These are my final thoughts and strategies to consider for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, as well as projected DraftKings FPTS for each driver. The chart below is explained but if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.
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- We’re back to a ‘normal’ race length. Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 will run for at least 200 laps, which means there are 50 FPTS available for laps led and probably around 90 FPTS for fastest laps. You should place a larger emphasis on dominator points this weekend than we have the last couple of weeks.
- Additionally, track position means a lot here at Michigan. Back in June, all of the drivers that finished inside the top 7 started the race inside the top 10. It’s not impossible to come through the field here, but once these cars get strung out after a restart, it’s not very common to see much passing.
- The pole sitter has led the most laps here in three of the last four races, and has averaged 101 laps led over those four races.
- As far as similar tracks go, Fontana is the only other 2-mile track on the circuit. Click here to see the results from that race. Additionally, we raced here at Michigan back in June, and you can click here for those results.
- Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne both hit the wall hard in Happy Hour and had to go to backup cars. They will start the race from the rear but be scored from 22nd- and 23rd-place starting spots (respectively) in DraftKings.
Projected FPTS at Michigan 2
The following chart takes into account the very basics: the starting position and the projected finish of each driver. The projected finishes are averaged from five different ranking systems, using both mathematical equations as well as personal rankings. This chart also includes the average projected base + laps led DraftKings FPTS as well as the dollar per FPT. I don’t try to project fastest laps–that’s up to you. You can click the headers below to sort the chart by that attribute. By default it is sorted by average projected FPTS.
| Driver | DraftKings Salary | Starting Position | Avg. Projected Finish | Proj Laps Led | Avg Proj Base + Laps Led FPTS | Dollar Per FPT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brad Keselowski | $9,400 | 1 | 03.2 | 71 | 57.6 | $163 |
| Martin Truex Jr | $10,600 | 13 | 04.6 | 17 | 52.1 | $204 |
| Kyle Larson | $10,300 | 9 | 04.0 | 20 | 50.6 | $204 |
| Ryan Blaney | $8,700 | 12 | 07.4 | 17 | 45.5 | $191 |
| Kyle Busch | $10,500 | 6 | 05.4 | 15 | 43.6 | $241 |
| Chase Elliott | $9,800 | 5 | 04.2 | 10 | 43.1 | $227 |
| Denny Hamlin | $9,600 | 10 | 06.4 | 4 | 42.2 | $227 |
| Kevin Harvick | $9,900 | 3 | 05.2 | 12 | 40.2 | $246 |
| Daniel Suarez | $7,800 | 16 | 10.2 | 1 | 39.9 | $196 |
| Ryan Newman | $7,300 | 25 | 16.6 | 0 | 35.8 | $204 |
| Kurt Busch | $8,000 | 15 | 12.2 | 2 | 35.1 | $228 |
| Matt Kenseth | $9,300 | 4 | 07.4 | 6 | 34.7 | $268 |
| Joey Logano | $9,000 | 2 | 07.6 | 15 | 34.6 | $260 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr | $7,900 | 19 | 14.4 | 1 | 34.5 | $229 |
| Jimmie Johnson | $9,100 | 22 | 16.2 | 0 | 33.6 | $271 |
| Ty Dillon | $6,600 | 33 | 22.2 | 0 | 32.6 | $202 |
| Paul Menard | $6,500 | 30 | 21.4 | 0 | 31.2 | $208 |
| Erik Jones | $8,400 | 8 | 11.6 | 5 | 30.1 | $280 |
| Clint Bowyer | $8,300 | 11 | 12.8 | 2 | 29.9 | $278 |
| Jamie McMurray | $8,500 | 7 | 11.4 | 2 | 28.7 | $296 |
| Kasey Kahne | $7,600 | 23 | 20.2 | 0 | 26.6 | $286 |
| Michael McDowell | $5,600 | 26 | 22.2 | 0 | 25.6 | $219 |
| AJ Allmendinger | $6,300 | 29 | 23.8 | 0 | 25.4 | $248 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr | $6,900 | 14 | 16.8 | 0 | 24.4 | $283 |
| Trevor Bayne | $6,700 | 21 | 20.4 | 0 | 24.2 | $277 |
| Austin Dillon | $7,000 | 17 | 18.6 | 0 | 23.8 | $294 |
| Chris Buescher | $5,900 | 20 | 23.2 | 0 | 17.6 | $335 |
| Landon Cassill | $5,300 | 32 | 29.6 | 0 | 16.8 | $315 |
| Danica Patrick | $6,400 | 18 | 22.8 | 0 | 16.4 | $390 |
| Aric Almirola | $6,000 | 24 | 25.8 | 0 | 16.4 | $366 |
| David Ragan | $5,200 | 28 | 28.4 | 0 | 15.2 | $342 |
| Reed Sorenson | $4,900 | 38 | 33.4 | 0 | 15.2 | $322 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $5,400 | 27 | 28.2 | 0 | 14.6 | $370 |
| Cole Whitt | $5,100 | 31 | 30.4 | 0 | 14.2 | $359 |
| Corey Lajoie | $4,600 | 34 | 32.2 | 0 | 13.6 | $338 |
| Brett Moffitt | $4,700 | 35 | 33.4 | 0 | 12.2 | $385 |
| Jeffrey Earnhardt | $4,800 | 36 | 34.2 | 0 | 11.6 | $414 |
| Derrike Cope | $4,500 | 37 | 36.0 | 0 | 09.0 | $500 |
