NASCAR heads west to start the West Coast Swing part of the schedule with a trip to Auto Club Speedway. The Pala Casino 400 is on Sunday 2/26 in Fontana, California — a rain-soaked Fontana that is. The weather across the country has been a big talking point all week and now it’s mixing with NASCAR and DFS to make an already interesting race that much more intriguing. Just how will the weather change things? What can we expect for NASCAR DFS strategy? Who are the top plays for NASCAR on DraftKings and FanDuel this weekend? Let’s take a look at this week’s NASCAR DFS playbook.

What is the weather in Fontana for Auto Club Speedway?

Rainy. That’s the only descriptor we need right now. It’s raining all day Saturday and while it’s likely to clear up overnight, it won’t be that warm on Sunday in Fontana. The temps are forecast to be in the 40s which means the track might have a bit more grip than normal to start. It also means it’ll take longer to fully dry the track and we should expect quite a bit of “weepers” during the race.

What Does NASCAR Do When There's No Practice or Qualifying?

In a situation with no practice or qualifying due to inclement weather, NASCAR sets the starting lineup using a metric. That metric combines finish position from the last race, owner points standings, and rating of fastest laps from the previous race. Clearly, early in the season, that’s skewed quite a bit based on the Daytona 500 and that gives us an odd starting grid for the Pala Casino 400.

Auto Club Speedway Track Layout and Racing Surface

The layout of Auto Club Speedway is a 2-mile D-shaped oval. It’s old and worn out as well. That makes this race one of the more fun for drivers and fans alike as there are multiple grooves for racing, so long as the cars handle well. The old surface — the oldest on the Cup schedule — makes this a high tire-wear track much like Homestead and Darlington and Richmond. While they only race here once a year, with this being the last time in this layout, it is comparable to Michigan, Kansas, Homestead, and Darlington when looking at similar results and speed metrics.

Pala Casino 400 NASCAR DFS strategy

This week, it’s going to be an interesting one for strategy because of the cancellation of qualifying. The starting grid has a lot of big names spread deeper in the field than we normally see and that is likely to make for several chalkier plays. It’s also likely to make cash game contests tough to get a full 2x return in. Why? Because we’ve already seen the same lineup posted on Twitter and in Discord a few different times since prices were released indicating there is one chalky build for cash. For GPPs though, there are quite a few ways we could build and gain leverage on the field. At Auto Club previously, it’s been common to see one car dominate the race in terms of laps led and fastest laps while a second car has a decent amount of dominator points. However, last year in the Next Gen car, we didn’t see many races with one driver leading over 100 laps. I expect the latter to be the case again this year, especially this week. Auto Club has produced a decent amount of cautions in previous races, especially last year, due to tire wear and drivers getting in two-car wrecks. When building for cash, we’re focusing on PD given the amount that’s out there in the starting grid. For GPPs though we are looking to get a dominator or two and then get PD plays, though not necessarily the chalky options. As you’ll see in the playbook, there are several options that should give lower ownership with the same upside as some of the chalkier options everyone is seemingly on for Sunday.

There are a lot of chalky options this week, I’m not going to list all of them in the playbook so that I can fit other pivots instead. If you want them in the Lineup Generator, go to the excluded tab and click the checkmark next to the driver’s name you want.

Stacks

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