Greetings everyone, and welcome to another daily fantasy NASCAR advice article brought to you by the DFS Army! We’ll be taking a look at FanDuel’s NASCAR format this time around, which includes their lineup structure, scoring system, pricing, and some basic strategy to help get you started. Of course, all of the best stuff is reserved for our members, such as the Domination Station lineup optimizer, our NASCAR research station, and 24/7 access to our Slack channels where we discuss everything from properly managing a bankroll to finding the best tournament-winning pivots in every sport. As for me, you can find me on Twitter or @nillyJay in Slack.
We’re only one race into their new format and we’ve already had some big winners here in the DFS Army; check out this FanDuel Talladega win! I expect more of the same going forward as we’ve been crushing NASCAR in all formats this year, including both Monster Energy & Xfinity over on the DraftKings side.
And because I like showing off our members’ success, be sure to check out the newest additions to our wall of wins. They just keep coming, and FanDuel NASCAR is our next target!
If you like what you see here, be sure to check us out and consider signing up for exclusive tools and coverage for NASCAR and every other sport, all in one spot. MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL, WNBA, PGA, MMA, and even e-sports…we do it all! Use promo code NILLY for a 10% discount for the life of your active membership.
Also, be sure to check out my NASCAR beginner’s article if you haven’t already, as it has some general NASCAR information that is relevant to FanDuel as well.
General overview
While similar, FanDuel’s new format has a few key differences than what we’re used to with DraftKings. For starters, we only select five drivers instead of six with the same $50,000 salary cap. This might look like it would lead to a bunch of ties, but I think that they did a good enough job elsewhere that this won’t be as big of a problem as it could be. Pricing tiers may change a little as the season goes on (and I will update this accordingly if it does), but for now here is where we’re at:
- $11k+ – elite drivers
- $10k to $11k – high-tier drivers
- $9k to $10k – mid/high-tier drivers
- $7k to $9k – middle-tier drivers
- $5.5k to $7k – low/middle-tier drivers
- $5k – bottom-tier drivers
Scoring overview
There are four ways drivers can earn FanDuel fantasy points (FDFP). They can earn them from leading laps (+0.10 per lap), but FanDuel does not count fastest laps. Instead, they count every lap a driver has completed (also +0.10 per lap). This means that the cash lines will slowly creep up every single lap since half of these are not dominator-specific. Strategizing around this fact is something we’ll keep to our VIP members, but in a nutshell, this places an even higher importance on selecting drivers who can finish races. Cashing with a dud is hard enough, but especially when the cash lines are continuously moving upward.
Next up is place differential, which is scored based on a driver’s finishing position in relation to where they qualified. These are worth +/- 0.50 FDFP, and can cause drivers to go into the negatives if they drop low enough. This is weighted a bit less than what we’re used to
Finally, we have the driver’s finshing position, which starts at +43 FDFP for the race winner and goes down to +1 FDFP for the driver in last place. This can add a large chunk of FDFP and will often be half (or more) of a driver’s total score. Needless to say, it’s going to be very important to have drivers who can finish strongly, especially since the other sources are weighted less on FanDuel.
Basic strategies
A lot of the same concepts that work on DraftKings will carry over to FanDuel, and you can read about some of them in my NASCAR intermediate guide. I’ll go over some things unique to FanDuel here, but again, we save the best for our VIP members!
There’s a limited amount of FDFP available, so we’ll still need to pay up for drivers who can earn as much as possible (preferably from multiple sources). The biggest hurdle here is the fact that we only have five drivers per lineup, so we’ll have to be more efficient with our choices and identify drivers who are in positions to earn more than others in their price range. For example, if trying to decide between two $11k drivers, compare both of their situations. If one is on the pole and it’s a race they can dominate, they’d be worth paying up for over the other driver who doesn’t have that same likelihood. For GPP, however, it doesn’t hurt to make some hedge lineups with the other one instead.
Since drivers earn FDFP for completing laps, this gives a much-needed boost to the bottom-tier drivers who actually finish the race but don’t move up a whole lot (which makes them much less useful on DraftKings). Rather than just being hopeful punts, these drivers will have a much better chance to return or exceed value and should have much more of an impact. Still, it’ll be important to research them and determine which ones have the best chance of finishing most of the race, as some of them are just there to advertise for their sponsors.
FanDuel contests
One of the biggest reasons I’m excited about having NASCAR on FanDuel is due to the different contests they offer. Mass-entry GPP is much more accessible to everybody, as you can run 150 lineups for $37.50 with a very reasonable chance of getting at least an 8x return on investment. Mass entry will be very fun, especially with the Domination Station that will be ready for FanDuel NASCAR soon.
As for cash ladders, FanDuel has a lot of nice mid-range contests to tie 50/50s together with the smaller-field tournaments. A balanced ladder is a profitable ladder! If you’re unsure of which contests to use for a ladder, for either site, hit me up in Slack (@nillyJay) so we can get you squared away. There are plenty of ways to make them, which is part of what makes them so great. You tailor them to what works best for you, and you no longer have to live with being capped at a 2x return when your cash lineup does really well.
That’s about all our daily fantasy NASCAR advice for now. If you like what you’re seeing here and aren’t yet a part of our group, I’d encourage you to check us out and sign up! Our coaches are active daily to bring content and advice for every sport, so you’re not just getting NASCAR…you get it all! We truly do enjoy helping our members succeed, so I hope you’ll check us out and join our winning team. Don’t forget to use code NILLY and save 10% off your VIP membership. See you all in Slack!