We are so back.
Sunday (Feb. 18) marks the running of the 66th Daytona 500 from the famed Daytona International Speedway. Judging by the action we saw in the Bluegreen Vacation Duels on Thursday, your fantasy lineups and betting slips are going to be very difficult to prepare. This race also has a tendency to favor the underdogs, which means you could find the winner in the lower salary tiers and win big on prop bets.
Luckily, you have me to try and lend a helping hand.
The NASCAR Cup Series’ best will take to the high banks for 200 laps, accounting for 500 miles of full-throttle pack racing. Last season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought home the biggest win of his career to date by outlasting Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson in overtime and being ahead of Joey Logano when the final caution flag flew.
The qualifying format for this race is different from all the rest. On Wednesday, Logano put himself on the pole for the event, and 2021 winner Michael McDowell will line up alongside. The rest of the field was set by Thursday’s Duels, won by Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell, respectively. They will line up third and fourth. The finishing order of Duel 1 will line up in the inside positions and the order of Duel 2 will line up in the outside positions.
There is rain in the forecast for Sunday though with Florida’s notoriously hard-to-predict weather systems, no one knows for sure if it’ll play a factor or not.
Fantasy Forecast
The format remains the same from last season for DraftKings Fantasy Racing. Points will be awarded on DraftKings for finishing position, position differential, fastest laps and laps led. The driver who wins the race scores 45 fantasy points, while second gets 42 points, third gets 41 points and so on, at least through the top 10. The 11th-place finisher scores 32 points, 21st gets 21 points and 31st gets 10 points.
However many spots they lose or gain on the track is added to or subtracted from the score. Then, if the driver leads a lap, they will earn 0.25 points for each lap led, as well as 0.45 points for each fastest lap.
Here’s how I’m setting my lineup this week:
Denny Hamlin ($10,000)
Stats that matter: 3 Daytona 500 wins (2016, 2019, 2020), 5 career wins on superspeedways, average finish of 17.0 at Daytona
How could you not buy into Denny Hamlin at Daytona? He has the most Daytona 500 wins among active drivers and dominated the event in the latter part of this past…
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