NASCAR Daily Fantasy Helper: Busch Clash
If you are looking for an action-packed way to replace your NFL Sundays in the world of daily fantasy, NASCAR may be a great avenue to explore. Far from just driving in circles, some of the world's best compete nearly every weekend from February to November on tracks across America. NASCAR drivers are scored ultimately based on how they finish in the race, how many spots they advance from their starting position, and how many laps they finish and lead. Avoiding drivers that crash out of the race is a must, of course!
Here at numberFire, we've always got you covered for everything NASCAR DFS. Our track preview gives you more information about the history of the track, our driver preview helps bring you up to speed on recent driver history, and our Heat Check Podcast with Jim Sannes gives you insight to how he is approaching this weekend's slate.
The first slate of the year is the exhibition race at the 2.5-mile superspeedway in Daytona Beach, FL at Daytona International Speedway. The race is Sunday afternoon, exactly one week before the famed Daytona 500 season opener. The Busch Clash is a 75-lap sprint, divided into a 25-lap and a 50-lap segment. There are no points on the line in this race, which means heightened aggression combined with tight packs and high speeds, and that usually translates to plenty of crashes.
Higher Priced Drivers
Denny Hamlin: ($11,500): With only 18 drivers in the small, exhibition field, having a tight core of drivers is important to differentiate exposure in tournaments. Hamlin, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, including last year's event, is always a solid bet in Daytona. He leads active drivers with 442 laps led at the track, and most importantly, he starts last with the highest point differential in the field. Hamlin will be worth his lofty ownership.
Joey Logano ($12,000): Daytona and Talladega have their unique qualities as large superspeedways, and no one has been better at then in the last two years than Joey Logano. Logano is second in top-10s (five) and has the most laps led (177) of any driver since February 2018 on the two tracks combined. Logano's positional floor is fairly high from a starting spot of 13th, and he will challenge for the win as the +800 favorite.
Lower Priced Drivers
Kurt Busch ($8,000): No active driver has more top-10s at Daytona and Talladega than the older Busch brother with 38. He has been a staple at the front, and that has not changed recently with four top-10s in his last seven at these tracks. Just like Hamlin, he will be popular starting second-to-last in 18th place, but should be an affordable plug in a FanDuel lineup loaded with Hamlin and Logano.
Jimmie Johnson ($8,000): If you wanted to pivot from the popular Busch, the defending winner of the Busch Clash is Johnson, and he is starting deep in the field as well in 16th. Johnson had a tremendous speedweeks last year, winning the Clash as mentioned, and finished Top 10 in the Daytona 500 as well. His ownership will be depressed because of a disappointing 17th in practice, but unlike most weeks, in the draft at restrictor plate tracks, practice speed results are fairly random.
Austin Swaim is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austin Swaim also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username ASwaim3. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
