For Sunday's South Point 400, we know what to expect. That's a reassuring feeling for NASCAR DFS.
When the Cup Series heads to Las Vegas, it'll be their ninth race of the season at a 1.5-mile track. Of those previous eight, four were at moderately banked tracks, including one at this very same track back in February.
We've seen this race before. We know who's going to be fast. We just have to properly apply that knowledge within our lineups.
Most of those past eight races are in our data sheet below. It includes the race in Las Vegas in the track history section. Six of the seven other races at 1.5-mile tracks are in the current form section. The only race omitted was the second Charlotte race. Not only was it a higher-banked track, but the starting order was set with an invert there rather than by points as with the other six races.
As always, the numbers listed are each driver's average running position. Finishes can be fluky, as we saw in the first race in Vegas this year.
In that one, Ryan Blaney ($11,500) and Alex Bowman ($9,000) were battling for the lead late. But a caution came out with a few laps to go. Blaney and Bowman decided to pit while others stayed out. They didn't have enough time left to make up the ground they had given up, so they finished 11th and 13th, respectively. Their fourth- and eight-place average running positions were much better representations of the speed they had.
The other numbers listed are each driver's FanDuel salary, win odds at FanDuel Sportsbook, and starting position. The win odds are presented in fractional form, so Joey Logano ($12,800) being listed at 6.5 means he is +650 to win.
| Current Form | Track History | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | FD Salary | Win Odds | Start | Kansas | Texas | Kentucky | Homestead | Atlanta | Charlotte 1 | 2020 | 2019 Fall | 2019 Spring |
| Kevin Harvick | $13,500 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 15 | 3 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
| Kyle Busch | $12,000 | 12 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 25 | 7 |
| Chase Elliott | $12,300 | 13 | 3 | 12 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 9 |
| Aric Almirola | $11,000 | 31 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 17 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 11 |
| Joey Logano | $12,800 | 6.5 | 5 | 20 | 7 | 6 | 22 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 4 |
| Clint Bowyer | $9,600 | 37 | 6 | 17 | 17 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 34 | 16 | 18 | 16 |
| Austin Dillon | $10,500 | 44 | 7 | 23 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 18 | 9 | 13 | 12 | 18 |
| Alex Bowman | $9,000 | 37 | 8 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 13 |
| Kurt Busch | $9,300 | 55 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 17 | 17 | 11 |
| Denny Hamlin | $13,300 | 8 | 10 | 3 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 36 | 21 | 12 | 7 |
| Martin Truex, Jr. | $13,200 | 5.5 | 11 | 4 | 17 | 7 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 11 |
| Brad Keselowski | $13,000 | 6 | 12 | 4 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 7 |
| Erik Jones | $8,300 | 55 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 17 | 15 | 17 | 11 | 22 | 31 | 13 |
| Tyler Reddick | $7,800 | 75 | 14 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 4 | 15 | 10 | 18 | -- | -- |
| Ryan Blaney | $11,500 | 13 | 15 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 4 | 10 | 23 |
| Chris Buescher | $6,000 | 200 | 16 | 27 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 22 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 17 |
| Michael McDowell | $5,500 | 200 | 17 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 21 | 25 | 24 | 36 | 20 | 27 |
| Jimmie Johnson | $10,000 | 37 | 18 | 19 | 27 | 11 | 23 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 14 | 14 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $8,500 | 55 | 19 | 21 | 11 | 7 | 18 | 13 | 17 | 14 | 19 | 21 |
| Matt Kenseth | $7,300 | 75 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 23 | 25 | 18 | 22 | -- | -- | -- |
| Ryan Preece | $4,500 | 200 | 21 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 21 | 25 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 26 |
| Cole Custer | $8,000 | 85 | 22 | 16 | 24 | 14 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 27 | -- | -- |
| Bubba Wallace | $6,500 | 200 | 23 | 27 | 20 | 27 | 18 | 21 | 33 | 22 | 24 | 23 |
| Ty Dillon | $5,000 | 200 | 24 | 25 | 24 | 21 | 28 | 24 | 27 | 20 | 20 | 27 |
| John Hunter Nemechek | $5,000 | 200 | 25 | 18 | 24 | 28 | 20 | 25 | 21 | 20 | -- | -- |
| Christopher Bell | $7,200 | 85 | 26 | 19 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 27 | -- | -- |
| Ryan Newman | $7,500 | 85 | 27 | 24 | 18 | 22 | 24 | 20 | 19 | -- | 14 | 23 |
| William Byron | $8,800 | 55 | 28 | 15 | 18 | 15 | 10 | 36 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 13 |
| Daniel Suarez | $4,500 | 200 | 29 | 25 | 29 | 29 | 31 | 31 | 28 | 32 | 12 | 13 |
| Gray Gaulding | $3,000 | 200 | 30 | -- | 31 | -- | -- | -- | 31 | -- | -- | -- |
| Corey LaJoie | $4,000 | 200 | 31 | 25 | 23 | 29 | 29 | 27 | 25 | 25 | 29 | 26 |
| Quin Houff | $3,000 | 200 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 35 | 33 | 33 | 37 | 33 | -- | -- |
| Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. | $7,000 | 75 | 33 | 35 | 24 | 25 | 23 | 14 | 23 | 15 | 20 | 8 |
| Joey Gase | $3,000 | 200 | 34 | 34 | 37 | 35 | 37 | 37 | 38 | 34 | 38 | 38 |
| Brennan Poole | $3,500 | 200 | 35 | 35 | 32 | 31 | 33 | 30 | 31 | 30 | -- | -- |
| Timmy Hill | $3,000 | 200 | 36 | 38 | 37 | 37 | 35 | 38 | 36 | 36 | -- | -- |
| Josh Bilicki | $3,000 | 200 | 38 | 32 | 37 | 35 | 36 | 34 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Chad Finchum | $3,000 | 200 | 39 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
In this week's track preview, we discussed why our default build should be including two playoff drivers in each lineup. The one exception may be the lineups where we jam in Blaney.
Blaney's exclusion from the second round is largely due to a scheduling nightmare. The first round included his two worst tracks, putting him in a hole he couldn't dig himself out of. But the 1.5-mile tracks have been far friendlier.
Blaney has led more laps than everybody except Kevin Harvick ($13,500) on the 1.5-mile tracks this year, and he has had a top-five average running position five of the eight races. He doesn't have the same motivation to win as the remaining playoff drivers, but Blaney's still someone we'll want to include in our player pool regardless.
Bowman and Aric Almirola ($11,000) could be ways to squeeze a second playoff driver into the Blaney lineups. Bowman had the aforementioned good run in Las Vegas, and Almirola has had a top-10 average running position in four straight races at 1.5-mile tracks. He'll start fourth, so there's no place-differential juice there, but he does figure to run out front on Sunday.