Posted on by Nascar

RELATED: Starting lineup for Bojangles’ Southern 500

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Jimmie Johnson is a seven-time NASCAR champion and the defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion and a three-time winner this season but …

But Johnson hasn’t won since early June … and his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates have combined for just one victory … and the playoffs begin in two weeks … and team owner Rick Hendrick acknowledges “we haven’t been as good as we would like to be.”

So Jimmie Johnson did what any other racer would do during the season’s final off week — he and his wife, Chandra, ventured out into the middle of the desert. To hang out. At something called Burning Man, a week-long arts and music festival of sorts held in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

“It’s awesome,” Johnson said of the excursion. “What an experience.”

Because of his racing schedule, attending Burning Man hasn’t been possible in the past. But since he and his wife were already in Joshua Tree National Park for a friend’s wedding, “We were so close we were like ‘We’ve got to figure out a way to get out there and just look around,'” Johnson told NASCAR.com.

“We missed all the real chaos but still saw plenty and what a neat ‘city’ out in the middle of the desert. You can read a lot (about it) and form opinions but until you go and see it yourself and experience it. … It was really cool.”

Now, it’s back to business and business for Johnson and his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet team this week means Darlington Raceway and Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

It’s been another summer spent watching other drivers and teams win races, something Johnson doesn’t enjoy but has come to expect.

“It’s been pretty common,” he acknowledged. “I think in my rookie year (2002) we won the spring Dover race, went on a dry spell until we came back to Dover again in the fall. So I guess there’s been some form of it really through our (team’s) existence.

“I don’t think we were aware of it for a long time but then unfortunately there seemed to be a trend and we can’t hide from it.

“Believe me, we’ve made huge efforts to try to avoid this. It’s just tough to operate at that top level for the whole calendar year.”

Johnson has led just 16 laps of the 2,327 contested since his Dover victory earlier this year. He’s failed to finish four of the 11 races contested since his 84th career win.

It’s a common occurrence but hardly comical.

“Some situations we were experimenting, others we weren’t,” Johnson said of the team’s annual summer struggles. “We’ve had slumps while we were experimenting and slumps while we were trying to be competitive.

“It’s a tricky thing to say ‘experimenting’ because teams can’t sit still, they’re always evolving a little bit. We’ve put a lot of thought into it and I think we’re kind of at a point now where it’s, ‘Forget wasting energy on thinking about why and just start figuring how to have good races and finish out strong.’

“We’ve had some high spots and some speed, just haven’t put together a full race weekend and we need to get back to doing that first.”

Johnson is a three-time winner at the legendary 1.366-mile Darlington track, sweeping here in ’04 and winning again in ’12. Sunday’s race, and next week’s stop at Richmond International Raceway, complete the series’ 26-race regular season. Then it’s off to the 10-race playoffs where Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus and the No. 48 team have enjoyed so much success. His 29 career playoff wins (excluding two won after he had been eliminated) are tops for the series. If it’s true that the team slumps in the summer, it’s just as true that it rises to another level once the playoffs begin.

Still, there are no guarantees.

“You always worry,” Johnson said. “Even when you’re on top you’re worried. ‘Am I going to stay here? Are we going to keep speed in our car?’

“I think in motorsports, 80 percent of your life is spent worrying about something. ‘Can I keep it? Or where did it go?’ Right now we’re wondering where it went, trying to find it.”

Hendrick has seen his drivers win titles in just about every way possible. Jeff Gordon brought him his first in ’95, Terry Labonte added No. 2 the following season and then Gordon won three of the next five.

Johnson ripped off an incredible five in a row from ’06-10, added No. 6 in 2013 and a record-tying No. 7 last season.

“He’s won three races (this year),” Hendrick said. “A lot of people would like to win three races. You like to feel like you’re dominating.

“We’ve been where Martin Truex is. … That feels good and everybody says you’re the one to beat. We usually gain momentum when we get in the playoffs. We usually bring good stuff.”

