NOCO 400 DFS: DraftKings, FanDuel NASCAR Daily Fantasy Lineup PicksDFS: DraftKings, FanDuel Daily Fantasy NASCAR Lineup Picks
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville this weekend, capping off a tripleheader of the sanctioning body's top three series at the paperclip-shaped short track.
This'll be a weird one, as Ryan Preece and Daniel Suarez share the front row. Stewart Haas found some speed in qualifying, as Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Kevin Harvick joined Preece in qualifying in the top 10. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott is back from his leg injury, but fires off 24th.
Below are my NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the NOCO 400 on DraftKings and FanDuel this week. This slate locks on 4/16/23 at 2:56 p.m. ET. If you have any questions or want to talk about NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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William Byron
Starts 8th - DK: $14,000, FD: $14,000
There's a lot of laps here, so I want to anchor my lineup with someone who I think can lead a lot of those and win the race. For me, that's William Byron. He won't lead from the start, but he's got the best car in the top 10, and it shouldn't be too long before he's up there fighting for the lead.
Byron actually won this race last year, starting fifth and leading 212 laps. And like I said above about my theory for this week, he didn't lead early, but once he took the lead he was dominant. Chase Elliott led the first 185 laps before Byron first got out front. From that point on, just six laps weren't led by the 24 car.
Ryan Blaney
Starts 31st - DK: $9,500, FD: $11,000
Blaney comes with a lot of place differential opportunities this weekend, as he fires off 31st. There was a pretty big difference in qualifying between the SHR Fords and the Penske Fords.
But based on last season's results, Blaney should still be competitive in this one. Maybe not competitive for a win, but he finished fourth in this race last year and third in the fall race. He's shown he can run well here in this new-generation car, and he was also competitive before that, finishing 11th or better in 10 of his last 11 Martinsville Cup races.
Chase Elliott
Starts 24th - DK: $9,300, FD: $11,800
Elliott's price is considerably lower on DraftKings than it'll end up being within the next few weeks, so there's a good opportunity to pounce here if you believe Elliott's recovered enough from his broken leg to run competitive laps at a track that requires as much braking as Martinsville.
Personally, I think it'll be fine. Elliott isn't points racing at this point; he needs to win a race, and Hendrick Motorsports isn't going to bring him back at a track like this if they don't think he's ready to go out there and challenge for wins.
And challenging for wins at Martinsville is right up Elliott's alley. He's won here once, but he's been extremely competitive even when he isn't winning, leading 100-plus laps four times at this track.
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Brad Keselowski
Starts 21st - DK: $7,700, FD: $8,500
Good resurgence from Brad K in his second year at RFK. His average finish last season was 19.2, with six top 10s in 36 races. He's already at three top 10s through eight races this year, and his average finish is up to 16.0.
Brad's a two-time winner here, though those came in a different generation race car. But he was strong here in the fall, originally finishing fourth before he was DQed for failing to meet weight requirements. He was 17th in the spring race. Despite starting outside the top 20, I think Keselowski has a really good shot at a top 10 this week.
Austin Cindric
Starts 25th - DK: $6,800, FD: $5,800
I'm realizing as I type this that I'm betting pretty heavily this weekend on Penske cars having race-day speed even though they didn't have qualifying speed. But it's a risk I think can pay off.
Austin Cindric fires off 25th on Sunday. He was 11th in this race last year and 26th in the fall race, though in the latter he fell victim to contact on a restart that knocked in the nose of the car and led to the team having to do a lot of work, which ultimately put Cindric a few laps down.
Harrison Burton
Starts 32nd - DK: $5,700, FD: $4,500
Burton isn't in a Penske Ford...well, he's technically not, though the Wood Brothers have a very close relationship with Ford.
After a pretty disastrous rookie season where Burton finished 27th in points, he's followed that up by sitting 28th in points this year through eight races. Not ideal.
But Martinsville was decent to Burton last year, as he finished 11th when we were here in November. I think he can have a solid top 20 run this weekend, which would make for a solid DFS day since he starts back in 32nd.
