Daily Fantasy NASCAR Picks for DraftKings - Food City 500

DFSR is proud to bring you Chris Durell. He'll be bringing weekly NASCAR picks, analysis and breakdowns to help you cash on DraftKings.

Playing other DFS sports? Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NBA optimizer, NBA Player Lab and our basic NHL projections! Get started for free by clicking the button below.

Want to learn some about NBA? Be sure to read our free NBA Ebook on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.

Food City 500

Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN
Track - .533 Mile Short Track
24°-30° of Banking in the Corners

Qualifying was rained out but the teams did manage to get in three practices including both final practices on Saturday morning. Before jumping into my favorite picks, make sure to go back and take a look at my Race Preview Article posted earlier this week. I go over some of my favorite trends and early picks. You can also check out my YouTube Channel where I post multiple videos for each race going over my spreadsheet and weights.

Ok, let's not hesitate any longer and jump right into the picks.

Drivers to Build Around

Kyle Busch
DraftKings - $10,600
Practice 1 - 2nd
Qualified - 7th
Practice 2 - 1st
Final Practice - 1st
Final Pract 10 Lap Avg Rank - 4th

Practice only solidified Kyle Busch as my top pick this week. Due to owners points setting the lineup, he will start seventh for the race giving him some place differential value. Looking at his final practice speeds(1st, 1st, 4th in 10 Lap avg), he will also provide a ton of dominator value as it shouldn't take long for him to reach the front of the field. He has been a big risk here lately with wrecks in three of his last four races at Bristol but the upside is jsut too much to avoid, especially as Kyle is chasing his first win of the season.

Erik Jones
DraftKings - $7,800
Practice 1 - 1st
Qualified - 14th
Practice 2 - 2nd
Final Practice - 16th
Final Pract 10 Lap Avg Rank - 5th

The rookie driver in the new #77 car of Furniture Row Racing has been very impressive early in his first season in Cup.  After being swept up in a crash at the Daytona 500, he rebounded with five straight Top 15 finishes including his first career Top 10 at Phoenix. HE will be making his first trip to Bristol in a Cup car but proved he can short track race as he finished 21th a few weeks ago at Martinsville. Even more positive is his final practice speeds of 2nd of 6th and 5th in 10 Lap averages. His price is starting creep up and this week is a great week to jump on board before he exceeds the $8K mark again.

Also Consider: Chase Elliott

Top Place Differential Value Plays

Kasey Kahne
DraftKings - $7,600
Practice 1 - 13th
Qualified - 17th
Practice 2 - 6th
Final Practice - 3rd
Final Pract 10 Lap Avg Rank - 1st

Kahne will start back in 17th this week due to owners points standings which is good news as he provides some excellent price differential value. The #5 team managed to improve the car through Saturday practices and showed Top 5 speed and even more positive is that Kahne posted the fastest 10 lap average speed in final practice. He is always risky but a great GPP play this week.

A.J. Allmendinger
DraftKings - $6,500
Practice 1 - 17th
Qualified - 25th
Practice 2 - 8th
Final Practice - 16th

Everything considered Allmendinger makes one of the top values of the week. He is coming off his first ever Top 10 at Bristol last August and has shown the upside to make it back to back Top 10's this weekend. The best part is that he doesn't need a Top 10 to pay off his low, mid $6K salary thanks to his place differential upside. He will start 25th when the green flag drops and was 8th and 16th in the final two practices.

Bottom Tier Value Play

Landon Cassill
DraftKings - $5,300
Practice 1 - 26th
Qualified - 30th
Practice 2 - 25th
Final Practice - 13th
Final Pract 10 Lap Avg Rank - 31st

I will once again dip down into the sub $6K range to find a stars and scrubs value play This week it's Cassill who shows up a nice value. He will start 30th and while he hasn't had success here in the past, he did show Top 15 speed in the final two practices. I would honestly any finish inside the Top 30 from Cassill this week.

For a limited time, I am offering a copy of my DFS NASCAR cheathsheet which includes Track History, Current Form, Odds, Track Type History, Practice/Qualifying Ranks and much more. Get it HERE.

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!
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.