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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
After what seemed like an eternity NASCAR is back! If you haven’t had a chance, please check out my What’s New in 2022 article before going forward. It’s fine, I’ll wait…. ok welcome back! I want to be honest and tell you upfront that I have no idea what is going to happen and how these cars are going to react to the tracks to start the season. Any content provider who tells you they do is lying to you because even the NASCAR teams don’t know what to expect so how can someone from the outside?
Since this track is set up as a .25 mile track the lap times are quick and the speeds are low. Chase Elliott was tops after Saturday’s two hour session with a top lap time of 13.455 and a top speed of 66.89 MPH. Elliott also had the best 15, 20, 25, and 30 lap average. Kevin Harvick was second quickest at only .002 seconds behind Elliott while also having the best 5-lap average. Kyle Larson, the 2021 champion, had the best lap average and Kyle Busch had the best 10-lap average.
This race is unique and in turn my breakdown for it will be as well. Sunday’s 23 car field will be set by four heat races (top 4 from each qualify for main event) followed by two last chance qualifiers (three drivers from each qualify) and the one driver who didn’t qualify through the qualifier races who had the most points in 2021. Since the field will be set so close to the start of the race I cannot give you my usually style of article, so I will go heat by heat and tell who I think moves on into the field. It will be vital that you come back to discord before lock to see my updates.
Each of the four qualifying heats are only 25 laps so it will be difficult for the cars starting towards the back to get into the top four. As for the last chance qualifiers, they are 50 laps each which will give the drivers starting towards the back in those more time to get through the field.
Heat 1 Lineup: #18-Kyle Busch, #99-Daniel Suarez, #47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr., #12-Ryan Blaney, #11-Denny Hamlin, #10-Aric Almirola, #78-BJ McLeod, #38-Todd Gilliland, #1-Ross Chastain
Both Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez appear to be locks for the main event on Sunday. Both Busch and Suarez looked fast in practice and put down two of the top times in qualifying. Because of his price Suarez ($5.9K) is one of the top plays in this race. As long he qualifies for the race, Suarez makes fitting practically any build you want possible. I expect to be using him in the majority of my builds on Sunday
Others from this heat to qualify LCQ: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Heat 2 Lineup: #8-Tyler Reddick, #41-Cole Custer, #21-Harrison Burton, #48-Alex Bowman, #23-Bubba Wallace, #3-Austin Dillon, #14-Chase Briscoe, #6-Brad Keselowski, #19-Martin Truex Jr.
This group is pretty tricky to predict with only Tyler Reddick seeming like a sure thing. Chase Briscoe was a top three car in practice but put down a terrible qualifying lap which leads me to believe his car is in race trim and better on the long run. Both Cole Custer and Alex Bowman will have track position to start the race so I think that is what will get them through into the field.
Wallace and Burton were bad in practice but did seem to make adjustments to improve their cars so they could beat out Briscoe, but I think it’s unlikely. Similar to Suarez, Reddick ($6.7K) is priced at a point where he is a top play and is my favorite play under $7K.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon
NASCAR DFS: Heat 3 (Driver names in bold are my picks to transfer)
Heat 3 Lineup: #31-Justin Haley, #9-Chase Elliott, #24-William Byron, #20-Christopher Bell, #16-AJ Allmendinger, #4-Kevin Harvick, #17-Chris Buescher, #7-Corey LaJoie, #51-Cody Ware
Chase Elliott was the top car in practice and laid down a great lap in qualifying on Saturday. Elliott is my top play from the $9K plus drivers because of this. Using Suarez and Reddick with Kyle Busch and Elliott leaves you $9.6K per driver for your final two spots which allows you to roster practically whoever you want. Justin Haley ($5.3K) is another top value play on this slate. Haley was top 5 in both individual lap time and average lap time on Saturday in practice as well as putting down the third best qualifying lap.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: William Byron, Christopher Bell
NASCAR DFS: Heat 4 (Driver names in bold are my picks to transfer)
Heat 4 Lineup: #22-Joey Logano, #5-Kyle Larson, #34-Michael McDowell, #77-Landon Cassill, #2-Austin Cindric, #43-Erik Jones, #15-Ryan Preece, #45-Kurt Busch, #42-Ty Dillon
This is the weakest heat by far with only two drivers who stand out as quality drivers. Both Joey Logano and Kyle Larson are locks but outside of them it’s pretty open. Any of the other drivers in this field could come through but I don’t think there will be much of a desire to roster any of them. Landon Cassill was top 10 in practice and put down a good qualifying lap as well. Cassill does potentially have some value if he finds his way into the main event coming in at $5K.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: Kurt Busch
Once again, make sure you are in discord after the heat races are complete where I will update my picks based on the results of the qualifying heats and starting positions.
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!
As we welcome in the new year, we also need to welcome in changes, many, many, changes coming to NASCAR in 2022. We have plenty of drivers changing teams, new teams, new sponsors, and the like but one big change coming this season is the new NextGen car for the Cup Series. This will be the 7th generation car for the Cup Series and arguably the most drastic change. One thing that seems to be making everyone happy is that NASCAR has announced that they will be running the 670 horsepower engine for all tracks (except SuperSpeedways and Atlanta) in 2022. Most 1.5-mile ovals ran the 550 horsepower engine that led to boring races with very little passing.
When the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off at the Daytona 500 with the Next-Gen car, it’ll be the first one to have aluminum wheels, rack-and-pinion steering, and an independent rear suspension. And those are just a few of the changes made to the new cars. These cars were initially slated to begin in the 2021 season, but development was paused because of COVID-19.
Without getting into too many details, the bodies are now symmetrical, with dimensions that are similar to the regular cars you drive every day. The body is now assembled with carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic panels that are more flexible, durable, and cheaper than the old sheet metal bodies. This will make it easier for the smaller teams to compete because their expenses will be less. The suspension has also been overhauled, with the addition of four-way adjustable dampers and the switch from an out-of-date live rear axle to a sophisticated independent setup.
The new aerodynamic elements beneath the car are also new and drastically changed. Unlike in the previous generation car, there’s now a rear diffuser that NASCAR will switch based on the track type. This eliminates the cost of engineering exposed pieces for the car’s underside to create more downforce. Unfortunately, the new underfloor has led to heat being trapped inside the cockpit. This forced NASCAR to redesign the exhaust to be three feet shorter and exit behind the front wheels as opposed to in front of the rear wheels to combat the excessive heat.
Like with all professional sports, NASCAR has its own crazy offseason. Drivers move from the lower series’ up and move from team to team. In this section, I will go over a few of the changes that will have the greatest effect on the Cup Series.
Brad Keselowski spent over a decade in the #2 Penske Ford but he has left the team he won his Cup Series Championship with to take over the #6 for Jack Roush. Keselowski is also part owner now of the team formally known as Roush-Fenway racing and it has been rebranded at RFK Racing.
Fantasy Analysis: This is a step down in equipment and funding for Keselowski which lowers his value in DFS weekly. I think we will need to see how this team fares in the Next-Gen car and see how he is priced before we can safely roster Keselowski weekly.
Taking over for Keselowski in the vacated #2 is former Xfinity Series Champion Austin Cindric. Personally, I love this move for Cindric and I think he will be a force in this series and is my pick for NASCAR Rookie of the Year.
Fantasy Analysis: Cindric will be in the mix every week in the #2 and will be lock-button for every road course race in 2022.
Bubba Wallace had a good year in the first season for 23XI Racing and it will only get better with the addition of former Cup Series Champion, Kurt Busch. After three seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing, Busch will switch from the #1 Chevy to the new #45 Monster Energy Toyota.
Fantasy Analysis: I expect a lot from Busch, and Wallace, in 2022. I think this team can produce weekly top 10’s and compete for 2 playoff spots. Kurt brings a plethora of experience and will help Wallace and this team grow.
Last season Trackhouse debuted with Daniel Suarez in the #99 as a single-car team, but this offseason Justin Marks (owner) purchased Chip Ganassi Racing making them a two-car team. In that second car will be Ross Chastain. Chastain will move from the #42 to the #1 that was vacated by Kurt Busch.
Fantasy Analysis: There should be some improvement with two cars now for Trackhouse, but I do not expect them to be a factor for wins or a championship, yet. Most weeks I would expect these two cars to be in the mid-teens to low 20’s.
Kaulig has had consistent success in the Xfinity Series and even earned a win with AJ Allmendinger in the Cup Series in 2021. This season Kaulig will field two full-time Cup cars with Justin Haley running the full season in the #31 while there will be a rotating cast of drivers in the #16. Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, and AJ Allmendinger .
Fantasy Analysis: Justin Haley is a good driver and should be competitive in the lower mid-tier this season. Kaulig is exceptional at road courses and superspeedway’s so I expect to give them a hard look when we are at those track types.
GMS didn’t leave the Truck Series, but they did purchase a charter in the Cup Series. Ty Dillon was tapped to drive the #94 for GMS, but that didn’t last long. In December GMS purchased a majority stake in Richard Petty Motorsports creating GMS Petty. Ty Dillon remained with the team, but was moved from the 94 car to the #42 teaming up with Erik Jones who will drive the #43 again in 2022.
Fantasy Analysis: We saw Jones and the 43 team improve and have some decent runs late in the season. Ty Dillon had a few good outings in the Xfinity Series but being back in the Cup Series he could be a backmarker most weeks. Both of these drivers will be priced in the high-end value tier each week and depending on qualifying they should be viable.
I won’t go into the same detail for the Xfinity Series, and also the subsequent Truck Series section, as I did the Cup, but I will just quickly give you some of the key moves in each series.
Thank you everyone for reading the 2022 NASCAR season preview! Don’t forget to come back in early February for my weekly articles breaking down every single race in all three top NASCAR series. 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!
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