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Here are some of the drivers I’m looking at for Sunday’s race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Ryan Blaney (DK $10,800 FD $10,700)
Blaney showed a lot of speed at the 1.5’s last season, so he’s a driver that offers a lot of place differential starting from 26th and could be a dominator later in the race. He was going to win this race last season, but a late yellow forced him to pit and ended his hopes. The Penske cars have ran very well at Las Vegas in the past, so look for Blaney to be fast and be a contender for the win by the end of this race.
Kevin Harvick (DK $9,700 FD $14,000)
Harvick is underpriced on DraftKings but priced appropriately on FanDuel with his $14,000 price tag on their site. He’s been great with 1 win, 6 top 5’s, 8 top 10’s 387 laps led, and an average finish of 8.3 over his last 10 races at the 1.5 mile tracks. He’ll start on the pole for this race, so there’s a good chance that he’ll be able to lead a lot of laps from the start. It’s hard not to like him for cash games, but I don’t mind being underweight in tournaments because the pole-sitter usually gets a lot of ownership, and it’s not a guarantee that he’ll lead early because there’s no practice.
Matt DiBenedetto (DK $9,000 FD $7,800)
DiBenedetto has been struggling this season, but a lot of his bad performances have been due to bad luck. Las Vegas has been a great track for the Wood Brothers Racing organization, so this is the perfect race for him to go out there and put together a strong run. I’m not expecting him to finish 2nd like he did in both of his races at Las Vegas last season, but a top 10 finish is definitely doable. He’ll start 30th, so there’s a lot of place differential and upside for Matty D this weekend.
Alex Bowman (DK $8,800 FD $9,500)
Bowman is a driver that always runs very well at the 1.5 mile tracks with 3 top 5’s and 5 top 10’s over his last 5 races at these tracks. He almost won the 1st race at Las Vegas last spring, but the late yellow also forced him to pit which resulted in a poor finish. He’ll be starting 9th in this race, which might scare people away, but I think he has the potential to be a dominator that people might miss on. The Hendrick cars were really fast last weekend at Homestead, so don’t be surprised if Bowman is fast again on Sunday.
Cole Custer (DK $6,500 FD $7,300)
Custer has ran well at the 1.5’s as of late with 3 top 15 finishes over his last 5 races. He was running inside the top 5 last weekend at Homestead, but he ran out of fuel with a couple laps to go and ended up finishing 23rd. I think he might end up having lower ownership than we think because people might gravitate toward Chris Buescher and Erik Jones in this price range which makes Custer a great tournament play with upside. He’s in great equipment driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, so I think he’s underpriced on both DraftKings and FanDuel.
Daniel Suarez (DK $6,200 FD $5,000)
Suarez ran great last weekend at Homestead in the #99 Trackhouse Racing car finishing 15th. I don’t think people realize yet that this car is legit, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him have low ownership again this weekend. He’ll start 22nd and has the potential to finish inside the top 15 which makes him a great value play for tournaments with plenty of upside as well.
