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Five drivers extended top-10 streaks in last year's edition of the FireKeepers Casino 400, but that little bit of data might not be as useful as one might suppose. One of them, Kurt Busch, is sitting out his third consecutive race under concussion protocol and three are above the $10k mark. So why did we mention it? Because the consistency at Michigan International Speedway and Auto Club Speedway can be seen throughout the lineup.
Drivers who finish in the mid-teens are solid values if they qualify poorly so as to collect place-differential points, or are rightly priced. As good as the DraftKings algorithm is, once manual adjustments are made for the top 10 drivers, astute fantasy players can take advantage of some of the holes.
There are drivers who develop an immediate affinity for a track, but most often there is a slow build to success. Players can also find success by getting in front of that curve.
Group A: Most Expensive (>=$10,000)
Denny Hamlin ($10,300)
The cap managers have done a good job of keeping up with the peaks and valleys for Hamlin. Eight of his last 17 races have commanded a price tag under $10k because Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) has had difficulty in finding the handle on the NextGen car. The season has been unpredictable, but if any track type is going to break the cycle of dark horses, Michigan is a likely candidate. Twelve of the last 18 races on 2-mile tracks ended in top-10s for Hamlin and only one was worse than 16th.
Kyle Busch ($10,500)
We'll stick with the theme of redemption in Group A. Last week, Busch set a mark he is not happy with by finishing outside the top 10 for a seventh consecutive race. That has not happened since he joined the series full-time and it is unlikely to continue. He has 13 top-10s in his last 14 races on this track type. A top-10 won't be enough; Busch needs to seriously contend for the win to be a good enough value to warrant his price, but he won at Auto Club as recently as 2019.
Driver | Top-15 | Top-10s | Top-5s | Most |
5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | |
3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
4 | 3 | 2 | ||
2 | 2 | 2 | ||
2 | 2 | 2 | ||
5 | 4 | 1 | ||
4 | 4 | 1 | ||
4 | 4 | 1 | ||
4 | 3 | 1 | ||
3 | 2 | 1 | ||
3 | 2 | 1 | ||
2 | 2 | 1 | ||
4 | 1 | 1 | ||
3 | 1 | 1 | ||
1 | 1 | 1 | ||
1 | 1 | 1 | ||
4 | 3 | |||
3 | 3 | |||
3 | 2 | |||
2 | 2 | |||
3 | 1 | |||
2 | 1 | |||
2 | 1 | |||
2 | ||||
2 | ||||
1 | ||||
1 | ||||
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1 |
Group B: (Between $9,900 and $8,000)
Martin Truex, Jr. ($9,500)
We've said all week that JGR has the potential to sweep the front of the pack. Truex enters the weekend with the longest active streak of top-10s at five and four of these were top-fives. He has not yet won at Michigan, but in 2018 he scored his 16th career win at Auto Club in a car with less funding. To contend for a win, drivers need to complete all the laps and Truex has done so in his last 14 starts.
Kevin Harvick ($8,400)
We would be a little more enthusiastic about Harvick if he were a little cheaper this week, but at his current price tag, he is just a little over the average-cost-per-driver, which means he is a solid anchor if you manage the lower levels well enough and are confident in your marquee pick. While he has struggled on other track types, the 2-milers have been Harvick's bread and butter recently with four wins and nine results of ninth or better in his last 10 efforts.
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Group C: (Between $7,900 and $6,500)
Brad Keselowski ($6,900)
One of Keselowski's best performances this season came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with the pressure of performing in front of part of his ownership group. The same dynamic will play out at Michigan after his manufacturer, Ford, expressed displeasure this week over the small number of wins for the Blue Oval. Limited resources mean you have to concentrate efforts on certain tracks and this is one RFK Racing likely had circled since Daytona's Speedweeks.
Ty Gibbs ($6,600)
Gibbs is cheaper this week than he was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. In that race, he was the 22nd-most expensive driver and he claimed the 14th-most points, which made him a good value. He finished 16th at Pocono Raceway in his debut and 17th last week. A top-15 is in the cards if the crew chief shuffles the deck correctly.
