NASCAR Cup Series Daytona DFS Picks

NASCAR heads to Daytona this week for the final regular season race and the cutoff for the playoffs. The superspeedway gives everyone in the field a chance to win so everyone should have one final chance to get themselves into the playoffs. We usually see a lot of wrecks in recent years in this second Daytona race of the season, so survival is going to be half the battle this week. As the strategy is with the drafting superspeedways, place differential is the most important factor for these races as dominator points will be spread throughout the field. Picking drivers with big place differential upside and fading drivers starting towards the front gives you a much better chance at hitting a big lineup.

Fades

Ryan Blaney

Joey Logano

William Byron

Denny Hamlin

Kyle Larson

Austin Cindric

Alex Bowman

Chase Briscoe

Austin Dillon

These are all the drivers that I am fading this week as they start too far forward and have limited upside because of it. Any of the drivers starting in the top 5 are very unlikely to be one of the top point scorers even with a top 3 finish and even all the drivers starting in the top 10 have an uphill battle. There are a lot of good options starting outside the top 20 that will be top plays if they can avoid the wrecks and end up with a solid finish which is realistic for almost everyone in the field.

Top Place Differential Plays

Chase Elliott

Ricky Stenhouse

Chris Buescher

Tyler Reddick

Bubba Wallace

Ryan Preece

These are the top place differential plays for tonight at Daytona. Elliott will likely be one of the highest owned tonight starting back in 30th and being one of the more well known drivers that can drive up to the front. Stenhouse is one of the best drivers on drafting tracks and should find his way to the front if he can stay out of trouble. Buescher, Reddick, and Wallace are all solid options starting outside the top 20 and are great place differential plays. Preece is another with big place differential upside starting 31st if he can keep all 4 wheels on the ground as he has flipped the last two Daytona races.

Cheap Options

Erik Jones

John Hunter Nemechek

Noah Gragson

Todd Gilliland

Justin Haley

Cole Custer

Austin Hill

Riley Herbst

Cody Ware

BJ McLeod

Casey Mears

Joey Gase

All these drivers are great place differential options with huge upside as they all start outside the top 25. Once again the key to the race tonight is going to be staying out of the wrecks so whoever of these drivers can avoid trouble and end up around the top 10 have a great chance to end up in the winning lineup.

Drivers like Nemechek, Gilliland, and Haley have a great history of making it to the end of these races and getting good finishes.

Also the group of drivers of Ware, McLeod, Mears, and Gase are all likely to be more cautious in the race and ride in the back to avoid the wrecks. This can be a great strategy if we get some big wrecks and a lot of cars out of the race which we do get pretty often here. The biggest concern with Mears and Gase is that they are not in good equipment so they will need to avoid mechanical issues and stay on the lead lap so they are there at the end.