These are my final thoughts and strategies to consider for Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, as well as projected FPTS for each driver. The chart below is explained but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.
- Dominator points aren’t worthless at Talladega, but there’s no reason to really try and focus on them when building your lineups. Looking back at Daytona, fastest laps were all of the board, and the driver with the most was Michael Waltrip with 14. Ryan Blaney had the 2nd-most with 11 fastest laps. With today’s race only being 188 laps, that means there’s just 47 FPTS up for grabs for laps led, and those will be spread around the field as well.
- Place differential and finish FPTS are what you should really try and nail down today. However, that doesn’t mean that all drivers starting up front are off-limits when it comes to DraftKings. Check out the chart below and compare the projected base FPTS of the drivers starting in the top 10 as well as the drivers starting mid-pack or worse. Sometimes the finish FPTS are worth more than you realize.
Projected Base FPTS at Talladega
The following chart takes into account the very basics: the starting position and the projected finish of each driver. The projected finishes are averaged from five different ranking systems, using both mathematical equations as well as personal rankings. This chart also includes the average projected base FPTS–which doesn’t take into account fastest laps or laps led points–as well as the dollar per FPT. I don’t try to project fastest laps or laps led–that’s up to you. You can click the headers below to sort the chart by that attribute. By default it is sorted by the average projected finish of the drivers.
| Driver | DraftKings Salary | Starting Position | Avg. Projected Finish | Avg Proj Base FPTS | Dollar Per FPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brad Keselowski | $10,500 | 3 | 04.8 | 38.0 | $276 |
| Kevin Harvick | $9,300 | 6 | 05.4 | 40.4 | $230 |
| Clint Bowyer | $8,200 | 17 | 06.8 | 47.4 | $173 |
| Joey Logano | $10,700 | 12 | 07.0 | 42.0 | $255 |
| Chase Elliott | $9,200 | 8 | 07.4 | 37.8 | $243 |
| Kurt Busch | $8,000 | 15 | 09.2 | 40.6 | $197 |
| Denny Hamlin | $10,200 | 11 | 10.2 | 34.6 | $295 |
| Kyle Busch | $9,600 | 10 | 10.2 | 33.6 | $286 |
| Kyle Larson | $9,000 | 21 | 10.2 | 44.6 | $202 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr | $9,400 | 2 | 10.4 | 26.4 | $356 |
| Martin Truex Jr | $9,900 | 13 | 10.6 | 35.8 | $277 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr | $7,200 | 1 | 10.8 | 23.4 | $308 |
| Austin Dillon | $7,700 | 18 | 11.2 | 39.6 | $194 |
| Ryan Newman | $7,400 | 20 | 11.6 | 40.8 | $181 |
| Ryan Blaney | $8,700 | 16 | 12.2 | 35.6 | $244 |
| Jamie McMurray | $7,600 | 23 | 13.8 | 39.4 | $193 |
| Jimmie Johnson | $9,700 | 30 | 14.8 | 44.4 | $218 |
| Trevor Bayne | $7,100 | 5 | 15.4 | 18.2 | $390 |
| Erik Jones | $8,500 | 14 | 15.8 | 26.4 | $322 |
| Paul Menard | $7,300 | 9 | 16.2 | 20.6 | $354 |
| Aric Almirola | $7,000 | 22 | 17.6 | 30.8 | $227 |
| Matt Kenseth | $9,100 | 4 | 17.8 | 12.4 | $734 |
| Kasey Kahne | $7,500 | 19 | 17.8 | 27.4 | $274 |
| AJ Allmendinger | $6,800 | 27 | 18.2 | 34.6 | $197 |
| Daniel Suarez | $7,800 | 7 | 19.0 | 13.0 | $600 |
| Ty Dillon | $6,600 | 28 | 19.0 | 34.0 | $194 |
| Michael McDowell | $5,900 | 24 | 22.6 | 22.8 | $259 |
| Danica Patrick | $6,300 | 31 | 24.4 | 26.2 | $240 |
| Landon Cassill | $6,100 | 25 | 24.6 | 19.8 | $308 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $5,800 | 26 | 25.2 | 19.6 | $296 |
| Elliott Sadler | $6,700 | 35 | 25.4 | 28.2 | $238 |
| Chris Buescher | $6,500 | 34 | 25.6 | 26.8 | $243 |
| David Ragan | $6,000 | 29 | 26.0 | 21.0 | $286 |
| Cole Whitt | $5,200 | 38 | 27.4 | 27.2 | $191 |
| Gray Gaulding | $5,700 | 37 | 29.2 | 22.6 | $252 |
| Brendan Gaughan | $5,600 | 32 | 30.2 | 15.6 | $359 |
| Reed Sorenson | $4,700 | 33 | 30.2 | 16.6 | $283 |
| Joey Gase | $5,500 | 39 | 30.4 | 22.2 | $248 |
| Jeffrey Earnhardt | $4,900 | 40 | 30.8 | 22.4 | $219 |
| Corey Lajoie | $5,300 | 36 | 33.2 | 13.6 | $390 |