Group D: (Less than or equal to $6,500)
Todd Gilliland ($5,200)
At the lowest level, we will play by the numbers. Over the past 45 days, Gilliland has the best average points-per-thousand 32.76. In fact, that is the most in the field, making him a better value than Group A's Elliott (29.86), B's Erik Jones (32.19), and C's Bubba Wallace (30.57). A big part of that equation was earned with his fourth-place finish at Indy, but Gilliland has outperformed his salary cap in all but one race this season. He's been a top-15 value seven times so far.
Michael McDowell ($6,500)
McDowell has consistently outperformed his cap also by ranking higher in points than cap level in 18 of 22 races. He's often been more expensive than Gilliland, but he's been more productive with top-10 earnings six times and results of 16th or better in 13 races. His best DraftKings performance came two weeks ago at Pocono when he earned the fifth-most points (53).
The top-10 points' earners from the 2021 Michigan race were: 1. William Byron (73.75), 2. Kyle Larson (62.8), 3. Denny Hamlin (54.5), 4. Chase Elliott (51.95), 5. Christopher Bell (50.25), 6. Ryan Blaney (49.9), 7. Brad Keselowski (49.3), 8. Kurt Busch (46.75), 9. Kyle Busch (43.85), 10. Chase Briscoe (43.8)
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Last 45 Days
Driver | Avg. | Total | Avg. | This | Points |
Group A |
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6.50 | 325.50 | 54.25 | $10,900 | 29.86 | |
11.67 | 263.15 | 43.86 | $10,300 | 25.55 | |
14.67 | 228.80 | 38.13 | $10,500 | 21.79 | |
14.33 | 207.30 | 34.55 | $10,000 | 20.73 | |
16.17 | 179.25 | 29.88 | $10,700 | 16.75 | |
Group B |
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11.17 | 260.70 | 43.45 | $8,100 | 32.19 | |
11.67 | 284.45 | 47.41 | $9,500 | 29.94 | |
13.83 | 233.05 | 38.84 | $9,000 | 25.89 | |
13.83 | 207.40 | 34.57 | $8,600 | 24.12 | |
17.67 | 180.05 | 30.01 | $8,400 | 21.43 | |
14.83 | 203.75 | 33.96 | $9,700 | 21.01 | |
19.50 | 128.60 | 21.43 | $9,300 | 13.83 | |
23.83 | 109.10 | 18.18 | $8,800 | 12.40 | |
22.50 | 102.05 | 17.01 | $9,200 | 11.09 | |
27.33 | 34.50 | 5.75 | $8,200 | 4.21 | |
Group C |
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12.83 | 226.20 | 37.70 | $7,400 | 30.57 | |
13.00 | 224.75 | 37.46 | $7,700 | 29.19 | |
16.50 | 172.95 | 28.83 | $6,700 | 25.81 | |
20.67 | 134.10 | 22.35 | $6,900 | 19.43 | |
23.83 | 113.35 | 18.89 | $7,500 | 15.11 | |
22.33 | 109.65 | 18.28 | $7,300 | 15.02 | |
24.33 | 76.75 | 12.79 | $6,800 | 11.29 | |
24.00 | 78.20 | 13.03 | $7,100 | 11.01 | |
19.50 | 52.00 | 26.00 | $6,600 | 7.88 | |
Group D |
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17.67 | 170.35 | 28.39 | $5,200 | 32.76 | |
16.83 | 188.50 | 31.42 | $6,000 | 31.42 | |
17.17 | 177.70 | 29.62 | $5,900 | 30.12 | |
16.00 | 186.15 | 31.03 | $6,500 | 28.64 | |
17.83 | 176.50 | 29.42 | $6,200 | 28.47 | |
22.17 | 124.45 | 20.74 | $5,100 | 24.40 | |
21.33 | 128.55 | 21.43 | $5,400 | 23.81 | |
26.00 | 85.35 | 14.23 | $5,700 | 14.97 | |
26.00 | 50.00 | 16.67 | $4,900 | 10.20 | |
29.20 | 41.00 | 8.20 | $5,000 | 8.20 | |
29.50 | 29.00 | 7.25 | $4,800 | 6.04 | |
29.50 | 14.00 | 7.00 | $5,600 | 2.50 | |
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| $6,400 | - |