The 2021 NASCAR season is within reach, as we will finally see cars on track in just one week for the Busch Clash at the Daytona Road Course. That event is scheduled to be held on Tuesday night, February 9, 2021 and will kick off a jam-packed six days of racing in Daytona, Florida across all major NASCAR touring series.
With the start of the NASCAR season also comes the start of Fantasy NASCAR, including full season games such as the FREE Slingshot Fantasy Auto Contest (click here), as well as the very popular Salary Cap Challenge NASCAR Pool (click here) that is on pace to award tens of thousands of dollars this year.
And we can’t forget about NASCAR DFS (daily fantasy sports) either.
DraftKings in particular unveiled its preliminary contests for the upcoming Daytona races this week, and along with it came a few minor changes in scoring for the 2021 season. Particularly, the following changes were made:
- Fastest Laps changed to 0.45 points per (from 0.5 points per in the past)
- Finishing position points changed for most positions except 2nd through 9th (see chart below for full changes)
So how will this affect playing DraftKings?
With the fastest laps change, it’ll likely have minimal effect. For 200 laps, that’s a difference of only 10 DraftKings FPTS. This probably won’t cause any change to the overall strategy of the game.
For finishing position, though, it’s now going to a hurt a lineup even more if your driver has a bad race, especially if he wrecks out. From 31st through 40th in particular, those finishers will now receive 3 less points than they did in the past. Again, you can check below for the full differences in the chart below. Also worth noting is that the race winner will receive 45 FPTS instead of 46.
Effectively, this scoring change made top 10 finishes a little more valuable, and we are going to see even bigger swings in live scoring now when a driver drops (or moves up) on the ‘fringe’ positions, like 10th to 11th (or vice versa), 20th to 21st, etc.
As always, NASCAR is one of, if not the best sweats in Daily Fantasy Sports and points swings like that will cause those sweats to be even more nerve-wracking for the players.
And also as always, Fantasy Racing Online will be here to provide you weekly projections, picks, and strategy for DFS contests like DraftKings and FanDuel, as well as Fantasy NASCAR in general, for the upcoming 2021 season.
DraftKings Scoring Differences in 2021
- Fastest laps = 0.45 per (was 0.50 per, difference of -0.05 per)
- Laps led = 0.25 per (same as before)
- Place Differential = +/- 1 per position (same as before)
| Finish Position | 2021 FPTS | Previous FPTS | Difference |
| 1st | 45 | 46 | -1 |
| 2nd | 42 | 42 | SAME |
| 3rd | 41 | 41 | SAME |
| 4th | 40 | 40 | SAME |
| 5th | 39 | 39 | SAME |
| 6th | 38 | 38 | SAME |
| 7th | 37 | 37 | SAME |
| 8th | 36 | 36 | SAME |
| 9th | 35 | 35 | SAME |
| 10th | 34 | 34 | SAME |
| 11th | 32 | 33 | -1 |
| 12th | 31 | 32 | -1 |
| 13th | 30 | 31 | -1 |
| 14th | 29 | 30 | -1 |
| 15th | 28 | 29 | -1 |
| 16th | 27 | 28 | -1 |
| 17th | 26 | 27 | -1 |
| 18th | 25 | 26 | -1 |
| 19th | 24 | 25 | -1 |
| 20th | 23 | 24 | -1 |
| 21st | 21 | 23 | -2 |
| 22nd | 20 | 22 | -2 |
| 23rd | 19 | 21 | -2 |
| 24th | 18 | 20 | -2 |
| 25th | 17 | 19 | -2 |
| 26th | 16 | 18 | -2 |
| 27th | 15 | 17 | -2 |
| 28th | 14 | 16 | -2 |
| 29th | 13 | 15 | -2 |
| 30th | 12 | 14 | -2 |
| 31st | 10 | 13 | -3 |
| 32nd | 9 | 12 | -3 |
| 33rd | 8 | 11 | -3 |
| 34th | 7 | 10 | -3 |
| 35th | 6 | 9 | -3 |
| 36th | 5 | 8 | -3 |
| 37th | 4 | 7 | -3 |
| 38th | 3 | 6 | -3 |
| 39th | 2 | 5 | -3 |
| 40th | 1 | 4 | -3 |
