What’s up, everyone?! Welcome to a new season of NASCAR coverage here at the DFS Army. My name is Ryan Larkin aka @Larkin8 on twitter, slack and just about anywhere. I will be previewing the 2020 Cup Series season while also showing you what we have in store for our DFS Army VIP members. It is almost go time for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season with the first DFS race day being February 9th. If you aren’t already a member of the DFS Army then now is the time to sign up!! We offer the best NASCAR content in the industry from our Articles, Coaches Notes, Research Station, Domination Station optimizer and of course our direct slack chat to NASCAR coaches. Membership gets you access to all these things from every DFS sport out there for one price. Sign up today and use code Larkin for 20% off VIP membership!!!
Driver/Team Changes
As with most years, the most exciting part of a new season is the driver changes. Inside the industry, the term “Silly Season” is used to describe the time period at the end of a season until the beginning of a new season when driver, crew chief, team and sponsorship changes are made. The 2019/2020 Silly Season has given us tons to talk about heading into the 2020 Cup season.
The Rookies
In 2019 three drivers, Christopher Bell, Cole Custer, and Tyler Reddick absolutely dominated the Xfinity Series winning 21 of the 33 races. Due to their success each driver has graduated to the Cup Series with prominent teams. Another driver moving up from the Xfinity Series in 2020 will be John Hunter Nemechek. Nemechek, a personal favorite of mine, continuously outdrove his equipment and contemporaries and performed well above what would be expected for other drivers in his position.
Christopher Bell
Bell has been Toyota’s top tier development driver for years now sinking in excess of 20+ million dollars into the prospects young career. He will be joining Leavine Family Racing #95 team in 2020. LFR will be getting increased support from Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, who hold the contractual rights to Bell. Expectations are high for Bell and LFR that they can consistently contend for top 10s and a playoff spot in 2020.
Expectation: Make playoffs. Offer great gpp upside some weeks and kill lineups other weeks. Pricing will be key.
Cole Custer
Custer has been in the Stewart-Haas development system for many years now and has finally gotten the call to the Cup Series. He will take over the #41 car that was left vacated by the release of Daniel Suarez. Custer put together an incredible 2019 Xfinity season with 7 wins and 17 top 5s and considering he is joining one of the very best teams in all of NASCAR holds high expectations. He has struggled with green flag passing at the Xfinity level which could be a weak spot at the highest level of competition especially with the currently rules package.
Expectation: Fringe playoff driver. Secure a few top tens but struggle on the whole. Likely go over-owned and will rarely pay off his price.
Tyler Reddick
Reddick is the two-time defending Xfinity Series champion and has been tabbed by RCR to drive the #8 car in the Cup Series. Reddick has continued to be overlooked compared to his contemporaries but his 8th place finish in the Cup race at Kansas last year shows the upside he can have. A great passer who can fight his way to the front. I expect great DFS value from Reddick this season.
Expectation: To go under-priced early on and offer incredible gpp upside at the 1.5 mile tracks.
John Hunter Nemechek
Nemechek is joining Front Row Motorsports for 2020. FRM has downsized from three to two cars with the departure of David Ragan and Matt Tifft. I would expect Nemechek to fall into the $5,550-$6,000 price range and offer great value due to his ability to get the most out of a race car. He finished 2019 driving for FRM and finished ahead of both teammates David Ragan and Michael McDowell in all three of the final races.
Expectation: To potentially be a core low tier play give his price and consistency. Will outperform his contemporaries on a weekly basis.
Brennan Poole
Brennan Poole has bounced around the lower series for a few years now. He has decided to make the jump to Cup racing with the fledgling Premium Motorsports #15. This is the car Ross Chastain drove in 2019.
Expectation: Be perhaps the best of the punt plays on a regular basis but only playable when you need to save salary for multiple high priced dominators.
The rookies are getting a lot of attention but there have been many changes in the DFS Mid Tier. There will be a definite edge early this year with these driver changes as Draftkings and Fanduel gets pricing settled. These are the type of things the DFS Army is best at identifying to give its members the best opportunity to succeed.
