Daily Fantasy NASCAR Picks for DraftKings - Go Bowling 400

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Go Bowling 400

Kansas Speedway - Kansas City, KS
Track - 1.5 Mile D-Shaped Oval Intermediate Track
15° of Banking in the Corner

Welcome back for another week of daily fantasy NASCAR. With Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s first career win last week at Talladega, that makes eight winners in just 10 races in 2017 including some drivers(Newman, Kurt Busch) who haven't frequented Victory Lane in quite some time. That leaves just 16 races until the cutoff for the playoffs and we have yet to see a Joe Gibbs Racing car and some other notable drivers without a win. The new stage racing and points system has created parity in the sport in which there are 10-15 different cars that are capable of winning races.

This week the Monster Energy Cup series heads back to a mile and a half track in Kansas Speedway for the Go Bowling 400 and first night race of the season. For fantasy, we will once again be targeting one or two drivers who can grab those dominator points as one driver has led 100+ laps in five of the last six races. Looking at the qualifying after Friday afternoon and there is also some excelletn place differential values for this race. Let's dig in and take a look at the picks.

 

Drivers to Build Around

Kyle Busch 
DraftKings - $9,400
Practice 1 - 1st
Practice 2 - 3rd
Qualified - 3rd

His price has reached a season low despite him coming oh so close last week to picking up his first win and first win for Joe Gibbs Racing. He said after Talladega that he was excited to get to a "Real Track" so I am fully expecting Kyle to not eat his words here. Over the years, Kansas has not been one of Kyle's best tracks but lately has been a different story. He has picked up four straight Top 5 finishes here including the win in last year's Go Bowling 400. He qualified 5th after posting the fastest speed in final practice. All things considered, the #18 is my top pick of the week.

 

 

Ryan Blaney
DraftKings - $8,000
Practice 1 - 2nd
Practice 2 - 4th
Qualified - 1st

Blaney will be starting on the pole and have a great shot to stay out front and lead some laps to make up for his negative place differential value. He showed consistent speed throughout practice posting the 2nd and 4th fastest times and has shown he can compete here at Kansas. He has two Top  10 finishes in four races here. He could very well be the ninth winner of the season come late Saturday night but with some laps led a Top 5 would more than suffice.

 

 

Top Place Differential Value Plays

Jimmie Johnson
DraftKings - $10,100
Practice 1 - 11th
Practice 2 - 7th
Qualified - 29th

Another crazy week of qualifying as 11 cars didn't make it through tech inspection and will start from the rear of the field. This opens up a ton of place differential values but no one stands out more than the #48 team. He will most likely be the chalk again but has the upside of winning the race(2 wins already this season) and comes with a +28 place differential value starting 29th tonight. If you are playing cash games is nearly an auto play but a case can definitely be made for fading in some GPP lineups.

 

Erik Jones
DraftKings - $7,700
Practice 1 - 3rd
Practice 2 - 12th
Qualified - 32nd

Just is another driver who missed inspection and will start from the rear of the field Saturday night. He is a rookie in the Cup series but has shown tremendous growth in a short amount of time in a new car for Furniture Row Racing. He is coming off his two worst finishes(38th/33rd) of the season which could help keep his ownership level below that of the #48, #88, #5,  and #14. If that is the case, I will have a ton of Jones in GPP this week.

 

 

Bottom Tier Value Play

Landon Cassill
DraftKings - $5,200
Practice 1 - 30th
Practice 2 - 27th
Qualified - 36th

I am not thrilled about the scrub range this week. The 11 cars missing tech inspection lower the value of this range as they will be starting at the back. The one driver who sort of stands out if you are building stars and scrubs is Landon Cassill. He qualified 36th and showed Top 30 speed in both practices. For $5,200 I would take a 30th place finish which would equal 20 DK points assuming he won't get any fast laps or laps led. He is averaging that exact amount of DK points for the season as well.

 

 

 

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.