2019 Draft Kings Mid-Cap Productivity $8k-$10k

Winning Cap games is all about finding value.

While the drivers profiled in last week’s Draft Kings High-Cap Productivity article earned the most points and required the lowest cost per point on average, there was no way to fit them all on a roster. Group A drivers cost $10,271 or more on average. The average cost per point among these drivers was about $210.

By comparison, Group B drivers cost $8,635 and nearly all of them had an average price tag greater than $8,333, which was the median amount a player could spend on any driver. As a result it meant most weeks fantasy players had one or at the most two drivers activated at this level if they used some of their Cap allowance in Group A.

Group B drivers cost $265 per point on average.

Difficult decisions had to be made, but luckily Denny Hamlin was on hand several weeks to fill one of the gaps. Hamlin was priced at less than $10k 21 times during the 36 Cup weekends; on 13 occasions, he earned top-10 points. Once the tally was made at the end of the season, Hamlin it cost $193.39 for every point he banked. That was third-best in terms of productivity for a driver who commanded the sixth-highest cap on average.

Of course to truly be a great value, he needed to finish among the top 10 in points, which he did on 13 occasions. Six of these races ended with him banking the most, including New Hampshire, the August Michigan race, July’s Pocono event, Fall at Talladega, and the final races at Kansas and ISM Raceway.

Ryan Blaney was the second-best value at this level; He earned 37.5 points per week with an average cap of $9,100. Kyle Larson actually earned a few more points during the season with an average of 37.7 points per week, but was generally more expensive.

Blaney was never the top points earner during a week, but he came close twice. In the spring TicketGuardian 500k at Phoenix, he pocketed the second-most 76 points with a below average cap of $8,200. At Talladega in the fall, he was also second with 65.75 points earned on a cap of $9,000. Blaney peaked in value on three occasions with caps greater than $10k, but he earned top 10 points only once in those events.

Larson on the other hand, demanded more than $10k on five occasions. He earned top-10 points twice after doing so, but he was nominally productive twice. In fact, in one of the races when he was expensive, he lost 20 points in the finale at Homestead.

If a fantasy player caught Larson on the right week, he helped win the weekend contest. The No. 42 driver earned maximum points at Atlanta to start the season and at Dover in route to victory in the fall. At Atlanta he earned 89.5 points with a cap of $9,300. He was only $400 more expensive at Dover where he banked 114 points and his first victory in the Cup series in 2019.

Larson’s teammate Kurt Busch was the fourth-most productive driver at this level and he earned his position with consistency. Like Blaney, Busch was never able to earn maximum points, but he came close at Kentucky with his victory and at Darlington where he finished seventh. In the Blue Grass State, he earned 77.25 points with a cap of $9,300. He scored 90 points for $9,100 in the Southern 500.

Better still, most of Busch’s top-10 earnings came when he was moderately priced. He was priced at $10,700 at Bristol in the spring before earning the fourth-most points. But his other top-10 earnings came with a price tag of $9,500 or less.

Chase Elliott rounded out the top five at this level. His average cap value of $9,637 cost players $267.69 per point, which was only slightly better than Erik Jones ($273.83). The problem with Elliott was that on the occasions when he ran badly, he was terrible. In fact Elliott cost points on eight occasions. In two of his famously poor efforts during the playoffs he lost 26 points at Phoenix after draining players’ accounts of $10,200 and 27 points at Dover with a cap of $10,300.

 

