These are my final thoughts and strategies to consider for Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, 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.
Give me a follow on Twitter: @FanRacingOnline
- Sunday night’s race is scheduled to be 367 laps in length, which means there will be 91.75 FPTS awarded for laps led and probably around 155 FPTS awarded for fastest laps (depending on cautions).
- Typically, we see just one main lap dominator here at Darlington–and lately it has been the pole sitter. Kevin Harvick led 214 laps from the pole here last year, while Brad Keselowski led for 196 the year before. And back in the 2014 Southern 500, Harvick once again led the most laps from the pole (238 to be exact) en route to the win.
- Fastest laps tend to get spread around here at Darlington. Last year, three drivers had 40+ fastest laps (Harvick, Truex, and Keselowski), while three drivers had 30+ fastest laps in 2015 (Kurt Busch, Keselowski, and Harvick). Don’t be surprised to see those same drivers collect dominator points here on Sunday night.
- Click here to read my DraftKings Plays and Fades for Sunday night’s race.
- Click here to read my DraftKings Pivots options for Sunday night’s race.
Projected FPTS at Darlington
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Harvick | $9,700 | 1 | 02.4 | 166 | 82.9 | $117 |
| Kyle Larson | $10,300 | 4 | 03.6 | 51 | 54.2 | $190 |
| Denny Hamlin | $9,900 | 9 | 03.8 | 27 | 53.4 | $186 |
| Kyle Busch | $10,600 | 3 | 03.6 | 37 | 50.3 | $211 |
| Martin Truex Jr | $10,700 | 2 | 04.8 | 44 | 47.4 | $226 |
| Matt Kenseth | $9,500 | 11 | 06.6 | 4 | 42.8 | $222 |
| Chase Elliott | $9,300 | 20 | 11.2 | 2 | 42.1 | $221 |
| Jimmie Johnson | $9,100 | 18 | 12.0 | 2 | 38.5 | $236 |
| Daniel Suarez | $7,800 | 19 | 12.6 | 0 | 37.8 | $206 |
| Brad Keselowski | $9,200 | 6 | 07.6 | 8 | 36.8 | $250 |
| Ryan Blaney | $8,700 | 12 | 10.6 | 3 | 35.6 | $245 |
| Dale Earnhardt Jr | $7,600 | 22 | 16.0 | 0 | 34.0 | $224 |
| Ryan Newman | $8,100 | 17 | 14.0 | 0 | 33.0 | $245 |
| Kurt Busch | $8,200 | 7 | 11.2 | 15 | 32.4 | $253 |
| Erik Jones | $8,800 | 10 | 11.2 | 2 | 32.1 | $274 |
| Kasey Kahne | $7,500 | 23 | 18.0 | 0 | 31.0 | $242 |
| Chris Buescher | $6,600 | 27 | 20.0 | 0 | 31.0 | $213 |
| Clint Bowyer | $8,400 | 16 | 15.0 | 0 | 30.0 | $280 |
| AJ Allmendinger | $6,300 | 29 | 22.0 | 0 | 29.0 | $217 |
| Ty Dillon | $6,800 | 25 | 21.4 | 0 | 26.2 | $260 |
| Austin Dillon | $7,400 | 13 | 15.6 | 0 | 25.8 | $287 |
| Danica Patrick | $6,200 | 33 | 25.6 | 0 | 25.8 | $240 |
| Joey Logano | $8,600 | 8 | 14.4 | 4 | 24.2 | $355 |
| Jamie McMurray | $8,500 | 5 | 13.4 | 2 | 22.7 | $374 |
| Michael McDowell | $6,100 | 30 | 26.2 | 0 | 21.6 | $282 |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr | $7,300 | 14 | 19.4 | 0 | 19.2 | $380 |
| Paul Menard | $6,700 | 21 | 23.4 | 0 | 18.2 | $368 |
| Trevor Bayne | $7,100 | 24 | 25.0 | 0 | 18.0 | $394 |
| Cole Whitt | $5,300 | 34 | 30.6 | 0 | 16.8 | $315 |
| Aric Almirola | $6,400 | 15 | 21.8 | 0 | 15.4 | $416 |
| Landon Cassill | $5,400 | 31 | 30.0 | 0 | 15.0 | $360 |
| Matt DiBenedetto | $5,700 | 28 | 28.8 | 0 | 14.4 | $396 |
| Jeffrey Earnhardt | $4,800 | 37 | 33.8 | 0 | 13.4 | $358 |
| Gray Gaulding | $4,900 | 36 | 33.4 | 0 | 13.2 | $371 |
| Corey Lajoie | $5,100 | 35 | 33.2 | 0 | 12.6 | $405 |
| David Ragan | $5,600 | 26 | 28.8 | 0 | 12.4 | $452 |
| Carl Long | $4,500 | 40 | 35.8 | 0 | 12.4 | $363 |
| Derrike Cope | $4,600 | 38 | 35.0 | 0 | 12.0 | $383 |
| Reed Sorenson | $5,000 | 32 | 34.2 | 0 | 07.6 | $658 |
