DailyFanRacing NASCAR & F1 Race Preview - From Kansas to Miami
What’s up, everyone?! It’s Dustin Maybin (@CUPharmDFS) back again with your weekly DailyFanRacing newsletter!
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Weekend in Review
There’s nothing better on a Monday at work than watching some NASCAR to pass the time. Rain took its toll on the weekend schedule, canceling qualifying for the Xfinity and Cup Series and moving the Cup race to Monday.
That didn’t bother the Truex brothers, though. Ryan and Martin Truex Jr. swept the weekend at their home track in their JGR Toyotas. Ryan has for years been seen as unfulfilled potential, but he finally put it all together in dominating fashion on Saturday. Martin was able to snap a long winless streak, holding off Ross Chastain.
Speaking of Ross Chastain, he’s making waves again. For some unbeknownst reason, he decided to punt lapped car Brennan Poole, causing him to slide up the track just in time to be t-boned by Kyle Larson. While that certainly hurt from a DFS-perspective since Larson was our favorite to dominate the race, the modern day intimidator in Chastain is at least keeps things entertaining.
In other NASCAR news, it was announced this week that Legacy MC will be moving from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2024. This may explain why they’ve ran like absolute trash to start the 2023 season, especially compared to Jones’ performance in 2022. While I’m not surprised that Toyota is extending its reach in the Cup Series, I am shocked that team co-owner Jimmie Johnson is fine with leaving Chevrolet. Then again, when you’re the 4th best Chevrolet team, there may be greener pastures elsewhere.
As far as F1 goes, Sergio Perez won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Yet again, his Red Bull Racing teammate and race favorite, Max Verstappen was denied a win. Our subscribers weren’t though! CloakedMistborn had a GPP takedown for the 3rd time in 4 F1 races this season!
It might not have been the weekend I was hoping for, but that didn’t stop our DailyFanRacing community from continuing to pile up wins.
Looking Ahead
This week, NASCAR and F1 are again both in action. F1 will be racing in back-to-back weeks for the first time this season as they take on the Miami Grand Prix, while the NASCAR Cup and Truck Series will be racing in Kansas. Talk about a stark difference in location and patronage.
Here’s the schedule of races on the docket this weekend:
Saturday, May 8, 2023 - 8:00pm ET - Heart of America 200 (Trucks)
Sunday, May 9, 2023 - 3:00pm ET - Advent Health 400 (Cup)
Sunday, May 9, 2023 - 3:30pm ET - Miami GP (F1)
There are a few things I hate about this weekend. Same-day practice and qualifying are back this week for the Craftsman Truck Series. Fortunately, there are about 7 hours between qualifying and the race start time, so we won’t be too crunched for time to set lineups. More irritating is the fact that F1 and the Cup Series races will be on at the same time. I understand that they’re competitors, but for the true race fan, that just sucks.
NASCAR Preview
Kansas is a 1.5-mile “cookie-cutter” intermediate with low to medium tire wear. Comparable tracks on the schedule that could be used for analysis are Las Vegas, Charlotte, Texas, and Homestead. Given that Las Vegas is the only one that has already been raced in 2023, overall performance this season on non-drafting ovals is also a strong indicator of potential success.
While the Truck Series has become synonymous with wreckfests, Kansas is one of the few tracks with less carnage. It’s a relatively easy track to drive with its multiple grooves. Due to the low amount of expected attrition, punt plays are less likely to be optimal in DFS lineups. In fact, just 6% of top 10 DraftKings scores over the past 10 Kansas races have come from drivers starting worse than 30th. Even more notable is that five of those six scores came from drivers on upper tier teams (Chastain, Deegan, Kligerman) who finished 20th or better.
We should be in for a treat this weekend as multiple trends collide in the Cup race. Hendrick Motorsports has looked like the team to beat so far this season, showing a ton of speed at all track types. Meanwhile, the Toyotas were dominant in both Kansas races in 2022, placing 4 drivers in the top 5 in both races. 23XI Racing, specifically, came away with wins in both races. Hopefully, we get to see practice this week to help make the difficult lineup decisions.
Miami GP - F1
What’s up everyone, Ryan Larkin back to take over this newsletter to talk a little F1! I am pumped to see some US based F1 action. The best part, is that were are currently projected for rain for the start of this race. Could make for quite the show!
Last year was the first ever event in Miami and from the fake water surrounding the yachts to the football helmet trophies, this event was quite the show. The racing was a bit mediocre overall as passing was difficult but we did have drivers from 7 constructors finish inside the top 10 and a couple of significant crashes that spiced things up. Oh and Ferrari screwed up pit strategy which is always entertaining.
I expect Red Bull to dominate this race…. Shocker, I know. However, if we do get some of those mid-afternoon Florida showers then there could be some surprises throughout the grid.
As always, we will have you completely covered for this slate and I look forward to us hopefully securing our 4th Big GPP Takedown of the year.
If you are not already a DailyFanRacing sub, make sure to take advantage of our promo this week. We have 17 DFS slates over 31 days! That is essentially $1 a slate.
Final Lap
If you haven’t done so already, join our FREE DailyFanRacing Discord, where we are chatting about NASCAR, F1, and MMA everyday.
As usual, for premium members, we will have full driver-by-driver breakdowns, expert rankings, and projections for all races this weekend, in addition to a slate strategy article and podcast for Cup.
Have a great week, and we’ll look forward to you winning with us again this weekend!