Daily Fantasy Nascar Picks
Toyota Owners 400

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Toyota Owners 400

Richmond International Raceway - Richmond, VA
Track - .75 Mile D-Shaped Oval Short Track
14° Banking in the Corners

Carl Edwards dominated the Food City 500 at Bristol last weekend cruising to win in the closing laps while Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott battled for 2nd behind him. Check out the closing laps below:

This week NASCAR stays on a short track run with a trip to Richmond International Raceway for the Toyota Owners 400 this Sunday. Richmond is a .75 mile D shaped oval with 14° banking in the corners. This year the spring race here at Richmond will be an afternoon race for the first time since 1997 in an effort to increase attendance. It is the third short track race in the last four weeks but don't compare Richmond to Bristol or Martinsville. First of all it is a quarter mile longer and a lot faster than those tracks. It can be somewhat compared to Phoenix which is a one mile track with slightly less banking.

Top news of the week? Tony Stewart is back behind the wheel of the #14 Chevrolet. He returns after an injury layoff to begin his final season in NASCAR. As of right now Brian Vickers is listed as the driver of the #14 on DraftKings so be sure not to roster him. It is not likely they will add "Smoke" for the race this week. The return of Tony has slightly overshadowed the current hot topic in the Sprint Cup series. Lug nuts! There are teams pushing the limits after NASCAR has limited the number of officials in the pits which has put the responsibility on the teams to the amount of lug nuts used on the car. Some teams are only putting four on each tire to help reduce the total pit time. While this cuts close to a second off pit times it also leaves no room for error, which has caused multiple issues early in the season. Some drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. especially, are concerned about safety more than anything. Expect NASCAR to address this issue before it gets out of hand. Stay tuned!

For daily fantasy this week I will be targeting two or three drivers who I feel will be Top 5 cars and lead a lot of laps. Qualifying will be extremely important this week. In the past five years(10 races) a large majority of the laps lead have come from drivers in Top 5 starting positions and only the Spring race of 2011 was dominated by a driver starting outside the Top 10. Stay tuned and pay close attention to Practice and Qualifying speeds. I will be updating them on the cheatsheet through the weekend leading up to the race on Sunday.

I will again be selling a cheatsheet every week of the NASCAR season. It will include drivers, salaries for DraftKings and FantasyFeud, post qualifying Vegas Odds, current form(last 5 races), track history(last 5 races), and I update the cheatsheet throughout the weekend following practice and qualifying. With the purchase of the cheatsheet you also get a few sample lineups. These lineups will almost always change following qualifying and practice so be sure to check lineup page before lineups lock on Sunday.

I have added weighted rankings for Track History, Current Form, Season Loop Data and Practice/Qualifying. This will help better identify the best values each week and can be full customized by the user. Just download the View Only version from the lineups page and create copy which will then allow you to change any weights or sort any column you wish. If you have any questions about the cheatsheet throw me an email(jagerbombs99@gmail.com) or hit me up on Twitter(@jager_bombs9).

Let's dig in and look at some targets for this week. Be sure to check back following Final Practice on Saturday as I will have a recap of the weekend leading up to the race and go through some values that pop up from qualifying/practice.

 

Upper Tier Targets ($9,000+)

 

Kyle Busch
DraftKings - $11,100
Fantasy Feud - $265,000
Practice #1 - 9th
Qualified - 9th
Final Practice - 3rd

I am sticking with my driver again this week. He let me down last week after making contact with the wall three too many times. Toyota and the Gibbs team especially have been crazy fast to start the year and three of them are already locked into the Chase with wins. Look for the dominance to continue here at Richmond. Looking at active drivers and their career average finish at the track Kyle Busch(7.1 average finish in 21 races) and Denny Hamlin(10.8 average finish in 19 races) sit at the top. With him being the highest priced driver the week after a crippling fantasy finish, I am thinking he may be lower owned than he should be and a great GPP play here at Richmond.

 

 

Kevin Harvick
DraftKings - $10,600
Fantasy Feud - $250,000
Practice #1 - 1st
Qualified - 1st
Final Practice - 4th

When I am not starting my lineups with heavy JGR drivers I am starting them with Kevin Harvick this week. After a win at Phoenix and runner up at Fontana he finished 17th at Martinsville, the start of the short track run. He has been trending back in the right direction since with back to back Top 10's at Texas and Bristol(his 6th and 7th of the season) and looks to go into Talladega next week with another Top 10 and possibly a win. In the past five years(10 races) here at Richmond he has two wins, four Top 5's, five Top 10's, and an average finish of 8.6(best in the series).

