Daily Fantasy NASCAR Race Preview & Picks for DraftKings - Advanced Auto Parts Clash

Chris Durell will be bringing you his weekly race breakdown, top trends, and pre-qualifying targets to help you cash on DraftKings and FanDuel. You can also grab a copy of his free DFS NASCAR Cheatsheet that includes a ton of stats and a customizable model.

Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our MLB optimizer and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below.

First time with MLB? Be sure to read our free MLB Ebooks on building lineups, general strategy and more. We've got you completely covered.

Advanced Auto Parts Clash

Daytona International Speedway - Daytona Beach, FL
Track - 2.5 Mile Tri-Oval Superspeedway

Welcome back race fans. While the start of the 2019 season is still a week away, I am psyched to see cars back on the track and to be honest, I am one of the degens who was watching the live feeds of the Las Vegas test session that Jeff Gluck was sharing on Twitter. The test was huge in gaining information for the upcoming season and the massive changes in place. Basically, NASCAR is adding downforce to the cars to create closer racing and it was evident in watching that the leader didn't just get out front and gain a huge lead. The other thing I took from the test is that passing that leader looks very tough so from a fantasy perspective, we are still going to see just one or two dominators in a race at an intermediate track.

To kick off the Daytona festivities we have the Advanced Auto Parts Clash which is made up of pole winners from the 2018 season, former Clash winners and former Daytona 500 winners who were full-time last season, and all drivers who qualified for the 2018 Monster Energy Cup Series playoffs. This season's exhibition, 75-lap event will be made up of a 20 driver field and for fantasy, the salaries are very soft so almost every lineup construction is in play this week. Place differential is always a key to building lineups on plate tracks and with qualifying coming in the form of a random draw on Saturday at 6:30 pm ET, it will be vital to stay tuned for that information before constructing your lineups. In the meantime, let's dig in and take a look at a few of the pre-qualifying targets.

Last Six Winners

• 2018 - Brad Keselowski
• 2017 - Joey Logano
• 2016 - Denny Hamlin
• 2015 - Matt Kenseth
• 2014 - Denny Hamlin
• 2013 - Kevin Harvick

Pre Qualifying Targets

Denny Hamlin

Hamlin is one of two drivers(Kevin Harvick the other) in this 20-car field that has multiple wins at the Clash, the last coming in 2016 when he doubled down and also won the Daytona 500. He is one of the best plate racers in the field and is coming off his first winless season in his full-time Cup career. He now has a new crew chief(Chris Gabehart) and car chief(Eric Phillips) who were both promoted after crew chiefing for the #19 and #18 JGR Xfinity teams a season ago. I look for a motivated Hamlin to come out of the gates hot at Daytona and this week he is only $8,300.

Joey Logano

Since Hamlin's win at the Clash in 2016, the Ford camp has dominated here. They went 1st through 4th last year and in 2017 Logano won with Ford's finishing with four of the Top 6 places. I definitely want exposure to the Ford's at the top and it comes down to the qualifying draw on Saturday evening to determine how much of each I will have in my lineups. For Logano, he has the one win here(2016) with five Top 5's and seven Top 10 finishes in his last 10 Clash races.

Paul Menard/Jimmie Johnson/Alex Bowman

In the sub $7K range, there are plenty of options but no decision can be made until the qualifying draw. Paul Menard has raced here twice in the last six years starting on the pole in 2015 and finishing 21st followed by a 14th place starting position in 2016 where he finished 3rd. While Jimmie Johnson has just one Top 10 in his last 10 Clashes, it was win and he has also been good overall at Daytona with three career wins. Alex Bowman has just one Clash under his belt but finished 3rd in 2017 after starting 8th and makes a nice stacking combo with Johnson in the Hendrick camp.

Like I mentioned before, the key to picking your drivers this week comes down to the qualifying random pick on Saturday night. Be sure to check back on my DFS NASCAR sheet(link below) for the qualifying order and if you have any questions be sure to jump into the DFSR Members Chat. Good luck this week.

Below you will find a copy of my DFS NASCAR cheathsheet which includes Track History, Current Form, DraftKings points averages, Track Type History, Practice/Qualifying Ranks and much more.

Chris Durell has been playing Daily Fantasy Sports for five years and fantasy in general for more than a decade. He is an active player in NFL, MLB, NHL, 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.