The Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the year for motorsports. It’s the Super Bowl of stock car racing. This year’s Great American race is Sunday, February 14 with coverage kicking off at 11:00 am. Similar to the Super Bowl in the NFL, many people enjoy playing daily fantasy sports during the big event.
While it’s enjoyable to partake in DFS, it’s even more fun to win!
That’s what we’re here for.
The starting lineup for the event was set by the duel races prior in the week. The winner of those events, Austin Dillon and Aric Almirola will lineup side-by-side behind the Hendrick Motorsports front row of Alex Bowman and William Byron who won those qualifying positions in Wednesday’s time trial session.
For NASCAR DFS there are several ways to score bonus points outside of the final finishing positions. You achieve bonus points by leading laps, recording the fastest laps and position differential. Position differential is your finishing position in comparison to where you started the race.
There are several guys priced at $9k and above that are starting from the mid-teens on back, offering up a good amount of bonus points to be had. We’re going to take a look at the top plays, some mid-tier plays and the best values on Sunday’s slate!
(Information gathered from Racing_Refrence.com)
Daytona 500 Top-Priced Plays
Denny Hamlin: #11 | Joe Gibbs Racing – Toyota | $10,400
Denny Hamlin is the series best superspeedway racer, hands down. He’s won three of the last four Daytona 500’s and failed to finish outside of the top five in any of the restrictor plate races last season. The great thing about playing him this Sunday is that he starts the event 25th. That opens up the possibility for a lot of potential bonus points to be scored as he makes his way to the front.
The bad part about playing him is that he will absolutely be chalk.
Despite rolling of the grid in 25th place to take the green flag, he’s still the favorite to win in Vegas with -800 odds. Roster him with confidence, but be prepared to make some important pivot plays with the remainder of your roster in tournaments.
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Brad Keselowski: #2 | Rodger Penske Racing – Ford | $10,100
While it’s fair to call Hamlin the best restrictor plate driver in the series lately, we can’t forget about “Bad” Brad Keselowski. The Rochester Hills, Michigan native is the only active driver in NASCAR’s top series that has more wins than Hamlin’s five. Keselowski has six superspeedway wins in his career. He also has ten top-fives and 16 top-tens in 47 career plate race starts.
Similar to Hamlin, Keselowski has the potential to score some sizable bonus points as well. He’ll start Sunday’s race from the same row as the defending race winner, lining up on the inside in 23rd.
If you’re looking for a pivot off the likely to be highly owned Hamlin, Keselowski could be your guy. He’ll have plenty of horsepower under the hood and should find his way to the front by the time the checkered flag falls.
Ryan Blaney: #12 | Rodger Penske Racing – Ford | $10,000
Ryan Blaney is my kind of racer. He’s hard charging and has a background on dirt. It’s a formula that has worked well in the past, but it’s also caused some inconsistent finishing during his career too. When it comes to restrictor plate racing, Blaney has faired well as of late.
Over the last three season’s, Blaney has three top-ten finishes and three DNFs at Daytona. Over his career, he’s raced on superspeedways 24 times. He’s finished in the top ten in 33 percent of those starts and has five top-fives and two wins. At Daytona International Speedway in 2020, Blaney finished second and sixth.
He also won one of the two events at Talladega.
Blaney will start the event from 14th on Sunday and is a solid play in DFS formats as someone who may go a bit overlooked.
Other Higher-Priced Options: Chase Elliott – $10,300 | Joey Logano – $9,900 | Alex Bowman – $9,200
Daytona 500 Mid-Tier Plays
William Byron: #24 | Hendrick Motorsports – Chevrolet | $9,000
The Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets have been fast at Daytona over the past few seasons. This year, they find themselves on the front row to start the event. Byron has raced 12 superspeedway races thus far in his young career. In those 12 events, he’s finished in the top-ten three times.
There is no doubt he’ll have speed on Sunday, but he may make for a better cash than GPP play due to his second starting position. Due to the lack of possible bonus points, he’s not as appealing start as some of the previously mentioned drivers.
Kurt Busch: #1 | Chip Ganassi Racing – Chevrolet | $8,800
No active driver in the NASCAR Cup Series has made more starts on superspeedways than Kurt Busch. In fact, he has more top tens at 39 than many drivers have starts, period. To go with those 39 top-tens, he has 21 career top-fives. With those statistics I’ve just listed, you’d expect for me to say he also has a handful of wins too.
But he doesn’t. In fact, he has just one.
There’s nothing to suggest that Busch will dominate or is a favorite to win Sunday’s event. But he should be a favorite for a top-ten. He’s starting the race from 20th, so the position differential bonus points are there.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr: #47 | JTG Daughtry Racing – Chevrolet | $8,100
Ricky Stenhouse Jr is someone who has to be mentioned whenever NASCAR makes their way to the tracks of 2.5 miles or larger. He’s had a lot of success on superspeedways throughout his career, posting 12 top-tens, eight top-fives and two wins in 32 starts.
It’s fair to say he’s a long-shot to win the Great American Race. It’s also fair to say that he’ll likely have a decent run and should be a favorite to get a top-ten. The biggest “if” in these two scenarios is if he can keep his nose clean and his car on the track. The “all-out” driving style has provided Stenhouse both success and plenty of DNFs throughout the years.
We’ll have to see how things playout this weekend.
Erik Jones: #43 | Richard Petty Motorsports – Chevrolet | $7,300
Erik Jones made the move from the powerhouse, Joe Gibbs Racing to the single-car team of Richard Petty Motorsports in the offseason. It’s a downgrade for Jones for sure, but I still believe this kid has a lot of talent.
Jones has shown flashes of the aforementioned talent in the past, particularly on superspeedways. In just 16 career starts, Jones has six top-tens, four top-fives and one win at Daytona in the July race. He knows how to navigate these tracks and work through traffic. Petty has also slowly been improving as an organization over the past three years.
Jones will start the race from rear, but be scored from p. 31, and has a great opportunity to provide those who roster him a lot of bonus points.
Other Mid-Tier Plays: Aric Almirola – $8,600 | Kyle Larson – $8,500 | Austin Dillon – $8,300
Daytona 500 Top Value Plays
Chase Briscoe: #14 | Stewart-Haas Racing – Ford | $6,600
There are no statistics to go off of for this pick in terms of the Cup Series. The good news is for a lot of these value picks, is they’re starting near there rear so they can’t lose a bunch of points via position differential. Briscoe rolls off 30th and has Roush-Yates Ford power under the hood. As a rookie, I hope Briscoe can avoid trouble, move up through the field some and finish the race at the end.
Michael McDowell: #34 | Front Row Motorsports – Ford | $6,300
Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell has consistently been a great value play in NASCAR daily fantasy sports, particularly in cash games. The problem this year is that the veteran driver qualified in 17th, making him a candidate for negative correlation in scoring.
While I’d avoid him in cash lineup builds, I think he’s still a viable option for tournaments.
Austin Cindric: #33 | Rodger Penske Racing – Ford | $6,100
Just like the previously mentioned Briscoe, Austin Cindric is a Cup Series rookie, who is actually only running a limited schedule in 2021. A “win” for the youngster could arguably be just finishing all the laps, avoiding the “big one”, and moving up into the top-20 by the race’s end.
If he is able to do this, he’ll score you some solid fantasy points at a price tag of just $6,100.
Other Value Plays: David Ragan – $5,400
Good luck for the Daytona 500! Be sure to follow @GoingFor_2 on twitter for more DFS and NASCAR coverage throughout 2021!
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