Daily Fantasy NASCAR DraftKings Forecast: 2023 Daytona 500

It’s finally time for the NASCAR Cup Series to run at Daytona International Speedway for its first points race of the 2023 season.

With that comes Frontstretch’s daily fantasy NASCAR DraftKings forecast for the Daytona 500, airing Sunday, Feb. 19 at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

Daytona is one of two big superspeedways on the NASCAR circuit, with Talladega Superspeedway the other. You could also consider Atlanta Motor Speedway as similar to these tracks, as it’s high in speed and the field is more bunched together than before its reconfiguration. It’s just about 1 mile shorter than the other two.

The iconic season opener is prestigious; everybody wants to win this one. As a result, aggression ramps up throughout the race at the end of stages and in the final laps.

This creates a bit of chaos sometimes, which could be frustrating for DraftKings users. How do you choose your drivers when they might get caught up in a crash?

Well, certain drivers seem to have a knack for drafting and avoiding the wrecks. They’ll often have more top 10s than others; the more recent, the better.

Sometimes it’s as simple as picking drivers starting in the back. Other times, it’s like last fall’s Talladega race where hardly any cars wrecked. Even in that event, quite a few cars that began further back gained spots on the track.

I recommend doing the single-entry contests or, if you want to have a better chance, multiple lineups in the multi-entry contests.

Before I share my DraftKings picks, let’s review the scoring rules.

The winner on the racetrack tallies 45 points, while second place gets 42, third 41 and so on. Tenth place scores 34, while 11th gets 32, and decreasing by one from there through 20th. This pattern repeats for 21st through 30th and 31st through 40th.

Additionally, drivers can earn or lose a point, depending on where they finish. For example, if Bell started third and won, he would gain two points in addition to his finishing position points, totaling 47 fantasy points.

Drivers also can earn .45 for each fastest lap and .25 for each lap they lead.

NASCAR DraftKings Scoring

Also, I will be hosting a free NASCAR DraftKings league that will run each week for the Cup Series only. It’s free to join, but as of now it’s just for bragging rights. You’ll get to compete against me and some of my colleagues.

Here is the link to the league:

Now, here are my picks!

Note: Stats below include…