NASCAR kicks off the unofficial start to the 2022 NASCAR season with a trip out west for its first inaugural race at the Los Angeles Coliseum. With a full weekend of events and the debut of the next-gen cars, there’s a lot to unpack for the big 2022 Busch Light Clash event. With not knowing the starting grid until hours before the race starts, better yet, who even will be competing, let’s discuss how we can take advantage of this from a tournament perspective in NASCAR DFS contests on Sunday. Below is the 2022 Busch Light Clash NASCAR DFS advice and my favorite NASCAR DFS and fantasy picks for DraftKings and FanDuel GPP lineups.
Best Busch Light Clash NASCAR DFS Tournament & GPP Fantasy Picks
The 2022 NASCAR season will be different from year’s past as practice and qualifying will return to the series after a two year hiatus. For those who didn’t play NASCAR DFS prior to 2020, this is added time to get the cars on track and for teams to adjust prior to the green flag on Sundays. And the information gathered can be quite useful when it comes to fantasy NASCAR research. This isn’t a prototypical race weekend with heat races before the race and group practice sessions, but just seeing the cars on track and how they run in heat races will be important to me when making lineup decisions.
With all the uncertainty this weekend, many NASCAR DFS players will take a safer approach and mainly pick drivers with place differential upside. If you’re playing cash games, I certainly think this is a viable approach as if it turns into a wreck fest, you will be sitting in a good position. However, the best thing we can do is treat this as short flat track, which we typically like drivers starting closer to the front who have the potential to lead laps. The lack of laps in this race (150) does make that less tempting than normal, though there’s still a strong possibility this race isn’t as chaotic as some expect it to be and passing overall is minimal. If this is the case, targeting the drivers closer to the front and middle of the pack at lower ownership is a great way to get contrarian and soar up the GPP and tournament leaderboards this weekend.
Top NASCAR Driver Picks & Projections
Without knowing the actual field yet, these are more so broad slate thoughts, instead of individual driver picks, but Kyle Larson coming off an incredible season is the only driver officially locked into the field. The majority of players will flock to him out of safety just because they know what kind of driver he is, but in tournaments, I like being a little under-exposed to Larson and gravitating towards the other drivers in this price range to gain leverage. Short, flat tracks are not Larson’s bread and butter, but drivers like Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (others as well) are all elite-level performers at the shorter flat tracks and have better Vegas betting odds to win this race.
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Mid-Range NASCAR Driver Picks & Projections
The pricing, overall, is very soft for this weekend’s race, so nearly the entire slate can be lumped into the mid-range, and also keep in mind nearly half the field will not end up racing their way in. But a driver really standing out to me right now is Christopher Bell, who is below $7K on DraftKings despite being in a JGR car and having multiple top-five finishes at similar track types last season. Another driver I have my eye is one who struggled mightily in the 2021 season, but had bright spots at these track types. Aric Almirola is a consistent top-10 contender when it comes to the short, flat tracks. If he is able to race his way in and find himself in a spot where he offers good place-differential upside, it will be worth taking some shots on him at his price point to allow us to fit in some studs up top.
NASCAR Driver Value Picks & Projections
Keep in mind, there’s a very strong chance most of these drivers priced down here don’t make it into the main event, but one driver that is sticking out to me is Austin Dillion. He’s not the most flashy driver, but he has been consistent the past couple years and boring and consistent is not the worst traits to have from a lower-priced driver. He’s also been very active in testing the new car, which could give him an advantage early on. This is more of a shot in the dark, but if Chris Buescher is able to race his way in and start in the back, he’s only $5,100 dollars on DraftKings. This would allow some very star studded lineups with the already soft pricing this weekend. He wasn’t a staple at the short flat tracks last season, but did have solid runs at Martinsville, which is the most similar track to the LA Coliseum.
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