NASCAR DFS picks 9/8/19: Big Machine Vodka 400
NASCAR DFS mid-tier options
Clint Bowyer
After a predominantly rough season for most of the year, Bowyer has been finding solid finishes as of late. A sixth and a seventh place result in his last two races is a huge positive for Bowyer and the 14 team.
In the last two races at Indy, Bowyer is tied for the second most laps led. Although this hasn’t been his best track in his career, he has been better more recently. In last year’s race, Clint won the first stage and finished fifth after qualifying eighth.
After back-to-back solid fantasy days, Bowyer is still priced outside the top 10 on both major platforms. He was decent in practice and should be a staple in most fantasy lineups for this week.
Jimmie Johnson
As I mentioned earlier, Johnson has the most wins of any active driver at the Brickyard with four victories. While that success has not been very recent, Johnson’s dominance at the track cannot be ignored.
Jimmie has had a very up and down season as far as fantasy goes, scoring upwards of 40 points on many occasions and scoring in the negatives multiple times as well on DraftKings. Thus, with the inconsistency, and despite Jimmie being a seven-time champion, he is rather cheap in fantasy.
After finishing in the top 10 in first practice and with the sixth fastest 10-lap average in final practice, there is reason to believe that this will be an “up” week for Jimmie. His practice speeds, cheap price, and successful history at the track should make him a popular pick this week. Although it is clearly risky, having Jimmie Johnson in your lineup this weekend could be a money-winning move.
As under-the-radar as it gets, Ryan Newman has quietly been as good as those bigger named guys at this track as of late. In his last two races at Indy, Newman posted a third and a 10th place finish. Newman does have a victory at the track in his career, and his average finish of 6.50 over his last two races ranks third of all active drivers.
Newman has been a solid fantasy option all season long. Although he is not often posting fantasy races in line with some of the more expensive drivers, he also doesn’t typically finish below 20 fantasy points on DraftKings. That is what you expect out of drivers in Newman’s price range. A somewhat high floor with a chance of a high ceiling.
This could be a week where Newman really does score as well as those top-tier drivers. Especially if he qualifies a little poorly, Newman could be a sneaky, must-have for fantasy lineups that end up in the money when it’s all said and done.
Honorable Mentions
William Byron, Matt DiBenedetto, Ryan Blaney