DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Darlington: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the Goodyear 400

Darlington Raceway plays host to this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race and has been hyped all week thanks to the potential tire wear.

All week, we heard about extreme tire falloff with NASCAR running the lower-downforce, higher-horsepower package that would cause cars to slip and slide more, and while there was some decent falloff, it wasn’t the potential four seconds of falloff that was thrown around.

That said, managing tires is still going to be massive, which is why my practice FLAGS data is going to be maybe more useful than ever this week.

Additionally, with 293 laps scheduled, this is usually a two-dominator race, but on there also can be one or three dominators, so keep that in mind when building lineups.

Additionally, you can check out my NASCAR projections in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

My projections, along with Stephen Young’s from RotoGrinders, are available in our NASCAR DFS package. You can read more about what the package entails here.

Let’s not skip the best part, my Perfect% metric, a metric that tells you how often certain racers appear in the optimal lineup when running 250,000 race simulations.

And don’t forget about the tools that FantasyLabs has to offer, like our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 300 lineups or our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

So, without further ado, here’s my strategy guide and NASCAR DFS picks for the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

Goodyear 400 Cash Game Picks

Ty Gibbs ($8000): One of two clear and obvious cash-game choices week, Ty Gibbs starts 28th after a poor qualifying lap.

However, Gibbs was the second-best driver in practice FLAGS, including second on the long run, and he was inside the top three in my tire-degradation metric. He also ranked fifth in consistency, so he has a strong, fast, consistent car and will find himself toward the front, barring any incidents.

Tyler Reddick ($9500): The driver who was No. 1 in FLAGS, Reddick also set the fastest lap in qualifying, showing he has elite speed throughout all phases of the run.

Reddick ranked first in FLAGS, third in peak speed, first over the long run, and inside the top 11 in tire degradation and consistency.

His only downside is he did slide around both in qualifying and in practice, but he’s likely going to rack up a ton of early dominator points anyway, and you have to start him in cash games.

Josh Berry ($7100): There are a ton of drivers in the $6000 to $7900 range whoare solid place-differential options this weekend, but my favorite is Josh Berry.

Berry has perennially been a top-12 car at Darlington, but he doesn’t have the results to show for it.

But in practice, yet again, Berry showed his speed at Darlington, ranking inside the top eight in every FLAGS metric except tire degradation. And that, I think, was due to some elite peak speed, which clearly he didn’t replicate in practice.

That said, when combining the metrics, Berry jumped out as a clear top option for me from the drivers in that price range starting in the back half of the field.

I believe he’ll be able to manage his tires well in the race, knowing this is a strong track type for him.

Goodyear 400 Tournament Picks

Dominators: Like I said, we’ll want 1-3 dominators per lineup, usually. Here are my top dominators by likelihood of dominating:

1. Tyler Reddick
2. Kyle Larson
3. Bubba Wallace
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Chase Elliott
6. Denny Hamlin
7. William Byron
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Chase Briscoe

Reddick is clear. Larson is the next obvious choice. Wallace is third by virtue of his front-row start. If he gets his teammate Reddick on the start, I believe he could hold him off for a bit. But everyone after the top three is pretty murky and gets less and less likely as we head further down the list.

That said, I do like one driver from this list in particular.

Brad Keselowski ($7600): At $7600 and with the potential to be a dominator, Keselowski doesn’t even need a super-strong finish. If he picks up, say, 20 dominator points and then finishes inside the top eight, that should suffice.

Keselowski was clearly a top-five car in FLAGS, ranking fourth in an average of FLAGS, long-run speed, degradation, and consistency.

As a veteran of the sport, and watching him in those tire-degradation Bristol races, know Keselowski knows how to manage tires.

I love him in tournament formats.

The $6000-$7900 range: If you’re playing multiple lineups, there’s a slew of drivers who have appeal in various forms today.

The more aggressive two are Austin Cindric ($6900) and Carson Hocevar ($7700) who each start in the top half of the field.

Cindric was fifth in FLAGS and first in peak speed, but he did struggle with degradation and consistency. Still, it’s hard to argue against the overall pace we saw from him.

My more preferred option of the aggressive picks is Hocevar, who was a top-five car, right behind Keselowski in the average of the four most important metrics of FLAGS, long-run pace, tire degradation, and consistency.

This is a Hocevar-type track, and I expect him to run toward the front Sunday.

For the safer options, I like a few drivers as well: Erik Jones, AJ Allmendinger, and, in tournaments especially, I think Connor Zilisch is interesting.

They each have some knocks. For Allmendinger and Jones, it’s high degradation in practice, but both have amazing track histories.

For Zilisch, he wasn’t quite as quick overall on pace, but he had super low-degradation and high consistency. He’ll be underowned, as he’s struggled so far and Darlington is notorious for being hard on rookies. But he’s not your ordinary rookie, and getting an elite talent at sub-10% ownership starting 32nd is pretty nice.

Pictured: Ty Gibbs
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn