NASCAR Daily Fantasy Helper: Coke Zero Sugar 400

If you are looking for an action-packed way to get your sports fix, NASCAR may be a great avenue to explore. Far from just driving in circles, some of the world's best compete nearly every weekend from February to November on tracks across America. NASCAR drivers are scored ultimately based on how they finish in the race, how many spots they advance from their starting position, and how many laps they finish and lead. Avoiding drivers who crash out of the race is a must, of course!

numberFire is always your home for fantasy NASCAR advice. In addition to this helper, Jim Sannes has you covered with his current form and odds breakdown as well as his track preview to spotlight this week's venue. For driver picks and a full preview of the event, he also discussed this weekend's race on the latest NASCAR episode of The Heat Check Daily Fantasy Podcast.

Late restarts and strategy shuffled the field at an otherwise brutal venue for passing last Sunday at Michigan, but when it was all said and done, Ryan Blaney came away with his second win of 2021 over Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson.

The repeat winner there means that just one playoff spot is open entering Saturday's regular-season finale at Daytona Intentional Speedway. This 2.5-mile, drafting oval is totally unpredictable and has played host to several surprise winners, including Michael McDowell earlier this February. While Tyler Reddick currently has the final spot on points, and his teammate Austin Dillon is right behind him, anyone can win and sneak in at Daytona.

With the repeat track on the schedule, there is no practice and qualifying this weekend. That means the starting lineup was once again set through NASCAR's qualifying formula based on last week's finish, the best lap times inside that race, and overall owner points. That formula put Kyle Larson on the pole for Saturday night's race, and his teammate William Byron on the outside of Row 1.

The general strategy for this weekend's race is to play quality drivers starting at the back to both avoid the danger of the large crashes expected in the race, as well as to maximize place-differential upside with laps led so scattered.

With all of this in mind, let's preview the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona on FanDuel.

High-Salaried Drivers

Joey Logano ($14,000): With the general qualifying formula in place, most of NASCAR's best and fastest drivers are starting towards the front, which makes them inherently low-upside, low-floor plays at Daytona and Talladega. The only sources for place-differential upside in this top tier are two drivers who crashed last weekend in Michigan, which are Logano and Austin Dillon. Logano starting 22nd is the reason for his highest salary in the FanDuel player pool, but that has come with solid superspeedway results, as well, as he has led at least 10 laps in 10 of the last 13 races at Daytona or Talladega. Logano has seven total Cup Series wins on these tracks including exhibition events, but because of his enormous projected popularity in this spot, his upside alone will not win tournaments. He is a must in cash games.

Austin Dillon ($12,500): Dillon is the other alternative in this spot. The question becomes whether to use Logano, Dillon, both, or neither and leave a ton of salary on the table -- and all four of those strategies are viable this weekend. Dillon starts 26th, and even more so than Logano, the 2018 Daytona 500 winner has a knack for finishing well on these superspeedway ovals. Dillon finished 3rd in February here, as well as 8th at Talladega in April, which contributed to his eight top-10 finishes at Daytona or Talladega since the start of 2018. He also needs to win this race to make the playoffs. A very interesting tournament build could include skipping Logano, using Dillon as an assumed winner, and peppering the lower ranges with quality cars starting further back.

Others to Consider: Denny Hamlin ($13,500; tournaments only), William Byron ($12,000; tournaments only)

Mid-Salaried Drivers

Ross Chastain ($9,800): Chastain may be fairly inexperienced in good equipment at Daytona and Talladega in the Cup Series, but he hails from the signature Xfinity Series program at these tracks in Kaulig Racing. In his last three Daytona starts for Kaulig, he has finished in the top two spots in every single stage, and that includes a 2019 win in July for the team. That frontrunner experience could prove valuable for Chastain, as he needs a win to make NASCAR's playoffs. He has already demonstrated his ability to finish well for his new Chip Ganassi Racing team in this style because he posted seventh in February at this same track. Chastain starts 29th after a mechanical failure last week, making him a core play in this spot.

Bubba Wallace ($9,500): Starting 20th, Bubba Wallace is not the highest floor play in this tier but is perhaps the most interesting at actually winning this race. His car owner, Denny Hamlin, is the betting favorite at +850 to win this race, but Hamlin would likely rather be second to his 23XII Toyota so that it makes the playoffs and reaps all the financial benefits of that performance. With such a strong car that could be dedicated to helping him, that gives Wallace an intriguing angle than if he were just another team car. Even without that boost, Wallace has been solid at these tracks, leading in three straight races and posting fifth in this race one year ago.

Others to Consider: Alex Bowman ($10,000), Christopher Bell ($9,200), Aric Almirola ($9,000), Cole Custer ($8,300), Tyler Reddick ($8,200)

Low-Salaried Drivers

Kaz Grala ($8,000): Regardless of salary, Grala is the top DFS play in the entire field driving for the aforementioned Kaulig Racing. Kaulig won their first race two weeks ago with AJ Allmendinger at a road course, and now the part-time team sets its eyes on a second win at their best configuration of race track. Grala led 10 laps in the Daytona 500 in February before a mechanical failure, and he finished sixth at Talladega this year, as well. Because Kaulig only runs part-time, they start in the back in every event without qualifying, and that puts Grala's ceiling and floor at elite levels from 38th starting spot, and unlike many cars starting deeper in the field on Saturday, Grala has elite equipment that could potentially win this race.

Daniel Suarez ($6,500): An interesting balance of these drafting tracks is how much skill versus luck factors into a daily fantasy play because even poor drivers, teams, and equipment can score tremendous finishes with upside just from total carnage. On the surface, Daniel Suarez would be a driver to avoid, as he's had horrific luck on these tracks. Suarez has finished outside the top-20 spots in the last seven races at Daytona and Talladega, but six of those included an on-track incident. Eventually, Suarez should be around at the end of a drafting race accident-free, which vaults him into the top-15 spots. Starting 26th, he is the best profile of drivers in the "normal" value tier, but there are several viable punts in this field all the way down to even Landon Cassill ($3,000).

Others to Consider: Ryan Newman ($6,800), Ryan Preece ($6,000), Corey Lajoie ($5,500), Anthony Alfredo ($3,500), Landon Cassill ($3,000)

Austin Swaim is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Austin Swaim also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username ASwaim3. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in his articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.