It’s Daytona week, which means the viable player pool in FanDuel NASCAR DFS contests opens up quite a bit more than usual, as anyone in the field can end up at or near the front on Saturday night. My advice for races at Daytona is quite simple: stick to a strategy when building your lineups, get them set, and enjoy the race. It’s sure to be a wild one but it should be fun to watch as well.
The Algorithm has Denny Hamlin predicted to win on Saturday night with Chase Elliott coming in behind him. If you’d like to see the full predicted finishing order for this year’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 you can click here to see the Algorithm post. Now let’s get to the FanDuel projections!
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Strategy Discussions
The main thing to remember for this weekend’s race at Daytona is that it doesn’t really matter who you’re picking but rather the strategy you’re using to land on that lineup. In case you didn’t know, RotoDoc and I do a NASCAR Fantasy and Betting podcast, and on this week’s episode we specifically talked about the best strategy to take when it comes to DFS and differentiating your lineups to take down these big contests. Fast forward to just over the 1 hour and 2 minute mark to tune in below.
Optimal Lineup According to Jordan’s Projections
The optimal FanDuel lineup for Daytona Saturday night according to my Projections is:
- Joey Logano
- Austin Dillon
- Ryan Blaney
- Christopher Bell
- Landon Cassill
Confidence Rating = ???/10. I’m not going to give a confidence rating for anything this weekend because races at Daytona and Talladega are so difficult to predict. This lineup could end up being the best on Saturday night, and it could end up being the worst. You just never know. As far as the build goes, I don’t mind it. It’s chalky with Logano and Dillon but I really like Christopher Bell in there. Blaney is a very risky play there, but you’ll likely need at least one or two risky plays on Saturday night to take down any big tournaments.
FanDuel “Safe” DFS Picks for Daytona (Cash Lineups)
Austin Dillon ($12,500) – Obviously Austin Dillon and Joey Logano ($14,000) are the two chalk cash plays this weekend. Logano starts a little further back (22nd) and has race-winning potential, but Austin Dillon has finished 12th or better in four of his last six superspeedway starts, including a 3rd and an 8th in the two races this year. AD will be fighting for his Championship life at one of his best tracks on the schedule this weekend. There’s definitely strategy in going underweight on him in DFS since he’ll be so popular, but for cash games, he’s a solid play and has the 3rd-highest upside according to my projections.
Landon Cassill ($3,000) – FanDuel decided to price Landon Cassill like a backmarker this weekend, when he’s not. This #96 Toyota for Gaunt Brothers Racing has decent speed in it, and even without wrecks, Cassill should be able to challenge for a top 15 finish. If this race gets wild, it honestly wouldn’t be surprising to see him finish top 10. Landon finished 14th and 11th in his previous two Cup Series superspeedway races with StarCom back in 2019. Starting back in 39th this weekend, Cassill is a very safe FanDuel pick with a lot of upside and very cheap.
FanDuel “Risky” DFS Picks for Daytona (Tournament Lineups)
Bubba Wallace ($9,500) – With Bubba Wallace starting in 20th, and FanDuel pricing him up to $9,500 this weekend, it’s hard to imagine he’s going to be high owned at all on Saturday night. And that’s why I like him in tournaments. According to my projections, Bubba Wallace has the 9th-highest upside for this second Daytona race, and it’s not like we haven’t seen him have great finishes on this track before (2nd in 2018 and 5th last year). Also, just going by the eye test, I really like how strong the Toyotas look this season on superspeedways.
Christopher Bell ($9,200) – Again, I really like how the Toyotas look on track this season at Daytona and Talladega. As far as Christopher Bell goes, my projections really like him in FanDuel on Saturday night. And even though he’s never finished better than 13th in a superspeedway race as a Cup Series driver, he’s also never really had an incident-free race on this track type, either. CBell finished 2nd to Aric Almirola in their Duel race here at Daytona this season, and I think he has legitimate top 10 upside on Saturday night (and so does my algorithm). Speaking of Aric Almirola ($9,000), don’t sleep on him as a tournament play this weekend, either. AA starts back in 19th this weekend and has wins at both Daytona and Talladega (along with seven total top 5s).
