RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Loudon on Sunday for the Ambetter 301. Will the race see as much carnage as Saturday's Xfinity race, which featured DNFs for numerous playoff contenders?
And will we get anything like the drama of Atlanta last week, when Corey LaJoie almost pulled off a miraculous victory, going for it on the final lap against Chase Elliott but wrecking in the process?
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 7/24/22 at 3:16 p.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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Ross Chastain
Starts 21st - DraftKings $10,000 | FanDuel $11,500
There's some really good drivers starting from 16th to 21st. We'll be highlighting all of them today.
Let's start with Ross Chastain. Of all the drivers in this range, he's the most likely one to drive up to the front and battle for the win, because Chastain has just had this ability this season to find himself at the front of the field.
Pocono hasn't been a good track for Chastain, as his best finish here is 24th. And his two starts in good equipment last year resulted in a 33rd in the first race and a 26th in the second race.
But the past really doesn't seem like it means much for Chastain. Coming into this year, he had three career top-five finishes. Just this year, he has 10 of them, a full half of the races he's run. With a lot of place differential upside, I'm confident in Chastain today, especially because this isn't the kind of track where one of his rivals can safely wreck him.
William Byron
Starts 18th - DraftKings $9,200| FanDuel $10,000
We continue our look at drivers between 16th to 21st with William Byron, another driver who should have more race day speed than he had in qualifying.
Byron has five top-10s in eight Cup Series starts here, and he's led double-digit laps in four of his starts here. He was third in the first race here last year, then followed that up the next day with a 12th, but only after he led 22 laps.
Byron will win at Pocono one day. He might start a little too deep for me to confidently say that today will be that day, but this has been a really good track for him.
Tyler Reddick
Starts 16th - DraftKings $8,300 | FanDuel $8,500
Reddick is in a weird holding pattern now with Chevy, as he's announced he'll leave in 2024 for a Toyota team and now he's seemingly been pulled from any of his lower series starts for Chevy teams. Will the fact that Reddick didn't get to run here yesterday in the 48 car end up impacting his performance on Sunday?
Maybe, but probably not in a noticeable way.
Reddick has had an up-and-down year, but he's consistently shown speed, even if his average finish is down from 15.0 last year to 18.1 this year.
But one reason I like Reddick is that he did really well here last year, finishing 11th in the first race and ninth in the second race. In Xfinity, he has a ninth and a second in two starts.
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Alex Bowman
Starts 17th - DraftKings $8,100 | FanDuel $8,800
Bowman's price seems a little low considering he won here last year and has three consecutive top-10s at this track, but hey—we'll take it.
Really, Bowman's salary is down because he's now gone six races in a row without a top-10 and has three DNFs in the last four races. It hasn't been a smooth run for Bowman here.
But if there's a place for him to bounceback, why not Pocono, considering how well he ran here last year?
Erik Jones
Starts 34th - DraftKings $7,600 | FanDuel $6,000
Petty GMS was hit with a major penalty this week because of issues with rocker box assemblies, with both the 42 of Ty Dillon and 43 of Erik Jones losing their crew chiefs for the weekend and being docked 35 points in the standings.
Will that crew chief issue impact the 43 on Sunday? Probably. But does it matter when building a fantasy lineup, since Jones starting in 34th offers a huge amount of place differential upside? No, not really.
Even if we build in a loss of a couple of positions because of the crew chief ejection, we're talking about a driver whose average finish this year is 17.4, which includes three DNFs. Jones should easily be able to get into the top-20 in this one. He had five career top-five finishes here in 10 starts.
Cole Custer
Starts 32nd - DraftKings $6,300 | FanDuel $5,000
Custer has struggled this season. He's only 26th in points and has just one top-10 all year. Not great.
He did run yesterday's Xfinity Series race though, finishing 10th, so that added bit of track time could end up helping him out on Sunday.
And while Custer has definitely struggled, his average finish is 21.7, which is still 10 spots better than where he starts on Sunday. Custer's car is better than most of the cars around him on the starting grid, so if he keeps it clean, he can gain some decent spots in this one.
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