Welcome to the Monster Energy Cup Series Preview. I’m Ryan Larkin and you can follow me on twitter @Larkin8. This week we will be looking ahead to the Cup Series race at Daytona. If you are just finding the DFS Army and are not a VIP member sign up and use code LARKIN 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!
NASCAR makes its way back home to Daytona International Speedway. For many this will be the end of an era as this will be the last 400 mile race run on 4th of July weekend for the foreseeable future. Daytona is the single biggest chance for teams to earn a playoff spot late in the season. This is due to the equalizer known as the draft. The draft allows all the teams to run up front with a chance at the win. This opportunity is what helps lead to chaos. The draft helps keep the drivers in a tight pack and when something goes wrong it often results in the big one. The big one is in reference to a large crash that takes out numerous drivers. Due to these factors literally every driver in the field has a chance to score well and end up on the optimal lineup.
Quick Facts
Date: July 6th
Practice 1: Thursday 2:05 pm ET.
Practice 2: Thursday 4:05 pm ET.
Qualifying: Friday 5:05 pm ET.
Race: Saturday 7:30 pm ET.
Laps: 160 Stages: 50/100/160
Drivers: 40
Defending Champion: Erik Jones
Lineup Building
Optimal lineups often end up leaving several thousand dollars on the table so don’t worry if you end up with extra $$$ to spend. A mixture of top tier drivers who finish upfront plus mid tier and punt drivers with massive place differential upside will be needed. Bottom line is don’t be afraid to take chances and play any and all drivers.
Dominator / Top Tier
The amount of dominators needed is not really important. Pinpointing who a lone dominator could be rather difficult as well. It will likely be best to stacks of drivers from the same team like Penske or Gibbs and that will likely result in capturing the laps led. An example of this is the Gibbs cars finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Daytona 500 and combining for 67 laps led. Fast laps will end up all over the place with the draft so no reason to plan for those. All the top teams are in play to win and any of these teams who offer great place differential hold extra value. It will take a bit of luck but avoiding wrecks, finishing up front with place differential and also leading some laps is what you will be looking for out of the top tier not necessarily a traditional dominator.
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Mid to Low Tier
This area is full of potential but also has the most risk. It can be a complete guessing game when finding the best plays. There are drivers like David Ragan and Aric Almirola who have shown to be better than others at this type of racing. You will always try to utilize past performances to help make decisions on who the best plays are as they do deliver top performances more often than the other drivers. Otherwise it will be all about guessing who can stay out of trouble and score a top 10. Michael McDowell 5th, TY Dillon 6th and Ryan Preece 8th are examples of drivers who did exactly this during the Daytona 500.
Punts
This area can be really important this week as they usually run outside the big pack and avoid the wrecks. These drivers are safer plays but also end up offering the highest place differential upside. These drivers usually start 30th or worse but can end up inside the top 15 or even the top 10. That easily puts these drivers into the optimal lineup.
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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.