Looking to help distinguish the great plays from the mediocre? Then the DFS Army is the place to be. Our Research Station breaks down everything from practice speeds, track history, track type history, and projections. Of course, we offer our Coaches Notes and direct coach chat to help decipher who the best plays are. The attention to detail with the DFS Army helps our members win big on a regular basis. Join the best team in NASCAR DFS and get the winning edge. Become a VIP member today and use promo code LARKIN for 20% off membership!!
Other Notable Driver Changes
Ricky Stenhouse and Chris Buescher
Stenhouse, long time driver of the #17, was let go by Roush-Fenway late in 2019. His replacement will be Chris Buescher. Stenhouse subsequently will take over Buescher’s old ride at JTG. Crew Chief Brian Patty will join Stenhouse at JTG. They should offer good value often in 2020. Buescher was one of the standout stars of the 2019 Cup Series season in terms of DFS. He consistently offered great place differential and was able to finish multiple positions ahead of what would be expected. The move to Roush is considered a step up for Buescher with expectations that he can score numerous top 10s and contend for a playoff spot.
Expectation: Stenhouse will be a great low tier value play at times who still can hurt you with crashes. Buescher moves out of the low tier and into the lower mid-tier. Will become a gpp only type play more than a core lock that he became late last year.
Daniel Suarez
Suarez was let go at SHR to make room for Cole Custer and has spent the last five months looking for a home. Well, he has found it with the #96 of Gaunt Brothers Racing. GBR has been a part-time team with minor Toyota backing that in short order will be expected to make the jump to full-time competition. This will be a very difficult transition for this team and we should expect struggles early on.
Expectation: Be a viable low-tier gpp play depending on the week. Will definitely have a limited upside though.
Matt Dibenedetto
Matty D makes the jump over to the Wood Brothers #21. This is a great home for Dibenedetto and gives him a stable shot at the playoffs. Wood Brothers is affiliated with Penske and will produce fast race cars every week.
Expectation; Fringe playoff driver who will offer killer gpp upside at times and depending on price could be a core play a lot of weeks.
Crew Chiefs
While the drivers are what we care most about as fans and DFS players the Crew Chiefs are often as important to a teams result. Whether through car setup or pit strategy they make the most important decisions on a weekly basis. In this section I will list the numerous changes and highlight a few with potentially big impacts.
Jason Ratcliff – Move to #95 with Christopher Bell from Xfinity Series. Ratcliff has 15 Cup Series wins and 51 Xfinity Series wins. Won 15 races the last two years with Bell in the Xfinity Series.
Stewart Haas Racing
Stewart Haas as a whole had a big shake up Crew Chief wise. Mike Shipplett moves up with Cole Custer to take over the #41. Johnny Klausmeier leaves Aric Almirola and moves over to work with Clint Bowyer and Mike Bugarewicz is the counter switching from Bowyer to Almirola. Fresh faces can create better focus but some times combos can just miss. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect things.
Brian Pattie – To #47 of JTG with Ricky Stenhouse
Trent Owens – To #37 with Ryan Preece
Cole Pearn Leaves
Cole Pearn who had dominated the Cup Series for the previous four years with Martin Truex Jr. decided to retire. This takes perhaps the best crew chief out of the series. James Small takes over as crew chief for the #19 in 2020. Small worked with Pearn and MTJ as an engineer for the past few seasons. Smal is the perfect replacement but at the end of the day replacing Pearn is almost an impossible task. Will be a huge storyline to follow.
Justin Alexander – Moves back to the #3 of Austin Dillon
Randell Burnett – Moves up with Tyler Reddick to the #8 for RCR
Jerry Baxter Baxter joins the #43 at RPM with driver Bubba Wallace. This move reunites Baxter and Wallace who worked together in the Truck Series. In two seasons together they won five races and scored 25 top 10s. Chemistry and communication should take a huge step forward.
Team Penske
Penske decided to shake everything up with its three car team during the offseason. Essentially what will be a driver and number swap for all three teams. This was a major shake up considering two of the pairings had won championships together including just two years ago in 2018.
Paul Wolff – Will now work with Joey Logano after working for 9 seasons with Brad Keselowski. Wolff won an Xfinity and Cup series Championship with Keselowski and is widely regarded as one of the best strategists in the series.
