We’re down to 50 players, and the odds of someone making it to Homestead could get very slim after Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Think about this: If Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski ALL get eliminated from the real Chase this week, the majority of players are totally screwed for the rest of the Fantasy Chase.
Is there ANYONE among the final 50 who didn’t pick one of those three drivers in any of the last four races? Actually, yes. They are:
| Coates_Burghfan |
| ZHorrall224 |
| rebel388 |
| davidlerner75 |
| AppBuckeye31 |
| jsoupzzz |
So there is a possible path to Homestead, even without the three big names. But most will be gone by then; even Adam Huth (who won AGAIN last week, by the way) has a lineup of Earnhardt/Johnson/Keselowski/Gordon for his final four picks.
Yes, this game might be over long before Homestead. That’s OK. It was supposed to be hard, and it was. The best hope for most remaining players is to have Johnson or Keselowski somehow win Talladega, because otherwise they’ll ruin many brackets in the next round.
Halfway through the Chase, here’s a look at how quickly the field is shrinking:
| Pre-race | Players left |
| Chicago | 197 |
| New Hampshire | 183 |
| Dover | 113 |
| Kansas | 107 |
| Charlotte | 71 |
| Talladega | 50 |
Nine of the current Chase drivers were chosen at Talladega — everyone except Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson (no one wanted to waste their one Johnson pick on ‘Dega).
Here are the picks for this week (italics indicates a driver who has already been eliminated):
| Twitter ID | Talladega |
| ItsAlexKaplan | Almirola, Aric |
| CFDIG | Biffle, Greg |
| ClintLJones | Busch, Kurt |
| Huth88 | Busch, Kyle |
| katiecole125 | Busch, Kyle |
| Kfisher88 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| lorettamagers | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Coates_Burghfan | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| ZHorrall224 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| AppBuckeye31 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| bruce_compton15 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| tcholbrook | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| davidlerner75 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| oldguyjk | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| gregatkins | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| coreyr12 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Gael78II | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| rebel388 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Chubdubblub | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| quickdraw222 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Bradley_016 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| poloshot | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| turbojunker | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Toenailurface | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Readymixchick | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| bakemoney2000 | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| jdubharris | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Nascar_Nut | Earnhardt Jr., Dale |
| Scottwilfong | Gordon, Jeff |
| TheTigerBones | Hamlin, Denny |
| thndrnghrd24 | Hamlin, Denny |
| Sports2hiphop | Hamlin, Denny |
| devyanks90 | Hamlin, Denny |
| wdoyle66 | Hamlin, Denny |
| gonzalezterence | Hamlin, Denny |
| Adam_Huth | Hamlin, Denny |
| mattgross | Hamlin, Denny |
| jsoupzzz | Hamlin, Denny |
| fatbuzz66 | Hamlin, Denny |
| BPierce | Harvick, Kevin |
| kennethriggs | Kahne, Kasey |
| Mattdobson_7 | Kenseth, Matt |
| CopaCavanna | Kenseth, Matt |
| digertwo | Kenseth, Matt |
| dallasjunebug | Kenseth, Matt |
| trv240sx | Kenseth, Matt |
| Amishkid17 | Kenseth, Matt |
| Sam_Beishuizen | Keselowski, Brad |
| chrisonethree | Keselowski, Brad |
| dave_phillips1 | Logano, Joey |