Jeff Gutowski [Team Gutowski]
Round 1 – Mark Martin (5)
Round 2 – Denny Hamlin (12)
Round 3 – Casey Mears (21)
Round 4 – David Stremme (28)
Mark Martin is now driving the No. 5 car why did you decide to take him with the No. 5 pick?
Martin is my favorite driver and still one of the best on the circuit. Now he is on one of the best teams with the great cars at Hendrick Motorsports. While Casey Mears had many struggles with his pit crew when he was in the No. 5 car, I don’t think Rick Hendrick will allow that to happen with Martin. He should easily make the Chase this year and have a legitimate shot to win the Daytona 500. I still don’t think that Martin can win the championship unless he changes his driving style a bit more at the end of races and gets more aggressive a little earlier during races instead of trying to win on pit strategy all the time.
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Ryan Rantz [Rantz Racing]
Round 1 – Matt Kenseth (6)
Round 2 – Jeff Burton (11)
Round 3 – Jamie McMurray (22)
Round 4 – Elliott Sadler (27)
Your first two selections, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Burton, are known to be low on wins but high on consistency, was that part of your draft strategy?
I drafted my team for the intermediate tracks, which is where the championship will be won and lost at. It would be nice to have a good road course team or restrictor plate team but intermediate tracks are the bulk of the schedule. Also, I like to have consistent drivers because, under this format, a wreck to one of your starters is instant doom.
Having drivers who win races is good, but there isn’t any reason why Kenseth can’t compete equally against higher draft picks like Carl Edwards, Jimme Johnson, Kyle Busch and others. I’ve always had good luck with Kenseth and would of been willing to pick him fourth overall, if need be.
Burton is Burton. He’ll be consistent and not put himself in harm’s way and ruin my chances. Also, I felt he was the best available driver at my draft spot. Hamlin was also considered but he isn’t as good at the intermediate tracks.
How do you feel about the second half of your team?
McMurray could possibly see starter time this season. He was really good at the end of last season, so we’ll just have to see if it continues. Even if he isn’t, I can still use him at tracks like Martinsville, Daytona, and road courses where some of my drivers might struggle.
Sadler will sit on my bench all season unless some sort of miracle happens this year. Since all teams will experience bad luck at some point this year, I hope Sadler will be a magnet for it so hopefully my starters won’t bite the bullet.
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Mike Maruska [Team Maruska]
Round 1 – Tony Stewart (8)
Round 2 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. (9)
Round 3 – Juan Pablo Montoya (24)
Round 4 – David Reutimann (25)
You got the last pick in the first round, meaning you also got the first pick of the second round. How do you feel picking back-to-back was good for you?
We’ll see how my team does overall but I was pleased with getting picks No. 8 and 9. I think there is a big drop off in the driver pool around 10 or 12, so getting two top ten drivers was nice. I think Tony Stewart will surprise people this year. Stewart-Haas is a lot better off than some think– especially those that compare the team to startups like Michael Waltrip Racing and Robby Gordon Motorsports.
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