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The NASCAR Cup Series gets ready for the All-Star Race on Sunday, which will take place at Texas Motor Speedway.
Last year, Kyle Larson won this event from the pole. Brad Keselowski finished second, followed by Chase Elliott. Because this race has a unique format, I'll give you some insight into how it differs from a normal race below.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on May 22 at 8:11 p.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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The All-Star Race Format
Fantasy scoring for this race is the same as usual, but your strategies will differ because of the unique nature of the race.
The big thing is that this is a 125-lap race, which equates to 187.5 miles. Cup races are never this short. This means that you won't be able to get nearly as many laps led and fastest lap points as you're used to getting. Strategy-wise, this format should reward two things: picking the race winner and getting place differential points.
But even those PD points aren't easy to come by. 24 drivers will start this race. You won't be able to see that a good driver is starting 32nd and instantly lock him into your lineup, because 1) no one starts that far back and 2) there aren't really going to be "bad" cars in this race that would make it easy for a good car to move forward. All those cars that you think of as moving chicanes? Count them out.
The next thing that changes is that we won't even know the whole field until later in the process, as three drivers earn a spot in the Open and another through the fan vote. More on that below.
As for the race, it's broken into four stages. The first three are 25 laps each, and the last is 50 laps.
The winner of each stage will then start 1-2-3 in the final stage. So, there's another wrench in things. Drivers who do well early in the race have a better chance of finishing well, because they'll start at the front. The winner of a pit stop competition will start fourth for the final stage. (The exception here is that a driver has to finish 15th or better in the following stages to maintain that starting spot — so Chase Elliott couldn't win stage one and then coast in the back through the next two, but he also wouldn't need to be as aggressive in the second two stages either.)
Thankfully, there's no inverts this year to shake up the grid, but there's still a lot of unpredictable things that will make this a tough race for DFS purposes.
The All-Star Open
Before the All-Star Race is the All-Star Open. All the drivers who aren't qualified for the All-Star Race will compete. The winner of each of the three stages will advance to the main race, plus the winner of the fan vote gets in as well.
This matters because these cars will start at the back, so they'll theoretically have more place differential upside. But we also won't know who these drivers will be until later.
Tyler Reddick won the pole for the Open and should be the favorite to win one of the stages. He'd be a great DFS option if he makes the race.
Daniel Suarez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones and Chris Buescher round out the top five starters. Suarez and Jones have both run well this year and would be my picks to make the All-Star Race. Austin Dillon, who starts seventh, has a chance as well.
As far as the fan vote goes, Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Reddick and Suarez feel like the drivers most likely to win that.
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Some Drivers To Watch
Instead of providing the longer picks I usually provide, I just want to give some quick hits on some of the drivers in this race.
Kyle Busch is on the pole. He'd be a great play because of the laps led upside, especially considering he's won here four times.
Kyle Larson starts fourth and won the All-Star Race last year. He also won the most recent Cup Series race here.
As for place differential plays, I'd consider anyone starting outside of the top 10 to be a viable one. In terms of drivers who should have the speed to get up to the front, that would be Chase Elliott (13th), Kevin Harvick (15th), Denny Hamlin (16th) and Alex Bowman (20th).
Value plays would be whoever gets in from the Open (but not necessarily from the fan vote) and Bubba Wallace. If you want to get real weird in a GPP, A.J. Allmendinger could be in play, though it would take some chaos for him to really pay off.
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