Las Vegas 2 Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs kicks off this weekend with a Sunday night race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Yes, Sunday night, that’s not a typo. Las Vegas is your typical, cookie cutter, 1.5-mile track, and thus far we have had seven races on this track type in 2019: Atlanta, Las Vegas, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Chicagoland, and Kentucky. I will be referencing statistics from those races in this article pretty frequently, and those 1.5-mile stats are all pulled from here, so feel free to check that page out. Please note that these statistics are excluding the Atlanta race, as that track is the most different 1.5-miler.

Clint Bowyer is on the pole for Sunday night’s South Point 400, and you can view the entire starting lineup by clicking here. There were two practice sessions held on Friday, and the speeds from those can be found here: Practice #1 — Happy Hour. You should also read our in-depth notes for those sessions: Practice #1 — Happy Hour.

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Final Top 25 Fantasy NASCAR Rankings for Las Vegas 2

1. Kevin Harvick – Starts 3rd – DraftKings Price: $10,300 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $13,000

As I tweeted about earlier today, the three night races on 1.5-mile tracks this season have all been won by different organizations, and if Kevin Harvick (or anyone at Stewart-Haas Racing, or even Hendrick Motorsports) gets the checkered flag here at Las Vegas on Sunday night, it’s going to be 4-for-4 with that statistic. Now the question is whether or not “Happy” is capable of pulling that off, since we’re talking about him specifically. The answer is yes. Harvick has had his fair share of issues on the 1.5-mile venues this year (his average finish is 11.8 on them in 2019) but arguably he’s still been the best in-race driver, as his average running position on them (8.2) is the best in the series, and he’s also averaging the most DraftKings dominator points. Here in Sin City, Harvick is a two-time winner (2015 and 2018) and has finished 7th or better in four of his last six starts here. In the final practice session this weekend, his ten-lap average ranked 5th-best in the garage. Harvick was my #1 ranked driver heading into this weekend and stays there after his speed in practice and qualifying.

2. Joey Logano – Starts 22nd – DraftKings Price: $9,700 – FanDuel Price: $12,500 – Slingshot Price: $12,100

The #22 Ford is going to be strong here on Sunday night. Joey Logano is the most recent race winner here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and believe it or not, his win here back in March was the first in his twelve career starts here. Don’t be surprised if Logano completes the season sweep this weekend, though. As far as track record goes, Joey owns a career average finish of 8.5 in Sin City, and over the last seven races here he has never finished worse than 10th. Additionally, Logano owns the best average finish on the 1.5-mile tracks this year (7.5) and the #22 Ford was 2nd-fastest in final practice here on Friday with the 3rd-best ten-lap average. Logano is an extremely safe pick here on Sunday night.

3. Brad Keselowski – Starts 18th – DraftKings Price: $9,500 – FanDuel Price: $13,000 – Slingshot Price: $11,900

Brad Keselowski is an interesting fantasy option this weekend, simply because he has pretty much been boom or bust on the 1.5-mile tracks this year. Kez started out 2019 with a win at Atlanta and then a 2nd-place finish here at Las Vegas, and then came back with a 36th-place result at Texas before going to victory lane again at Kansas. After that, Brad came home 19th at Charlotte and 20th at Kentucky with a 5th-place finish at Chicagoland sandwiched in between. So what should we expect this weekend at Las Vegas? I think Keselowski is going to have a pretty good race. He’s finished 7th or better in each of the last eight races here in Sin City, and five of those finishes have been inside the top 3. Kez was also one of the few Playoff drivers to show speed in both practice sessions here this weekend, winding up 6th-fastest in the first session on Friday before posting the 3rd-best lap in Happy Hour. He also had the 7th-best ten-lap average in that final session.