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Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop: Cup Series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then you know the drill, but if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content, welcome! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to check out my NASCAR DFS Tutorial to make sure you are ready and understand how I break down the races and build lineups (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-pit-stop-2021-introduction-to-nascar-dfs/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site that has contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play.
Destination: Daytona!
Welcome to Speed Week from Daytona! After a fun and entertaining exhibition race from the LA Coliseum two weeks ago NASCAR prepares for their Super Bowl from Dayton Beach, Florida! While Daytona is still a few days away, we do have some racing to look forward to tonight. The BlueGreen Vacations Duels from Daytona take place tonight to set the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Both Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman know they will lead the field to green on Sunday afternoon, but beyond that nothing is set. Well, I shouldn’t say nothing is set because both Noah Gragson and Jacques Villeneuve locked themselves into the 500 on speed Wednesday night in qualifying but their starting position is still to be determined. There are now four drivers racing for the final two spots in tonight’s duels. Two of Kaz Grala, Timmy Hill, JJ Yeley, and Greg Biffle will have to race their way into Sunday’s big event tonight so they will be working hard on the track to make that happen. As for the rest of the field, they will just be running laps to get a feel for the track and more importantly keeping their cars clean and damage-free. We won’t see carnage as we will on Sunday in these races, they are generally tamer and tend to run fully clean.
How to build lineups for these races
Typically at Superspeedways, we want to stack drivers from the back of the field because when wrecks happen they will happen at the front of the field. These races are different because like I stated above, drivers aren’t too concerned with where they start and are just trying to get through this race clean. In fact, in the last 5 years (10 races) only two drivers that have started worse than 14th finished in the top 5. In that same time frame, only 18 drivers starting worse than P14 finished in the top 10. Stacking up drivers from the back of the field is not optimal in these races. Looking back to last season only two drivers starting 15th or worse finished in the top 10 of Duel #2 and the other eight drivers all started inside the top 10.
As for the first duel, it was slightly different. Four of the six drivers in the optimal lineup started inside the top 12 and only two started lower than 15th. In both races, all six drivers in the optimal lineups finished in the top 10. In both races last the season the pole sitters dropped back and stayed safe and out of the way. To summarize, don’t roster the pole sitters in each race but do roster drivers starting in and around the top 10.
NASCAR DFS: Duel 1
Team Hendrick
Three of the four Hendrick Chevy’s are in this race, but we already know that Larson will not be pushing his car in this race and will likely fall to the back. Chase Elliott and William Byron start 2nd and 3rd in this duel and will likely lead a good chunk of the laps in this race and could finish 1-2. I like the strategy of stacking them together in builds for this race.
Right behind Elliott and Byron in this race are the two Trackhouse Chevy’s of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez. We could see them team up with the HMS cars to lead this race. Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, and Tyler Reddick are also in Chevy’s so they all could team up together, but I would prefer to stick with the HMS cars and go in a different direction.
Are the Fords ahead of the field?
A lot of people have said the Fords are ahead of the curve and faster than both Chevy and Toyota. Ryan Blaney starts 7th and is the best Ford in this race. Blaney’s teammate Austin Cindric is also in this race starting from P11 and will most likely be joining Blaney to push towards the front. Other Ford’s in this race are Chase Briscoe, and his SHR teammate Cole Custer as well as Brad Keselowski and Todd Gilliland. All of these drivers have backup cars so they shouldn’t have an issue pushing themselves.
Lone Wolf
Kurt Busch is the lone Toyota in this duel and could have a hard time getting in the draft. I think he will try and race with the front back and starting from P13 he could be a decent pivot off the plays mentioned above if making multiple lineups.
Lineup Building Strategy:
Stack up 4-5 Fords in your lineups with one or both of Elliott and Byron
You can also use both HMS cars with the Trackhouse cars and two Fords.
NASCAR DFS: Duel 2
It’s Joe Gibbs world
This duel is all about the JGR and JGR-adjacent cars. All four of Joe Gibb’s Toyota’s and Bubba Wallace are in this race. I fully expect them to join up and be in the top 5 for this entire race. Similar to the first duel, the pole sitter (Alex Bowman) will most likely fall back and finish in the late teens leaving the top spot open to one of these Toyota’s.
More Ford love!
There are some other top-end Ford’s in this race, including Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Aric Almirola. These three could link up and run together to push the Toyota’s at some point. You can also include Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher in your Ford stacks for salary savings.
Lineup building strategy:
Stack the Toyota’s first and foremost. I would suggest only one of Denny Hamlin or Martin Truex Jr. They both start near the front so their upside is capper compared to the other Toyota’s.
While you can run all five JGR cars, I would suggest no more than four and adding two of the aforementioned Fords.
Ricky Stenhouse is the best of the few Chevy’s in this race with Bowman and Ty Dillon likely sitting towards the back.
David Ragan is a decent cheap option if needed starting P20 and likely finishing somewhere in the mid-teens.
NASCAR DFS: Wrapup
Play these races light and use them to pick up some tickets for Sunday’s race. There are A LOT of satellites in the lobby for these races. There are all kinds of price points and sizes, depending on your budget you should be able to enter a few of these contests.
Thank you for reading my weekly NASCAR DFS Pit Stop articles and make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
