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The NASCAR Cup Series is in Loudon, New Hampshire this weekend for the USA Today 301. A wet weekend washed out qualifying and has put question marks around the status of Sunday's race. Will it start on time? Will we get all 301 laps in? Will the race get pushed to Monday?
Last week, the Cup Series ran its first race ever at Iowa Speedway. Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney drove to victory lane in that one, leading 201 of 350 laps to earn his first win of 2024.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the USA Today 301 on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 6/23/2024 at 2:04 p.m. EDT. If you have any questions or want to talk about NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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DFS Lineup Picks - DraftKings, FanDuel
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Christopher Bell
Starts Fourth - DK: $10.8K, FD: $13.5K
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't view Christopher Bell as the favorite this weekend. Between his dominance at this track across his stock car career and his strong runs this year when running on the tire compound NASCAR's using for the race, Bell is an easy driver to pick to win this one. Sure, you could make a good argument that that means you should fade him in GPPs because he'll go over-rostered, but I think I'd rather ride with the Bell chalk and find other ways to differentiate my lineup from everyone else's.
Christopher Bell remains undefeated in Xfinity Series competition at New Hampshire. #NASCAR
— Dustin Albino (@DustinAlbino) June 22, 2024
Some contest on that "dominance at this track" thing I mentioned last paragraph: Bell has a win here in the Cup Series back in 2022, but Xfinity is where his dominance has really been on display. Counting Saturday's race, Bell has four starts at Loudon in that series. He's also got four wins.
Kyle Larson
Starts 19th - DK: $10.0K, FD: $12.5K
Solid place differential upside here for Kyle Larson, who despite being second in points is down in 19th on the grid because the starting lineup formula for rain races takes last week's 34th at Iowa into account.
Larson is still searching for his first win at this track, but he has three second-place and two third-place runs here. He's actually only led a surprisingly low 22 laps here and I don't necessarily think Larson's going to blow through this field and be battling for the lead after 40 laps or anything, but he'll steadily rise and will be in the battle for a top five before the day's over.
Kyle Busch
Starts 30th - DK: $7.7K, FD: $7.5K
Kyle Busch and this Richard Childress Racing team have struggled for much of the season, but that isn't necessarily a concern for us when he starts as far back as 30th. Sure, Busch has two finishes of 35th in the last three races, but he had speed both of those times, qualifying in the top 10 at Gateway and Iowa. He was also contending for a top finish at Sonoma until he spun and ultimately wound up 12th. Busch has plenty of place differential upside this weekend, even with him struggling to consistently find speed and finish races in 2024.
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Bubba Wallace
Starts 17th - DK: $7.5K, FD: $7.8K
This is a good track for Bubba Wallace in this Next Gen car. After never finishing top 20 here to start his career, Wallace has finishes of third and eighth since NASCAR introduced this car back in 2022. He qualified top 10 in both races as well, showcasing those finishes weren't flukes and that he had speed all weekend.
This week's qualifying rainout has him starting 17th, which offers DFS players some place differential. I fully expect Wallace to run top 10 in this one. I don't think we see a repeat of his 2022 third-place run, but he can definitely match last year's eighth.
Austin Cindric
Starts 29th - DK: $7.0K, FD: $6.2K
Starting 29th gives Austin Cindric some strong place differential upside, even with the No. 2 car having a middling season. Cindric has a win, but he also has an average finish of just 22.3 and two top 10s.
Cindric's win this year was at Gateway, a track that has some comparables to Loudon. The track size and shape differ, but it gives me hope that if Cindric was good there, he can be solid here. Penske cars have run well on flatter tracks overall this season.
Justin Haley
Starts 24th - DK: $6.1K, FD: $4.8K
Justin Haley's name got some attention this week in silly season rumors with chatter about him moving to the Wood Brothers in 2025, but it sounds like that's been shot down and that Haley's happy to stay with Rick Ware Racing and continue to build the once-backmarker team into a solid mid-pack outfit.
Justin Haley to the 21 isn't happening according to the man himself pic.twitter.com/3PAauhV983
— Bumblebee48 🐝 (@KellieBlundell) June 19, 2024
Haley was ninth at Gateway and 13th at Iowa, both encouraging signs for his performance this weekend. He was also ninth at Darlington. Basically, over the last two months, Haley has shown massive improvement on tracks that are under 1.5 miles but that aren't the traditional short tracks like Martinsville and Bristol, those high-banked, bump-and-grind tracks.
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