NASCAR DFS Playbook EchoPark Grand Prix: Tyler Reddick Looks To Dominate

The first road course of the year is on Sunday with the EchoPark Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. The purpose-built track is located outside of Austin, Texas, and was originally built for F1. NASCAR has been racing there for the last three years and the time has come for this year’s edition of the EchoPark Grand Prix. Just what can we expect from this track and the racing at it? How are we building lineups for the race? Who are the top NASCAR plays for Sunday’s race? All that is answered in this week’s NASCAR DFS playbook.

What is the layout for COTA and what is the racing like?

The 3.4-mile lap at COTA is arguably the toughest on the NASCAR schedule — even tougher than Sonoma. The first turn is definitely the toughest turn on the course going uphill and turning nearly 270 degrees. If a driver can make it through the treacherous corner they can get setup nicely for the out and back lap that mixes speed and technical skill perfectly. It’s a layout that’s designed to create tight racing lines and tight racing while putting man and machine to the test. Each year the Cup series has raced at the track we’ve seen speed and ability rewarded. That doesn’t mean it’s not without chaos though and more cautions than we’re used to at road courses. That will play into how we build our lineups for this challenging slate.

How to build NASCAR DFS lineups for the EchoPark Grand Prix

Dan and I talked a bit about this on the podcast this week but the general thoughts for a road course build are as follows: We want to try and get the race winner plus 4-5 other drivers (depending on the site) over 40 points (based on DK scoring) into a build. Laps led are still important in road races to differentiate builds, however, there’s likely to be only one dominator in a race, which also tends to be either a driver starting on the front row or the eventual race winner, or perhaps that’s one in the same driver. Passing can be tough at these tracks without cautions changing pit strategies or gathering a car(s) in a wreck. So we have to be careful about getting too many drivers who are starting in the back half of the field. A full stack the back half and hope for PD strategy isn’t a great one to deploy either. Just like any other style of track, aside from plate races, road courses will have chalk plays and this weekend is no different. A few are listed below in the playbook but in general, that doesn’t mean we need to play all of the chalk.

Contest Selection and tips for the Cup race at COTA

There are plenty of times in which a road course sets up well for cash builds and playing 50/50s and double-ups. Be wary of this slate being one of those. With the way that pricing breaks down and the results of qualifying, there is very little edge to find in cash games. There are a couple of predominant cash game builds this week and that will increase the likelihood of lineup trains and a higher cash line. GPPs could have chalk too, but there are a bunch of ways to build a GPP lineup which makes those contests more appealing this weekend. We’re looking at the single-entry and three-entry max tournaments mainly but also like the 20-entry max ones like the Chrome Horn.

Starting Lineup and Practice Results

The following chart shows the differences between where each driver qualified and where they ran in practice. It should help a bit when trying to sort out who can move up and who is starting too high.

Stacks

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