DailyFanRacing Newsletter - Talladega
What’s up, everyone?! It’s Dustin Maybin (@CUPharmDFS) back with your weekly DailyFanRacing newsletter. Texas had its lulls at times, but in the end, some top drivers are now in danger of being eliminated from the playoffs. In particular, Kyle Larson dominated the majority of the race until a late spin relegated him to just 2 points above the cut line. Martin Truex Jr, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Tyler Reddick also had issues resulting in poor finishes. With Talladega on deck, it’ll be interesting to see how the points shake out on Sunday!
Let’s first take a look at this weekend’s schedule of events:
Saturday, September 30th, 2023
9:30 am ET - Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying
1:00 pm ET - Trucks: Love’s RV Stop 250
4:30 pm ET - Cup Series Qualifying
Sunday, September 24th, 2023
2:00 pm ET - Cup: YellaWood 500
This week, NASCAR will be in Talladega for the Cup and Truck Series, while Xfinity and F1 have the week off.
Talladega is a 2.66-mile tri-oval and is considered a superspeedway style track due to the importance of the draft in maintaining speed compared to the other cars. Daytona is the only true comparable track, although Atlanta has become somewhat useful since its reconfiguration last season. Talladega has become synonymous with “The Big One” as there is often a wreck that takes out upwards of five drivers.
The three-wide, closely packed racing lends itself to these wrecks since the tiniest of mistakes can set off a cascading reaction throughout the field. It should be noted though that Talladega is quite a bit wider than Daytona, so there is theoretically more room for drivers to maneuver and miss the wrecks.
Talladega can be a tricky slate that will take quite a bit of luck to win since a few big wrecks can absolutely derail our lineups. Having the exact right combination of chalky place differential plays and lower owned pivots is nearly impossible when chaos ensues. However, there have been less DNFs on average here than at Daytona. Throughout the industry, you’ll hear most saying just to play the players in the back. While that’s a helpful starting point, it doesn’t paint the whole picture.
Considering at least a quarter of the field tends to wreck any given week, you know Talladega gets them happier than a fat kid in a candy store. The average salary spent on the last 4 Talladega optimal lineups is $43,950.
Over the past 10 drafting track Truck races, just 5.1% of optimal lineup appearances have come from drivers starting in the top 10. On the other hand, 62.7% come from drivers starting outside the top 20. Given the limited number of laps and thus dominator points available, in addition to the expected carnage, it’s easy to see why this is the case.
As far as the Cup Series goes, drivers starting 30th or worse have accounted for 35% of optimal lineup appearances at the last 10 races at similar tracks, Daytona or new Atlanta. At Talladega, however, only 20% of these drivers have been optimal.
Final Lap
We will have much more lineup construction tidbits and advice in our race breakdowns, so join DailyFanRacing today to take advantage of the most comprehensive fantasy NASCAR coverage in the industry!
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As usual, for premium members, we will have full driver-by-driver breakdowns, expert rankings, and projections for each slate this weekend, in addition to a slate strategy article and podcast for Cup and F1.
Have a great week, and we’ll look forward to you winning with us again this weekend!