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The NASCAR Cup Series heads to COTA on Sunday for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, part of a tripleheader weekend at the track for NASCAR's top three series. On Saturday, Zane Smith drove to victory lane in the Truck Series race, while A.J. Allmendinger won the Xfinity event.
This will be the third Cup Series race at COTA. The inaugural winner, Chase Elliott, won't be racing Sunday as he recovers from his snowboarding injuries, but last year's winner, Ross Chastain, will be. Chastain led 31 laps here last year on the way to the first victory of his Cup Series career.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the COTA EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 3/26/23 at 3:44 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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Ross Chastain
Starts 12th - DK: $10,100, FD: $13,000
Last year, Ross Chastain won this race, earning the first win of his Cup Series career. Starting 16th, Chastain first took the lead on lap 33 and went on to lead 31 laps. He was also fourth here in 2021 while driving for Chip Ganassi.
Chastain also ran the Truck Series race on Saturday, qualifying on the pole and leading 10 laps—almost a quarter of the race—and finishing fifth. This is a really great track for him. Starting 12th, Chastain has a chance to gain 10 or more place differential points and contend for the win. He's definitely one of the top plays on this slate.
A.J. Allmendinger
Starts 7th - DK: $9,700, FD: $12,000
A big part of why A.J. Allmendinger is back in Cup full-time is that the road-course heavy schedule offers him opportunities to get a win and earn a spot in the playoffs. And Sunday will be the first chance for that this season.
Allmendinger won Saturday's Xfinity race, with he and William Byron just driving away from everyone else. Allmendinger led 28 laps, including the final 14. He also led the first 14, bookending the race.
Starting seventh, Allmendinger is in a good position to get to the front relatively quickly. Not as fast as in the Xfinity race, but he should be able to run top five early, and with some good strategy, he should be a major threat to end the day in victory lane.
Ryan Blaney
Starts 38th - DK: $9,100, FD: $9,500
I mean...this is an obvious one. Blaney locked his tires up at the beginning of his qualifying lap and will end up firing off from the 38th position, offering virtually unlimited place differential upside for the 12 car.
Last year, Blaney qualified on the pole here, led a lap and finished sixth. This year, he starts 38th. I...I mean, I don't think I have to really connect many dots here. This is the place differential play in cash games. I get pivoting off him in GPP since he'll be so chalky, but he's going to score a ton of DFS points on Sunday unless something goes wrong.
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Brad Keselowski
Starts 30th - DK: $7,900, FD: $7,200
Both Roush Fenway cars are strong place differential plays on Sunday, with Chris Buescher starting 32nd and Keselowski starting two spots ahead in 30th. I'm writing about Brad K here because I felt I needed to pick one, but I'd go heavy on both. RFK looks like an improved team this year.
Last year, Keselowski finished 14th in this race, an improvement of eight spots from where he started. He should be able to get at least that many place differential points on Sunday.
Kimi Raikkonen
Starts 22nd - DK: $7,000, FD: $6,000
Trackhouse was really good here last year. Chastain won, and then Daniel Suarez led 15 laps, though he finished 24th. Now, we've got 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen jumping into a Trackhouse car.
Raikkonen ran the Watkins Glen race last year in this car and crashed out, finishing 37th. But he had some moments in that race, running as high as eighth and spending 36.4% of the race in the top 15.
That was the Glen though, a place Raikkonen hadn't raced in F1. This is COTA, where he's raced eight times, with one win in 2018 and another podium in 2017. His experience here plus the speed of his car makes Raikkonen a threat to get a top-10 result.
(Also of note when talking about ringers for this race: Jordan Taylor's in the 9 car, but I don't love him because he starts fourth in his first Cup race so I'm worried about losing PD points. There's also Jenson Button in a Rick Ware car, though it should have more speed than RWR usually has. Starting 24th, there's definitely some upside there, but I like Raikkonen a good bit more.)
Aric Almirola
Starts 39th - DK: $5,800, FD: $3,500
Okay, look: Aric Almirola isn't good at road courses. His average finish at them is just 21.2, and he only has two top 10s in 34 road course starts in the Cup Series.
But both DraftKings and FanDuel seemed to be fully aware of this when pricing him, making him dirt cheap on both sites. That pricing plus his 39th-place starting spot on Sunday makes Almirola a fascinating play, because...yeah, he's not good here, but he's also in a pretty good car and has nothing but upside when it comes to place differential.
I wouldn't expect a ton here, but at this price, he's 100% worth playing.
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