For a sixth time at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski comes away with a Cup Series win. On the final lap of the overtime, Michael Mcdowell gave Keselowski a great push, advancing him to the front. McDowell would manage to move up beside Keselowski on the last corner after some help from William Byron. However, McDowell would not have enough for the No. 2 car. Penske becomes the first team to have all of it’s drivers secure a playoff seed. This win also helps erase a bit of the letdown from Daytona.
We leave behind Talladega and head 11 hours northwest to Kansas City, KS.
Looking at the track specs for Kansas Speedway, it is a 1.5 mile, tri-oval track. A cookie-cutter styled course, it is arguably one of the most dangerous events on the circuit. Consider, over the last-four visits to Kansas, there have been an average of 7.75 cautions (which tops Daytona International Speedway).
If you’re looking for a potential stack option for Kansas, examine Hendricks Motorsports. Over the last six visits here, Hendricks drivers all rank among the top 11 in both top-5 finishes and laps led.
This week, the Money Train delves into the DFS options for Sunday’s Cup Series event in Kansas. I’ve broken down the selections between high salary, mid-range, and value play. Included are player salaries from both FanDuel and DraftKings. Best of luck to everyone with their lineups this weekend.
High Salary
Chase Elliott (11,500 FD | 10,400 DK)
One of the bigger surprises so far this season has been Elliott. Who would have predicted he would be sitting here now, as the only Hendricks driver not to have won in 2021?
Elliott is sporting an average finish of 5.85 over his previous seven Kansas races, which include a win and runner-up. Kansas could in fact be his best chance at securing that playoff spot prematurely. Elliott has led 40 or more laps here in three of the past five meetings, so there’s good potential in terms of dominating prowess. And with a 17th place starting position, it leaves enough in terms of place differential.
As stated above, Hendricks has been a force at Kansas over the last number of visits. Don’t expect that tune to change this weekend. You might consider combining the likes of Elliott with Byron on a few potential rosters.
Joey Logano (12,000 FD | 11,100 DK)
An uncontrolled collision with Denny Hamlin cost Logano what could have been a dominating finish at ‘Dega. Until that wreck last week, he had gone on a string of three straight finishes among the top six or better. Logano now visits a track in which he won his way into the Championship Four last season.
Starting from as deep as 29th in the running order, he is among those bounce back plays that could pay off greatly. If Logano can finish among the top 5 drivers, that’s 20 plus bonus points in the bank alone. Like with Talladega Superspeedway, he knows how to work himself upfront and lead numerous laps here. A lot of his success could come down to the pit crew and whether or not they can take care of their business.
Mid-Range
William Byron (9,500 FD | 8,800 DK)
Since sputtering out in the two week stint at Daytona, Byron has gone on an incredible hot streak. It started with the win at Homestead and has continued to snowball into a string of seven straight top-eight runs.
Having visited Kansas six times as cup driver, Byron’s production has been a tale of two halves. Having finished with a best result of 20th in his first three Kansas races, those early days were a struggle. However, these following few races would be an entirely different story; racking up three finishes among the top-10 drivers.
Byron will be joining Keselowski on that front row and should hold some pretty good lap leading possibilities. He’s been right on the edge of a breakout performance, and Kansas seems like a great place in which to do it.
Value Play
Austin Cindric (6,200 FD | 6,700 DK)
Cindric has not run a whole lot at Kansas, competing in just a handful of runs at the track as an Xfinity driver. Fair enough, but he’s had his share of struggles in those limited opportunities. However, Cindric does have that superb result last October, in which he amassed a whopping 131 laps led to go along with the runner-up finish.
Having qualified second to last on Sunday, he will be a gold mine of place differential points. Cindric had a top-20 car at Richmond before suffering a mishap on lap 142 involving Ryan Newman. Expect Penske to supply him with another car that can challenge up among the top 20. It’ll be up to Cindric to close out strong.
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