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr. 
DraftKings - $9,300
Fantasy Feud - $170,000
Practice #1 - 17th
Qualified - 16th
Final Practice - 16th

Outside of his 36th place finish at the Daytona 500, Dale Jr. is having an incredible start to the 2016 season. He has finished all but one race inside the Top 14 with five Top 10's and four Top 5's and is coming off back to back runner up finishes. He isn't going to present a ton of upside as he has only led 49 laps all season but makes a terrific cash game play week in and week out as he continues to provide value at a price under $10K.

 

Also Consider - Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin

Middle Tier Targets ($6,500-$9,000)

 

Chase Elliott
DraftKings - $8,800
Fantasy Feud - $160,000
Practice #1 - 23rd
Qualified - 23rd
Final Practice -  20th

The rookie is having a great start to his career in the #24 car and has recorded five Top 10 finishes in eight races in 2016. The only thing that is keeping him from being a must play every week has been his excellent qualifying which eliminates his place differential upside. Pay close attention to qualifying and practice this week before deciding if you should use him in cash or GPP or both. He raced here last spring in the #25 NAPA car and picked up a 16th place finish in his first race at Richmond. He will have upside for a Top 10 this week in much better equipment.

 

Jamie McMurray
DraftKings - $7,900
Fantasy Feud - $120,000
Practice #1 - 27th
Qualified - 27th
Final Practice - 26th

When you start digging in to the middle tier on DraftKings this week don't be looking for a winning upside here at Richmond. In the last five years(10 races) Clint Bowyer is the only driver below the $9K range who has picked up a win here and he is off to a horrible start in 2016. I will be looking for consistency in this range and Jamie McMurray is right at the top of my list for cash games this week. He has only recorded one Top 10 this year but has only two finishes outside the Top 20(21st at Atlanta and 23rd at Martinsville). In his last 10 races here at Richmond he has recorded three Top 5's and a 13.2 average finish(9th best among active drivers).

 

Also Consider - Ryan Newman

 

 

Low End Targets ($6,500 and Below)

 

David Ragan
DraftKings - $5,700
Fantasy Feud - $85,000
Practice #1 - 30th
Qualified - 30th
Final Practice - 35th

If you are looking to go stars and scrubs this week in GPP there are some nice options in the $6K and below range. Matt Dibenedetto could be a popular choice after his career best 6th place finish last week followed by an emotional interview that grabbed headlines. Aric Almirola has a Top 5 and three Top 10's here in eight races. For me it's David Ragan in the #23 car this week. He comes in with awful form coming off a 39th place finish after an engine failure at Bristol and a 33rd place finish at Texas. He comes back to Richmond with two previous Top 5 finishes in the last 10 races here with a 22.4 average finish. You could do worse in the $5K range.

Also Consider -Aric Almirola, Landon Cassill

 

 

Post Practice & Qualifying Update

Qualifying Top 10

 

The #TOYOTAOWNERS400 field will be set by practice speeds.@KevinHarvick will take P1: https://t.co/FWjcu6ImgK pic.twitter.com/Hd7tSOSxus

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 22, 2016

Where's your favorite driver pitting?

Let's find out: https://t.co/wcw5ncPGay #TOYOTAOWNERS400 pic.twitter.com/JkMY1NlMRX

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 24, 2016

If you have any questions on lineups or drivers prior to lineup lock scroll down to the comment section and join the conversation.

 

Good Luck everyone!

 

 

Want to see how these picks and more fit into lineups for the Food City 500? Chris is selling lineups only $5. He covers DraftKings and FantasyFeud Cash Games & Tournaments. Fill out the form below or click here to purchase using PayPal. This is a separate service than our traditional monthly membership.

Chris Durell has been playing Daily Fantasy Sports for three years and fantasy in general for more than a decade. He is active player in college football, NFL, NBA, PGA, and of course NASCAR. He lives in Saskatchewan, Canada with his wife and two daughters. You can follow him on Twitter at @jager_bombs9 for advice, strategy, answers to any NASCAR questions or how he copes with the winters up north.