March 23, 2024

On Saturday afternoon, Ryan Blaney qualified 28th for Sunday's EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuits of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, TX. Despite last week's 16th-place finish at Bristol, Blaney enters Sunday's race with considerable momentum, as he has already earned three top-five finishes in 2024. Unfortunately for the reigning Cup Series champion, Sunday's race is on a road course, a style of track he has just one victory on in his Cup career (2018 Charlotte Roval). While he is not disastrous on road courses, he is not very impressive either. In the 11 road course races using the NextGen car, the second-generation Cup star has achieved three top 10s but no top-fives, suggesting he struggles to finish this style of race. With this said the one argument that could be made for Blaney is that his DraftKings salary is just $7,500. If Blaney scores just 37.93 points in Sunday's race, which is what he is averaging in the new aerodynamic package that will be used at COTA, he will hit the 5x value you typically look for when building a DFS lineup. While we wouldn't recommend going overweight on the No. 12, you also should not miss out on the opportunity to get an elite driver at a mid-tier price, starting from a position that offers significant place differential upside. --Adam Erhardt - RotoBaller
Source: DriverAverages.com