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Welcome back for a new season of NASCAR action! These daily fantasy NASCAR rankings for Sunday's Daytona 500 were determined by a combination of DraftKings and FanDuel prices, and the projected DFS points each driver is expected to earn in this week’s race.
Each week, we'll present you the weekly rankings, followed by some key analysis of those rankings.
Be sure to also check out all of our other weekly NASCAR DFS articles and analysis to help you set your optimal DFS lineups.
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Fantasy NASCAR Driver Rankings
| Driver Name | DraftKings Rank | FanDuel Rank |
| Denny Hamlin | 1 | 1 |
| Brad Keselowski | 2 | 3 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 3 | 2 |
| Chase Elliott | 4 | 4 |
| Ryan Blaney | 5 | 6 |
| Joey Logano | 6 | 7 |
| Austin Cindric | 7 | 5 |
| Kyle Busch | 8 | 9 |
| Kevin Harvick | 9 | 11 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 10 | 8 |
| Kurt Busch | 11 | 12 |
| Ross Chastain | 12 | 13 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | 13 | 15 |
| Chase Briscoe | 14 | 14 |
| Tyler Reddick | 15 | 10 |
| Kyle Larson | 16 | 17 |
| Chris Buescher | 17 | 18 |
| Bubba Wallace | 18 | 21 |
| Alex Bowman | 19 | 19 |
| William Byron | 20 | 20 |
| Kaz Grala | 21 | 16 |
| Aric Almirola | 22 | 23 |
| Cole Custer | 23 | 24 |
| Erik Jones | 24 | 22 |
| Anthony Alfredo | 25 | 27 |
| Austin Dillon | 26 | 25 |
| Christopher Bell | 27 | 26 |
| Ryan Newman | 28 | 28 |
| Jamie McMurray | 29 | 29 |
| Daniel Suarez | 30 | 32 |
| Michael McDowell | 31 | 30 |
| David Ragan | 32 | 31 |
| Ryan Preece | 33 | 33 |
| Corey LaJoie | 34 | 34 |
| BJ McLeod | 35 | 35 |
| Josh Bilicki | 36 | 38 |
| Cody Ware | 37 | 37 |
| Quin Houff | 38 | 36 |
| Derrike Cope | 39 | 40 |
| Joey Gase | 40 | 39 |
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NASCAR Rankings Analysis
Look, these rankings this week look much different than will every other week, because superspeedways are such a crapshoot. For example, I have Austin Cindric in the top 10 on both sites, because he's in a Penske car that starts 39th. There's just so much upside there.
This is also a week where starting near the front is bad, because so many crashes tend to happen at tracks like this. I'm low on the whole top five in the starting grid, with none of them ranking better than 19th. There's just too many chances for these drivers to get into trouble for me to feel good about ranking them that high.
Denny Hamlin is by far my top-ranked driver. He's a good superspeedway driver and starts 25th. Lots of place differential chances here.
One guy I'm lower on than probably anyone else is Erik Jones. I just don't know if I can see a lot out of that 43 car in this one. I think his starting spot is going to make him get way overvalued in GPPs, and he's someone I'll take the L on if he does have a strong race.
Kaz Grala starts last. I really, really wanted to stick him up even higher in my rankings than I did, but the combination of a driver with just one Cup start and a new (to Cup at least) team makes me a little hesitant. Will he find drivers to work with? Can he keep the car clean?
Meanwhile, the number of drivers who can be competitive increases by a lot at Daytona, but I'd still not really want to play any of my bottom-five drivers, especially Cope and Gase. Gase starts 28th, so he needs lots of crashes to make him a positive play. Cope starts 32nd, but was just so incredibly slow in the Duel race. BJ McLeod starting 38th in the Live Fast 38 car is the lowest-ranked guy that I'd have my eye on. It's a new team, but I think it's one that might be a step above those other cheap drivers.
And finally, I have Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as a top 10 play. This won't happen often, but he's a pretty good superspeedway driver who knows how to get up front, and starting 21st offers some nice place differential upside. I definitely don't feel completely confident in a guy whose nickname is Wrecky, but he could pay off in a big way on Sunday.
