NASCAR on TV this week

Daily Fantasy NASCAR DraftKings Forecast: 2023 Hollywood Casino 400

The NASCAR Cup Series gets ready to take on its first 1.5-mile oval since July. Let’s get your daily fantasy NASCAR DraftKings rosters ready for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, airing Sunday, Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

Instead, check the results and stats from Kansas earlier this year, as well as the other intermediate tracks run the last two seasons. These results help you determine who has a good chance of dominating this weekend and who might move through the field and finish well.

See also
Friday Faceoff: Will Toyota Win at Kansas Again?

And as always, review practice and qualifying results to see who has a fast car, both over the short run and long run. Practice starts Saturday at noon ET, with qualifying right after at 12:45 p.m. ET. Both air on USA Network.

Before I share some drivers I’m looking at this week, let’s review the DraftKings scores from Darlington Raceway.

DraftKings SalaryDriverDraftKings Score
$11,000Denny Hamlin59.4
$9,800Kevin Harvick18.1
$8,700Brad Keselowski41.05
$8,200Bubba Wallace51.25
$7,000Ricky Stenhouse Jr.37.35
$5,400Harrison Burton3

Ah, what might have been for Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, who both got out of contention for the win on pit road. Hamlin felt he had a loose wheel late, while Harvick went down pit lane right after it closed. That wouldn’t have been so bad had he just kept rolling, but because he drove into his pit box and received service, he had to drop to the tail end under caution. As a result, his score was much lower than what it could’ve (or should’ve) been.

My dart throw, Harrison Burton, was involved in a wreck not of his own doing and ended up finishing in the back. Sometimes things happen that you can’t control; that’s DFS for you.

The top score in the $5,000 Quarter Jukebox tournament was 352.3 and had Kyle Larson, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley and Ty Dillon.

Here’s a quick look at the rules for DraftKings:

The winner on the racetrack tallies 45 points, while second place gets 42, third 41 and so on. Tenth scores 34, while 11th gets 32 and it decreases by one from there through 20th. This pattern repeats from 21st through 30th and again from 31st through 40th.

Additionally, drivers can earn or lose a point depending on where they started the race. For example, if Larson started seventh and won, he would gain six points in addition to his finishing position points, totaling 51 fantasy points.

Drivers also can earn 0.45 points for each fastest lap and 0.25 for each lap they lead.

NASCAR DraftKings Scoring Breakdown

Here are the drivers you should consider for Kansas:

DraftKings Picks: Top Tier

Martin Truex Jr. ($10,700)
Career at Kansas: 30 starts, 2 wins, 10 top fives, 17 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 12.1

Martin Truex Jr. and his team may have struggled last week in finding speed, but I doubt that’ll happen this weekend. He’s had several good results at 1.5-mile tracks recently, including an eighth at Kansas this past spring after leading 79 laps. Additionally, he placed third at Charlotte Motor Speedway and seventh in each of the last two Las Vegas Motor Speedway races.

At Kansas, the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver and regular season champ has earned eight straight results of ninth or better. Plus, since 2017, he’s only had one finish outside the top 10. The only thing with Truex is he hasn’t led many laps there, save for the last two races.

Look for Truex to turn things around this weekend and potentially contend for the win.

William Byron ($10,200)
Career at Kansas: 11 starts, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 7 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 14.0

Byron has never won at Kansas, but he did finish third earlier this year. He also earned good runs at similar tracks this season, winning Las Vegas and taking home second at Charlotte. He led 176 en route to the Vegas victory and 91 in the Coca-Cola 600. And last fall, he took home a sixth at Kansas and a seventh at Texas Motor Speedway.

Byron appears to be close to breaking through for a win at Kansas, as he has just one finish worse than 10th since fall 2019. The No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports pilot also has led laps there in each of the past four Kansas races, including 57 in fall 2021. If anyone can break up the Toyota domination there, it’s Byron.

(Also like Bubba Wallace)

Middle Tier

Ryan Blaney ($8,500)
Career at Kansas: 17 starts, 0 wins, 3 top fives, 7 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 16.4

I personally didn’t like this middle tier, which ranges on DraftKings from $7,100-$8,800. However, there are a few intriguing drivers here, including Ryan Blaney. He won the Coca-Cola 600, leading 163 circuits in the effort. That was his lone top 10 at a 1.5-mile course this year, except for Atlanta. Still, he earned a ninth place at Darlington last week and at Michigan International Speedway.

As far as Kansas goes, Blaney’s only had two top 10s since 2019: a ninth place after starting seventh last fall and a seventh in fall 2020. I know he’s not likely to dominate there, but if he can score a good finish and keep his nose clean, he should produce a good score on DraftKings.

See also
Fire on Fridays: 5 Ways NASCAR Could Shake Up the 2024 Schedule

Alex Bowman ($7,800)
Career at Kansas: 15 starts, 0 wins, 3 top fives, 7 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 16.1

Alex Bowman has similar stats as Blaney at Kansas, though he’s run two less races. He missed the race earlier this year after incurring an injury in a sprint car crash, so we don’t know for sure how he might do this weekend. We do know he drove from 31st to 12th at Charlotte and finished third at Las Vegas.

At Kansas last season, the No. 48 driver finished ninth in the spring and fourth last fall, leading over 100 laps in the latter race. Prior to that, Bowman drove from 25th to 11th in the fall 2021 race, while in 2020 he placed third. Perhaps his most famous finish was in spring 2019 when he was runner up to Brad Keselowski after leading 63 laps.

Though Bowman is out of the playoffs, he can still push through to earn a good finish.

(Also like Chris Buescher)

Low Tier

Austin Dillon ($6,800)
Career at Kansas: 20 starts, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 6 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 15.9

Austin Dillon is an interesting driver in daily fantasy, as his results from Kansas are mostly in the middle range. But he did finish ninth after starting 33rd in Charlotte and was 10th at Kansas. Additionally, he earned a 10th place at Las Vegas last fall and came home 14th at Kansas a year ago.

In fact, in each of the last six Kansas events, Dillon has finished between 10th and 14th. Last spring, the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing driver gained eight positions on the way to 13th.

It would be better on DraftKings if Dillon performed similarly this weekend, instead of losing spots like he did last year. Still, he’ll earn quite a bit of points for finishing in the top 15.

Justin Haley ($5,800)
Career at Kansas: 5 starts, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 0 top 10s
Average finish at Kansas: 28.2

Like Dillon, Justin Haley also advanced his position in several 1.5-mile races. He was 15th at Charlotte and moved through the field from 30th to 18th at Kansas. Plus, he gained 19 spots at Las Vegas to grab an eighth-place finish.

Last fall, Haley did pretty much the same thing as this year, advancing from 28th to 14th at LVMS, 31st to third at Texas and 27th to 19th at Kansas. That’s really all you need from a driver with this low salary on DraftKings.

Joy Tomlinson

Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.

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