This week the Cup series heads to Daytona for the final race of the regular season. Typically this race has been held around the July 4th holiday. NASCAR decided to move this race to the last race of the regular season to add some excitement and unknown heading into the playoffs. Daytona can best be described as a wild card race and anyone can win it. This makes those drivers sitting on the bubble very nervous as even if they were to qualify for the playoffs on points, if someone below them were to win, it would knock them out. In the Xfinity race we saw a lot of drama play out and a bunch of accidents including a “big one”. I expect to see a lot of action in Saturday nights race as drivers who can’t qualify on points will know their only chance at a championship is a win at Daytona. As for strategy, Daytona is more about protecting yourself from the inevitable. The inevitable being that wrecks are going to happen and some of your drivers will be involved. Minimizing the damage will allow you to walk out of tomorrow’s race in the green as opposed to empty handed. Place differential is the key to success at Daytona. Don’t be afraid to leave thousands on the table. I am not talking like 1100 or 1200. I am talking 5k-10k. Salaries don’t matter here and I stress that at every superspeedway race. It worked well for the Karma NASCAR subscribers today for Xfinity and the hope is it will put us in the green again on Saturday.
Brendan Gaughan (DK $8,600 FD $6.500)
The secret is out on Gaughan for NASCAR DFS. He is superspeedway gold. On Saturday, he starts last which will give him the best floor of the slate. When looking for dfs targets at Daytona, floor is the key. Gaughan will lay back and wait until the final stage to start making his move towards the front. He finished 7th here in February and I expect him to be in contention for a top 10-15 again. He will be a very popular target on Saturday and should be a staple in cash and gpp lineups.
Ross Chastain (DK $7,100 FD $8,000)
Ross is another great floor option on Saturday with high upside. He is in the same car that Haley won with at Daytona last season in the rain shortened event. We saw in Xfinity how Ross can be kind of aggressive. I think he will be a little less aggressive on Saturday and hang back letting the carnage play itself out and move up near the end of the race. Ross finished 25th here in February but was involved in a wreck near the end of the race. He has top 20 upside starting from the 36th position.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr (DK $8,300 FD $12,000)
Yes you read that right, Stenhouse is the highest priced driver on Fanduel. Of course salary doesn’t matter and even on Fanduel you will be leaving lots of money on the table. When Ricky had his issues last weekend at Dover, everyone was aware he was going to be starting near the rear at a superspeedway race. One thing we know about Ricky is that he is really good at superspeedways. He won this race 3 years ago and always finds himself in contention near the end of the race. There is some risk in playing Ricky as his aggressive nature tends to put him in some tricky situations but the floor and upside is very intriguing for Saturday.
Michael McDowell (DK $6,900 FD $9,800)
McDowell is always in play at Daytona. Something about him and Daytona click. His results at Talladega aren’t as impressive so its not just a superspeedway specialist thing. McDowell will be starting from the 26th spot on Saturday and easily has top 15 upside if he is able to keep his car clean. He has a career average finish of 18.41 here and has only finished outside of the top 15 in one of the last 9 races here.
Ryan Newman (DK $6,500 FD $10,000)
The last time we saw Ryan Newman driving a car at Daytona was that horrific wreck in the 500 earlier this season. If it was any other driver, I may have some reservations about playing him in his return visit to the superspeedway. However Ryan Newman is a different type of driver. I don’t think that the wreck from February will play into how he races this race. He has an average finish of 14.74 in his career here and has five top 10 finishes in the last six races at Daytona. Starting 22nd, I like his upside and the way he seems to always find himself near the front at the end of these races.
Clint Bowyer (DK $7,600 FD $10,100)
This is more of a game theory option on Saturday for MME entries. Clint starts 14th so his floor is definitely not the safest. However, Clint has a sizable lead over the other playoff bubble drivers and needs a good, clean solid race to secure himself into the playoffs. He has implemented the riding in the back theory at these races in recent history. Well Clint may try to contend for stage points, I think the safest thing for him to do is to lay back and let the chaos happen in front of him and coast into the playoffs on points. He finished 6th here in February and has the upside to finish in the top 5 on Saturday. Again he is a tournament option only for me but an intriguing one.
Any questions message me on twitter @davidjr831 and subscribe to the NASCAR package below to get final thoughts, prop and core plays.
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