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Before I get into some of my favorite plays for Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, I’m going to give you guys a preview and also what lineup construction will look like for this race.
Race Preview/Lineup Construction
Atlanta Motor Speedway is a 1.5 mile track that has major tire falloff and is similar to tracks like Auto Club, Darlington, and Homestead. This race is 500 miles and 325 laps, so there’s a lot of dominator points available this weekend which means picking the right drivers in the top tier will be very important. The pricing is pretty soft, so this is definitely a week that you want to have 2-4 dominators in your lineups. The value range isn’t the greatest, but there a couple drivers that stick out to me that I think have decent upside and might go overlooked. 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 $10,400 FD $12,500)
Larson has been great this season in the #5 car for Hendrick Motorsports, and I expect that trend to continue this weekend at Atlanta. He finished 4th at Homestead, 1st at Las Vegas with his dominating performance, and 7th at Phoenix but wasn’t able to lead any laps due to his 2 speeding penalties on pit road. At Phoenix, Larson had 48 fast laps which shows that he could’ve dominated that race. I think he’ll have decent ownership in cash games and tournaments, but he’s probably my favorite play of the weekend with the upside he has.
Ryan Blaney (DK $9,200 FD $10,500)
Blaney feels very underpriced on DraftKings and Fanduel, so he’s definitely a driver that I’m going to have decent exposure to for this race. He’s been great on the 1.5’s and at the tracks with high tire falloff, so I could see him having a strong run this weekend. Like I said earlier, dominator points are going to be very important with the race being 325 laps, and I think Blaney is a driver that has the potential to lead and rack up fast laps throughout the race. At this price, I think he’s a driver that you can target for both cash games and tournaments which makes him a solid top tier driver to target.
Alex Bowman (DK $8,800 FD $8,500)
Bowman is a driver that I could see going overlooked this weekend with drivers like Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric priced around him starting further back in the field which definitely makes him an interesting option for tournaments. He’s one of the best drivers at the 1.5’s in terms of running position and green flag speed, but his finishes aren’t very consistent which is probably due to bad luck for the most part. We saw him lead and run fast laps at the intermediates last seasonn, so there’s definitely potential for Bowman to score some dominator points throughout the race. I think he’s a great driver to target for tournaments that has a lot of upside as well.
Austin Cindric (DK $8,600 FD $6,200)
Cindric will be driving the #33 for Team Penske this weekend in the Cup Series race and will probably be a very popular option with the place differential upside he has starting from 39th. We’ve seen him dominate in the Xfinity Series, so I think he’ll do fine in the Cup field. This is his first start in the Cup package, but I think he’s a safe bet for a top 20 finish in this race with upside for more. This is a driver that that you probably lock into your cash games, but I don’t mind being underweight in tournaments on DraftKings because while the floor is high, I don’t know if he has the upside compared to some of the other drivers around him that have the potential to score dominator points. On FanDuel, it’s very difficult to fade Cindric at that price.
Ryan Newman (DK $7,100 FD $6,000)
Newman did not run well last weekend at Phoenix, but I think Atlanta is a track that he can with his experience of managing tire wear. We’ve seen him finish 13th and 14th over the last 2 races here at Atlanta, so a top 15 finish is certainly not out of the question. Starting all the way back in 28th, he offers us place differential and upside at his cheap price on DraftKings and FanDuel. I think Newman stands out as a great value play we can target in our DFS lineups this weekend.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr (DK $6,300 FD $6,500)
It’s always a gamble playing Stenhouse, but he’s been great this season finishing top 15 in his last 3 races. I think we’re going to get him at single digit ownership this weekend because of his 12th place starting spot. Stenhouse is definitely riskier than the other value drivers because of the lack of place differential, but I think he has sneaky top 10 potential and more upside which makes him a great driver to target for tournaments.
