Welcome to the Monster Energy Cup Series Preview. This week we will be looking ahead to the Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. I’m RyanLarkin88 and you can follow me on twitter @Larkin8. If you are just finding the DFS Army and are not a VIP member sign up and use code Xfinity to save 20%!! Our DFS Army VIP members get access to the Domination Station and Research Station post qualifying. Also, VIP members get access to our VIP Slack and direct contact to the NASCAR coaches. Come join the best team in NASCAR DFS!
The Monster Energy Cup Series makes its way to Briatol Motor Speedway this week. Bristol marks the 2nd short track of the year and much like Martinsville is a 500 lap race. With the added downforce this year speeds are expected to pick up even more on the ultra fast high banks of Bristol. With lap times under 15 seconds things happen incredibly quick. This often leads to many mistakes and accidents which can result in a lot of shake up when it comes to running order and finishing positions. Any issue such as a flat tire can also ruin a drivers day as they will end up multiple laps down. We do tend to see long green flag runs at times with the drivers who can run up against the wall and keeping momentum up being the best over the long run. Certain drivers tend to do better at Bristol because of that so leaning on past results when building lineups is even more important this week.
Quick Facts
Date: April 7th
Practice 1: Friday 1:35 pm ET.
Qualifying: Friday 6:10 pm ET.
Practice 2: Saturday 8:30 am ET.
Practice 3: Saturday 11:05 am ET.
Race: Sunday 2:00 pm ET.
Laps: 500 Stages: 125/250/500
Drivers: 40
Defending Champion: Kyle Busch
AVG. # of Cautions: 9.25 excluding stage breaks
AVG DNF’s: 6 per race
Lineup Building
Dominator / Top Tier
All lineups shoud have at a minimum 2 dominators. The majority of lineups should have 3 dominators but also consider making some lineups with 4 dominators in mind. The dominators can come from all over as we saw last fall with Elliott, Logano, Bowyer, and Blaney all leading between 95-121 laps each and finishing inside the top 10. The obvious pre race favorites will be Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson based on their ability to run the top and lead laps in bunches. H0wever, as we have seen many times anything can happen at Bristol. For instance, Kyle Busch has 7 wins here but also has 5 finishes of 29th or worse in his last 9 races. There are tons of possibilities this week so keep an open mind. Logano, Keselowski, and Blaney all have strong history at Bristol and can also be considered in the group of potential dominators.
The DFS Army has been crushing NASCAR contest all year. Get the edge on everyone else and join the DFS Army. When you become a VIP member you get exclusive access to our Research Station and Domination Station. You also get access to our VIP Slack and direct contact to the DFS Army coaches. If you are not already a VIP member sign up and use code Xfinity to save 20%!!
Be sure to check out the improvements made to the Domination Station including the new Dominator Control for NASCAR. The DFS Army continues to improve to give members the best possible edge on the competition.
Mid to Low Tier
This week lends itself to many great mid tier plays. Due to Bristol being more about mechanical grip and a drivers ability rather than the cars capability the playing field is much more even. This allows drivers who don’t normally run up front the opportunity to compete for top 5s. Ricky Stenhouse is the best example of this. He has scored 4 top 5s and 6 top 10s in his last 10 Bristol races. Alex Bowman and Erik Jones each have 2 finishes of 8th or better with Jones leading 260 laps and finishing 2nd back in the fall of 2017. In the lower tier Matt Dibenedetto will see lots of love this week for his strong performances in lesser equipment. David Ragan who has 3 straight finishes of 17th or better is another driver to keep an eye out for. Finding the value here to pair with your dominators will be important. You don’t have to look in the normal places however as Bristol has seen numerous drivers outperform their norm.
Punts
At Bristol there is always the chance for a high crash/dnf rate which could see these drivers gain some value. If we get a rather tame race like we have for most of 2019 these drivers could offer very little in terms of value. This however, means very little due to the amount of laps led/fast laps points available. If the 3rd or 4th potential dominator you take hits they will easily offset any value lost by taking a punt.
I will be giving my Fanduel Top Plays in a VIP article prior to the race.
I will also answer any questions you may have in the VIP Slack!
This will conclude this edition of The Monster Energy Cup Series Preview. If you would like to reach out and talk NASCAR Follow me on twitter @Larkin8 or of course Become a VIP member and join me as well as our other DFS Army NASCAR contributors (Brady Miller, Taco, and NillyJay) in the NASCAR coaching channels.