DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Phoenix: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race

The NASCAR Cup Series Championship race takes place Sunday at Phoenix Raceway (3:00 p.m ET, NBC).

Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Ross Chastain are still alive for the drivers’ title, while Kyle Larson replaces Elliott as the fourth driver in contention for the owners’ championship.

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 NASCAR Cup Series Championship race at Phoenix.

Martinsville DraftKings DFS Cash Game Picks

Joey Logano ($10,500): Logano has multiple things going for him that makes him an incredibly safe play with plenty of upside.

First, he starts on the pole position, which under normal circumstances already bodes well for laps led and fastest laps.

Add in the fact that he’s a title contender and other teams are experimenting or seemingly taking an early vacation, and that reduces the competition even further.

Then consider that teammate Ryan Blaney and fellow Ford driver Chase Briscoe start second and third, and Logano has the perfect wingmen to help him lead a lot of the early race.

Logano has a massive floor and ceiling for this race. Start him without concern.

Kevin Harvick ($8700): It’s pretty hard to ignore starting a driver who hasn’t finished outside the top 10 at this track since 2013.

Early in the week, I had some slight concerns that Harvick may snap that streak, given that he’s only finished in the back half of the top 10 in five of the last seven and seemingly has slowed down overall in the last two years.

But my concerns were allayed when he hit the track and had tons of speed in practice and qualifying.

It was probably silly of me to doubt Harvick, as he had a top-three car here in the spring, had a first and second at Richmond, and took home a top-10 finish at New Hampshire.

He’ll be fast today.

Martinsville DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Ross Chastain ($10,400): As the driver starting farthest back of the four title contenders, expect Chastain to find his way forward.

Qualifying has never been Chastain’s strong suit, but he was fast in practice, placing inside the top 10 in all long-run practice metrics.

Chastain was the highest finisher earlier this year at Phoenix, so if the race gets crazy, look for him to jump to the front as the best restarter in the business.

Chris Buescher ($6700): This price tag just seems too cheap for Buescher, who starts midpack in 19th.

Buescher grabbed a 10th-place finish earlier this year at Phoenix and had a third-place run in the second Richmond race.

Buescher also showed speed in practice, posting the 15th-best, 15-lap average. What’s even better, his tire falloff was incredibly low. He only lost 0.24 seconds between his five- and 20-lap times. That’s actually less than drivers such as Logano, Elliott, Harvick, Tyler Reddick, and William Byron, to name a few. Each of those drivers posted 15-lap times inside the top 10.

We’ve seen enough tire falloff this weekend across the three series that it could matter over a long run.