RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Indianapolis on Sunday for what's rumored to be the last race on the road course, with a 2024 return to the oval at IMS rumored. Who'll win in a race that's likely to be chaotic based on the past races here?
Last weekend at Michigan, Chris Buescher found victory lane for the second week in a row. He's now doubled his career victory total over the span of two races and is up to 11th in points. Martin Truex Jr. remains the points leader, holding a 57-point lead over teammate Denny Hamlin.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 8/13/23 at 2:42 PM ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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Tyler Reddick
Starts Second - DK: $10,300, FD: $13,000
Tyler Reddick starts beside Daniel Suarez on the front row. Both are really good road course racers. But if I'm picking one to get the early jump and lead laps, I'm taking Reddick. Especially in this new NASCAR world where there aren't stage cautions on road courses, making it easier for a dominant driver to be dominant.
Add to that the fact that Reddick is the defending winner of this race, as he started on the pole and led 38 laps last season on his way to the win. He also won at COTA earlier this season, leading 41 of the 75 laps in that race.
Reddick's luck at the other two road course races this year hasn't been so good. He started front row in both, but issues in the races led to two finishes outside the top 25. That's definitely a worry today, especially at a track where things can get a little weird. But I view Reddick as the best bet to win here.
Chris Buescher
Starts 17th - DK: $9,200, FD: $10,000
Chris Buescher, the winner of the last two races on the Cup Series calendar, probably won't make it three races in a row. He should be able to fight for a top-five in Sunday's race, and you never know what could happen if we get a few late cautions.
The 2015 Xfinity Series champion has shown some good prowess on road courses lately. This season, he was eighth at COTA (after starting 32nd), fourth at Sonoma, and 10th at Chicago. And his two finishes on this track were 12th in 2021 and 10th last year.
William Byron
Starts 39th - DK: $8,900, FD: $8,200
This starting lineup gives us some really obvious place differential swings. I'm going to talk about them because you need them for Cash games, but I'll also note a similarly priced driver who's less chalky for GPP.
William Byron will bring the rear up on Sunday. He's crashed out of both of his starts at this track. He showed speed before the crashes, qualifying on pole in 2021 and leading a lap. If he can put together a clean race here, there are 30-ish points of place differential available for a driver who was fifth at COTA, plus top 15 at Sonoma and Chicago.
Non-chalk GPP alternative: Denny Hamlim
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Austin Cindric
Starts 20th - DK: $8,100, FD: $7,200
Austin Cindric is a skilled road course racer, but the Penske cars just haven't always had the speed to show that this season. At Sonoma, he was mired in the back and finished 25th, for example.
But at Chicago, he had another poor qualifying run, starting 31st. He was able to work through the field and ultimately finished sixth. The Penske cars weren't as bad at qualifying this weekend, as they all start in the top 20. I'm not concerned about having a repeat of Sonoma.
Cindric finished second here last year and was ninth in this race in 2021 when he ran it while doing a partial schedule. In Xfinity, he had a win and a fifth here, leading 20-plus laps in both of those races.
Kevin Harvick
Starts 38th - DK: $7,300, FD: $6,000
Kevin Harvick had the slowest qualifying time of anyone, which has him starting way back in 38th. He's one of three Stewart Haas drivers starting 30th or worse.
On one hand, that worries me we see a repeat of what we saw from Penske at Sonoma. Poor qualifying runs led to two Penske and the Wood Brothers cars all finishing 25th or worse after all starting 30th or worse.
On the other hand, SHR isn't Penske -- just because both are Ford teams doesn't mean they'll suffer the same performance issue at two different tracks.
Harvick's not a great road course racer, but he's not terrible. He has two wins on road courses and an average finish of 13.8 in 58 starts. He was 14th here in 2021, and a finish similar to that one would be great for DFS because of the place differential.
Non-chalk GPP alternative: Kamui Kobayashi
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Starts 34th - DK: $5,500, FD: 3,000
Really love the value here. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. isn't going to be contending for the victory or anything on Sunday, but he has a ton of place differential upside at a rock-bottom price. This is one of those times where if the sites waited until after qualifying to post prices, Stenhouse would have seen that salary jump a good bit.
Overall, Stenhouse has just one top 10 in 34 road course races, with an average finish of 22.1. But something seems to have changed in 2023. That only top 10 came at COTA, where he finished seventh. He followed that up by finishing 12th at Sonoma. Chicago went poorly for Stenhouse; however, in two-of-three road course races this season, he's run well. That makes him worth playing.
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