NASCAR DFS: Grant Park 165 Picks

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the streets of Chicago on Sunday! Last year saw Shane Van Gisbergen claim victory in the inaugural Cup Series street race last year. He also ran it back on Saturday by going to victory lane in the Xfinity Series race. But other drivers ran some valuable laps as well. Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Joey Logano, and Daniel Suarez all ran Saturday’s race. Perhaps to learn a little something from SVG? It’s certainly possible and taking notes would serve them well. We’re in store for much better racing this time around than last year. And we have a lot of drivers to navigate starting from the rear. Let’s dig in and sort out the Grant Park 165 picks for Sunday’s race on DraftKings and FanDuel.

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Grant Park 165 Picks: The Top 10

Kyle Larson (#5 Hendrick Motorsports)
Ty Gibbs (#54 Joe Gibbs Racing)
Michael McDowell (#34 Front Row Motorsports)
Tyler Reddick (#45 23XI Racing)
Shane Van Gisbergen (#16 Kaulig Racing)
Bubba Wallace (#23 23XI Racing)
Christopher Bell (#20 Joe Gibbs Racing)
Alex Bowman (#48 Hendrick Motorsports)
Daniel Suarez (#99 Trackhouse Racing)
Brad Keselowski (#6 RFK Racing)

A very nice blend of elite drivers, road course specialists, and some pleasant surprises. We get four Toyota’s starting in the top seven, none more surprising than Bubba Wallace. Wallace is notoriously bad on road courses, so while he is an easy fade, you have to give him credit for the qualifying result. But there’s clear win equity in this group. Larson and Gibbs start on the front row. Gibbs finished second in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race while Larson was third. Tyler Reddick made the Grant Park 165 preview earlier this week as arguably the best road course driver in the Cup Series. It is worth noting that Brad Keselowski will be scored from P10 but will drop to the rear on the opening pace laps. Fortunately, to go with the win equity from this crew, we have a plethora of position differential plays for the Grant Park 165 picks…

Which Value-Priced Grant Park 165 Picks Got A Points Movement Bump?

Ryan Blaney – Starting P17 (Will drop to the rear at start of race)
Joey Logano – Starting P32
Austin Cindric – Starting P21
Joey Hand – Starting P38
Todd Gilliland – Starting P26
Zane Smith – Starting P30
Josh Berry – Starting P36
Austin Hill – Starting P34
Ryan Preece – Starting P29

We’re just scratching the surface of the value plays offering PD for the Grant Park 165 picks. Sure, it’s a large group, and there are other viable plays. But the field is huge this week with 40 drivers. A driver like Kaz Grala can return 20 fantasy points on DraftKings if he just finishes 30^th. And that’s certainly feasible to imagine if drivers running ahead of him have issues. The chalk of this group should be Joey Logano. He starts P32 and ran Saturday’s Xfinity Series race for AM Racing and he actually pulled off a top 10 finish. He has six finishes in the top 10 on road courses in the NextGen car so he can be played in all formats. His teammate, Ryan Blaney, will drop to the rear alongside William Byron, Corey LaJoie, Josh Berry, and the previously-mentioned Brad Keselowski.

Which Higher-Priced Drivers Got A Similar Bump?

Chase Elliott – Starting P18
William Byron – Starting P27 (Will drop to the rear at start of race)
Martin Truex Jr. – Starting P24
AJ Allmendinger – Starting P37

Obviously, we have a unique foursome here. Chase Elliott and Martin Truex Jr. have both won plenty of times on road courses. William Byron won at COTA earlier this year. AJ Allmendinger is a noted road course specialist as well, and he has the benefit of being Shane Van Gisbergen’s teammate. Byron’s team is replacing the steering rack so he will drop to the rear. Fortunately, he was already starting fairly deep in the field to begin with. AJ Allmendinger is a safe cash game play. Has Kaulig Racing been great in the Cup Series? Not really. But his teammate qualified P5 and Dinger is providing value if he can finish 17^th or better. All four of these drivers will carry significant rostership and rightfully so.

Grant Park 165 Picks

DraftKings

Tyler Reddick – $9,800; Starting P4
Chase Elliott – $9,600; Starting P18
AJ Allmendinger – $9,000; Starting P37
Chris Buescher – $8,800; Starting P16
Joey Logano – $7,600; Starting P32
Kaz Grala – $5,200; Starting P40

Perhaps the only driver we haven’t yet mentioned in this article is Chris Buescher. And Buescher is actually a very good racer on road courses. He’s finished 11^th or better in 13 straight road races so he’s a great GPP play with upside. We know there’s win equity with Reddick and Elliott as well. And the lineup eats position differential chalk with Logano and Allmendinger. We even plug in Kaz Grala who starts dead last. The good news is that he can’t give us negative points. Like I said earlier, this is a punt play that can give us 20+ fantasy points if he finishes 30^th. But this is a sound road course lineup. We get win equity in addition to position differential plays that can put up good scores.

FanDuel

Tyler Reddick – $13,000; Starting P4
Chase Elliott – $12,000; Starting P18
AJ Allmendinger – $10,500; Starting P37
Martin Truex Jr. – $9,000; Starting P24
Todd Gilliland – $5,500; Starting P26

I absolutely love this build for FanDuel. It’s worth mentioning that with only 75 laps for this race, there are just 7.5 dominator points available on FanDuel. That differs from DraftKings which at least has about 50 to work with. But we do get four drivers with wins on road courses in their careers. And there’s a proper correlation with most of this build. FanDuel mostly rewards drivers who finish incredibly well. Obviously, the first four drivers can certainly do that. Gilliland is added to the mix as a value play. But we’ve seen plenty of times this year he can finish in the top 15 and we’re a month removed from him grabbing a top 10 at Sonoma. It’s a high-upside build with plenty of win equity and projects well for FanDuel as we wrap up the Grant Park 165 picks.

White Flag Thoughts Before You Go

Saturday’s Xfinity Series race produced some fantastic racing. Sure, there will be cautions and chaos that we can’t foresee. But with better weather this time around, we should see some fantastic street racing action through Chicago. Given how the starting order and scoring will play out, it may not be optimal to go with multiple drivers starting in the top 10. If you start Kyle Larson and Shane Van Gisbergen, you need both to collect dominator points and finish well. But there are also plays starting deeper in the field that just need to move up and finish well that aren’t reliant on the dominator points. Given what we know about how little dominator points matter in these races, we will need to prioritize position differential. Best of luck with the Grant Park 165 picks! I hope to see you all in victory lane!

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