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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 Camping World 500 from Phoenix International Raceway
Welcome back to another week of daily fantasy NASCAR. Martin Truex Jr. cleaned up at Las Vegas, becoming the first driver to sweep all the stages and receive max points. As you would expect, he also dominated from a fantasy perspective with 115.5 DraftKings points. Brad Keselowski was a distant second with 89.5 points due to grabbing some laps led away from Truex. Brad also appeared to have the best car late in the race as he passed Truex but ended up having issues on the final lap.
Speaking of those last lap issues, it was Keselowski that slowed up Kyle Busch resulting in him hammering Logano in the left door and sending him down the track. That resulted in Logano taking a non-optimal entry in the next turn which made his car loose, taking out Kyle Busch in the process. That led to a pit road melee where Busch punched Logano and then got jumped by the #22 team crew members. No penalties were handed nor do I think there should have been discipline handed out. It was hard racing at near 200 mph speeds that ended up in one car spinning. It does prove that NASCAR hit the nail on the head with the stage racing as it has created hard racing for every position at the end of each stage. Logano and Busch were fighting for fourth at the time of the contact. Well done NASCAR!
Before getting into this week's preview and picks let's take a look back at last weeks picks and results.
Last Weeks NASCAR DFS Picks
Kevin Harvick - 38th Place (-12 DK Points, 48.6% Avg. GPP Ownership)
Rough day for Harvick who was making his way through the field but blew a tire that sent him into the wall on lap 68. At nearly 50% owned in GPP's you still could have cashed so there's that... On to Phoenix, another track he has dominated in his career.
Martin Truex Jr. - Winner (115.5 DK Points, 29.9% Avg. GPP Ownership)
Dominated the race, leading 150 of 267 laps en route to his first win of the season. He also swept all stages and got max points(60) putting him up into fourth in the standings, just five points behind leader Brad Keselowski.
Kasey Kahne - 12th Place (27.5 DK Points, 14.6% Avg. GPP Ownership)
Kahne showed Top 10 speed in practice but was as consistent during the race finishing 12th. He started seventh so the -5 place differential points gave him a grand total of 27.5 which was 17th most on Sunday.
Paul Menard - 19th Place (20.5 DK Points, 9.2% Avg. GPP Ownership)
Another driver that lost place differential points(-5) and had a disappointing week. On to Phoenix!
Camping World 500
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings DFS Lineup Picks
Kevin Harvick ($11,100)
Stewart-Haas Racing #4
He burned us last week but if you fall into the recency bias trap you will miss out on another elite play again this week. They blew a tire last week which just enhances my GPP only mindset with so much variance throughout a race. Harvick was elite play starting back in the field and is once again this week, starting 23rd tomorrow. He has found speed on Saturday and is currently sixth on the charts in the second practice. He comes with even more place differential value than last week and comes to a track he has absolutely dominated. He has won here eight times in his career including six of the last nine races.
Joey Logano ($10,500)
Team Penske #22
Sticking at the top to build the core of my lineups this week. Combining Harvick and Logano gives you a guy with big place differential value and another in Logano with a ton of dominator potential. He won the Coors Lite Pole on Friday evening after unloading with the third fastest speed in opening practice. Today he is currently second in practice and appears to be the car to beat come Sunday afternoon.
Daniel Suarez ($6,900)
Joe Gibbs Racing #19
It's been a rough start to the season for Suarez who has jumped from Xfinity to the Monster Energy Cup series in fast order and is learning along the way. He doesn't stand out on the cheatsheet as he has yet to race here in a Cup car but is definitely comfortable here with excellent Xfinity and Truck series track history. In four Xfinity races(via driveraverages.com) he has finishes of 11th, 4th, 3rd, 5th and has a win in the Truck series here as well. He will start 27th on Sunday and will provide some nice place differential value at a low price and is in good equipment.
Chris Buescher ($5,800)
JTG Daugherty Racing #37
If you are stacking Logano and Harvick in a lineup you are going to need even more value and Buescher can provide that on Sunday. While he didn't have the success here in Xfinity(13th, 14th last two years) like Suarez, he has an added year of experience in a Cup car, comes at a sub $6K price tag and so far has nice place differential value compared to practice. He will start 33rd and was 24th in second practice on Saturday morning. Lock him into your stars and scrubs GPP lineups.
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. Click image below to open the complete cheatsheet.
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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The Keys to Weekly NASCAR Success
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