This article is part of our NASCAR DFS series.
United Rentals Work United 500
This should be an interesting weekend in the NASCAR Cup Series. It will be the debut of a new aero package at the same track that will host the championship race in November. Teams will want to use this weekend to learn as much as they possibly can so they can pull from this knowledge later in the season.
It was mostly a Hendrick Motorsports domination last weekend in Vegas with William Byron bringing home the win after he and teammate Kyle Larson were the top two for most of the day. This was a track that saw two Fords win in Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano. With the new aero package this week, I think we could see some teams have strong weeks and some be very far off. NASCAR is giving the team's a rare 50-minute practice session on Friday to test out this new aero package that will be used on all short tracks under 1.1 miles in length other than Bristol and Dover, as well as all of the road courses. Safe to say the results from that will tell us a lot on who will be fast this weekend. at Phoenix.
Previous 10 Phoenix Winners w/ Starting Position
2022 fall - Joey Logano (1st)
2022 spring - Chase Briscoe (6th)
2021 fall - Kyle Larson (1st)
2021 spring - Martin Truex Jr. (5th)
2020 fall - Chase Elliott (1st)
2020 spring - Joey Logano (13th)
2019 fall - Denny Hamlin (3rd)
2019 spring - Kyle Busch (4th)
2018 fall - Kyle Busch (6th)
2018 spring - Kevin Harvick (10th)
Last year in the spring we saw three dominators with Ryan Blaney leading 143 laps, Chase Briscoe leading 101, and Chase Elliott out front for 50. In the fall we only had two dominators with teammates Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney combining for 296 laps led (95%). This has been traditionally the case at Phoenix as we want two or three dominators in our lineups this weekend. Again, we really want to watch practice this weekend to see if a certain driver or team hits on something early with this new aero package. This should direct us toward the early dominators in the race.
RotoWire NASCAR DFS Tools
DraftKings Value Picks for the United Rentals Work United 500 (Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap)
DraftKings Tier 1 Values (in order of price)
Kyle Larson - $11,100
Joey Logano - $10,800
Kyle Busch - $10,600
Ryan Blaney - $10,300
DraftKings Tier 2 Values (in order of price)
William Byron - $9,800
Denny Hamlin - $9,600
Martin Truex Jr. - $9,200
Kevin Harvick - $9,000
DraftKings Tier 3 Values (in order of price)
Christopher Bell - $8,800
Daniel Suarez - $8,500
Chase Briscoe - $8,400
Josh Berry - $8,000
DraftKings Tier 4 Values (in order of price)
Austin Dillon - $7,500
Austin Cindric - $7,100
Aric Almirola - $6,900
Ty Gibbs - $6,700
NASCAR DFS Picks for the United Rentals Work United 500
Ryan Blaney - $10,300
William Byron - $9,800
Kevin Harvick - $9,000
Austin Cindric - $7,100
Aric Almirola - $6,900
Ty Gibbs - $6,700
You may notice a theme in my picks above and that is the strong Ford contingent. This has been a strong track for them over the years including the aforementioned 2022 domination. It's hard to believe with how many laps Blaney led here last year that he didn't win at least once. It hasn't been the best start to the year for him, but he can certainly turn that around at a place he's had success. William Byron can ride his wave of momentum here after such a strong performance in Vegas. He consistently ran inside the top 10 in both races last year here with average running positions of sixth and eighth respectively. Kevin Harvick in his second-to-last race at Phoenix? Yes, please. He doesn't have a finish outside of the top ten in his last ten races here. Austin Cindric and Aric Almirola are very similar plays on Ford for me this week. I hope both start closer to twentieth than to the top ten though so they have some nice place differential. Lastly, I will keep beating this drum, but I think we see a Ty Gibbs breakout very soon. He qualified top five last week, taking him out of my player pool and luckily so. I think we see an up and down year from him, but I want to be there on the spikes. He dominated and won the championship in the Xfinity series here in the fall as well.
