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Race Preview/Lineup Construction
Kansas is a 1.5 mile track that doesn’t really have tire fall-off and is similar to tracks like Las Vegas, Kentucky, and Charlotte. This race is 400 miles and 267 laps, so there’s a lot of dominator points available which means picking the right drivers in the top tier will be important. Lineup construction is very interesting this weekend because there are a lot of drivers starting further back than usual, so we’re going to have to make our lineups with place differential and guys that could score dominator points. We usually see a lot of teams gamble at Kansas because there’s no tire fall-off, which could lead to some drivers finishing better than how they were running throughout the race. With all of that out of the way, here are some of the drivers I’m looking at for Sunday’s race in each price range.
Kyle Larson (DK $11,300, FD $13,500)
Larson has been great this season in the #5 car for Hendrick Motorsports, and I expect that trend to continue this weekend at Kansas. He finished 4th at Homestead, 1st at Las Vegas, 2nd at Atlanta with two dominating performances over those three races. Larson also has great track at history at Kansas back when he was driving the #42 for Chip Ganassi Racing with four top 10 finishes over his last six races at this track. He offers a ton of place differential starting from 32nd and could definitely be a driver that scores dominator points during this race. People might get scared off of him because of last week where he blew up early, but I doubt that’ll happen again for a team like this.
Denny Hamlin (DK $10,800 FD $14,000)
Hamlin has won two of the last three races at Kansas and offers a lot of place differential starting from 20th this weekend. He’s been great this season, finishing inside the top 5 in eight of the ten races so far but still doesn’t have a win. His team always brings very fast cars to the track, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him lead laps and score a lot of dominator points in this race. Hamlin is a driver you can play in cash and tournaments because of the place differential and high ceiling he has.
Ryan Blaney (DK $9,500 FD $10,000)
I’m interested to see what Blaney’s ownership will be this weekend because he’s starting closer to the front, and there are a lot of drivers around him in price that are starting further back that offer more place differential. Blaney runs very well at these low-wear tire tracks like Kansas, so I think he’s a driver that has potential to lead and rack up fast laps throughout the race. Probably wouldn’t play him in cash games because he doesn’t offer much place differential, but I love him in tournaments this weekend on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Kyle Busch (DK $8,600 FD $10,500)
Kyle Busch is very under priced at only $8,600 on DraftKings and $10,500 on FanDuel, so he’s a driver I don’t mind targeting in tournaments this weekend. He has a good track history at Kansas with one win, six top 5’s, eight top 10’s, and an average finish of 8.2 over his last ten races at this track. He led over 50 laps in the first race here last season, so Kyle is a driver that could lead and score some dominator points in this race which makes him a nice gpp play.
Austin Cindric (DK $6,700 FD $6,200)
Cindric is very under priced on DraftKings and FanDuel this weekend based off of the amount of place differential and the equipment he’s in this weekend. The only way he can really hurt you is if he wrecks or has an issue, but Kansas is a very easy track to drive so don’t be surprised if this is the week that Cindric finally cracks the top 20 and potentially the top 15. I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t play him in cash games on DraftKings, but I get the fade in tournaments because he’ll probably have very high ownership with the cheap price.
Chris Buescher (DK $6,100 FD $6,300)
Roush Fenway Racing has improved a lot this season, and Buescher has been great over the three races at the 1.5’s with finishes of 19th at Homestead, 14th at Las Vegas, and 7th at Atlanta. There aren’t a ton of great value options this weekend because some of the cheap guys are starting closer to the front, but Buescher starts 16th, and has top 10 potential in my eyes. I would’ve mentioned Alfredo as my cheap driver, but I wanted to make sure that all the drivers I wrote about are playable on DraftKings and FanDuel. If you need a punt below $5,000 on DraftKings, he’s your guy.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my free article for the Cup Series Kansas race, and I wish you the best of luck in your DFS contests! Make sure to follow me on Twitter if you haven’t already @DFS_NASCAR_Zone, so you can see when I post NASCAR DFS content!
