Advertisement

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is at Chicagoland Speedway this weekend for the Overton’s 400. We race at this track once per season, but 2018 is the first time since 2010 that we’ve been here in July. Apparently NASCAR realized that this race is so boring that it’s not a very good fit for the first event of the Playoffs. Anyway, Chicagoland is your typical 1.5-mile track, and up until Saturday evening, this was shaping up to be a pretty typical weekend. And then all hell broke loose. NASCAR decided to go with their idiotic condensed schedule for this race weekend, and after a very late qualifying session on Saturday (they qualified at the same time the race will be close to finished on Sunday), we had four drivers (Martin Truex, Jr., Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, and Chris Buescher) fail post-qualifying inspection and have their times disallowed. They will start and be scored from the rear on Sunday. That is in addition to Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, and Kyle Larson all missing the final round of qualifying, and if all of that is any indication of what’s going to happen on race day, we’re bound to have three crazy weeks in a row because Daytona is up next. Isn’t Fantasy NASCAR fun?

I’ll be skipping out on the “Driver Targets” this week, as there is so much chalk on the board. Full projections are listed below. Good luck!

FanDuel Projections for the Overton’s 400

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 points + laps led as well as the dollar per FPT. It assumes that all drivers projected to finish 11th or better will complete all laps, those projected 11th-16th will finish 2 laps down, those projected 17th-24th will finish 4 laps down, those projected 25th-30th will finish 6 laps down, and those projected 31st or worse will finish 8 laps down. You can click the headers below to sort the chart by that attribute. By default it is sorted by average projected FPTS.

DriverFanDuel SalaryAvg Proj FPTSStarting PositionAvg. Projected FinishProj Laps LedDollar Per FPT
Martin Truex Jr.$12,80088.63602.853$144
Kevin Harvick$12,30076.21102.247$161
Denny Hamlin$10,60074.13708.811$143
Kyle Larson$11,40072.11804.824$158
Kyle Busch$11,90071.91604.018$166
Ryan Blaney$10,50065.2205.649$161
Joey Logano$10,80064.91206.02$166
Jimmie Johnson$9,50064.63814.60$147
Chase Elliott$10,60063.4305.827$167
Brad Keselowski$11,10059.2708.00$188
Clint Bowyer$11,20059.2507.87$189
Kurt Busch$10,40058.3408.412$178
Erik Jones$9,30054.0912.00$172
Aric Almirola$8,40053.4611.63$157
Chris Buescher$6,10052.93922.60$115
Daniel Suarez$8,20051.81013.80$158
Alex Bowman$8,10050.21516.40$161
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.$8,00050.02018.20$160
Paul Menard$8,70049.9113.014$174
Jamie McMurray$9,10049.51316.20$184
Austin Dillon$7,40048.51417.20$153
Ryan Newman$7,60047.31719.00$161
William Byron$7,30047.0816.20$155
Bubba Wallace$7,00045.62221.80$154
Kasey Kahne$7,90044.82423.00$176
Ty Dillon$6,50044.72523.40$145
AJ Allmendinger$7,80041.41923.60$188
Corey LaJoie$5,00039.93228.80$125
Trevor Bayne$6,60039.52125.40$167
Michael McDowell$6,00038.42627.80$156
Matt DiBenedetto$6,30037.02829.40$170
David Ragan$6,80036.32328.20$187
Ross Chastain$5,00033.92731.00$147
Gray Gaulding$5,00033.12932.20$151
Landon Cassill$5,50032.63133.20$169
Kyle Weatherman$5,00030.63034.20$163
Reed Sorenson$5,00030.23435.80$166
Timmy Hill$5,00029.23536.80$171

Advertisement
As someone who has always been obsessed with numbers, Fantasy NASCAR has been the perfect fit with me. I pride myself on the quality of my analysis for each race, and am glad that I have been able to help others along the way. I've been a serious Fantasy NASCAR player for over 10 years now, and I'm just getting started.