FanDuel Driver Projections for the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona
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 six different ranking systems. Also factored in are projected laps led for each driver. You can click the headers below to sort the chart by that attribute. By default it is sorted by average projected FPTS.
| Driver | FanDuel Salary | Avg Proj Pts | Starting Position | Ceiling Proj Pts | Dollar Per Pt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joey Logano | $14,000 | 59.25 | 22 | 72.90 | $236 |
| Denny Hamlin | $13,500 | 55.27 | 3 | 68.40 | $244 |
| Austin Dillon | $12,500 | 54.50 | 27 | 66.30 | $229 |
| Ryan Blaney | $11,000 | 51.42 | 6 | 63.70 | $214 |
| Chase Elliott | $13,000 | 50.42 | 5 | 63.90 | $258 |
| Alex Bowman | $10,000 | 50.00 | 15 | 59.30 | $200 |
| Christopher Bell | $9,200 | 49.35 | 14 | 56.50 | $186 |
| Kevin Harvick | $7,800 | 47.65 | 11 | 55.70 | $164 |
| Brad Keselowski | $10,300 | 46.05 | 10 | 65.40 | $224 |
| William Byron | $12,000 | 45.90 | 2 | 61.20 | $261 |
| Aric Almirola | $9,000 | 45.50 | 19 | 60.80 | $198 |
| Bubba Wallace | $9,500 | 44.75 | 20 | 61.90 | $212 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $8,700 | 43.80 | 9 | 54.90 | $199 |
| Kaz Grala | $8,000 | 43.50 | 38 | 62.50 | $184 |
| Michael McDowell | $7,000 | 42.50 | 18 | 59.00 | $165 |
| Ryan Newman | $6,800 | 42.50 | 23 | 59.70 | $160 |
| Kyle Busch | $10,500 | 42.45 | 4 | 55.80 | $247 |
| Corey LaJoie | $5,500 | 42.25 | 33 | 61.50 | $130 |
| Ross Chastain | $9,800 | 42.25 | 29 | 61.00 | $232 |
| Cole Custer | $8,300 | 42.00 | 25 | 54.50 | $198 |
| Kurt Busch | $7,500 | 41.87 | 8 | 59.40 | $179 |
| Chris Buescher | $4,500 | 40.85 | 13 | 59.30 | $110 |
| Landon Cassill | $3,000 | 40.75 | 39 | 60.00 | $74 |
| Tyler Reddick | $8,200 | 40.75 | 17 | 55.50 | $201 |
| Kyle Larson | $11,500 | 40.45 | 1 | 58.50 | $284 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | $8,500 | 40.32 | 12 | 62.30 | $211 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | $7,200 | 38.22 | 7 | 59.50 | $188 |
| Chase Briscoe | $5,000 | 37.75 | 16 | 51.50 | $132 |
| Ryan Preece | $6,000 | 37.50 | 24 | 60.00 | $160 |
| Erik Jones | $4,000 | 36.00 | 21 | 57.00 | $111 |
| Daniel Suarez | $6,500 | 35.00 | 26 | 55.00 | $186 |
| Anthony Alfredo | $3,500 | 33.25 | 32 | 55.00 | $105 |
| Justin Haley | $2,500 | 32.75 | 28 | 53.00 | $76 |
| Joey Gase | $2,000 | 27.00 | 37 | 50.00 | $74 |
| B.J. McLeod | $2,500 | 26.75 | 30 | 43.50 | $93 |
| Cody Ware | $3,000 | 26.75 | 31 | 44.00 | $112 |
| Quin Houff | $2,000 | 26.50 | 35 | 55.00 | $75 |
| Garrett Smithley | $2,000 | 24.50 | 34 | 32.00 | $82 |
| David Starr | $2,500 | 24.00 | 40 | 39.50 | $104 |
| Josh Bilicki | $2,000 | 24.00 | 36 | 39.00 | $83 |
