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Jordan McAbee's daily fantasy NASCAR DFS algorithm-predicted finishing order for the 2026 America 250 Florida Duel #2 at Daytona International Speedway for DraftKings and betting. Who is going to win?
To determine the starting lineup for the Daytona 500, NASCAR takes a bit of a different approach. The front row was set on Wednesday evening, and now the 45-car field will be split into two, forming the fields for the two Duel races on Thursday night.
The second Duel race features a Toyota-heavy lineup, as all four of the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers--Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, and Christopher Bell--will start in the first three rows, sandwiching the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott.
The finishing order of this second Duel race will determine the outside row starting positions for The Great American Race, and the top-finishing "Open" driver will also lock his spot into Sunday's 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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— Jordan McAbee (@FanRacingOnline) January 31, 2026
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 #2 Algorithm Predicted Finishing Order
| Rank | Driver | Power Index |
| 1. | Austin Cindric | 16.58 |
| 2. | Christopher Bell | 15.83 |
| 3. | Erik Jones | 15.20 |
| 4. | Kyle Larson | 15.08 |
| 5. | Ty Gibbs | 14.64 |
| 6. | Michael McDowell | 14.29 |
| 7. | Chase Elliott | 13.96 |
| 8. | Denny Hamlin | 13.82 |
| 9. | Todd Gilliland | 13.58 |
| 10. | Tyler Reddick | 13.48 |
| 11. | Chase Briscoe | 12.98 |
| 12. | Connor Zilisch | 10.00 |
| 13. | Anthony Alfredo | 09.90 |
| 14. | Josh Berry | 09.39 |
| 15. | Carson Hocevar | 09.36 |
| 16. | Zane Smith | 08.50 |
| 17. | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | 07.35 |
| 18. | Ty Dillon | 06.04 |
| 19. | Justin Allgaier | 05.91 |
| 20. | Riley Herbst | 04.48 |
| 21. | BJ McLeod | 04.32 |
| 22. | JJ Yeley | 03.43 |
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