Todd Gordon – No longer with Joey Logano who he won the 2018 Cup Championship with. He is now paired with Ryan Blaney in an effort to get Blaney to the next level.
Jeremy Bullins – Bullins will head into the 2020 season working with Brad Keselowski. Bullins has spent the last six years working with Blaney at the Cup level seeing a steady increase in performance. Bullins and Keselowski have worked together in the past at the Xfinity Series level winning 11 of their last 20 races together.
What can the DFS Army do for you!!!
I want to take a quick break to let everyone know exactly what we offer in detail here at DFS Army. For the 2020 NASCAR season we will offer the following of premium content:
- Direct coaching from our NASCAR staff via VIP Slack chat – Every VIP member is welcome to ask questions, talk strategy or just have fun talking NASCAR. We even started an iracing league out of the friendships built here.
- Weekly articles specific to each NASCAR DFS series previewing each race
- Post qualifying DFS breakdown articles for Cup Series races
- Taco’s Fast 40 Cup Series podcast
- Post qualifying VIP coaches notes for ALL THREE series
- VIP Research Station tailored to each individual race for all three series
- VIP Domination Station optimizer for each race of all three series
- We will also be offering tutorial podcast and articles throught the season to help our members learn how to be better DFS players.
Our group strives to bring you the most up to date information for one of the most time-sensitive DFS sports. We love what we do and it shows in the top quality content we produce week in and week out. Come join the best team in NASCAR DFS and become a VIP member. Use promo code LARKIN for 20% off membership for life.
Rules Changes
Heading into the 2020 season we only see a couple of substantial rule changes. The first is in regards to stage lengths. Essentially the final stage will be shortened while the first and second stages made longer. This should change green flag pit strategy at most tracks. Due to this NASCAR has gone back to making the halfway point of races the point in which a race is determined official.
The other rule change of note was a major one. NASCAR made massive aero changes to the 750 hp rules package which is utilized at tracks 1 mile or shorter and road courses. These changes were made due to the complete lack of passing ability with the rules package. The new 2020 aero package essentially will be a throwback to how the cars were during the 2018 season.
New aero rules for 750 hp package
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- The rear spoiler will be reduced from 8 inches to 2.75 inches in height.
- The front splitter’s overhang will be reduced from 2 inches to a quarter-inch, with its wings trimmed from 10.5 inches to 2 inches.
- The radiator pan’s vertical fencing will be removed to reduce front-end downforce.
Another important development aero wise is the new Chevy body for 2020. Chevy has struggled since they introduced their new car in 2018 and as a result got permission from NASCAR to design a new body for 2020. will be interesting to see how significant a change this is.
Be sure to check out Taco’s 2019 NASCAR Cup season review podcast available now!!
Schedule changes
There were some significant schedule changes for the 2020 Cup Series season. Lets take a look at some of the biggest ones and how they may affect things for DFS.
- Pocono doubleheader – The two Pocono races will now be run on the same weekend in late June. Qualifying for race one will be standard with race one being a 325 mile race on Saturday. Race two will be a 350 mile race and take place Sunday. The starting lineup for race two will be a tricky one. The lead lap cars will be inverted while everyone a lap or more down will start behind those cars. If a driver wrecks on Saturday and finishes last then they start last on Sunday.
- Atlanta-Homestead – Atlanta moves back 4 weeks to March 15th and is followed by the race at Homestead. Homestead moves from being the series finale for two decades to a mid-March date. These are two of the best 1.5 mile tracks with high tire wear and multiple grooves. Similar tracks and a good back to back duo early in the year.
- Daytona-Indy – The 400 mile Daytona race that has been a long staple of July 4th weekend now moves to August 29th. This move makes it the last regular season race. Obviously, a situation that will breed chaos at an already chaotic track. As a result, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway moves to July 4th weekend.
- Phoenix race 36 – NASCAR has replaced Homestead with Phoenix as the home of the championship race. This does very little in terms of DFS but is a major change none the less.
This will conclude the 2020 Cup Series Preview. I hope you enjoyed it and picked up some extra knowledge to help going into the new season. If you would like to follow me on twitter you can @Larkin8. Most importantly I hope you will join us at the DFS Army and become a VIP member. Join today and use my promo code LARKIN for 20% off membership
