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Justin Carter's NASCAR Cup Series DFS lineup picks for DraftKings, FanDuel for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington. Read our fantasy NASCAR picks.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Darlington this weekend, with Sunday's race capping off a weekend full of action at one of NASCAR's most historic tracks. This race is part of NASCAR's throwback weekend, with most of the cars in the field sporting paint schemes that harken back to past drivers, including Ross Chastain and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. both running throwbacks to Dale Jarrett's UPS car.
Last week, Denny Hamlin won an exciting race at Kansas, which culminated in a last-lap pass of Kyle Larson. But the bigger fireworks came after the race, when Noah Gragson and Ross Chastain had a run-in on pit lane that ended with Chastain punching Gragson.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the Goodyear 400 on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 5/14/23 at 3:10 p.m. ET. 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 7th - DK: $10,900, FD: $14,000
There are two clear favorites this weekend, and they're the two drivers who were battling for the win last week at Kansas: Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.
Let's start with Larson, who'll begin the race from the seventh spot. While he's never won a Cup Series race at Darlington, he's been in contention plenty, including three runner-up finishes and two thirds.
That includes three races where Larson led over 100 laps, including when he led 284 of 367 in the 2018 race. Last year, he ran well in this race, leading 30 laps early before a blown engine ended his day just over 100 laps in. He didn't have the same speed in the fall, but he still managed to finish 12th.
With how he's run here, Larson's going to win at Darlington one of these days. Why not Sunday?
Denny Hamlin
Starts 8th - DK: $10,700, FD: $13,500
While I really like Larson's chances to win Sunday, Denny Hamlin is who I consider the favorite. Hamlin's been elite at Darlington during his career, winning here four times and posting an average finish of 7.5. If we take the two-race Daytona road course sample out of the equation, this is his best track by average finish, though he has won six times at Pocono.
Last year, Hamlin led 42 laps in the spring race here, but was involved in a late crash and ended up finishing 21st. In the fall, he came back and finished second, though he only led six laps.
Overall, Hamlin's spent at least some time in the race lead in six consecutive Darlington starts. And across his 21 races here, he's led 100-plus laps four times. He should always be viewed as one of the favorites at this place.
Chris Buescher
Starts 27th - DK: $7,600, FD: $6,800
Buescher struggled in qualifying, with his worst start since Bristol Dirt and his worst start at a track with normal qualifying since COTA. But that could be a good thing for DFS players, because Buescher will come into Sunday's race with some solid place differential upside.
Though he only finished 26th the last time the Cup Series was here, he had three top 20 finishes at this track in the three races before that, including ninth-place finishes in both races here in 2021. This isn't his best track, but it's a solid one, as his average finish of 18.2 makes it his fourth-best track by average finish for tracks he's raced at five or more times.
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Chase Briscoe
Starts 31st - DK: $7,300, FD: $5,500
It's been a weird season for Chase Briscoe. He had a stretch of three top-five finishes in a row, but the last two weeks have seen him finish 30th or worse, and this is also the second race in a row where he just didn't hit the qualifying setup, starting 31st just like he did at Kansas.
But I think Briscoe should have a good chance to turn things around on Sunday. While he struggled last time we were at Darlington, he finished in the top 20 in his first three Cup Series starts at this track, and he's completed 99.5% of the laps here. Briscoe also has a win here in the Xfinity Series, and in 2020 he led 100 laps between his two starts.
Erik Jones
Starts 28th - DK: $7,100, FD: $7,800
It's been a rough year for Jones and Legacy Motor Club as a whole, as he has an average finish of 20.5, the worst of his full-time Cup career. The team announced that it's moving to Toyota next season, so I don't expect things to get much better during the season, as Chevy probably won't be giving the team a ton of support.
But that doesn't mean there can't be the occasional good run. He has three consecutive finishes of 21st or better, for example, and sits 24th in points, an improvement of three spots from where he was at after Martinsville. And now he heads to one of his best tracks.
Jones has won at Darlington twice in the Cup Series, with an average finish of 10.7. He led 23 laps back in the fall and won here, and he's led double-digit laps here three times. He starts 28th, so he probably isn't in line to challenge for a win, but he did finish fourth here in 2020 after starting 30th, albeit in better equipment.
Michael McDowell
Starts 19th - DK: $6,100, FD: $4,800
McDowell starts a little high for my liking, but if I'm building a lineup with both Larson and Hamlin in it, then I've got to dig for some value, and I think McDowell might be that value.
Last year, McDowell finished in the top 10 here twice, finishing seventh in the spring race and sixth in the fall race. Those were his first Darlington top 10s.
Also worth noting: teammate Todd Gilliland was 15th in the spring race last year. This FRM team seemed to figure some things out about this race track, and I think McDowell has a good chance for his second top 10 of the season on Sunday.
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