Truex, driver of the No. 78 Toyota for Furniture Row Racing, is the points leader. He’s won four times and collected seemingly every bonus point available. His team has been pegged as one of this year’s title favorites.

Saturday, he qualified No. 2, alongside pole winner Kevin Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing).

Johnson will start 18th in the 40-car field and hasn’t been in the dialog much of late. Which really isn’t all that unusual. This time though, he said he thinks folks “aren’t over-reacting.”

“It seems like everyone is patiently letting it run its course,” he said.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Results | Detailed breakdown | Standings

DARLINGTON, S.C. – On a throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway, with a move he termed “a throwback to Dale Earnhardt,” Denny Hamlin won his fifth NASCAR XFINITY Series event at the Lady in Black — all from the pole.

The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota grabbed the lead from Joey Logano after a restart on Lap 147 of 148 — one beyond the scheduled distance — and when Logano got inside position on the final circuit and surged ahead into Turn 3, Hamlin responded with a crossover move, retook the top spot off Turn 4 and won a drag race to the finish line.

“I didn’t anticipate the 22 (Logano) getting back to us like that,” said Hamlin, who has finished either first or second in his last eight starts at Darlington. “I think that was a throwback to Dale Earnhardt in (Turns) 3 and 4.”

Logano trailed Hamlin at the stripe by .185 seconds.

“I got underneath him off of (Turn) 2 there coming to the last lap,” Logano said. “I went into (Turn) 3. He knew my play. I knew his play. He knew I was going to slide up. That was kind of the only one I had, so he checked up and turned down underneath me.

“I was hoping I would get to the wall and carry some momentum. Maybe I should have just kept it to the wood and rode the wall, I don’t know, but overall I guess second always stinks, but probably a pretty good finish considering where we were in practice and where we qualified (10th). We maximized our day. I just wish it was a win.”

RELATED: Logano: ‘Second place always sucks’

Kevin Harvick finished third despite leading 54 laps — second only to Logano’s 58 — and winning the first two stages of the race. A disastrous restart on Lap 142, after the eighth caution for Dakoda Armstrong’s spin in Turn 2, buried Harvick in fifth place for the final green flag.

“It just didn’t wind up working out there at the end,” Harvick said. “I wound up on the bottom, and I kept my foot in it over there, got loose underneath the 20 (Erik Jones). We weren’t the strongest for five or 10 laps, and that didn’t really work out with that short run there at the end, and we got stuck on the bottom.

“We got loose and then we got freight-trained, but just a great car. It wound up being a great race, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Jones came home fourth, followed by William Byron and Brennan Poole.

Both Brennan Poole and Daniel Hemric join Elliott Sadler, William Byron, Justin Allgaier and Ryan Reed as the six drivers that have clinched spots in the NASCAR XFINITY Series Playoffs early.

RELATED: Sadler slams into wall

Elliott Sadler’s crash into the Turn 1 wall caused the final caution on Lap 143 and postponed the veteran driver’s regular-season-championship clinching party at least until Richmond next weekend. Sadler finished 33rd but still holds a 91-point lead over second-place Byron in the series standings.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Qualifying results| See the starting field in photos

DARLINGTON, S.C. – Kevin Harvick ended Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying session at Darlington Raceway with an excellent omen for Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (on NBCSN at 6 p.m. ET).

Covering the 1.366-mile distance in 27.669 seconds (177.730 mph) in the final round, Harvick earned his second career pole at the Lady in Black. The first time Harvick was the top qualifier at Darlington was in 2014. He went on to win the Bojangles’ Southern 500. After that he won the series championship.

Last year, Harvick started first and finished second when the field was ordered according to owner points because of a qualifying rainout.

The Coors Light Pole Award was Harvick’s fourth of the season and the 21st of his career. It also represented a benchmark of progress the Stewart-Haas Racing organization has made in its transition from Chevrolet to Ford in 2017.

“I think, obviously, we’ve had a big gap of learning since we switched to Ford,” said Harvick, who swept all three rounds of qualifying in the No. 4 SHR Ford. “A lot of things have been different. We’ve had to do a lot of things different, and the work load’s been pretty heavy.

“I’m really proud of everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing for everything that they’ve done. We just keep getting better and better. Hopefully, we can keep improving, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come on Sunday night.”

Martin Truex Jr. (177.077 mph) qualified second, earning his eighth front-row start of the season, a number that includes one pole and seven second-place efforts. Kyle Busch claimed the third starting spot, followed by Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray.

“That was definitely a good qualifying session for us,” Truex said. “We were off a little bit in the first round and just kept working on the car. I kind of adjusted my driving style throughout all three rounds, and we ended up second.

“It seems like we’ve been second a lot this year, and it’s been a good number for us, and hopefully it’ll be a good one on Sunday night.”

Among drivers trying to fight their way into the playoff with race wins, Joey Logano qualified eighth, Erik Jones was 10th and Clint Bowyer was 16th. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start 22nd in his last Darlington race in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We didn;t make any qualifying runs (in practice), and we got something decent out of today,” Earnhardt said. “In race trim, we fell off really hard on the long run, so we’ve still got some more time to work on it. We just need to keep looking forward and see if we can get better.

“Anything can happen in this race. There’s limited sets of tires and you never know what can happen. Hopefully, we can get enough speed in our car and have the right strategy and the right tires at the right time.”

Posted on by Staff Report

RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday’s race | Weekend schedule

At a Glance 

What: Bojangles’ Southern 500
Where: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, 1.366-mile oval
Green flag: 6:15 p.m. ET
TV/Radio: NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Forecast: Sunny with a high near 87, according to the National Weather Service, with northwest winds at 5 to 7 mph.
National anthem: The Oak Ridge Boys
Grand Marshals: 2018 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees Ray Evernham, Ron Hornaday, Ken Squier and Robert Yates
Race distance: 367 laps, 501.3 miles
Pit road speed: 45 mph
Caution car speed: 50 mph
Stage lengths: Stage 1 ends on Lap 100. Stage 2 ends on Lap 200. Final stage is scheduled to end on Lap 367

Posted on by Staff Report

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Voting for the National Motorsports Press Association’s Most Popular Driver Award will officially open Sunday, Sept. 3, 2017.

The 2017 voting period will open at 12 a.m. ET Sunday and close at 11:59 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 19.

To vote for this year’s award, fans can visit www.nmpamostpopulardriver.com via desktop or the NASCAR MOBILE app.

Once again, voting is limited to one vote per person per email address per day. Fans are encouraged to share their votes through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Eligible drivers for this year’s award are those who have declared for the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

The award is administered by the NMPA and is the only major NASCAR award determined solely by fan vote. It has been presented annually since 1953.

Nineteen drivers have received the award at least once since the program began. NMPA Hall of Fame member and 1988 series champion Bill Elliott holds the record for most MPD awards with 16; Hendrick Motorsports driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. has won the award for the past 14 seasons. Earnhardt is stepping down from competing in NASCAR’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at season’s end.

The winner of this year’s award will be announced during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Awards program Thursday, Nov. 30 at the Wynn Las Vegas. NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM will provide coverage of this year’s program.

Posted on by Zack Albert

RELATED: Preview of Junior’s last race at Darlington | Weekend schedule

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. was feted again Friday at Darlington Raceway, receiving another send-off gift as he embarks on the final 12-race stretch of his career.

Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) will inch him another step closer to the last race in his full-time career. Though he’ll remain in the sport with spot duty in the NASCAR XFINITY Series and a new role in the NBC Sports broadcast booth, both he and his family are bracing for that farewell, scheduled Nov. 19 in the Homestead-Miami Speedway season finale.

“I’ve been thinking about it a little bit as we get closer because this will go by pretty quick, these last few races will go by pretty fast, so it’s going to be here before I know it,” Earnhardt said after Friday’s practices at the historic 1.366-mile track. “I haven’t really had any emotions yet and I know I will be sad as well. It’s hard to put so much into something and then have to stop doing it and change directions. No matter why you are retiring or having to change what you are doing. When you put so much into it, it is hard to make that change.

