RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Daytona on Friday night for the regular season finale. With Kurt Busch asking for his playoff waiver to be taken back due to his injury, there are now two open spots in the playoffs. Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. will get those spots...unless we get a new winner.
Last week, Kyle Larson won at Watkins Glen after contact with teammate Chase Elliott on the final restart. Larson now sits second in points, 134 back of Elliott, who has already clinched the regular season title.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 8/27/22 at 7:00 p.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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DFS Lineup Picks - DraftKings, FanDuel
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Ryan Blaney
Starts 16th - DraftKings $10,000 | FanDuel $13,500
While Blaney is no longer is the same kind of must-win scenario that we thought he might be in, there's still a world where he missed the playoffs if something happens to him, Truex finishes up front and a new driver wins. For that reason, I expect Blaney to either a) play it safe, hang in the back, and try to miss any potential carnage or b) get to the front early and try to stay in front of potential carnage.
Whichever thing ends up happening, Blaney feels like the one driver priced this high that has the upside worth paying up for.
Blaney won this race last year and was fourth in this year's Daytona 500. In fact, Blaney has either finished seventh or better or has crashed out in every Daytona race since 2016, so if he can keep the car out of trouble, he'll be fighting for the win.
Kyle Busch
Starts 22nd - DraftKings $9,400| FanDuel $10,000
Busch has some nice place differential here, as he starts 22nd. And with a couple other Toyotas starting near him, that Toyota trio could hook up early and move toward the front.
There's always the risk of a crash here, especially with Busch's aggressive driving. Before this year's Daytona 500, he had four DNFs in a row at this track. But Busch led 28 laps here in February and finished sixth, and he's led double-digit laps in four of his last seven Daytona starts.
Chase Briscoe
Starts 26th - DraftKings $8,800 | FanDuel $5,800
You might sense a pattern as this piece goes on, which is that I like a lot of Fords this week. Part of it is that Ford has run well here lately. Another part is just that the rain-out qualifying formula led to some Fords that I like being in interesting spots for place differential.
Briscoe rolls off 26th, which means a good bit of PD upside, especially at a place with as much chaos potential as Daytona.
Briscoe finished third in this year's Daytona 500. His worst finish here in three Cup Series starts is 21st, and that was in this race last year when he crashed on the penultimate lap.
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Austin Cindric
Starts 14th - DraftKings $8,500 | FanDuel $9,000
Look, starting anyone from about 15th and up is a risk at this kind of track, but I think Cindric's pricing and upside is just enough for me to assume that risk.
Cindric won the most recent Cup Series race at Daytona, leading 21 laps in January on his way to victory lane. He was 15th in his other start here, the 2021 Daytona 500, leading two laps. That 15th-place finish came despite crashing out on lap 199.
So far, Cindric has shown a knack for getting around this track, so I'll go ahead and sprinkle him into some lineups this weekend.
Bubba Wallace
Starts 30th - DraftKings $7,800 | FanDuel $12,500
This is a superspeedway. Bubba Wallace has been really strong on superspeedways during his NASCAR career.
FanDuel understood that when they priced Wallace, but DraftKings...what are y'all doing, DraftKings? Bubba on a superspeedway for $7,800??? I would have hammered that even if he wasn't starting this far back.
Bubba has four top fives at Daytona in 10 starts, which includes him finished second three times. That includes the two most recent races here. He led eight laps in this race last season before finishing second, then led 12 laps in the 500 this year and also came in second.
With Wallace in a must-win situation, don't be shocked to see him work his way up front and stay there.
David Ragan
Starts 34th - DraftKings $5,100 | FanDuel $3,000
As evidenced by last night's Xfinity race that saw Timmy Hill, Ryan Vargas, J.J. Yeley and Kyle Sieg all finish in the top 10, you should always sprinkle in some of these super cheap plays at Daytona.
Ragan feels like the best of the value group for me. Sure, he's in a Rick Ware car, but superspeedways help negate the disadvantages of a RWR car.
Back when he was with Roush, Ragan was a consistent presence in the top 10 here, including finishing 12th or better in four of his first five Daytona starts. He also won at Daytona in 2011.
The results were less solid for awhile as he ran lesser equipment, but Ragan has now finished in the top 10 in two of his last three starts here—both in a Rick Ware car. Keep an eye out for Ragan, who can emerge as a top 10 threat if this race is as wild as the Xfinity race last night.
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