RADIO
Welcome back for another week of daily fantasy NASCAR. This week the Monster Energy Cup Series heads to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California for the Toyota Save Mart 350 this Sunday. It is the first of two road course races on the NASCAR circuit. Infineon Raceway is a 2.52-mile track with 12 turns and a whopping 160 feet in elevation change. With newly retired Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who combined for eight career wins at Sonoma, the field is wide open as Kyle Busch is the only other active driver with multiple wins here. Looking at the cheatsheet, there are only six drivers in the field(Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, & Kevin Harvick) who have an average finish of 15.0 or better.
From a fantasy perspective, there are only 110 laps in the race which lowers the importance of dominator points to a degree. Stage racing should also help contribute to there being multiple drivers with 20+ laps led. Place differential will be important in finding our value this week but no driver in the last four races here has finished Top 5 after starting outside of the 20th starting position. It will be best to balance our lineups this week with a mix of guys starting up with a chance to lead some laps and pick up some bonus points with some guys who qualified poorly and showed some speed in practice. Let's jump in and take a look at a few of my top plays for this week.
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings DFS Lineup Picks - Toyota Save Mart 350
Kyle Busch ($10,200)
He has yet to win this year but has been extremely close lately and leads the the form ranks with five Top 10 finishes and a 7.0 average finish over his last six races. Like I mentioned above he is also the only active driver with multiple wins here(2015,2008). He was ninth and second fastest in the two practices and will qualify fourth which gives him a shot at leading some laps. He is #1 in my overall model and safe in all formats.
Clint Bowyer ($9,400)
Bowyer leads all drivers in the field in career track history average finish(11.5) which includes a win, six Top 5's and eight Top 10 finishes in 11 career races here at Sonoma. He now gets to attempt the road course in the #14 car that Tony Stewart wheeled to victory here last year. Bowyer also showed great speed in practice(4th & 8th) and qualified 13th which gives him some place differential value. He is safe in all formats.
Matt Kenseth ($7,500)
Kenseth had to change an engine on Friday so didn't qualify on Saturday and will start from the back of the field. Instant place differential value for a driver who I was probably going to fade at the start of the week due to his poor track history. Combine the place differential upside and drop in salary and you have an chalky play this week that is safe in all formats.
Trevor Bayne ($6,600)
He never really stands out on the sheet(ranked 21st overall) but has been one of the most consistent drivers all year. He ranks 23rd in average salary for the season while ranking 16th in average DraftKings points. He will start 25th this week and showed some Top 20 speed in practice finishing 12th and 22nd. Look for another 30+ point performance this week.
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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