Welcome back for another week of daily fantasy NASCAR. The Sprint Cup series heads to Darlington Raceway this weekend for the throw back inspired Bojangles' Southern 500. For a closer look at the throwback paint schemes and everything else Darlington check out the throwback page on the NASCAR.com website.
Darlington Raceway is 1.366 mile oval intermediate track that is challenging and unique in its own way. It has two completely opposite ends of the track with different with 23°-25° banking. This makes it tough to get the setup just right and puts a lot of emphasis on the crew chief/driver relationship. Outside of getting the car setup to turn in all four corners, drivers will have to avoid making the famous "Darlington Stripe" which inevitably leads to right side damage and a trip down pit road.
All events at the track have been cancelled on Friday due to severe weather. With weather clearing up for Saturday NASCAR has set the field by owner points and will give the teams two practice sessions before the race on Sunday. The complete starting lineup can be found HERE.
If you have any questions leading up to the race be sure to join the conversation in the chat below. I will also be sharing a link to a cheatsheet I developed and use weekly to help reduce research time. The cheatsheet includes driver salaries, track history(last 5 years), current form(last 5 races), Season Loop Data, and I also provide updated practice and qualifying rankings with a weighted system to rank all drivers. The cheatsheet and lineups will be updated throughout the weekend so be sure to follow me on Twitter and check your emails for lineup updates. Check out the link in the chat room below and feel free to ask me any questions leading up to the race.
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings DFS Lineup Picks
Favorite to win - Kevin Harvick ($10,600)
He ranked high on the cheatsheet this week before the qualifying was set and got a bump as he will be leading the field to green on Sunday. Over the last five years he has recorded a win and three Top 5 finishes with a 8.8 average finish and 329 laps led, second only to Kyle Busch. He has been the most consistent driver all the season leading the series with 19 Top 10 finishes and sits at the top of the points standings.
Upper Tier Value - Kyle Larson ($9,100)
Kyle Larson is coming off his first career win and will be hungry for more. His price has hit a season high making him more of a tournament play this week. He will start 16th on Sunday which opens up the potential for +15 place differential points. He has just two Darlington races under his belt in his early career but both have resulted in Top 10 finishes.
Mid Tier Value - Ryan Newman ($8,000)
Ryan Newman is another driver who is seeing a season high salary but not for the same reasons as Larson. It was actually Larson's win that pushed Newman outside the bubble and 15 points back of Jamie McMurray for the 16th and final spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The pressure is on and he needs to make up points in a hurry or just maybe win a race. Despite not recording a win at Darlington, Newman has recorded 11 Top 10 finishes in 17 carer starts. He will need at least that this week.
Bottom Tier Value - Jamie McMurray ($7,400)
The Chase bubble narrative continues in the $7K range as McMurray is the driver on the bubble that everyone is now chasing. With most of these drivers around the cut line having a low percentage of winning this week we will have an exciting race within a race to follow. McMurray has picked up five Top 10 finishes in 15 career races here at Darlington and is coming in hot with three straight 8th place finishes.
Also Consider - Carl Edwards ($10,100)
DFS & Fantasy NASCAR Chat Room
If you have any questions leading up to the race hit me up in the chat below!
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