After 25 races and plenty of memorable moments during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, it all comes down to this. The 2024 playoff field will be set and 16 drivers will race for a championship.
As for you bettors and fantasy managers out there, the end of the regular season makes for tricky picking this weekend in one of the “crown jewel” races of our sport; the annual Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Desperation will be high, daring risks will be taken and ‘The Lady in Black’ will be tamed by one of these drivers and you as well if you pick the right squad and fill out your bet slip wisely.
Before we get into that, I want to do a quick recap of last week’s picks. After a wild night that saw Harrison Burton cash in with his first career win at Daytona International Speedway, my lineup was in shambles and I didn’t hit on a single bet.
Yeah, I said something last week about Daytona usually being good to me, but apparently I should’ve kept my mouth shut. That’s the nature of the beast though, as not one but two big accidents dashed all hopes I had at a good week.
I certainly hope it goes better for us all this week. Now, before we get into the lineup, here’s a rules breakdown:
Drivers will be awarded points based on their 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 are added to or subtracted from their score. Then, if the driver leads a lap, they will earn 0.25 points for each lap led and 0.45 points for each fastest lap.
DraftKings NASCAR Scoring Rules
Fantasy Forecast
1. William Byron ($10,200)
After a summer slump saw driver No. 24 fade into the background of the regular season championship race, he comes to one of his best tracks. Byron always seems to run well here, which is evident the closer you look at his record here.
He has a win, four straight top-five finishes and has spent 1041 laps inside the top-five in each race here since the debut of the Next Gen car. I don’t think there are any more surefire picks to be made this season, with how much parity we’ve seen every week.
However, this one’s pretty close. Look for Byron and his team to be…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …