Richmond International Raceway is a 0.75-mile track that is technically considered a short track, but with the way it is laid out and the speeds we reach here, it races like a speedway. In our opinion, some of the best Sprint Cup action we will see all year will be right here at Richmond. Qualifying was rained out on Friday, so the field was set by the first practice speeds. That means that the drivers that were fast off the truck are going to be starting up front. There aren’t many DraftKings drivers that you should avoid like the plague this weekend, but there are some, so make sure the following guys aren’t on your rosters.
DraftKings Drivers to Avoid for the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond
Kasey Kahne ($8,200) – Kasey Kahne should have a permanent spot on these weekly lists. You see, Kasey Kahne always has been–and probably always will be–a disappointing Fantasy NASCAR option. And this year especially, he’s been blowing smoke up people’s asses on a more regular basis. What I mean by that is that he looks really good during practice and qualifying and then ends up laying an egg on race day. Let’s just look at the fact that in the seven races since the Daytona 500, Kahne has finished worse than he started in four of them. He also has just two top 10s on the year with four finishes in the mid-20s. This weekend at Richmond, it was the same old story with Kasey Kahne: he will start Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 from 8th, and he posted the 2nd-fastest lap during Saturday’s Happy Hour practice. Kahne did finish 6th in this race last season but that’s his only result better than 12th in the last seven races here. He’s not worth the gamble this weekend.
Clint Bowyer ($7,200) – Clint Bowyer had a huge DraftKings week at Bristol last Sunday, so congratulations on those who took the gamble there. But let’s not get all excited and think that Clint Bowyer is “back” or anything. Remember, Matt DiBenedetto finished 6th at Bristol, so to mark that race off as a fluke–or whatever other term you can think of–is alright with us. This week, Clint Bowyer is “back” to his normal self and will probably struggle to crack the top 30 during the race. He starts 39th, which is attractive for those looking at place differential points, but he was 37th-fastest in Happy Hour and is severely overpriced this week at $7,200. The reason his price is so high is because Bower has six top 10s in the last eight Richmond races, but trust us, he has virtually no chance of finishing that high this weekend.
Denny Hamlin ($10,400) – We’re going to file this under “overpriced.” Quite simply, it’s not worth taking the $10,400 hit and putting Denny Hamlin on your DraftKings team this weekend. He’s the 3rd-highest-priced driver in this game for Richmond but he’s probably not even going to be in the top 10 in terms of points scored. Yeah, Denny is a two-time winner at this track and owns an impressive 10.8 career average finish here, but he has finished 18th or worse in five of his last six starts here, and you can’t really chalk that up to bad luck. Also, this #11 team has been anything but a solid Fantasy NASCAR pick since winning at Daytona; in the last seven Sprint Cup races, Hamlin has two good finishes (3rd at Phoenix and Fontana) but other than that hasn’t been much of a factor and hasn’t posted a result better than 12th. Hamlin will start 5th for this Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400, so really the only way you could justify him as a DraftKings pick is if he was going to lead a bunch of laps, and we just don’t see that happening.
Austin Dillon ($7,800) – After starting off the 2016 season red hot, this #3 team has made an abrupt landing back down on Earth. With his 26th-place finish a Bristol last weekend, Austin Dillon has now ended up 19th or worse in three of the last four Sprint Cup races, and if history is going to repeat itself, then he’s going to make it four of the last five here at Richmond on Sunday. In four career starts here at RIR, Austin Dillon has finished 27th three times–hey, at least he’s consistent–while posting a 20th-place result here in 2014. This weekend, he starts 11th, so he’s probably going to lose points on place differential, and the #3 Chevrolet ranked 24th-fastest during Happy Hour on Saturday (and just 19th on the ten-lap average chart). If Austin started mid-pack for this year’s Toyota Owners 400 he might be an option in DraftKings, but since he doesn’t, you won’t find him on any of our rosters.
