The Cup Series will travel to Daytona International Speedway this weekend to end their regular season. This is also the last race in the regular season for the Fantasy Live game. The rosters reset next week with five allocations for each driver in the playoff races. NASCAR moved Daytona to the last race of the regular season to create chaos. Every August race at Daytona has been won by a driver without a win sticker on their car. We can expect more chaos Saturday night. I just hope the Fantasy Gods finally give us some good luck in this race. The Coke Zero 400 can be seen Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on USA.
PRACTICE SPEEDS FOR DAYTONA
NASCAR does not practice on the Superspeedway tracks, so the teams were scheduled to line up for qualifying Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, Mother Nature did not cooperate. There was too much lightning in the area, so qualifying was canceled. The starting lineup was set “per the rule book.” That will cause some good drivers to start in the back of the field Saturday night.
STRATEGY FOR DAYTONA
To say I am upset about how the 2025 Fantasy Live season has turned out is an understatement. My picks have outscored 99% of the entries for 13 consecutive seasons. We will need a miracle Saturday night in order for the streak to continue. The picks currently outscore 98.1 % of the entries. Some people might think that is OK, but not when you are paying for these picks. You deserve better. I am not going to make excuses about the picks this year. I have been working on mapping out the playoff picks for a couple of weeks now. I expect better results in the playoffs and you deserve better results too. Just know I will continue to try and find any edge possible to help us win our leagues.
There are two ways we can play this race. We can go with a safe lineup, filled with the top drivers who have had a lot of success on the Superspeedways. These drivers include William Byron, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace. These are going to be the most popular picks in the Fantasy Live game this weekend. These picks will work if you are at the top of your league standings and want your competitors to try and beat you with drivers who have more risk.
I am swinging for the fences this week and using a lineup filled with drivers who have had success at Daytona, but will not be owned by the rest of our leagues. We cannot climb to the top if we have the same drivers as everyone else. I will post both lineups below….
FANTASY LIVE LINEUP FOR DAYTONA
AUSTIN CINDRIC (2): The 2022 Daytona 500 winner is my favorite play Saturday night. Cindric has been money on the Superspeedway tracks this year. He finished 8th in the Daytona 500 and he won the race at Talladega. He always runs up front, leads laps and scores Stage Points. I know Cindric will be popular, but I will use him anyways.
CHRIS BUESCHER (3): Buescher is in a must win situation Saturday night. He sits in 17th-place in the Cup Series Playoffs and 60 points below the cut-line. Buescher was in the same situation in 2023 and he won the Coke Zero 400. Buescher has an average finishing position of 8th in his last five races at Daytona. That is the best in the Cup Series over the last five races. This is a good race to take a chance with the No. 17 car in your Fantasy Live lineup.
BRAD KESELOWSKI (8): Keselowski has the most wins in the Cup Series on the Superspeedway tracks (7). He is going to need another one if he wants to earn a playoff spot this year. Keselowski is a boom or bust driver at Daytona. He is going to run up front and he will finish up front if he can stay out of trouble. He has four finished inside the top-10 and three finishes outside the top-20 at Daytona in the Gen-7 car. Keselowki is going to be a popular pick, so I will pivot to Erik Jones.
KYLE BUSCH (6): Busch is another driver who is in a must win situation Saturday night. Daytona used to be the worst track for Rowdy Busch. The switch to Richard Childress Racing has improved his results at Daytona. Busch finished 2nd in this race last year and 7th in 2023. We saw his teammate (Austin Dillon) win last week. Could Busch give RCR back-to-back wins for the first time since Kevin Harvick did it in 2014? I think it can, so I will take a chance with Busch Saturday night.
ALEX BOWMAN (4): Bowman might be the best picks for your Fantasy Live lineup Saturday night. Bowman has an average finishing position of 7th in his last four races at Daytona. He also finished 7th at Talladega and 3rd at Atlanta this year. Bowman has a good chance to finish in the top-10 Saturday night.
(GARAGE PICK) ERIK JONES (10): Jones is no stranger to Victory Lane in the summer race at Daytona. He won this race in 2018. Could he do it again Saturday night? Jones finished 8th in this race last year, 12th in the Daytona 500 and 5th in June at Atlanta. He has been one of the most reliable drivers for Fantasy NASCAR players when it comes to Superspeedway races. I will take a chance with “The Jones Boy” Saturday night.
* I will be using this lineup Saturday night
MY SAFE LINEUP FOR DAYTONA
RYAN BLANEY (7):I never thought I would end the season with so many allocations left with Blaney, but every time I use him, he crashes. There is no doubt that Blaney is one of the best Sueprspeedway drivers in the sport. He is also good at holding off the competition once he gets the lead. He starts from the pole, so Blaney should lead a lot of laps, score a lot of Stage Points and have a good chance to finish up front.
JOEY LOGANO (3): There is no doubt that Logano is good at Daytona. His driver rating at this track is the best in the field. Logano always runs up front, leads a lot of laps and scores a lot of Stage Points. He has finished 1st or 2nd in three out of the last four Stages at Daytona. Finishing the races has been a problem though. Logano has either finished in the top-five or finished outside the top-30 in the last four races at Daytona. He is going to score you some Stage Points and Logano will be the best pick in the field “If” he can make it to the checkered flag Saturday night.
AUSTIN CINDRIC (6): Cindric is my favorite pick for the race at Daytona, so I will have him in both lineups. His stats are just too good to fade in this race.
BRAD KESELOWSKI (8): Keselowski has the most wins in the Cup Series on the Superspeedway tracks (7). He is going to need another one if he wants to earn a playoff spot this year. Keselowski is a boom or bust driver at Daytona. He is going to run up front and he will finish up front if he can stay out of trouble. He has four finished inside the top-10 and three finishes outside the top-20 at Daytona in the Gen-7 car. Keselowki is going to be a popular pick, so I will pivot to Erik Jones.
ALEX BOWMAN (4): Bowman needs points and he has the track position to run up front and score a lot of Stage Points. I will take a chance and use Bowman in both lineups Saturday night.
(GARAGE PICK) KYLE BUSCH (6): I will have Busch in the Garage in this lineup. Austin Dillon said that he has one job. That is to help Kyle win Saturday night. He said he plans to push his temmate so Busch can save fuel. Their strategy may work out, so I will have Busch in both lineups Saturday night.
* I know some people will want to know about the back-to-back Daytona 500 winner, WILLIAM BYRON. I am out of allocations with Byron, so I cannot use him Saturday night. Byron does not have much to race for since he already secured the regular season championship. His average finishing position in the last two Daytona 500’s is 1st. His average finishing position in his last two Coke Zero 400’s is 18th. Byron is much better when he has something to race for.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on X (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.