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It's time for the 2022 Daytona 500! The biggest race on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar kicks the new season off on Sunday.
Daytona is always an unpredictable race, full of crashes and surprise contenders, even if the race doesn't
Below are some drivers to consider for DFS purposes this week. If you have any questions or want to talk NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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Kyle Larson
Starts 1st - DraftKings $10,600 | FanDuel $12,000
Playing the polesitter at a superspeedway race is always risky. One wrong move and he's in the fence, killing your lineup because of the negative place differential points that you end up with.
But with all the supply chain issues that NASCAR is dealing with, I expect to see a race that's relatively tame for at least the first three-quarters of things. That gives a guy like Larson a chance to rack up a lot of laps led points, which should 1) help him be a top-scoring driver if things turn out to be relatively calm all the way through and 2) give him a nice points cushion if things get really chaotic. This is a risky play, but Larson is the favorite to win.
Denny Hamlin
Starts 30th - DraftKings $10,400 | FanDuel $14,000
A three-time Daytona winner with 11 top fives at this track who is starting 30th?
Hello, place differential! Hamlin's just so, so good at driving this race track. The last time he didn't finish in the top five in a Daytona 500 was in 2017. Since then, he's had two of his three 500 wins. He was eighth-fastest in qualifying, so the only real issue here is that he didn't finish well in his Duel race, which really just makes me more excited to play him in the 500. He'll likely hang back for awhile so you won't get much in terms of laps led, but he'll be a strong contender to wind up in victory lane by the end of this one.
William Byron
Starts 23rd - DraftKings $9,400 | FanDuel $11,500
Hendrick cars have a lot of speed at superspeedways, as evidenced by four of the top five fastest cars in qualifying being Hendrick cars. Byron was third fastest, but finished 12th in his Duel race, miring him back in the pack for the 500 itself.
But hey, that's good when it comes to fantasy, because of the place differential upside that comes with a 23rd-place starting spot.
He only has two top 10 here as he's gotten into trouble here a lot, but those top 10s were a win and a second-place, though both came in the summer race here, not in the 500. Still, I think there's a lot of upside.
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Justin Haley
Starts 25th - DraftKings $7,300 | FanDuel $6,700
Haley doesn't have a great track record in Cup aside from a fluke win, but that's because he mainly drove for Spire, a backmarker team. Now he's driving for his old Xfinity team, Kaulig Racing, as that team moves into Cup on a full-time basis.
Haley has two Xfinity wins at this track and an average finish of 10.6 here. He also has a Cup win here, which barely counts since it happened via rain, but what does count was a sixth-place finish in the summer race here last year, which was not shortened by rain. This'll be a trendy pick, but it'll be trendy for a reason.
Daniel Hemric
Starts 33rd - DraftKings $6,400 | FanDuel $6,000
Hemric is driving the other Kaulig car on Sunday. He had some issues on Saturday in the Xfinity race, but Hemric does have a top five at Talladega in a Cup car, plus three top 10s here in Xfinity and two top fives at Talladega.
He's not the greatest superspeedway driver, but he is driving for Kaulig, and he did show speed here on Saturday before he had issues. He's someone with some nice place differential upside who should be in some of your lineups.
Noah Gragson
Starts 39th - DraftKings $5,400 | FanDuel $3,500
Gragson was a contender for the win in Saturday's Xfinity race, but ultimately finished third.
He's a good superspeedway racer who has won here once in Xfinity. His aggressiveness is obviously a concern at a track like this, but when we have a Daytona winner starting 39th in a car that's been decent at superspeedways in the past, you've got to get him in some lineups.
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