Sunday brings another virtual Nascar race to us through the iRacing simulation platform. This race takes place on the Bristol Motor Speedway track, providing some tight groupings that can lead to a lot of crashes due to lagging internet connections or otherwise over aggressive maneuvers. We will look at a few of the top projected drivers, acknowledge trends from what we’ve seen, and come up with a sample lineup. This is a risky tournament due to so many weird variables that cannot be accounted for so please just try to have fun here and don’t bet your mortgage on some faulty internet connections and drivers who may not be taking this as seriously as others.
First of all, below you can see the Draftkings scoring system that is heavily weighted on predicting top finishers, with no captain’s slot or any distinction between picks. The name of this game will be finding lower priced participants that finish well to help afford the more premium guys that are safer bets to show up around the top of the leaderboard.
Scoring
| General | |
| Place Differential | +/- 1 Pt |
| Fastest Laps | +0.5 Pts |
| Laps Led | +0.25 Pts |
| Finishing Position Scoring | |
| 1st | +46 Pts |
| 2nd | +42 Pts |
| 3rd | +41 Pts |
| 4th | +40 Pts |
| 5th | +39 Pts |
| 6th | +38 Pts |
| 7th | +37 Pts |
| 8th | +36 Pts |
| 9th | +35 Pts |
| 10th | +34 Pts |
| 11th | +33 Pts |
| 12th | +32 Pts |
| 13th | +31 Pts |
| 14th | +30 Pts |
| 15th | +29 Pts |
| 16th | +28 Pts |
| 17th | +27 Pts |
| 18th | +26 Pts |
| 19th | +25 Pts |
| 20th | +24 Pts |
| 21st | +23 Pts |
| 22nd | +22 Pts |
| 23rd | +21 Pts |
| 24th | +20 Pts |
| 25th | +19 Pts |
| 26th | +18 Pts |
| 27th | +17 Pts |
| 28th | +16 Pts |
| 29th | +15 Pts |
| 30th | +14 Pts |
| 31st | +13 Pts |
| 32nd | +12 Pts |
| 33rd | +11 Pts |
| 34th | +10 Pts |
| 35th | +9 Pts |
| 36th | +8 Pts |
| 37th | +7 Pts |
| 38th | +6 Pts |
| 39th | +5 Pts |
| 40th | +4 Pts |
First we have some first thoughts on the slate as a whole. Lineup construction seems to be focused on locking in the top performers and then finding value plays that will severely outperform their salary expectations. This race will likely see a bunch of crashes which can make anything happen, luckily cars can be repaired in iRacing and a crash doesn’t completely bury your driver. Another thing to consider is that the field varies in terms of their experience levels with virtual racing as well as the quality of their rig and internet connection. This is all a drawn out way of saying **** happens and this could result in a topsy turvy day of random drivers finding success and the top drivers calling out their internet providers on Twitter.
Below we have current betting odds for each driver. These odds are as of 7:00 PM EST on 4/4 and we will look for some value plays relative to their DK pricing. Draftkings did a great job pricing the slate in accordance with their projected performance so we will need to find some value!
| Name | Salary | Betting Odds |
| Timmy Hill | $10700 | +500 |
| William Byron | $10500 | +300 |
| Garrett Smithley | $10200 | +800 |
| Ryan Preece | $10000 | +800 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr | $9800 | +850 |
| Alex Bowman | $9600 | +1000 |
| Denny Hamlin | $9300 | +1000 |
| Parker Kligerman | $9100 | +1200 |
| Landon Cassill | $8900 | +1200 |
| John H. Nemechek | $8700 | +2000 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $8500 | +2000 |
| Michael McDowell | $8300 | +2000 |
| Erik Jones | $8100 | +2200 |
| Bubba Wallace | $7900 | +2500 |
| Clint Bowyer | $7800 | +2800 |
| Kyle Larson | $7600 | +2800 |
| Chase Elliott | $7500 | +2800 |
| Bobby Labonte | $7200 | +3300 |
| Joey Logano | $7100 | +2800 |
| Kurt Busch | $6900 | +3300 |
| Daniel Suarez | $6700 | +4000 |
| Ty Dillon | $6600 | +4000 |
| Kyle Busch | $6500 | +3300 |
| Ross Chastain | $6400 | +4000 |
| Brad Keselowski | $6200 | +3300 |
| Ryan Blaney | $6000 | +5000 |
| Chris Buescher | $5900 | +5000 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr | $5800 | +5000 |
| Christopher Bell | $5700 | +5000 |
| Tyler Reddick | $5200 | +5000 |
| Jimmie Johnson | $5000 | +6600 |
| Austin Dillon | $4900 | +6600 |
The top guys on this slate really don’t need much explanation. Timmy Hill and William Byron are really the 1a and 1b guys for this slate and trying to fit both on a team will be tricky. We are liking Dale Earnhardt, given his great success on the last 2 iRaces and hopefully his questionable designation will throw off some early lineup builders and his ownership will be lower than it should. Preece seems to be the guy who is really a bit overpriced at the top and should see lower ownership than his other peers around the $10,000 mark. This could be a great lower ownership play to differentiate your lineups.
Once we move down the list, things begin to get murky. Chase Elliott has an awesome rig and he has to be itching to perform in a way that allows him to show it off, at $7500 it’s a fun gamble on somebody who certainly takes this more seriously than others. Beyond this, looking for racer pedigree and prior performance in iRacing. Landon Cassill performed well last week and has a good amount of iRacing experience, making him a safer choice under $9000 to perform.
Kurt Busch is the only player under $7000 to have already made a top 10 finish in an iRacing event. Before that, he finished at the bottom of the field and we don’t know if this was a sign of improvement or simply luck. Jimmie Johnson is an interesting play at an extremely low price of $5000. The obvious pedigree is there, but with a lack of virtual experience. That being said, he has apparently hired a tutor to practice his skills and could outperform his salary here in a big way.
When looking to craft your lineup(s), find the value guys you like first and then see which top projected guys you can afford to round it out. It’s much more difficult than a standard tournament to really set on a target favorite because these guys can be distracted by the TV, their dog, their kids, or just bad internet. Play some cheaper tournaments, play your favorite guys, and enjoy some Sunday afternoon fun with this race. Don’t take things too seriously and stay safe.
Sample Lineup
Timmy Hill $10700
Dale Earnhardt $9800
Landon Cassill $8900
Kyle Larson $7600
Chase Elliott $7500
Jimmie Johnson $5000
Thank you for reading! Please check out our podcast, yesterdays LOL slate info, and yesterdays CSGO slate info for even more great content. Follow us on twitter to stay up to date on all future posts. @GameOnDFS1
Podcast: https://www.launchpaddm.com/pd/Game-On-DFS
4.4.20 LOL LCK: https://gameondailyfantasy.com/2020/04/03/4-4-20-lol-lck-slate/
4.3.20 LOL: https://gameondailyfantasy.com/2020/04/02/4-3-20-lol-slate/
4.3-4.20 LOL LEC: https://gameondailyfantasy.com/2020/04/02/4-3-4-20-lol-lec-slate/
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