NASCAR Fantasy Picks for Darlington 400 Race at Darlington Motor Raceway

NASCAR Fantasy Picks for Darlington 400

After a more than two-month hiatus since NASCAR's last 2020 Cup Series race, the action is set to return to the track this Sunday in Darlington, South Carolina. While this prolonged break has almost certainly derailed any sort of momentum that may have existed months ago, Joey Logano took home the checkered flag in NASCAR's most recent result at the 2020 FanShield 500 in Phoenix on March 8.

Now, the NASCAR Cup Series turns its attention to this weekend and the Darlington 400, formerly known as the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 (2001-04). With the return of NASCAR awaiting us in South Carolina, let's take a look at three drivers to consider when building your NASCAR fantasy team for the 2020 Darlington 400 at 3:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 8.

Darlington Fantasy Picks

Denny Hamlin
Only Jimmie Johnson has more career wins on this track than Denny Hamlin among all active drivers heading into this weekend's race, but they actually share the exact same winning percentage (14.3 percent) here with Johnson taking three checkered flags in 21 appearances and Hamlin booking two top finishes in 14 contests. Hamlin's career 7.79 average finishing position at Darlington is the third-highest mark among the field, but his volume of success here is what separates him. Among all active driver's with at least seven appearances on this track, in 14 total races here Hamlin ranks first in average finishing position (7.79), top-5 finishing percentage (50.0), top-10 finishing percentage (78.6), top-20 finishing rate (92.9 - Tied w/Martin Truex Jr.) and winning percentage (14.3 - Tied w/Johnson),

Erik Jones
Among all active drivers in Sunday's race, nobody has a better career average finishing position (4.67) nor winning percentage (33.3 percent) on this track than Erik Jones. Granted, Jones' body of work at Darlington is much smaller compared to most of his competitors, however, even his limited sample size speaks volumes. In his three total races at Darlington, Jones has never finished outside the top 10, with two top-5 placements (66.7 percent) and one win.

Kyle Busch
Narrowing this final option down between Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick was practically a toss-up, but Busch gets the edge thanks to a couple noticeable marks in his past on this track. First of all, despite boasting only one win at Darlington, nobody has led more laps on this track than Kyle Busch (716) among all active drivers in Sunday's race. Busch also has a significantly higher career average finishing position (11.07) here than Harvick (14.35), which is good enough for the fifth-highest mark in Sunday's field. Among Busch's 15 career races here, he has posted 12 top-20 finishes (80.0 percent) and 10 top-10 finishes (66.7 percent), the latter of which marks the fourth-highest rate among all active drivers in Sunday's race.

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David Hayes is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, David Hayes also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username DavidWHayes. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.