With the NASCAR season in full force after 20 races, the Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway, one of the “cookie-cutter” tracks on the circuit. The mile-and-a-half (1.54 miles to be exact) in Hampton, Georgia is one of the more straightforward tracks on the schedule, for now. The track is notorious for eating up tires so pit strategy and tire wear is a major component to this race. NASCAR just recently announced that the track will go through a major overhaul for the 2022 season but that is then and this is now.

As for the race on Sunday, the drivers will go 400 miles, 260 laps giving us a good share of dominator points available on top of the always relevant place differential. With a lot of factors to consider below, you’ll see that I’ve gone through some of my favorite drivers on DraftKings this week.

Dominators

These are the drivers that we can typically expect to, you guessed it, dominate the race. When we think dominated we are looking for guys that will be in a position to lead a hefty amount of laps as well as be able to turn over fastest laps. In a race like this week’s with 260 laps, these dominator points are much more relevant than a race with fewer laps, such as last week’s road course event which was just 62 laps in total.

Kyle Larson, $12,000

It’s impossible to mention dominators this season without mentioning Kyle Larson, the driver of the number five Hendrick Motorsports machine. Larson has the most laps led this season (1,441) by a longshot with Denny Hamlin (768) the driver that’s second in that category. He’s also turned over the most fast laps (731) leading the second-place driver Martin Truex, Jr. who has 378. Earlier this season at Atlanta Larson hauled to a second-place finish after leading 269 of 325 laps. At tracks that can be considered most comparable to Atlanta (Homestead, Charlotte, and Darlington) Larson has finished fourth, first, and second while leading five, 327, and zero laps respectively. The one qualm about Larson this week is his salary but he’s been the benchmark for dominance this season.

Kyle Busch, $10,300

The Cup Series champion from two years ago has shown his dominant side over his last three races finishing third, first, and second. In 23 career Cup Series races at Atlanta he has 10 top 10 finishes, seven top five’s, two wins, and 439 laps led. Busch was able to finish fifth there earlier this season after starting 19th. Starting second on Sunday, the possibility of Busch getting out front early is highly possible, and with the way he’s been driving of late, it wouldn’t be a shock.

Chase Elliott, $9,800

Elliott starts on the pole after winning last week and will be at his hometown track where he had a nightmare of a time earlier this season after his day ended early after engine issues. The defending Cup Champion finished seventh at Darlington and second at Charlotte and has two wins on the season. With no place differential points available Elliott could be overlooked but is priced nicely for a driver in a car that could easily lead a ton of laps.

Place Differential Targets

The drivers that are starting farther back in the field than where they could be expected to finish. A lot of times due to a variety of qualifying situations some top drivers could start farther back in the field and make their way up through the field in a short period of time.

William Byron, $10,000

Likely a popular option, Wild Bill is part of the Hendrick Motorsports stable that has been dominant as a team all season. With a starting position of 19th, there is a ton of upside that comes with Byron who’s been fast all season with the third-most quality passes, fifth-most laps led, and fourth-most fastest laps run. Also consider that he finished eighth at Atlanta earlier this season, won at Homestead, came in fourth at Darlington and Charlotte, and has finished 12th or better in 16 of his last 18 races.

Kevin Harvick, $10,900

Harvick was a dominant force in this sport over the last few years but things have taken a turn for the worst this season as he is winless with five finishes of 20th or worse. The Bakersfield, California native finished 10th earlier this season at Atlanta, a track that he’s toyed with over his career. Harvick has 16 top 10’s nine top five’s, and three wins while leading 1,348 laps in 31 starts at Atlanta including victories two of his last four visits there. Because of his salary, performance, and other place differential options he should be low-owned and could be a huge difference-maker if any of the chalky place differential cars have trouble.

Brad Keselowski, $9,200

Brad is a two-time winner at Atlanta with six top 10 finishes in his last seven trips there. Starting 14th, Brad doesn’t have as much place differential (PD) upside as some other guys but he’s an overlooked option that could show up and take over a race on any given day with his aggressive driving style, Keselowski has the sixth-most quality passes on the season.

Ryan Preece, $7,400

Rolling off the grid 34th, Preece sticks out as a popular value PD play and likely a driver I’ll be heavily invested in. The Berlin, Connecticut native has an average finish of 22nd this season, a spot that would bring him 34 DK points based solely on his finish and PD points. Preece has eight top 20’s and three top 10’s this season so there is some upside for the driver of the 37 car.

Daniel Suarez, $7,700

In his first year with the new Trackhouse racing, Suarez has made a good enough impression that Trackhouse, who recently just bought Chip Ganassi Racing, has already announced that he’ll be back for 2022 in one of the two cars Trackhous will be fielding. With a starting position of 27th and an average finish of 19th this season there’s good place differential potential to expect. Suarez has top 15 upside as well with nine finishes of 15th or better this season.

Ryan Newman, $6,100

There’s nothing flashy about the grizzled veteran Newman but he’s a tremendous value starting 29th and likely a popular option. Newman has finished 13th at Atlanta, seventh at Homestead, and 10th at Darlington this season. His average finish of 21st can be deceiving as he had some bad luck at Pocono a couple of weeks back in a crash and has struggled on the road courses finishing 32nd, 33rd, 24th, and 20th in the four road courses thus far this season.

Dark Horse Driver

Kurt Busch, $8,400

Kurt falls in the tough category of not really being a prototypical dominator but also not having a ton of PD points. The older of the Busch brothers is interesting because he’s been driving really well of late and he’s had a ton of success over the years at Atlanta winning three times. This season he dealt with some tough luck there getting knocked out early after a crash. Prior to that, his previous five finishes resulted in top 10 finishes while leading 50 or more laps in two of those races.