There’s a whole bunch of variables that could affect the race here at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night. First is the threat of rain. We might not even race on Sunday. As far as the practice sessions from Saturday go, those were ran in the morning and in the middle of the afternoon. The Coca-Cola 600 is set to run on Sunday night. And then there’s the whole 600 miles thing. This is the longest race of the season and it’s not uncommon to see strategy and fuel mileage come into play with the finish. Historically, the fastest cars are much less likely to win at Charlotte than they are at other race tracks, which just underscores the validity of all of those additional variables.
DraftKings Drivers to Avoid for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. ($6,900) – We’ve been big Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. fans this year. He’s been on our rosters more times than we’ve ever imagined. But when that #17 Ford ended up 3rd in qualifying on Thursday, the possibility of using Stenhouse in DraftKings completely went out the window. This car may be able to lay down one fast lap–we saw Ricky end up high on the speed charts during both of Saturday’s practice sessions as well–but it doesn’t have that great of long run speed, which is exactly what you need if you’re going to run up front in the Coca-Cola 600. Thus, Stenhouse isn’t going to lead many laps on Sunday night (if any), which is the only reason you should pick a driver in DraftKings that starts up front. Chances are Stenhouse is going to finish around 15th when the checkered flag waves on Sunday night, and that will only net his DraftKings owners a total of 17 points. Stay away.
Casey Mears ($6,100) – Casey Mears is an excellent sleeper pick in many Fantasy NASCAR leagues this weekend. Unfortunately, the DraftKings game is not one of them. You see, Mears qualified an impressive 17th for this year’s Coca-Cola 600, but unless we see something really crazy happen on Sunday night, that’s about the ceiling for this team finish-wise. They’re more likely to finish in the mid-20s and lose some points on place differential. Another sleeper aspect of Mears is the fact that he has won this race before, taking home the Coke 600 trophy way back in 2007. Mears finished 23rd and 18th in the two Charlotte races last season, and while he may look like a nice low-dollar option this weekend, it’d be best to avoid him.
Kevin Harvick ($10,500) – Surprised to see this name on the list? Don’t be. Essentially the reason that we are saying to avoid Kevin Harvick in DraftKings this weekend is because of his price point: he doesn’t have the car to justify that $10,500 price point. Harvick might finish 5th and lead a few laps on Sunday night, but he’s definitely not one of the drivers to beat heading into the 2016 Coca-Cola 600, and he starts 8th so that limits the amount of place differential points he could get as well. Finally, it might be that we still have a bad taste in our mouths from Dover, but this #4 pit crew needs a major overhaul. Do you really want to rely on those guys for an extra 100 miles? Harvick has finished inside the top 10 in ten of the last eleven Charlotte races, and while we have no doubt that he has the ability to make it eleven of the last twelve here on Sunday, there are simply better options at a lower cost this weekend.
Greg Biffle ($6,600) – Here’s another low-priced driver that might get some attention this weekend. Don’t fall in to the trap. Yeah, Greg Biffle finished 2nd in last year’s Coke 600, but let’s not forget that that race came down to fuel mileage. He really didn’t have a 2nd-place car. There’s a reason that that has been Biffle’s only finish better than 16th in the last six Sprint Cup races here at Charlotte. For this year’s 600-mile race, The Biff will roll off the grid from 6th, and that right there should make you stay away from him. Like his teammate, Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Biffle isn’t going to lead many laps this weekend. When you look at the #16 team’s 2016 season thus far, they have zero top 10s and an average finish of 23.2. No thanks. Biffle started 4th in last year’s fall race here at Charlotte and ended up finishing 24th. We wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a similar slide here on Sunday night.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. ($9,400) – You’re not going to hear too many people telling you to avoid this guy in DraftKings this weekend, but hear us out on this one. Yes, this is setting up to be a typical Dale Earnhardt, Jr. weekend: he wasn’t very fast off the truck (he qualified 25th), and then gradually made improvements as the practice sessions went on. As usual, the #88 team found some speed during Happy Hour on Saturday. However, the track conditions during Happy Hour were extremely hot and slick in the middle of the afternoon. The Coca-Cola 600 is going to start in the early evening and then run through the night, so we’re not putting much emphasis on those Happy Hour speeds. So, while Junior is going to be a very popular pick in the DraftKings games this weekend, our strategy here is to not pick him and hope he disappoints. That’s going to open up the door to gain points on our competitors. Also, for what it’s worth, Charlotte just isn’t a very good race track for Earnhardt; over the last fourteen races here, Junior has just three top 10 finishes with nine results of 20th or worse. He finished 3rd in this race one year ago but if you remember back to that race, the fuel mileage aspect really helped this #88 Chevrolet.