Overall Rank	Driver	Avg. Game Rank	Total Points Earned	Avg. Points	Average Cap	Cost per Point
Group A
1	Kyle Busch	8.2	2,327	64.6	$11,800	$182.66
2	Martin Truex Jr.	9.8	2,183	60.6	$10,800	$178.22
4	Kevin Harvick	10.4	1,829	50.8	$11,149	$219.46
5	Joey Logano	12.3	1,647	45.7	$10,271	$224.75
6	Brad Keselowski	13.9	1,540	42.8	$10,463	$244.46
Group B
3	Denny Hamlin	11.6	1,835	51.0	$9,863	$193.39
7	Kyle Larson	15.4	1,359	37.7	$9,406	$249.49
8	Ryan Blaney	14.6	1,350	37.5	$9,100	$242.67
9	Kurt Busch	15.8	1,298	36.1	$9,183	$254.37
10	Chase Elliott	16.1	1,296	36.0	$9,637	$267.69
14	Erik Jones	17.6	1,128	31.3	$8,571	$273.83
18	Clint Bowyer	17.8	1,042	28.9	$8,780	$303.81
20	Aric Almirola	18.7	1,011	28.1	$8,169	$290.71
22	Jimmie Johnson	19.8	929	25.8	$8,014	$310.62
Group C
11	Ryan Newman	15.0	1,272	35.3	$7,603	$215.38
12	Alex Bowman	16.6	1,211	33.6	$7,951	$236.64
13	William Byron	17.4	1,136	31.5	$7,483	$237.56
15	Matt DiBenedetto	18.0	1,106	30.7	$6,969	$227.00
16	Chris Buescher	17.5	1,103	30.6	$6,997	$228.66
17	Daniel Suarez	17.8	1,066	29.6	$7,631	$257.80
19	Paul Menard	17.5	1,042	28.9	$6,934	$260.25
23	Austin Dillon	20.9	855	23.8	$7,157	$300.71
28	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	22.7	736	20.5	$7,114	$347.02
Group D
21	Ty Dillon	19.4	986	27.4	$6,254	$228.25
24	Ryan Preece	22.9	817	22.7	$6,246	$275.15
25	Corey LaJoie	23.4	804	22.3	$5,423	$243.18
26	Ross Chastain	22.9	784	22.4	$5,606	$250.27
27	Bubba Wallace	22.8	772	21.4	$5,951	$278.08
29	Daniel Hemric	23.6	675	18.8	$6,369	$338.77
31	Michael McDowell	25.0	630	17.5	$5,871	$335.49
32	Landon Cassill	26.4	611	17.0	$5,154	$303.18
33	David Ragan	26.8	513	14.2	$5,674	$399.58
Part Time drivers, sorted by avg. points
Rank	Driver	Avg. Game Rank	Total Points Earned	Avg. Points	Average Cap	Cost per Point
1	Brendan Gaughan	14.8	157	39.2	$6,167	$157.32
2	Tyler Reddick	13.5	78	39.0	$6,300	$161.54
3	Justin Haley	19.3	111	36.9	$5,033	$136.40
4	Ryan Sieg	18.0	32	32.0	$5,200	$162.50
5	JH Nemechek	20.3	79	26.2	$5,533	$211.18
6	Parker Kligerman	21.5	334	23.9	$5,231	$218.87
7	JJ Yeley	24.6	305	21.8	$4,987	$228.76
8	Matt Tifft	23.3	661	20.6	$5,503	$267.14
9	BJ McLeod	27.9	280	15.5	$4,811	$310.39
10	Reed Sorenson	28.6	368	14.7	$4,973	$338.30
11	Joe Nemechek	28.5	87	14.5	$5,000	$344.83
12	Garrett Smithley	30.1	168	12.9	$4,754	$368.53
13	Quin Houff	29.3	216	12.7	$4,953	$390.00
14	Bayley Currey	29.3	123	12.3	$4,817	$391.63
15	Josh Bilicki	30.3	122	12.2	$4,822	$395.25
16	Joey Gase	30.2	137	11.4	$4,842	$427.74
17	Timmy Hill	31.1	77	11.0	$4,729	$429.91
18	Austin Theriault	29.8	53	10.6	$4,771	$450.09
19	Cody Ware	31.0	126	9.7	$4,833	$498.25
20	Jeb Burton	29.5	19	9.5	$4,833	$508.74
21	Kyle Weatherman	33.0	26	8.5	$4,800	$565.71
22	Spencer Boyd	34.0	18	6.0	$4,633	$772.17
23	Gray Gaulding	34.0	5	5.0	$4,700	$940.00

 

2019 Draft Kings High-Cap Productivity