DFS NASCAR: New Hampshire 301 Playbook & Optimal Lineups

Kentucky provided quite a race on the newly repaved surface and with the low down-force package in place just for an added kicker. Ultimately, Brad Keselowski pulled off the old "I’ve-run-out-of-gas" tricky perfectly and had just enough to fly past Carl Edwards in the last half of the last lap. The schedule now turns to the rolling, pristine, mountains of Loudon, New Hampshire for the race for the lobster at the Magic Mile.

NHMS is notorious amongst the Sprint Cup drivers as a track on which passing is incredibly tough to pull off. Jimmie Johnson, while talking on NASCAR Radio on XM on Friday, said that it’s easy to drive under someone into a corner but it’s incredibly hard to complete the pass. With only a select few drivers posting a serious positive number in positional differential, track position could make all the difference in racking up the points and not.

Despite the seemingly challenging passing at the Magic Mile, a relatively low 76 percent of eventual winners come from the top-five starting spots.  New Hampshire is an interesting track to figure out, as it is one of, if not the, flattest tracks they race at all season. JGR and Penske have dominated the last few races there, splitting the wins two a piece with four different drivers.

Let the race for the lobster begin!

*Dale Earnhardt Jr. is out with concussion-like symptoms this week and Alex Bowman will be replacing him. This means that both Jr. and Bowman are unavailable to get points in a Draft Kings roster.

The cash lineup for the New Hampshire 301 is anchored by two $10,000 drivers and two $9,000 and rounded out by budget-friendly options that have upside. Kevin Harvick is far and away the best driver at the 1-mile distance and it’s not even close. He has led 1,500-plus more laps than the next-closest driver at the distance and he should have a solid chance at leading quite a few again. Brad Keselowski has been the second-best driver on the track in the last two years and said prior to the last two races, that New Hampshire was the track he was most looking forward to next, then he won the last two races. Jimmie Johnson won the pole for Sunday for only the 38^th time total in his career and this is a perfect track to do it at, since passing for the lead could be tough. Positional points is a throw away here but we are angling for the laps led category with this play. Martin Truex Jr.  owns one of the best positive position moves in the field at +8 in the last four races and is still mad from the penalty a week ago. Michael McDowell and Reed Sorensen round out the roster with budget plays but also give upside for position changes.

This week’s GPP lineup features two of the same drivers as the cash in Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. and then rounds it out with four upside plays. Joey Logano has a very good history at the track including a win and three top-fives in the last four races. He has the high upside we look for in a GPP play but has a pretty high floor as well. Chase Elliot may not have any experience in a Sprint Cup car at the 1-mile track, but he has finished 8^th and 9^th in the two Xfinity races he ran there, with six and seven Sprint Cup drivers beating him out. He has also shown well at the other two 1-mile tracks (Phoenix, Dover) they have run this year. Greg Biffle owns one of the best positional differential marks in the field and his value a $6,600 is too hard to pass up with him finding his groove the last two weeks. Michael Annett has moved up +6.8 places a race in the last four, which at $4,800 is too hard not to put in the lineup to finish it off.