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Chris Durell brings you DraftKings fantasy NASCAR advice, DFS lineups picks and sleepers analysis for Chris Durell brings you DraftKings fantasy NASCAR advice, DFS lineups picks and sleepers analysis for the AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway
Welcome back races fans. The second race of the third round of the playoffs takes the Monster Energy Cup Series to Texas Motor Speedway for the AAA Texas 500 on Sunday. With his win last week, Joey Logano has locked himself into the final four at Homestead in two weeks leaving seven drivers to fight for the final three spots over the next two races.
The track is a 1.5-mile quad-oval with 334 laps putting a ton of emphasis on dominator points. Over the last six races here at Texas, there has been at least one driver to lead 100 or more laps in each with three drivers leading 50 or more laps in each of the last two races here. Qualifying was back to normal this week and was completed on Friday and looking at the results, there are also some nice place differential values. Let's dig in and take a look at the picks.
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings and FanDuel DFS Lineup Picks - AAA Texas 500
Kyle Busch(DK-$12,200 FD-$13,000)/Kevin Harvick(DK - $11,700 FD - $13,500)
These two drivers are #1 and #2 in my overall projections this week and it's not really close. They have dominated the mile and half tracks this season with three wins apiece with Busch finishing each of them inside the Top 10. They have also combined for three wins and six Top 5's in the last five races here at Texas. To cap it off, they both showed a ton of speed in the final two practices with Harvick ranks first in 10-lap averages in both with Kyle Busch second in both. I will have a ton of exposure to both with more Harvick on DraftKings(cheaper) and Busch on FanDuel(cheaper).
Kyle Larson(DK-$10,000 FD-$11,500)
If you are looking to pivot off the "big 3" in GPP formats, consider Kyle Larson who is the fifth most expensive driver and DraftKings and the seventh most expensive on FanDuel. Texas hasn't been his best track as he has crashed out in back to back races and he comes into this week with zero wins on the season but he has been extremely consistent on the mile and half tracks with three straight Top 5's(Kansas, Vegas, Darlington) and has finished Top 10 in nine of the 10 this season.
Aric Almirola(DK-$8,100 FD-$10,200)
Another driver who has not been great here at Texas(crashed out in the Spring race) is Aric Almirola. I feel he will turn it around this week for a couple reasons starting with the fact he has been very consistent in the playoffs with four Top 10's and the second-best average finish(9.3). He has also shown a ton of speed this weekend qualifying 4th and ranking 1st and 9th in the final two practices with the 6th and 9th fastest 10-lap averages.
Chris Buescher(DK-$6,200 FD-$5,900)
In the value range, I will be rostering a lot of Chris Buescher this week. I would have liked it more if he was qualifying a bit farther back(starting 21st) but he returns to Texas with four straight finishes of 22nd or better and is very cheap on both sites. He also showed better speed than that starting position on Saturday ranking 14th in both final practices.
NASCAR DFS Cheat Sheet
Don't have the time to search multiple sites looking for NASCAR stats and data?
Check out my DFS NASCAR cheatsheet which includes Track History(2-Year Trend & Career), Track Type History(2-Year Trend), Current Form, Practice/Qualifying Data, and a weighted system to get an overall rank for each driver each race. Check out it now while it's still in BETA mode and FREE to everyone. Also, be sure to check out the Race by Race Trends Sheet.
DFS & Fantasy NASCAR Chat Room
If you have any questions leading up to the race hit me up in the chat below!
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