This weekend NASCAR action takes place with the GoBowling 400. The competition for the Sprint Cup is just heating up, and the top drivers are starting to take shape. As you get ready to draft your daily fantasy NASCAR lineup, here is our take on five of the top ranked drivers, and how you should or shouldn’t use them for your fantasy roster.
Jimmie Johnson: Johnson is the number one seed for this race, according to DraftKings, with a salary of $10,600. He finished 22nd last weekend, but of his 12 races this year, he’s made the top ten 6 times. He has 2 wins to his credit, and an average fantasy point total per race of 45.6. Looking at his average finishing position, this is weighed down quite a bit because of last week and the crash that occurred, but even with this, he is averaging a place of 10.7. Johnson is a strong racer, but he’s been quite inconsistent this year, and drafting him at this high price seems like too much of a gamble to us. We’re going to pass on him this race.
Kevin Harvick: Harvick is the number two seed here with a salary of $10,400. He has an average finishing position of 8.6, has made the top ten 9 out of 12 times, and has a single win for the season. His average fantasy point total per race is 70.9, making him a far more attractive choice than Johnson. We really like Harvick, even though he only has one win this year, but because he keeps turning out strong finishing positions compared to where his post position is, Harvick is one of our favorite fantasy drivers right now.
Kyle Busch: Busch is priced at $10,200, which is probably a really good deal for him. We like his strong stats, and he might even be a better draft choice than Harvick. He has 9 out of 12 top ten finishes, has 3 wins, and has an average finishing position of 8.4. His fantasy average is lower than we’d like to see at 64.0, but right now, we think he’s the top driver that you should be drafting, even better than Harvick. If you look at his finishing positions, he’s slightly better than Harvick and has a higher ceiling. Harvick’s been a bit more consistent, but Busch has a better chance of winning this race, and therefore, you’re getting him at a small discount. We like that about him, and will be drafting him.
Carl Edwards: Edwards is the number four seed at a salary of $10,100. He has a 9 out of 12 record when it comes to making the top ten, and has an average finishing position of 8.9. He’s won 2 races so far this year, and has an average fantasy point total of 61.5. Edwards is a strong racer, but even though he’s cheaper than Busch, we think that he’s accurately priced while Busch is way cheaper than he should be. You are getting more value out of Busch than Edwards, then, and that means that he has more upward potential than Edwards. We can see why you might want to draft him, but there’s better uses of your salary dollars, so find them.
Joey Logano: Logano has a price tag of $9,800. We think he’s a huge fantasy driver ready to breakout, but we have no clue when that will be, honestly. He has an average finishing spot of 8.6, has made the top ten 8 out of 12 times, but has an average fantasy point total of 42.6. Those numbers just don’t add up to us, but the problem is that he hasn’t shown us that he has a high point ceiling. There have been no wins from him yet, but that’s just a matter of time before it happens. We’d like to see him a bit cheaper before we draft him, but as long as he keeps finishing in the top ten, he’s not going to be any cheaper. That means his salary will likely go up, so right now, he’s a good deal.