“And I don’t really know what I’m going to miss. If I knew what I was going to miss it would be more emotional and harder to deal with, but the fact that I’m not quite sure exactly what is going to be the most difficult part about it it’s really not set in yet.”

Darlington had a number of lasting tributes for Earnhardt and his family on Friday, the opening day of the sport’s annual NASCAR Throwback weekend. Track president Kerry Tharp presented the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 driver with a commemorative print and a program to donate 88 tickets annually to young fans in the region to future Southern 500s.

Those proclamations came after Friday morning’s dedication of the Turn 3 suites as Earnhardt Towers, a ceremony attended by Earnhardt Jr.’s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller. Earnhardt Miller said plans are already in motion to celebrate her brother’s final race, bringing those eventualities into sharper focus.

“I mean, I’m going to cry a lot. I may as well pack mostly tissues in my suitcase,” Earnhardt Miller said. “I just know I’m going to cry because at most events when there’s anything that’s historical or involves my family or something coming to an end or changing, that’s just what I do. I don’t know how it’s going to be. It’s certainly going to be probably surreal in the moment.

“It’s going to be very busy because my team on the brand side for Dale are going to have our hands full for the weekend coordinating and entertaining sponsors, and so it’s probably going to be one of those things in the moment that you just work through because you’ve got a lot of things to handle and do. Then you’re going to look back on it and realize maybe that you didn’t take in some moments, so I’m probably going to have to be pretty mindful of that as I go through the weekend. But it’s going to be sad.”

His special paint scheme is already decided and other plans are in development, but Earnhardt Jr. admitted he won’t know how he’ll react to the emotions of the moment. He drew a corollary Friday to the departure of his former crew chief, Steve Letarte, at the end of the 2014 season.

“I’m not quite sure how that is going to work out,” said Earnhardt, who will be reunited with Letarte next season on the NBC Sports team. “I know that I never really thought about what that would be like until Steve ran his last race with me at Homestead and he was as cool as a cucumber all weekend, at least in front of everybody, in front of me and the guys in the hauler and everything.

“He was great all the way up until every race would lean in the car, we would shake hands, we would say a few words about ‘have a good day, I’m here with you, we are going to work together,’ all those things that you like a crew chief to say and as soon as he come in there and started talking he just fell out and started crying and bawling like a baby. And I thought, man, and I started crying, too, to be honest with you. It was a difficult moment. So, I imagine that is going to be part of it for me and it’s going to be hard to not have those emotions at that last race.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Will Chase Elliott score a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his last 12 races in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet?

Or will William Byron be the first to do the honors when he moves into the No. 24 ride next year, with Elliott set to drive the No. 9 — a number replete with Elliott family history.

When Elliott takes the green flag in Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway (on NBCSN at 6 p.m. ET), it will mark the 1,439th time the No. 24 has run in competition at NASCAR’s highest level. The car number, driven for the first time at Daytona in 1950 with Dick Clothier behind the wheel, has been to Victory Lane 93 times — all with four-time champion Jeff Gordon in the seat.

So if Elliott happens to win before his tenure in the No. 24 ends, he’ll be the only driver other than Gordon to take a checkered flag with that number. And with Elliott on the playoff bubble, a victory in the next two races — before the playoff field is set — would be particularly serendipitous.

“Excited for the rest of this season,” Elliott said on Friday before opening practice at Darlington. “Definitely, as I have said throughout the week, too, you know I have an opportunity to add on to the success Jeff has had in this car, and I would like to do that before I don’t have that opportunity anymore.”

When Elliott switches to the No. 9 next year, he’ll be driving the same car number that carried his father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, to 38 of his 44 career victories and a series championship in 1988. Chase Elliott had no second thoughts about making the switch.

“Any time you have a chance to kind of go back to where you came from in a sense with your number … that’s a number I’ve been tied to for a long time,” Elliott said. “When you are a kid, and you go and you are going to play soccer for the first time and you pick No. 9, I feel like from there you are always going to have that connection with it, or whatever. 

