NASCAR DFS Grant Park 220 Playbook: Can Denny Hamlin Dominate From Pole

For the first time ever NASCAR is going street racing. They’ve been road racing before but not street racing on actual city streets, like those of Chicago. The Grant Park 220 is set for Sunday and the fanfare surrounding it is immense. But what do we expect from the race now that the NASCAR practice and qualifying results are in? How are we approaching this race for NASCAR DFS on DraftKings and FanDuel? With this being a brand new layout, what are we looking at for who to play and what tracks can we compare this to? Below we answer all of that and more plus give you the top plays for building your NASCAR DFS lineups.

NASCAR Chicago Street Circuit Layout

The 2.2-mile track in the middle of downtown Chicago has 12, tight, turns with seven of them being 90-degree corners. There are a few higher-speed corners like Turns 3, 4, and 7 but other than that it’s a lot of tight, technical corners. It is a wider racing surface than first anticipated with the straightaways potentially providing some passing spots. Potentially. The biggest questions about the track are the general lack of run-off areas, the tight entrance to pit road — and it being a right-hand pit — as well as just how will restarts look. In the first half of the Xfinity race there was some passing — some — and restarts were decently civil. However, as the laps count off most drivers won’t be so accommodating for space through the first few corners. So prepare for a bit of chaos.

Weather for Chicago this Weekend

Weather is bound to be a big talking point this weekend. In fact, as of this writing, the Xfinity race on Saturday was halted midway due to lightning in the area and the risk of storms overnight. There are still chances for rain on Sunday and while NASCAR does have wet weather tires in the pits this week, it’s unlikely we want to see that kind of racing given the spray that will give off. We could see a start moved slightly or a delay as lightning is still a possibility on Sunday.

DFS Strategy for Grant Park 220

We have a brand new, never-before run on track that’s a discipline not often raced. How are we approaching the Grant Park 220 for DFS then? Well, there are basically two schools of thought for this race. If you listened to the podcast (see above) you’d have heard Edward Raus and myself describing them. In general, for all road courses, we expect passing to be tough to come by and laps led to really only come from a couple of drivers. That’s one way to build, expect a regular road race to break out. What’s the other? Build a bit for chaos. We saw several drivers having trouble navigating a few of the tighter corners with tough sight lines like Turn 4 in practice. That was just with one or two cars in a line, now try 36. Unlike more open road courses where one-car spins don’t usually cause a problem, that won’t be the case here on Sunday as one car sideways on the track is a serious impediment to others.

The race is scheduled at 100 laps (220 miles) and so we can look at it like a Sonoma-length race which had six drivers lead at least one lap but only three led 15 or more and two topped 33. Expect a similar split on Sunday with the pole-sitter setting the pace earlier until the first Green Flag pit stops shuffle things up a bit. Ultimately, like I stated in the podcast, we’re looking at a more GPP-type weekend rather than cash given all of the unknowns for the race and it possibly being chaotic or relatively calm.

NASCAR Practice and Qualifying Results

This table is designed to show how each driver performed in practice and then qualifying. The idea is to show who may or may not move up from their starting spots and where we might be able to find some sneaky plays.

Here's a driver who didn't populate in the playbook:
Shane Van Gisbergen

For those of you who don’t know, Van Gisbergen is an Australian Supercar 3x World Champion who is quite versed in driving on street circuits. He’ll be in the Trackhouse Project 91 entry and so far that’s looking like a great pairing. The car has been fast this weekend and it’s piloted by a guy who certainly knows the nuances of this style of racing. He’ll be starting P3 and had the fastest lap in practice. He’s likely to be popular in the mid-tier in the hopes that he just hangs on to a top-six spot in a car capable of doing just that.

Stacks

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