RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series is in Indianapolis this weekend for the Brickyard 400. That's right: the Brickyard is back after a three-year stint where NASCAR ran the road course at the track instead.
The last time we were here, the recently retired Kevin Harvick won this race. In fact, four of the top five drivers in that race aren't in the field this weekend, making it tough to use that race to predict much about this one.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the Brickyard 400 on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 7/21/2024 at 2:29 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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Kyle Larson
Starts Fifth - DK: $10.3K, FD: $13.5K
Of all the contenders in this field, Kyle Larson has the most recent experience here as he ran the Indianapolis 500 this year, running well until a penalty ended his hopes of a good finish. Of course, an IndyCar and a NASCAR car don’t have much in common, so it’s unclear if that experience will hugely benefit Larson or not.
Kyle Larson has his Hendrick 1100 paint scheme this weekend. The one he didn't get to race in the Coke 600 https://t.co/rgs7HnD8T9 pic.twitter.com/OhnpKkDxYn
— Steven Taranto (@STaranto92) July 19, 2024
Beyond that, Larson has plenty of good runs here in NASCAR, including three top 10s here in the Cup Series. While Larson's coming off consecutive finishes outside the top 10 for the first time since April, he should be set for a bounceback performance on Sunday.
William Byron
Starts Fourth - DK: $9.0K, FD: $11.0K
Larson is my pick to win. Denny Hamlin is right behind him. After that, I might have William Byron third or fourth—probably fourth after pole-sitter Tyler Reddick, but Reddick feels so chalky this week that I wanted to write about someone else instead.
Byron enters this race off a strong run at Pocono, a track with a turn modeled after Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He qualified second and ultimately finished fourth in that race. He's also an Xfinity Series winner at this track back in 2017 and has led laps in all three of his Cup Series starts here with a best finish of fourth back in 2019.
Chris Buescher
Starts 23rd - DK: $8.5K, FD: $8.5K
Simply put, Chris Buescher should run better than 23rd on Sunday, making him a strong source of place differential points. He has a lot of experience here, but much of it came when he was driving cars that weren't nearly as good as this current No. 17 RFK Racing machine. He managed a ninth-place finish here in a JTG-Daugherty car as well as a 14th for Front Row Motorsports back when FRM was nothing like the team it is now.
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— brent buckner (@tenndolly2) August 7, 2023
Austin Cindric
Starts 38th - DK: $7.6K, FD: $6.8K
We have a few deep place differential drivers in this field, including Austin Cindric, who starts 38th in the No. 2 car for Penske Racing after smacking the wall in qualifying.
😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/sXGSnES5fv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 20, 2024
Cindric was 15th quickest in practice, so there should be plenty of room for improvement on Sunday, especially when you consider his Penske teammates both start in the top 12. It'll take some time and patience for Cindric to move through the field, but a top 20 is well within reach, especially considering he enters this race with four top 20s in a row.
One mark against Cindric is that his two Xfinity starts at IMS both ended early, once due to an accident and the other from a late engine failure, but that was a while back, so I'm not factoring it heavily into my predictions here.
Josh Berry
Starts 37th - DK: $7.5K, FD: $7.2K
Josh Berry is another driver starting from the back. The Stewart-Haas driver ran Saturday’s Xfinity Series race here but was involved in an early crash and didn’t get to log laps to help him prepare for Sunday. Still, he has practice laps in both series this weekend, which could come in useful on Sunday.
Berry struggled in qualifying, with the car tightening up and Berry forced to get out of the gas. However, he was 13th in practice and is coming off a race last weekend where he led eight laps and had 13 fastest laps, the third time in the last five races he has double-digit fastest laps.
The Caitlin Clark design on the hood of Josh Berry’s No. 4 car for the Brickyard 400 tomorrow is insane🔥 pic.twitter.com/QzqOi5rs32
— Sam Brunsman (@BrunsmanSam) July 20, 2024
(Also, unrelated to fantasy, but shout out to the Caitlin Clark paint scheme on this No. 4 car this weekend. Love seeing women's sports and NASCAR intersect.)
Carson Hocevar
Starts 30th - DK: $6.8K, FD: $5.8K
Carson Hocevar is another driver starting fairly deep in the field as he rolls off 30th on Sunday. Hocevar enters the weekend with a top-20 finish in six of the past seven races, plus he was 10th in practice. The rookie has never raced here, but if he can keep the car clean he should have the speed to manage another top 20 on Sunday.
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