“So, for me, no, it was pretty easy to want to take that opportunity. The only thought I have had is the No. 24, it really has become home for me over the past year and a half and I feel like I have kind of got to that point with it and felt at home. So that’s the only thing to it, but no, it was a no-brainer for me to want to take that chance.”

And when he climbs into the No. 9 for the first time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Elliott will have the chance to add to another legacy — one that’s a lot more personal.

Posted on by Zack Albert

RELATED: NASCAR official says ‘cone rule’ has been discussed

DARLINGTON, S.C. — Martin Truex Jr. says he’s bullish about the prospects of a possible “choose cone” rule in high-level NASCAR events, saying it would add another element of driver strategy.

Truex, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader, made the remarks in between Friday practices for Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 (6 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) at Darlington Raceway.

The rule, which has been used at some weekly tracks in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series, is being discussed to determine double-file restart orders for NASCAR’s national divisions. The rule allows drivers to have lane choice, picking the high or low lane on either side of a cone in the middle of the track to form the restart order.

“Yes. I think it’d be a great rule,” Truex said. “I go back to Michigan 1, and we had the car to beat by quite a bit. I mean, we were so fast. We passed the leader three or four different times. We got off on pit sequence and we were like fourth or fifth, and every single restart on the last four or five restarts of the race, I think we got the bottom lane, and every time we’d lose two or three spots. It absolutely takes you out of a shot to win.

“It completely took our chance away to win there, so having the cone rule and picking the outside, we might have five wins right now, and that’s happened at a few race tracks this year.”

RELATED: Larson foils Truex in overtime at Michigan

In that June race at Michigan, Truex led 62 laps through the first three-quarters of the 200-lap race, but faded to a sixth-place finish. Using a cone rule would mark a significant shift in the complexion of late-race restarts, but would also potentially eliminate the gamesmanship in waiting for an advantageous restart spot when exiting pit road like at Bristol.

Truex says he’s not a part of the drivers’ council that regularly meets to discuss matters concerning competition in particular and the sport in general, but that he frequently hears positive feedback from his peers.

“I think it’s a good thing,” Truex said. “I think the drivers are all in favor of it because you can kind of control your destiny a bit more, so typically when we can do that, the fans in NASCAR kind of vote the other way, so we’ll see how it goes but I would definitely be in favor of it.”

Posted on by DraftKings

Rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by value of each driver.

(fppk = average fantasy points per $1,000 of salary. The typical median fppk for a 2016 race was in the threes. Plate tracks tend to be lower and short tracks tend to run higher due to the amount of laps.)

1. Martin Truex, Jr. ($10,700) – In order to emphasize his greatness at intermediate tracks, here are Truex’s scores at those tracks this season: 39, 116, 76, 61, 105, 149, 75, 127 and 100 points. The only time he scored less than 60 points was the second race of the season. (6.1 fppk)

2. Kyle Larson ($10,300) – His median finish in nine intermediate track races this season is second place. Just sit and think about that for a second. Half of the playoff races are intermediate tracks. Larson better clear space in his trophy case. (5.4 fppk)

3. Kyle Busch ($10,600) – The Bristol win will play games with your memory. Busch has been fast all summer, but he routinely makes mistakes. He’s had two clean races: Pocono and Bristol. The rest were textbook “what could have been” races littered with self-inflicted wounds. (5.5 fppk)

4. Denny Hamlin ($9,900) – Every driver is one step behind the group of Truex, Kyle Busch and Larson. Most are a few steps away, but Hamlin is just one step. If the race breaks his way and he gets into clean air, Hamlin can finish with a top-three DFS score. (4.0 fppk)

5. Jimmie Johnson ($9,100) – The only big fantasy NASCAR score from Johnson at an intermediate track came at Texas. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Johnson leads NASCAR with seven Texas wins. Johnson has three Darlington wins, but two of those were 13 years ago. (3.6 fppk)

