kansas final

Straight to the point here.  I'm going to break down what I see as the critical lineup choices for Sunday's race.

• Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex -- They all have awesome potential and I'm thinking you'll want 2 of them since they are the most likely Dominators.  Based on practice and reports of what people in the garage are thinking, Harvick is the top choice.  He showed great long run speed.  He won here in Spring and has won 2 of the last 5 races here.  My second choice would be Larson.  He officially starts 27th, but will go to the rear before the green flag.  He started from the rear in Spring and led 101 laps before finishing 4th.  It's a stretch to expect that again, but no stretch to think Top 10 finish with numerous fastest laps and a potential for laps led.
• Mid-level guys I like are Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney and Paul Menard.  Logano starts from pole and should lead a chunk of laps at the beginning of the race.  He also showed strong long run speed in final practice, so he should be able a hold a Top 5 or so finishing position.  I also really like Menard in this group.   He finished 6th here in the Spring and has been consistent at the 1.5 mile tracks this year.  In tournaments, I do like Ryan Blaney quite a bit.  He ran well here in Spring, but had an incident with Larson and finished poorly.   He's run OK at the 1.5 mile tracks this year, but hasn't led a whole bunch of laps at those tracks or been consistent enough to make me stretch for that salary.  Kurt is solid as well, but he's just out of salary reach the way I am ending up with my lineup. 
• My favorite budget picks are David Ragan, Michael McDowell and Corey LaJoie.  Earlier this week, we documented the success of the Front Row team and Ragan, in particulaer, at Kansas.  To recap, he's finished 17th, 17th and 13th in the last three races here.  And in the last 3 races here, the 2 Front Row drivers have finished no worse than 23rd.  As for LaJoie, he's finished 27th, 27th and 24th in the last 3 races here with a collective +21 position difference.  I would also like Ross Chastain if you have the salary, but I'm not finding that I do and he's not strong enough in my mind over LaJoie to bump someone else in order to make it work.
• Keselowski, Blaney and Almirola all make strong large field tournament plays.  Any one of them could dominate but come with significant downside given their high starting spots.