DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Charlotte: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy for Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400

The last road-course race of the year takes place today on the Charlotte Roval.

Today’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 (2:00 p.m. ET, NBC) is also a cutoff race in the playoffs. That means we’ll need to keep playoff strategy in mind when setting lineups.

We can expect the drivers just ahead of the playoff bubble to race for points.

That means the top three qualifiers — Joey Logano, William Byron, and Daniel Suarez — are likely to stay out at the end of stage 1 and grab stage points.

That puts them on the suboptimal strategy to win the race and makes them solid underweight candidates.

So who should we play instead?

Well, before we jump into my picks, don’t forget all my NASCAR projections can be found in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

Let’s not skip the best part — my Perfect% metric — a metric that tells you how often certain racers appear in the optimal lineup when running 10,000 race simulations.

And don’t forget about the tools that FantasyLabs has to offer, like our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

Here are my NASCAR DFS picks and strategy for today’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Charlotte DraftKings DFS Cash Game Picks

Michael McDowell ($7300): McDowell has been super consistent at the road courses this year, and that seems to be the case again this weekend.

His 11th-place qualifying effort pairs with the ninth-fastest, five-lap average in practice.

Knowing several of the cars that start in front of him are in points-racing mode, DFS players can comfortably play McDowell in all formats.

If he keeps it clean, he should be in line for another top-10 finish at an affordable price tag.

Chris Buescher ($7800): We can pair Buescher with McDowell to get another driver who has had four straight top-10 finishes at the road courses.

While Buescher hasn’t had a ton of speed this weekend, I expect that team to get the car working well and Buescher’s talent and consistency to carry him forward.

Tyler Reddick ($10,500): Since the first three drivers are all likely to points race, that makes Reddick the driver that starts the furthest forward who should be on the optimal race-winning strategy.

Reddick has won two of the last three road-course races and showed plenty of speed again so far this weekend.

Charlotte DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Austin Cindric ($8600): While it may seem like Austin Cindric should points race, the reality is 11 points are going to be hard to make up, especially with William Byron starting in front of him and likely to grab more stage points in stage 1.

There’s a very non-zero chance that Team Penske calls an audible mid-race, or simply goes in with the mindset that Cindric should race for the win.

It would make sense too; Cindric was arguably the best car on the track in practice.

Erik Jones ($7400): Jones has turned in some impressive results on the road courses this year, scoring top-10 finishes at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and Watkins Glen.

The common denominator between those two tracks? They’re on the faster side.

We know Jones has run well at ovals, and with half the track essentially an oval, there’s a good chance he works his way forward like he did at COTA and the Glen.

A.J. Allmendinger ($9400): Allmendinger is king of the Roval, at least in the Xfinity Series. He’s won all four events on this track that he’s competed in in that series.

His luck in the Cup Series hasn’t been there, but he also raced on a subpar JTG Daugherty team in 2018 when he scored his seventh-place finish.

With the Next Gen car evening out the playing field and racing closer to a sports car than ever before, that should play to Allmendinger’s strengths.

I also like that he has no playoff concerns. He can just go for the win.