Daytona 500 Fantasy NASCAR – The Low Tier

Daniel Suarez
Daytona 500 Bottom Line – Daniel Suarez has been a DNF machine at Daytona and in 9 of his 11 starts, he’s walked away with a DNF. Suarez snapped a 7-race DNF streak in last year’s Daytona 500, but his DNF streak is back up to 1 following a crash in the “Rain Big One” last summer, no less while leading! At Daytona, I would view Suarez as a super high-risk prospect who’ll have a lot of “Out of sync potential” and hope for the best.
Daytona Track History – Daytona has been brutal for Daniel Suarez. As you can guess by a driver who’s DNF’ed 81.8% of the time, the results column is quite ugly. His all-time best Daytona result is 17th, and his average finish is 28.5. Last summer, Suarez showed potential but as is norm, he crashed. In the race, Suarez played it safe driving near the back for much of the race but when rain became a threat for ending the race early, he drove up to the front and was actually the leader at the time of the “Rain Big One”, but then he crashed just like everyone else which led to his 24th. In last year’s Daytona 500, Daniel Suarez had a great day by his tremendously bad standards finishing 18th and having a 21.3 average running position. I’ll note, Suarez was caught speeding on pit road on lap 109, so his race wasn’t completely incident free. Prior to that he was running in the 20’s. In summer 2021, it looked like Suarez would have his best Daytona result, but on the last lap in the back straightaway while he was running in 3rd he crashed. In the 2021 Daytona 500, Suarez completed just 13 laps before getting caught up in the early “Big One” which led to his 36th place finish.

Fantasy Note: With the way superspeedways work, low tier doesn’t mean they will necessarily finish at the back.

Harrison Burton
Daytona 500 Bottom Line – Harrison Burton carries dark horse potential at superspeedways, but that’s of course reliant on him dodging trouble and in 2022 on this track type, Burton went 4 for 4 at DNF’ing and his average finish was 32nd. He did show potential at Daytona in both races, so there’s hope!
Daytona Track History – Last year at Daytona, Harrison Burton showed potential in both races but ended up walking away with a pair of DNF’s. Last summer, Burton finished 3rd in Stage #1, was running in 13th on lap 134, but then on lap 137 he was damaged in the “Rain Big One” which led to his 19th, but keep in mind he finished 20 laps down. In last year’s Daytona 500, Burton ran well and led 3 laps but on lap 62 while he was running in the top five he was a “Brad Keselowski” bump victim which ended his race and led to his 39th. In the Xfinity series at Daytona, Burton is 4 for 4 at finishing in the top 9 and his average finish is 4.75.

Riley Herbst 
Daytona 500 Bottom Line – Riley Herbst will be driving the #15 Rick Ware Racing entry in the Daytona 500, so he’s already locked into the “Main Event.” It’s fair to speculate, his #15 might have some boosted support from Stewart-Haas Racing. Last year in this ride, David Ragan had results of 8th and 9th at Daytona.
Daytona Track History – At Daytona in the Xfinity series, Riley Herbst has been respectable and over the last five races, Herbst has three results in the top ten, four results in the top 15 and an 11.8 average finish. Last year, Herbst finished 15th in the summer and then 4th in February. In his three starts prior to that he had finishes of 10th, 26th and 4th.

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