Welcome back race fans. It's been nine months and 35 races since the season-opening Daytona 500 but we have finally made it to Homestead-Miami Speedway where one driver will be crowned Monster Energy Cup Series Champion. The four drivers who will battle for that distinction are Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr, Brad Keselowski, and Kevin Harvick.
Since the playoff structure was changed to an elimination style in 2014 the champion of the series also won the race here at Miami with three of the four drivers also finishing inside the Top 10. From a fantasy perspective, both dominator points and place differential will be important this weekend. Over the last three years, there have been at least seven drivers picking up double-digit place differential with nine drivers doing so in two of those three years. From a dominator perspective, there has been one driver who has led 100or more laps in two of the last three years and at least two drivers to lead 50 or more laps.
Opening practice and qualifying wrapped up Friday afternoon so the following picks will be based on that information as well as track history and current form. Make sure to grab a copy of my DFS NASCAR cheathseet where I will be updating the data from final practices on Saturday and also updating the overall model. Let's jump into the picks.
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings DFS Lineup Picks - Ford Ecoboost 400
Martin Truex Jr.($11,100)
Homestead has not been his best track over the years but it has been a year filled with firsts for the #78 team. Truex has been dominant on the intermediate tracks this season with six wins including three in the playoffs. He also leads all drivers by a huge margin with an average of 97.3 DraftKings points per intermediate race. He is the only driver of the final four without a series championship but that could change on Sunday afternoon.
Kyle Busch($10,500)
Busch won the championship in 2015 after suffering an injury at the start of that season and missing nearly half the season. He is now hungry for more and is showing the speed needed to get it done. He qualified third after posting the fastest speed in opening practice and including his win in 2015, has finished seventh or better in four of his last five races here.
Kevin Harvick($9,700)
Harvick gives us a little bit of place differential value starting ninth for the final race and comes back to Homestead with incredible track history. He won the race in 2014 capturing his first championship and has finished Top 3 here in three straight races and Top 10 in nine straight and 13 of his last 14 races here.
Denny Hamlin($8,900)
Don't count out the #11 car this weekend. He missed making into the final four but is showing the speed needed to be the first non-championship driver to grab a win here since the elimination structure was introduced. He has two career wins here(2013, 2009) and has finished Top 10 in five of his last six races here. The best part is the value he provides under $9K and will be starting on the pole with a great shot at leading a ton of laps.
Trevor Bayne($7,200)
For value this week, I will be turning to Trevor Bayne who qualified 12th and has been showing the speed needed to grab a top 10 finish in the final race of the season. He was sixth-fastest in opening practice and is currently eighth-fastest in Saturday's opening practice. It is definitely going to be a GPP play as he has yet to finish better than 18th in his first six races here at Homestead.
NASCAR DFS Cheat Sheet
Don't have the time to search multiple sites looking for NASCAR stats and data?
Check out my DFS NASCAR cheatsheet which includes Track History(2-Year Trend & Career), Track Type History(2-Year Trend), Current Form, Practice/Qualifying Data, and a weighted system to get an overall rank for each driver each race. Check out it now while it's still in BETA mode and FREE to everyone. Also, be sure to check out the Race by Race Trends Sheet.
DFS & Fantasy NASCAR Chat Room
If you have any questions leading up to the race hit me up in the chat below!
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