Welcome everyone to the NASCAR Cup Series DFS Preview. For this edition, we will take a look at the upcoming Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This article is brought to you by DFSArmy.com and written by Ryan Larkin. Become a VIP member!! Sign up and use code LARKIN to save 20%!! You can catch up with Ryan on twitter or in the DFSA VIP slack @Larkin8
Las Vegas
Vegas held two races last year under the 550 hp package. The Spring race last year will be the one I am focusing on as the weather will be much more similar to what we are experiencing this weekend. With Temperatures expected to be in the mid 60’s the track should have tons of grip. This will allow teams to run wide open for longer and cause the draft to be more effective. The grip level here is insane with the new package which led to only two natural cautions between the two races last year. The spring race ran caution free besides stage breaks. I expect we will see much the same this week. Due to this long run speed will be important. 30-40 laps into a run we should see teams start to move forward who have more downforce built into the cars. There are only 38 cars on the entry list for this week.
Quick Race Facts
Date: February 23rd
Practice #1 Friday 4:05 pm ET
Practice #2 Friday 7:30 pm ET
Qualifying: Saturday 2:35 pm ET
Race: Sunday 3:30 pm ET
Laps: 267 Stages: 80/160/267
AVG. # of Cautions: 4 (Excluding Stage Breaks)
AVG. # of DNF’s: 3
Defending Champion: Joey Logano
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DFS Outlook
Dominators
For this race we will look to utilize 2-3 dominators. Depending on how teams try to attack this race there could be some obvious top tier talent with place differential upside. The obvious example of this was Logano and Truex in the fall race here. Logano started 22nd and led over 100 laps while Truex started 24th and went on to win the race. I will look for drivers who show great short run speed and qualify up front to fade late in runs. Only Kevin Harvick really showed he could stay up front consistently while qualifying inside the top 5-8 spots.
Mid to Low Tier
With qualifying laps being run wide open we will see qualifying results that might shake things up a bit. Some mid level teams might trim out there cars for short run speed. We saw this a lot with Austin Dillon in 2019. This will lead to them qualifying higher than they should. Conversely, we could see numerous teams add downforce for the long run. They will certainly qualify poorly but should be able to gain spots throughout the race thus offering good place differential. Last fall we saw 8 of the top 10 finishers start 14th or worse. The lower temps may limit this some though and is why I am also paying a lot of attention to results from last March.
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Punts
With so few DNFs in this races history and multiple long green flag runs we shouldn’t expect much from this group. Guys like Ty Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Lajoie who can offer the most place diff upside will be the best bets. Any of the ultra backmarker teams should pretty much be avoided unless you are trying to fit 3-4 elite high priced drivers for dominator and place diff upside.
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This will conclude this edition of NASCAR 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.