This week the Cup series heads to Phoenix to decide their champion for the 2020 season. This has been a season that we will never forget. First, we started off with that scary wreck with Ryan Newman at the Daytona 500. Then only a few weeks later Covid-19 hits and NASCAR paused the season. During that pause we were introduced to iRacing in the dfs community. Who can forget those 5-10 minutes before lock when we got a starting lineup and a rush to get those lineups in. We had double-header weekends, midday races, and add to that no qualifying or practice after the Covid-19 break. As far as the Karma NASCAR family, we had a few takedowns by multiple subscribers and introduced a lot of new people to NASCAR dfs when NASCAR was the only sport around. NASCAR did what they set out to do. We have come to the final race of the 2020 season and I have to applaud them for all that they have done to get this done safely and still put a quality product out there.
Now that I have given a summary on the year, let’s turn our attention to the championship race at Phoenix. This is the first year that Phoenix is holding the championship race and we have seen some great finishes so far this weekend as Sheldon Creed and Austin Cindric took home the truck and Xfinity crowns. There are 312 laps in the race on Sunday and we will have a competition caution at lap 30 where we should see everyone pit as we have seen tire fall off this weekend in the other two series. My strategy as far as dominators will be 2-3 dominators in most of my lineups. All four of our championship drivers are all capable of winning and dominating this race at one point or the other and barring any issues should finish inside the top 5-10. When looking at data for this race, using the three similar tracks to Phoenix is a great starting point, those being New Hampshire, Richmond and Martinsville. I just want to say thank you to anyone and everyone who has read my content or used my content to help them become a better NASCAR dfs player. I try to help people learn and understand the plays and who you should be targeting and why. I try to organize my content in a way that is easy to read yet informative. I find more enjoyment when I see subs do well with their own lineups then the cores I give out. Hope everyone has a great offseason and lets keep the winning this weekend going and finish this weekend strong!
Brad Keselowski (DK $10,800 FD $13,500)
Brad made it clear when he dominated and won at New Hampshire and Richmond that the car he was bringing to Phoenix would be that car. He led 184 and 192 laps in those two races. Brad also led 82 laps back in March. Brad has shown speed at all of these similar tracks and also knows how to manage a race. I expect him to get out front at some point during the race but he will be patient and pick his spot similar to what we saw Cindric do on Saturdays race. Brad is my pick to win the championship this weekend and bring a second championship to Penske this weekend.
Chase Elliott (DK $10,600 FD $12,500)
Chase Elliott raced his way into this championship race by winning last weekend at Martinsville. Now, he gets to lead the field to the green flag on Sunday starting on the pole. He started on the pole here back in March and led 93 laps and finished 7th. The competition caution concerns me about Chase’s ability to accrue the early dominator points. However he does have the first pit stall and that will give him an advantage getting off pit road. He has shown speed all season and especially at tracks similar to Phoenix. As I said earlier, I think all four of the championship drivers are capable of winning. Chase will be up near the front all race and should have a car to compete with the Penske duo.
Joey Logano (DK $10,000 FD $13,300)
Joey starts on the front row with Chase Elliott on Sunday and will have the most prepared car for Phoenix. After holding off Kevin Harvick at Kansas, Joey has been locked into this weekend and the team has been fine tuning this car since then. Joey won here at Phoenix in March leading 60 laps in the process. The other thing that Joey has going for him is speed. He has been one of, if not the fastest car at tracks similar to Phoenix. He led laps at both Martinsville races including over 200 in the first race and led 45 at Richmond. His finishes at the four similar tracks are 1st, 4th, 4th, 3rd and 3rd. I really like both Penske cars this weekend and like both of them to dominate at some point during this race.
Kevin Harvick (DK $11,100 FD $12,300)
With Chase Elliott winning last weekend and locking himself into the championship race, someone was going to fall out. Unfortunately Harvick was that driver. The regular season champion with 9 wins had a rough round of 8 after Kansas and he couldn’t hold onto his points lead over the other drivers behind him. When Phoenix was announced as the championship race, everyone looked to Harvick as the favorite if/when he made the championship race because of his dominance at Phoenix over his career. He hasn’t finished outside of the top 10 here since 2013 and has 9 career victories here. If there is going to be someone outside of the championship four that wins, I would expect it to be Harvick.
Jimmie Johnson (DK $9,300 FD $10,500)
Maybe I’m just sentimental and ignoring the struggles of Jimmie as of late but I will have my exposures in tournaments to Jimmie on Sunday. He is starting 26th and as long as he can keep all the air in the tires and the car off the wall he has top 10 upside in his final Cup race of his career before he heads to IndyCar. He has four career victories here and has finished inside the top 15 in the last five races here including a 12th back in March. He has shown speed at times throughout the season and I can imagine he would like to go out with a solid finish and close the book on a remarkable career in Cup racing.
William Byron (DK $8,400 FD $10,200)
Byron starts 25th on Sunday and presents as a decent place differential option. In five career races here he has an average finish of 14th including a 10th place finish in March. Not only is this Jimmie and Clint’s final race, but its Chad Knaus’ final race as a crew chief. Knaus and Byron have worked well together this year and provided Byron his first win in Cup at Daytona. I think Chad would like to go out with a solid finish and I think Byron has the upside to do it and has had the speed this season to back that up. This season Byron has average 12th in fastest laps at Phoenix and similar tracks.
Any questions message me on twitter @davidjr831 and once again thank you for taking the time to read and use my content to become a better NASCAR dfs player.
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