Welcome everyone to the NASCAR Cup Series DFS Preview. For this edition, we will take a quick look at the upcoming Busch Clash exhibition race at Daytona. This article is brought to you by DFSArmy.com and written by Ryan Larkin. You can catch up with Ryan on Twitter or in the DFSA VIP slack @Larkin8
The first month and a half of the NASCAR season is the best time to sign up for the DFS Army. The first week alone will have 6 DFS playable races and through the end of March, there are 21 races. We see 5 different track types including a road course and the first-ever Dirt race at Bristol. Join the winning team NOW and get the best DFS coverage in existence. Promo Code LARKIN gets you 10% off!! The DFS Army now offers a NASCAR specific package if you are looking for focused coverage.
Busch Clash 2021
What’s up, everyone?! The first race of the 2021 NASCAR season is an exhibition race run at Daytona International Speedway. To be eligible you must have raced full-time in the Cup Series during the 2020 season and accomplished one of seven things. This used to be a rather exclusive race reserved mainly for Pole Position winners but with COVID shutting down qualifying last year the eligibility requirements changed giving us perhaps the biggest clash field ever. The big change for this year is that the race will take place on the road course. The race will be 35 laps with a stage break caution at lap 20.
Busch Clash Eligibility Criteria
2020 Busch Pole Award winners
Past Busch Clash winners who competed full-time in 2020
DAYTONA 500 champions who competed full-time in 2020
Former DAYTONA 500 Busch Pole winners who competed full-time in 2020
2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff drivers
2020 NASCAR Cup Series race winners
NASCAR Cup Series stage winners from 2020
DFS Outlook
There are 24 eligible drivers to enter the Clash this year however three of these drivers will not compete in the event. This will leave us with a total of 21 drivers for the event. Due to the small field size, DFS pricing will be very spread out making most lineup combinations playable. You will be looking to get the right combination of place differential and top finishers. The starting positions for the race will be decided by a random draw on Monday night at 9 pm. It will take place via a Facebook stream if anyone is actually interested in watching it. This should be a very straightforward race and I do not expect much carnage. We could see some action on the restart to the final stage but I would expect things to get spread out. I would use last year’s race here and races at the Roval as a reference for this race. I expect it should be fairly chalky with Elliott and Truex seeing a lot of ownership. This would be a good spot to try going under on ownership and hope that strategy or late-race incidents cause them to have issues. It will be the best spot to get leverage on the field.
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Quick Race Facts
Date: February 9th
Race: Tuesday 7:00 pm ET
Qualifying: Will be done by random draw Monday 9:00 pm ET.
Laps: 35
Drivers: 21
Track Facts: 14-turns, 3.61-mile road course
Defending Champion: First clash on road course. Erik Jones won last years race on the oval
Top Plays
It is hard to tell what the best plays will truly be until we get the starting order but I am going to go ahead and give it a shot. I am going to pick three drivers I really like in what I am expecting to be different price ranges. Once we get the starting positions these drivers could lose value or become elite plays. We will of course have our Domination Station, Research Station, and Cheat Sheet notes for this race once we get the starting order.
Martin Truex Jr.
Truex is my main pivot off Chase Elliott. Chase is going to be massively owned and I will be trying my best to find leverage on the field there. Truex was actually the fastest driver here last year but got killed track position wise. He is Chase’s only real competitor straight up on these road courses and should be considered a top contender for the win.
Kurt Busch
Kurt is as solid as it gets when it comes to road course races. He has finished worse than 14th once in his last 18 Cup road course races. He has 13 top 10s during that stretch as well. I expect him to be right in the mid-range price-wise and someone who will contend for a top 5 finish. If we can get a bunch of place diff upside then he is a beautiful play.
William Byron
In every measurable metric, Byron has been one of the best on road courses the last couple of years. He has poles, laps led, Solid finishes, excellent passing stats, etc. I see him in the lower third of pricing for this race and I see him battling for a top 5 finish. He has finished 6th, 8th, and 6th in his last 3 road course races in the Cup Series. Someone to watch a lot this year on the road courses.
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 new NASCAR season we will offer the following of premium VIP 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
- 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. The only way to get access to all this elite content is to Come join the best team in NASCAR DFS and become a VIP member. Use promo code LARKIN for 10% off membership for life.
Check out some of our other DFS Army NASCAR content for the 2021 season!!!
NASCAR Cup Series Season Preview
NASCAR Truck Series Season Preview
2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Season Preview
DFS Army Strategy Series – NASCAR Scoring Fanduel vs Draftkings
This will conclude the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series DFS Power Rankings Season 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.
