Food City Dirt Race: NASCAR DFS Picks

Now that the Food City Dirt Race qualifiers are done in Bristol, we better know who we want to put in our lineups today to win some money in DFS or gain points in season-long formats.

In a bit of a surprise, Cole Custer won pole position on Saturday, moving up seven spots in only 15 laps on the track. Even though he has minimal dirt track experience, being in the front line when the green flag waves means more here than on regular tracks. “Clean air” gets hard to come by approximately 13 seconds after the race begins.

Last Wednesday, I wrote about each of the following four drivers in my preview. Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, and Kyle Larson create quite a logjam at the front of this race. It is easy to imagine any of these five carrying the checkered flag around when it’s all said and done.

Yet the curious side of this lineup is at the back. The drivers in slots 30 to 34 are Martin Truex, Jr., Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Ross Chastain, and Denny Hamlin. While no one in this group screams, “Great on dirt!” that is a lot of racing experience that the middle of the pack will be staring at in their rearview mirrors. This also means it is a batch of drivers offering positional movement points with less risk.

Of course, the idea that anything related to this race in Bristol comes with “little risk” is amusing since the combination of NextGen cars and a rarely run surface should provide plenty of gasp moments for drivers and fans alike.

Food City Dirt Race DFS Picks

If you’re looking for some race day recommendations, I’ve got you covered for both FanDuel and DraftKings. If you’re playing season-long, even if I am not sure of the independent salaries in your league, I’ll give you a variety of choices I like.

One note: Remember that a qualifying position (QP) is crucial concerning NASCAR fantasy. FanDuel rewards laps led with only 0.1 points, but you earn or lose 0.5 points for place differential. On DraftKings, it’s even starker: Laps led is 0.25 points, whereas place differential is +/- 1 point.

Here are some top values on each site.

On FanDuel, Ty Dillon jumps out at me because of his dirt-track experience and his dirt-cheap salary of $4,000. On DraftKings, Denny Hamlin in 34^th place at a salary less than $9,000 feels like a solid lineup builder, especially paired with Brad Keselowski, who showed some life last week in Martinsville. Erik Jones on both sites seems to be underpriced, and his starting position of 14^th leaves some maneuvering room for positional gain.

Christopher Bell is the highest he will be all season ($13,000 on FD; $10,800 on DK), and rightfully so. I think the GPP winning lineup tomorrow does not have him in it, but he could turn that astronomical price tag into value from the 2^nd position in cash games.

Here are two lineups I’ll be entering in a GPP, one for each site. Hit me up on Twitter at @thewonkypenguin if you want to talk NASCAR or brag about your fantasy wins. And, as always, good luck.