s bid late in the race. Berry tied his best qualifying effort of second.

FALLING: When NASCAR visits Nashville, the stakes become higher for Trackhouse Racing. Team owner Justin Marks is based out of Nashville and once aspired of building the team from “Music City.” Last year, Chastain had a dream weekend, scoring the team‘s first career pole and dominating the race on the way to victory. Chastain should still be considered for lineups because he has yet to finish outside the top five in three starts and was second on 10-lap averages in practice. However, Daniel Suárez‘s trying season continues. The No. 99 car was ranked 33rd in practice and only improved two spots for qualifying.

When Joey Logano was involved in an accident early during the final stage of last week‘s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he missed out on a prime opportunity to have a monster points day while racing on the playoff bubble. Fast forward nearly a week and the No. 22 team is trending down entering Sunday‘s race, as he will take the green flag from 26th position. Penske‘s downfall this season has been intermediate venues, which Nashville certainly falls under. Logano, who has a pair of top 10s in the three Nashville races, has dropped from my lineup.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Christopher Bell vs. William Byron: The battle of two heavyweights is one where realistically either driver could win the race. Similarly to my situation with Hamlin, a lack of uses is why neither Bell nor Byron is in my lineup this weekend. I‘m at an even bigger deficit with Bell, only having two starts left over the final eight races. Comparing these two, though, I‘m leaning the No. 20 car. Bell has been on a tear with two wins and no finish worse than ninth in the last five races.

Ross Chastain vs. Martin Truex Jr.: It feels like Chastain and Truex are having similar seasons, in that both should be running better. Truex has had issues finishing races where he‘s ran, while Chastain always maximizes the No. 1 car‘s performance. Chastain is where I‘m leaning.

Denny Hamlin vs. Chase Elliott: This is going to be one of those rare times that despite a driver being in my lineup, I‘m going in the opposite direction for the matchup. In every metric, Hamlin seemed to have one of the best cars on Saturday at Nashville. Elliott is a contender, but not sure that he‘s a match for the No. 11 car.

Chris Buescher vs. Tyler Reddick: Shame on me for not having any RFK Racing drivers in my lineup earlier this week. Keselowski and Buescher have been the best of the Ford bunch on intermediate tracks this season, and that continued Saturday at Nashville. Despite that, Reddick also appeared to have one of the best cars in the field, so I‘m staying chalk with the No. 45 car.