6. Kevin Harvick ($9,700) – The track history statistic will be tested this weekend. Harvick’s past Darlington races check all of the boxes (four straight top-fives at Darlington). Those were all in a Chevy. This season SHR switched to Ford, and Harvick has just two top-fives at intermediate tracks. (4.3 fppk)

7. Joey Logano ($8,600) – There are several ways to look at Logano’s 2017 season. Compared to previous seasons, statistically, it appears that Logano has taken a step back. That perspective ignores Truex’s domination. Logano is a consistent top-10 driver; he’s just not Martin Truex, Jr. (3.0 fppk)

8. Chase Elliott ($9,300) – At Kansas and Charlotte, Elliott had two bad luck wrecks. Before those wrecks, he was a contender. In the four other 1.5-mile track races, he has three top-fives and a top-10. (3.6 fppk)

9. Jamie McMurray ($8,500) – It’s far enough into the season that we have a good idea of who McMurray is. He’s a consistent top-10 driver, but he is not leading laps or running fast laps. (3.4 fppk)

10. Erik Jones ($8,800) – His Bristol performance was impressive. Kyle Larson did not control a race until his second season (it was also at Bristol). Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse still have not led the field for a significant period. Jones led for half of the race at one of the hardest tracks in NASCAR. (4.1 fppk)

11. Brad Keselowski ($9,200) – His win at Atlanta and big fantasy day at Las Vegas seem like a lifetime ago. Somehow his teammate Blaney has speed, but the rest of the Penske cars have been left behind. Look at the Michigan race. BK had the pole and ran upfront, but it was only a matter of time before Truex took over. (4.1 fppk)

12. Matt Kenseth ($9,500) – He has a JGR car, but it’s like the Kasey Kahne ride at Hendrick. Just being on the team isn’t enough. Kenseth has three top-10s at intermediate tracks in 2017. He can point in his way into the playoffs if he plays it safe. (3.6 fppk)

13. Ryan Blaney ($8,700) – The Wood Brothers have found a way to add speed to this Penske car. Blaney has been consistently faster than Keselowski and Logano at the intermediate tracks this season. He led more than 80 laps at the Texas and the Kansas 1.5-mile tracks. (2.8 fppk)

14. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. ($7,300) – The typical track history stats for Stenhouse are either impressive or terrible, but Darlington is neither (three top-20s in four races). In the last four intermediate track races this season, Stenhouse has four top-15 finishes. (4.2 fppk)

15. Daniel Suarez ($7,800) – The fastest cars in NASCAR are the JGR Toyotas. This one is priced less than $8,000. Suarez finished seventh at Kansas and 11th at Charlotte. His 18th-place finish at Kentucky seems like a step backward, but his average running position was 12th. (4.0 fppk)

16. Ty Dillon ($6,800) – Every week he figures it out. He never shows anything during practice, but by the end of the race, he’s right there in 20th. He may not be in the fantasy NASCAR lineup that takes the top spot, but he’s usually in a lot of lineups that win. (4.5 fppk)

17. Clint Bowyer ($8,400) – Bowyer doesn’t have the speed to run out front all race. He has to get cute with pit stop strategy. The fuel mileage game can mean first or 25th. (3.8 fppk)

18. Ryan Newman ($8,100) – He has four top-10 finishes in his last six Darlington races. He finished 13th and 23rd in the other two races. Newman is always safe, but he seems unusually safe at a track that has a lot of intimidating nicknames. (4.2 fppk)

19. Kurt Busch ($8,200) – Since his win at Daytona, Kurt has just been turning laps. Sometimes you forget that he’s still a Cup driver. His average finish at intermediate tracks this season is 17th, but that number is saddled by a couple of bad races. He usually runs around 10th to 15th. (3.1 fppk)

20. Matt DiBenedetto ($5,700) – Darlington is a messy race. This is a week where fantasy NASCAR players will punt (pick a low-priced driver in order to roster several expensive drivers). DiBenedetto has a knack for not wrecking at volatile race tracks. (3.7 fppk)

I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is greenflagradio2) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above.