Richmond. The Action Track. It’s back for its second race of the year this weekend with the Federated Auto Parts 400. Back in the Spring, it put on a pretty good show with the Next Gen’s first trip to the Virginia short track. We’re expecting the the same this time around as well, especially given that there’s just three races left until the Cup Playoffs.

Richmond Raceway Track Layout

Nestled in the northern part of Virginia’s capital city, Richmond Raceway is a three-quarter-mile track that packs a lot into the tight layout. It’s a fairly flat track, comparable to New Hampshire, Phoenix, Gateway, and even a bit of Nashville. It’s also a D-shaped oval; the only short track of that layout on the NASCAR schedule. Adding one last thing is that tire wear is a factor here; not to the level of Darlington or Auto Club, but it is a factor. Long runs here can be brutal for speed if drivers can’t manage tires. Richmond is also a relatively tight track in terms of width of racing surface, and actual race grooves.

Federated Auto Parts NASCAR DFS Strategy

If we harken back to the strategy we employed earlier in the year when we had the stretch of short track races, it’s mainly laps led and finish position. That being said, the passing here in previous racing has seen an average of 7.2 drivers move up at least six spots a race and 4.2 pull-off double-digit PD marks. On the other side of that comes the fact that only 30-percent of the top-10 finishers in the last five race have started outside the top-12. Starting up front here has been good not only for finishing position but also DFS scores when you look at the charts below. Turning attention to dominators, we’re likely building a two-dominator build here. Last race in April we saw four different drivers top 60 laps led and on average over the last five races there’s been two drivers topping 100 laps led in three of them. Also keep in mind for what it’s worth that the pole-sitter has been in the optimal DraftKings lineup for six straight Cup races overall coming into this weekend. One thing to note is the discrepancy between Group A and Group B practice and qualifying times.

Practice To Qualifying

The following table shows the difference between where drivers qualified and where they ran in practice over the short and long runs. It is designed to show potential position differential plays in the race and who could be sneaky GPP plays.

DriverDK$FD $Prac to QualQualComb. Prac5-Lap10-lap15-Lap20-Lap
Kyle Busch$11,400$13,000182911 766
Denny Hamlin$11,100$13,500-336 533
Chase Elliott$10,800$12,50015238 322
Martin Truex Jr$10,600$14,000165 445
Kyle Larson$10,300$11,000-16117 111010
Ross Chastain$10,100$12,000121 12019
Ryan Blaney$9,900$10,000-111021 974
Christopher Bell$9,600$11,50032118 191515
Joey Logano$9,300$10,50041713 1098
Kevin Harvick$9,100$9,500-61319 131412
Tyler Reddick$8,800$8,80024262    
William Byron$8,600$9,000-16420 1418 
Alex Bowman$8,400$7,800-10515 26  
Daniel Suarez$8,200$8,00015249 2321 
Bubba Wallace$8,000$8,500-131124 22  
Erik Jones$7,900$7,000297    
Chase Briscoe$7,700$7,500-111526 1623 
Ty Gibbs$7,600$7,500-131427 151111
Austin Cindric$7,500$6,50030333 657
Austin Dillon$7,200$6,800-131225 2522 
Brad Keselowski$7,000$6,000-20828 171213
Aric Almirola$6,800$7,20028324 211
Chris Buescher$6,600$6,200-111829 27  
Ricky Stenhouse Jr$6,400$5,800-112031 181314
Michael McDowell$6,200$5,200183416    
Justin Haley$6,000$4,500172710    
Harrison Burton$5,800$5,500183012 889
Cole Custer$5,700$5,000-15722 121918
Noah Gragson$5,500$4,000-151934 201616
Ty Dillon$5,400$3,000-12223 211717
Corey Lajoie$5,200$3,000173114 29  
Todd Gilliland$5,100$3,500-161632 28  
Landon Cassill$5,000$2,500-102535 24  
Cody Ware$4,900$2,000-52833    
BJ McLeod$4,800$2,00003636    
JJ Yeley$4,700$2,50053530    

Average Points By Starting Spot

These charts show the average points scored for each of DraftKings and FanDuel over the last five races. It’s intended to show the DFS Strategy for Richmond rather than who’s the lock and load plays based on starting spots.

Editor’s Note: Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott are easily playable. Due to that they’re not in the playbook to make room for more interesting plays. If you want them in your builds in the LG, simply click the check next to their name in the excluded tab after selecting Show Playbook Plays in the main tab.

Stacks

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