Hello again everybody, welcome to this week’s Xfinity preview! We have a short turnaround this week, as the Xfinity race will be on Friday instead of Saturday. I personally love it when we get a different schedule out of the blue like this, as it gives us an advantage over people who don’t pay as much attention to the scheduling as they should. In addition to that, my fellow DFS Army members will have another huge advantage as our research station and Domination Station lineup optimizer will both be ready to help push us to the top of the leaderboards once again.
For those of you who aren’t on board with us yet, I’d encourage you to come check us out. We don’t cover just NASCAR; we have tons of knowledge, resources and tools available for MLB, NBA, MMA, PGA, NFL, NHL, and even e-sports. Check out our Wall of Wins to see some of the big winners we’ve had. We don’t only win big though, we succeed in the daily grind too. We teach our members how to utilize cash ladders to build up their bankroll over time, and how to properly manage it to be able to take shots at the big prizes without having to redeposit (hint: if your cash lineup is only seeing double ups or 50/50s, you’re doing it wrong). It truly is a great time to be in with us, and I hope to see more new faces as the season continues!
Richmond Raceway
We head to another short track this week, this time in the 3/4-mile variety. Richmond is generally a safer track than Bristol, with 4.9 cautions per race on average compared to Bristol’s 7.7 (over the last 10 races). We also drop down to 250 laps (compared to 300 last week), which generally makes lineups easier to build as we don’t have to focus as heavily on finding enough dominators.
Once again, there will be no full-time Monster Energy drivers racing in this week’s Xfinity race, so the regulars will have a good chance to shine and show what they can do. Let’s first take a quick look at how drivers have done here, by starting position, over the last five races (the full breakdown will be in my VIP article later this week):
Just like last week, most of dominator DKFP tends to come from the front. