Thursday night Cup racing awaits us this week at Kansas Speedway. Kansas is a 1.5 mile track similar to that of Kentucky and Chicagoland Speedway. Unlike other race weekends, the Cup series will be the first series to run a race on a track as opposed to them running after the Xfinity and Truck series has laid rubber on the track. I’m looking forward to the racing at Kansas as the package they ran here last year produced some good racing as opposed to some other 1.5 mile tracks that have been snoozefests. The draw gave us a couple of chalk options for cash games but I think you can look at different drivers to fill in the pieces to not make it a completely chalky slate. As for strategy we will probably be looking at 2-3 dominators in gpps and possibly 2 dominators in cash games on Draftkings. Fanduel’s contests are a joke this week with their main tournament filling up on Tuesday night and then offering little variety in other contests so I will be playing lighter then usual over there and hope they learned their lesson that DFS players don’t care what sport it is we are going to play them and fill the contests when the Cup series returns for New Hampshire.
Kevin Harvick (DK $11,500 FD $14,000)
Harvick is the highest priced driver on both sites this weekend and he should be. This has been one of Harvicks best tracks. Harvick has three career wins here and has led 855 laps which is more then any other driver at Kansas. A lot of those laps have come from when he has started on the pole as he is Thursday night. He has won the pole five times and led 104, 79, 61, 119, and 138 laps. This bodes well for Harvick’s dominator potential Thursday. Harvick has been one of the faster cars all season and in clean air I expect him to dominate at least in the beginning once again. I also expect him to be a very chalky option in cash and gpps so fade at your own ownership risk.
Martin Truex Jr (DK $10,600 FD $12,700)
The Cup series is headed to a 1.5 mile track so of course Truex is going to be a target. Post Covid layoff, Truex has been one of the fastest in green flag speed at 1.5 mile tracks taking out last week where he wrecked. He has also scored dominator points at almost every 1.5 mile race this season as well. MTJ swept the races here in 2017 and has scored three top 6 finishes in three of the four races since. He has also led laps in 4 of those 6 races. Starting 5th, he doesn’t have a lot of place differential upside however his dominator upside is very intriguing and will have my share of Truex on Thursday.
Tyler Reddick (DK $8,300 FD $8,800)
Reddick almost put an exclamation mark on his outstanding 2020 season so far last Sunday at Texas just barely getting edged out by his teammate Austin Dillon. However a 2nd place finish was a great finish for us in dfs. Thursday, Reddick is again another great option. He starts 23rd and as we have seen he has top 10 upside. Reddick has been right around top 15 in green flag speed at 1.5 mile tracks this season. In the Xfinity series, he was very successful at Kansas and the two tracks that are similar. He had three top 5 finishes at Kansas including two 2nd place finishes and he had five top 10s including one win at Chicagoland and Kentucky. Reddick also finished 9th here when he drove for RCR in the Cup series race in May of last year. I also love Reddick on Superdraft along with others such as Jones and Bell who have good multipliers and have pd upside.
Clint Bowyer (DK $7,500 FD $9,600)
Last week in final thoughts, I mentioned how underpriced Bowyer was on Draftkings and how he was a good price point play. This week he is $200 cheaper and starts two spots further back. Bowyer’s green flag speed has gotten better since the layoff including ranking 6th last Sunday in Texas and 11th at Kentucky. Bowyer finished 5th and 8th here last season and has had moderate success at the tracks similar to Kansas as well. I don’t expect Bowyer to contend for the win unless strategy comes into play but top 10 expectations for Bowyer at his home track are not out of the realm of possibilities.
Ryan Blaney (DK $9,900 FD $11,000)
Another week another Ryan Blaney write up. It may becoming redundant but when it comes to 1.5 mile tracks, speed and Blaney, they just go together this season. He basically has been the fastest or within top 5 in green flag speed at the 1.5 mile tracks this season. Last week at Texas, a 1.5 mile track, he led 150 laps and was going to win that race if pit strategy didn’t get in the way. He has led laps at almost every 1.5 mile race this season and has finished outside the top 10 at only one of those races this season and it was an 11th place finish. I expect Blaney to put himself in contention once again Thursday and accrue dominator points in the process.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr (DK $7,000 FD $7,100)
With Christopher Bell finally getting into the top 24 in owners points someone had to fall out and that happens to be Stenhouse. Luckily for Stenhouse and the dfs community Ricky doesn’t have Bells bad luck with draws and starts 25th. A chalk Ricky Stenhouse only spells disaster. However as Ricky tends to be he is a great gpp play this week. He has an average finish of around 17th here including two 11th place finishes in the last four races here. His green flag speed at 1.5 mile tracks this season is around top 15-17. His finishes at similar tracks over his career mirrors that of his history at Kansas. There is always the possibility of Ricky going Ricky and finishing with negative place differential but his upside at his $7k price tag is too tempting to pass up this week.
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