Welcome to my NASCAR DFS Breakdown! In this article, I will preview the race, lineup construction, and offer some of my favorite drivers to target for Sunday’s race at the LA Coliseum! You can find all of our Core Plays throughout the NASCAR Premium Package, or you can click here to join our free Discord!
Note: Our NASCAR DFS content this weekend is FREE! All you have to do is sign up on DFSKarma and sync your free account to the Discord channel! We’ll have our core plays, final thoughts, PrizePicks plays, and more! Hope to see you guys in there!
Race Preview
The NASCAR season is officially here, and I’m excited to be back writing my weekly articles for you guys! We’re kicking off with the Clash at the LA Coliseum, which none of the drivers have ever raced at before. However, we do have practice data to look at and the Martinsville races from last season as well. I’m writing this article after single car qualifying, so the heat races is another thing to use for information. 36 drivers will be trying to make the main event, but only 23 of them will end up doing so. There are four heat races, and four of the nine drivers from each will advance. After, there will be two last chance qualifiers which will get six more drivers in. The final spot is the guy that was highest in points last season. Now let’s talk about what lineup construction will look like here.
Lineup Construction
The pricing is very soft, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to make lineups this weekend. With how important place differential is, we’re probably going to have to wait until the starting grid is set to put together our lineups. This race is only 150 laps which means there are 105 dominator points available making them very important. With all of that out of the way, let’s get into some of the drivers I’ll be targeting.
Denny Hamlin (DK $9,800 FD $13,000)
Hamlin has had a lot of success at the short tracks, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him run well here this weekend. The betting sites agree with this as well with him being the favorite at 6-1 odds. Outside of Truex, the Joe Gibbs Racing drivers looked solid in practice, so I think they’ll all be fast. It’s crazy thinking Denny only had two wins last season but for DFS purposes, he scored tons of dominator points throughout the season. Hamlin looks like a great place to start for your lineups.
Chase Elliott (DK $9,200 FD $12,500)
Elliott was the fastest driver in practice and has also had a lot of success at Martinsville with his win there back in 2020. This track is basically a mini Martinsville which is why I’m using that data as part of my research. It should be relatively easy to fit in multiple of these top tier drivers into lineups, so Elliott looks like a solid option here considering the ceiling he offers every week.
Kyle Busch (DK $9,000 FD $12,000)
If there’s anyone that will benefit the most from the Next Gen car, it’s Kyle Busch. He’s one of the most talented drivers in NASCAR and having this change as well as having practice back will help him significantly. There’s a reason why he was the fastest driver in single car qualifying. Kyle is another guy that runs well at short tracks with his aggressive style of racing which makes him a solid boom or bust option.
Christopher Bell (DK $6,800 FD $9,500)
Are you noticing a trend? I like the JGR drivers a lot this weekend! They’re all good at short tracks and showed decent speed in practice. The only concern I have with Bell is his lack of aggressiveness because it’s going to be hard to pass on this single groove track. A lot of these value plays are really going to depend on where they start, but Bell is a driver I know has top 5 upside here.
Tyler Reddick (DK $6,700 FD $9,000)
Reddick is a driver I was really impressed by last season because he always brought good speed to the track and would usually run inside the top 10 most weeks. In single car qualifying, he was 2nd only behind Kyle Busch and 6th in practice as well. Again, we’ll have to see where he starts, but I think he looks like a strong value option here this weekend with the upside he has. His 50-1 odds look very appealing.
Justin Haley (DK $5,300 FD $6,500)
This #31 Kaulig car is fast! Haley was 4th in practice and put down the 3rd fastest lap in qualifying. He’s way too underpriced on DraftKings and FanDuel considering the speed he’s shown this week. I’m assuming he’ll end up being one of the higher owned value plays just because a lot of content creators will bring him up for good reason. We’ll see where he starts to determine if he’s a good play this weekend.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my free article for the Cup Series Charlotte Roval 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 or ask any questions!
