GoBowling 400

Kansas Speedway

Well folks, wasn’t last week a fun watch? 35 of 40 drivers involved in wrecks sounds like a dandy of a time, however it wasn’t so great for DFS players.  In the end it came down to another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it type finish. Brad Keselowski pulled out the win as a final caution waved the field home under a caution-checker flag finish after an interesting day that saw him move up and down through the field. Thankfully we don’t have to revisit ‘Dega until the second round of the Chase.

Kansas Speedway is playing host to the second night race of the season this Saturday for the GoBowling 400. Kansas is one of the newer tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule, having been completed in 2001, making it as old a Chicagoland and Kentucky. The downside to this is that there is less track specific data to look at compared to other tracks but with it being a 1.5-mile design, it does compare well to the others of that length.

This track is considered the home track for each of Carl Edwards, Jamie McMurray, and Clint Bowyer but of those three, Edwards is the best of the group by far. And as you will see, he is the only one being played in either of my lineups.

The track just outside of Kansas City, KS (not to be confused with Kansas City, MO) is one that is more open to drivers moving up in the field with 75% of winners coming from the top-5 starting spots, which is lower than the tracks we’ve dealt with previously, widening the field so to speak to try and pick a winning lineup from.

DriverDraft KingsDescription
Jimmie Johnson$10,600He is the king of the 1.5-mile loop winning 7 times on them in the last two seasons one of those coming at Kansas. He's a top-3 driver on the track
Kevin Harvick$10,400Harvick has dominated at Kansas in the last three years with the best loop data rating, most laps led, and highest average finish including two 2nd place finishes
Kyle Busch$10,200Kyle has been very good over the last two years at Kansas having 2 top-5 finishes. He also tallied 89 points at Texas a few weeks back on a similar track
Carl Edwards$10,100Edwards has been a solid driver at Kansas but is a great driver at 1.5-mile tracks. He racked up 87 points at Texas and led 124 laps while recording 49 fastest laps
Joey Logano$9,800Logano has been the only driver better than Harvick at the Speedway in the last two years having an average finish of 2.75 with 2 wins and 4 top-5's
Dale Earnhardt Jr.$9,400Talladega aside, he's been very consistent all season and now heads to a track where he's a top-five option. His price makes him pretty attractive in both formats
Martin Truex Jr.$9,200Truex Jr. is a top-10 rated driver at Kansas having a top-10 finish in the last 4 races there. Two of his best races (93 and 65 points) came at Texas and Atlanta
Kasey Kahne$8,200Kahne's 99.3 driver rating make him the third highest rated driver at Kansas with two top-5 finishes in the last two years. Before 'Dega he was on a 3 races roll
Ryan Newman$7,300Newman has been having an up and down season to this point but here's another track that he should play well at for GPP formats. He's a little too risky for Cash
Clint Bowyer$7,000Kansas is Bowyer's home track but he hasn't acted like that the last couple of seasons. He has had two 64+ point weeks in the last three making him a GPP play
Paul Menard$6,700Menard is a solid driver at Kansas Speedway who has only had two races less than 21 points this season which makes him a low-end budget friendly play this week
Trevor Bayne$6,400Bayne is a driver that doesn't have a long history at the track but has been gettign on a roll the last four weeks including putting up 31 at Texas and 43+ 2 of the last 3
Greg Biffle$6,300Biffle gives you a top-10 starting position on average at the bottom end of the budget. He crashed at Texas but earned 33 points at Atlanta early in the season
Landon Cassill$6,100Cassill has one of the better position differentials at Kansas among active drivers. He is also coming off the best race of the season with 57 points
Cole Whitt$5,200He struggled early in the season but has gotten it together since with improving scores every week. Talladega earned him his best total of the year. He's a budget play

POST-QUALIFYING UPDATES

Now that qualifying has finished for the GoBowling 400 and we get nearer to the race, it’s important to make sure that our lineups are as good as they can get based on drivers starting positions in the grid. If you recall from the top of the article, 75% of winners have come from the top-5 starting spots meaning it would be ideal to get at least one driver from those places into the lineup. So let’s take a look at see what we did.

NEW OPTIMAL LINEUPS

Draft Kings Cash 
Kevin Harvick$10,400
Kyle Busch$10,200
Carl Edwards$10,100
Paul Menard$6,700
Trevor Bayne$6,400
Landon Cassill$6,100
  
Total$49,900

The cash lineup will actually remain the same as pre-qualifying since they were solid plays to begin with and now they have higher upside based on some starting positions. Kevin Harvick is starting 26th but he has made a habit of starting in the middle of the pack and moving up for top-10 or top-5 finishes which only makes his value go higher. Busch, Edwards, Bayne, and Menard all qualified in the top-12, putting them close enough to the front that they can still get plenty of value for moving up.

Draft Kings GPP 
Kevin Harvick$10,400
Kyle Busch$10,200
Martin Truex Jr.$9,200
Kurt Busch$8,900
Landon Cassill$6,100
Cole Whitt$5,200
  
Total$50,000

The GPP lineup has had two changes made to it. Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne have both been taken out in favor of pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. and Kurt Busch. These six drivers now gives us three in the top-six on the starting grid but also makes it higher-risk higher-reward lineup as it has the potential to rack up the laps led points but position differential may be tough to capitalize on. If you feel better about the original lineup, by all means play it, I still think it’s a very solid lineup, though I do believe that as it now stands, it gives a better chance to score big.