This is it… The race Saturday night at Daytona is the final regular season race for the Cup Series and the final race of the regular season Fantasy Live game. So, how are your Fantasy Live lineups doing? This is my best game and the picks have outscored 99% of the entries since 2011. It looks like it is going to happen again. The picks are currently outscoring 99.6% of the lineups on nascar.com. There is no time to celebrate though. We have one more race to stack some points and we are going to need some luck to get through the chaos at Daytona.
Here are the Fantasy Live Points so far this year….
STRATEGY FOR DAYTONA
NASCAR allowed the teams to reshape the nose of their cars before the season began. The Fords lost some speed on the intermediate tracks but they have been very good at the Superspeedways. I will play many of the Fords in my lineup this week. I also want drivers who have a lot to race for. There is a good chance that one of the drivers on the playoff bubble wins the race Saturday night.
CUP SERIES PRACTICE SPEEDS
NASCAR no longer practices at the Superspeedways. They line up the cars for one-lap in qualifying to set the field for the Coke Zero 400. That is all the track time the drivers get before the green flag is waived Saturday night. Hopefully the teams checked their cars over to ensure all of the Gremlins were out before the races starts. All we have to work with this week are the driver’s stats on the Superspeedways in the past.
FANTASY LIVE LINEUP FOR DAYTONA
JOEY LOGANO (4): Logano is one of the best Superspeedway drivers in the Cup Series. Logano has won five races on the Superspeedway tracks and that includes the 2015 Daytona 500. Logano has also been good at these tracks this year. He finished second in the Daytona 500 and he won the race at Atlanta. Logano should run up front and score a lot of Stage Points Saturday night. He should also have a good chance to win the race.
RYAN BLANEY (4): Blaney is the best driver at Talladega, but he is not too bad at Daytona too. He finished eighth in the Daytona 500 to start this season and he won the summer race at Daytona in 2021. Blaney also finished second in his last two races at Talladega and he finished both races at Atlanta this year in the top-10. Blaney is the safest pick in the field for the Coke Zero 400 Saturday night.
BRAD KESELOWSKI (7): Keselowski has the most wins in the Cup Series on the Superspeedways (7). Six of those wins came at Talladega, but he has been good at Daytona too. Keselowski led the most laps and won Stage 1 in the Daytona 500 before he was involved in a wreck. He also finished fifth at Talladega, second in the spring race at Atlanta and sixth in the summer race at the track. Keselowski is going to be tough to beat Saturday night.
AUSTIN CINDRIC (8): Who has the best average finishing position on the Superspeedways in the Cup Series? Of course it is Austin Cindric. He not only won the 2022 Daytona 500, Cindric also finished third in this race last year. Cindric needs a win to make the playoffs. He will have Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney helping him get to Victory Lane. That is not a bad spot to be in the race.
BUBBA WALLACE (8): I want as many Fords as possible in my lineup, but it is hard to ignore Wallace on the Superspeedways. He finished second in the 2022 Daytona 500 and 11th in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 last year. Wallace had a fast car in the Daytona 500 this year, but he was caught up in wreck. I will take a chance with Wallace since he qualified 4th for the race and he is good a maintaining his position in the pack.
(GARAGE PICK) CHRIS BUESCHER (8): Buescher has been on fire this summer and he has been really good at the Superspeedways this year too. Buescher finished fourth in the Daytona 500, third at Talladega and 15th at Atlanta. I was late to get aboard the Buescher bandwagon, so I have plenty of allocations left with the No. 17 car. Buescher should be one of the safer picks in the field at Daytona.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on Twitter @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.