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Jordan McAbee's daily fantasy NASCAR DFS algorithm-predicted finishing order for the 2026 America 250 Florida Duel #1 at Daytona International Speedway for DraftKings and betting. Who is going to win?
As we inch closer and closer to The Great American Race on Sunday, we're going through the processed needed to set the final starting lineup.
The Daytona 500 is unique in that starting positions are not set by traditional qualifying methods. Instead, the front row was set on Wednesday night, with Kyle Busch winning the pole for Sunday's race while Chase Briscoe ended up second-fastest.
Those two drivers will start on the pole for the two Duel races on Thursday evening, with the 45-car field split into two. The finishing order of this first Duel race will then determine the inside row starting positions for Daytona 500 on Sunday, and the top-finishing "Open" driver will also lock his spot into "The Great American Race."
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This Algorithm Predicted Finishing Order and my DraftKings Projections and Picks articles are typically reserved for Premium RotoBaller subscribers, but we have decided to make these FREE for the two Duel races this week.
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How The Algorithm Works & Important Stats
There are quite a few statistics that go into the algorithm formula, including recent performance, both overall and at this week's track specifically, similar track performance, projected strength of the car, practice speeds, starting position, and a few other variables.
All of these numbers are used by the algorithm to compute a "Power Index" number for each driver.
The higher the Power Index number, the faster that driver is expected to be during the race. All of the drivers are then ranked based on their Power Index number to achieve the predicted finishing order of that event.
2026 Duel at Daytona Race #1 Algorithm Predicted Finishing Order
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Joey Logano | 17.21 |
| 2. | Chris Buescher | 16.92 |
| 3. | Ryan Blaney | 16.49 |
| 4. | Brad Keselowski | 16.47 |
| 5. | William Byron | 15.62 |
| 6. | Alex Bowman | 13.61 |
| 7. | Ryan Preece | 12.72 |
| 8. | Ross Chastain | 11.78 |
| 9. | Bubba Wallace | 11.70 |
| 10. | Kyle Busch | 10.86 |
| 11. | Daniel Suarez | 09.69 |
| 12. | Corey LaJoie | 09.54 |
| 13. | Corey Heim | 09.00 |
| 14. | John H. Nemechek | 08.41 |
| 15. | Noah Gragson | 08.27 |
| 16. | Cole Custer | 08.04 |
| 17. | AJ Allmendinger | 07.08 |
| 18. | Shane van Gisbergen | 06.97 |
| 19. | Austin Dillon | 06.74 |
| 20. | Chandler Smith | 06.54 |
| 21. | Cody Ware | 05.97 |
| 22. | Jimmie Johnson | 05.18 |
| 23. | Casey Mears | 03.06 |
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