We are now nine races into the 2018 season and we have already seen two drivers win three straight races. Coming from the 32nd starting position last weekend at Richmond, Kyle Busch picked up the win and extended his lead in the points standings to 56 points over Joey Logano. This week Monster Energy Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the second restrictor-plate race of the season. The track is a 2.66-mile superspeedway with 33 degrees of banking in the corners and cars reach speeds in excess of 200 mph usually resulting in "The Big One".

From a strategy standpoint, there is no race that brings more variance into play than a plate track race which means it opens up the field a ton giving us so many options. For the most part, however, we will be looking at place differential to build a core around. There have been seven or more drivers to pick up double-digit place differential in each of the last six races and 12 or more drivers to so in four of those six races. When looking at the winning driver, he has come from a Top 10 starting position in six of the last seven races here at Talladega.

One of the big announcements from the daily fantasy world this week is the addition of NASCAR to FanDuel. They have a bit of a different scoring system which includes points for laps completed which throws a wrench into the variance aspect here at Talladega or any track where wrecks happen often. With that, let's jump in and take a look at some of the top drives this week for daily fantasy

Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings and FanDuel DFS Lineup Picks - Geico 500

Aric Almirola(DK-$8,100 FD-$8,800)

I am going to start in the mid-range with Almirola who will be starting from the rear of the field this week as he experienced issues in the opening round of qualifying. This gives him elite place differential value and on top of that, he has been terrific here with two straight Top 5's and three straight Top 10 finishes.

Brad Keselowski(DK-$10,700 FD-$12,100) & Joey Logano(DK-$10,300 FD-$12,000)

A strategy we can capitalize on at any plate track is stacking teammates as they will likely be running together in the draft, at least until the final lap. The top stack this week is Keselowski and Logano who have both been good here at Talladega and plate tracks in general. Between them, they have won four of the last five races here at Talladega and this week give us a little place differential value as well, starting ninth and 10th.

Cole Whitt(DK-$4,800 FD-$5,000)

To stack teammates like Logano and Keselowski who are both Top 3 in salary we will need some punt plays and one that stands out this week is Cole Whitt. He was involved in a wreck here last fall and finished 34th but had finished 22nd or better in the previous six races at Talladega with three Top 20 finishes. This week he will start 36th which not only gives him salary but also some place differential value.

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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