The NASCAR season concludes with the Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday afternoon. It will be the final full-time race for Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick is likely ticked off from his outcome last week. And then of course you have Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski competing for the title. For all those reasons, we're bringing a NASCAR DFS lineup for DraftKings tournaments your way this week.
For the uninitiated to NASCAR DFS, these are a few of the things to know. Drivers earn points based on their place differential from their starting spot. They also gain points for laps led and fastest laps. Their final place results in points, too. So, you either want drivers starting high who will lead laps, or drivers who start further back in the field and move up.
MORE: NASCAR final four, explained
DraftKings Tournament Picks: NASCAR Championship
DRIVER: Kevin Harvick ($11,100), starting 11th
After Harvick's controversial elimination from the postseason, he'll surely like to spoil the party in the final race of the season. It's good timing for Harvick that the season concludes at Phoenix, where he's won nine times and finished in the top 10 more than two-thirds of his Cup Series starts. There's nothing to lose for Harvick, which could well mean he wins.
DRIVER: Joey Logano ($10,000), starting 2nd
Logano is the only one of the four finalist racers we have in this lineup. While they'll all be racing for glory, that could also lead to overly aggressive racing late in the day that ends poorly for one or more of the drivers. Right before the season's shutdown, Logano won at Phoenix for the second time in the Cup Series, so he should be in contention starting from the outside pole.
DRIVER: Jimmie Johnson ($9,300), starting 26th
You're about to notice a theme in our next two lineup picks. Johnson is retiring from full-time NASCAR driving after the race at Phoenix, so he'll be looking to go out fashionably. Luckily for him, he's a four-time winner at Phoenix. He's lined up to start from the 26th position, which could make him a popular play since he's sure to have some positive place differential throughout the race, but he's still worth using at this price.
DRIVER: Clint Bowyer ($7,900), starting 9th
Bowyer, like Johnson, is calling it quits after the Phoenix race. He'll start inside the top 10, which gives him less chance at favorable place differential but more chance to push toward the front early and earn some laps-led points. Bowyer has never won at Phoenix, which could keep him off some DFS radars, but he moves up by a few places on average each time he runs there, so he's not a bad play to go out in style at this price.
DRIVER: Ty Dillon ($6,000), starting 22nd
Dillon moves up an average of 6.5 places when he races at Phoenix, about as good of place-differential potential you'll find at this low a price. Starting outside the top 20 should help Dillon realize that upward movement, too.
DRIVER: John Hunter Nemechek ($5,500), starting 27th
A rookie, Nemechek gets one more race this season before he comes back for 2021 as an experienced sage. Our best feel for his outlook in this race is looking at his Xfinity Series results at Phoenix, where he went three-for-three on top-10 finishes at the track. Starting right behind Johnson, he could find himself following the legend to move up throughout this race.