DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Las Vegas: Fantasy NASCAR DFS Strategy and Picks for the Pennzoil 400

After two straight drafting races to start the year, the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas presents an opportunity for DFS players to approach a slate a bit differently.

The focus this week will be on finding speed relative to price and usage rather than mainly place differential and differentiating from the field, as is the common drafting track strategy.

Las Vegas is a 1.5-mile intermediate track with medium-high tire wear, so we’re going to focus on raw speed, long-run speed, and tire falloff as the main factors, using practice and track and similar track history to help us out.

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 300 lineups, or our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

Here are my NASCAR DFS picks for the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Las Vegas DraftKings DFS Cash Game Strategy

In cash games, we’re going to have to play the dominant driver here and in practice, and that’s Kyle Larson. If Larson goes out and dominates and you don’t have him in your cash lineup, you won’t cash. And if he doesn’t dominate, he’ll be so highly rostered that you can still cash by nailing the rest of the lineup.

We also need to lock in Ryan Preece ($6000) , who crashed in practice and was unable to turn in a qualifying lap as a result. That 36th-place starting spot should turn into a result in the mid-20s if things go according to practice speed, with upside for more. Preece has the second-highest floor per dollar according to my projections.

Finally, Tyler Reddick ($8900) delivered the right combination of pace, low tire falloff, and salary to make him usable in cash games thanks to a relatively poor 18th-place qualifying effort. He has a top-10 car for sure, maybe even a top-five car.

Las Vegas DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks and Strategy

For tournaments, we’re going to want to find a second dominator to pair with Larson in most of our Larson lineups. But if we’re getting toward a three-dominator race, that might be a good way to pivot off Larson as he may not capture enough dominator points plus finishing position if this race gets a little whacky.

My top dominator candidates after Larson are:

2. William Byron

3. Joey Logano

4. Martin Truex Jr.

5. Bubba Wallace

6. Christopher Bell

7. Ryan Blaney

8. Tyler Reddick

William Byron ($10,500): If Larson stumbles, Byron should be next in line to dominate, so you definitely need him in some two-dominator lineups with Larson, or as a potential top dominator in 1-3 dominator lineups without Larson.

Martin Truex Jr. ($9300): Truex has a solid combination of starting position, price, dominator potential, and place differential potential that I love being overweight on him.

Truex had solid speed, coming in just 0.09 seconds per lap slower than teammate Christopher Bell, who had the fastest 20-lap average in Group A.

Truex also had the lowest falloff between five-lap average and 20-lap average among the four drivers in his group that ran that long.

Zane Smith ($5700): Like Truex, Zane Smith showed a ton of speed, making his $5700 price tag laughable. Smith had the second-best 15-lap average out of eight drivers in Group A, and also had the lowest tire falloff from five-lap to 15-lap average of those eight drivers.

Las Vegas is a good track for Smith, who has two straight second-place finishes in Trucks (one of them turned into a DQ) and a win at Las Vegas’ most similar track, Kansas. Smith also claimed a 10th-place finish last year at another 1.5-mile track, Charlotte, in the Coca-Cola 600 last year running for Front Row Motorsports.

Smith also qualifies as my Paul Menard Pick of the Week, as I’m projecting him for sub-15% usage.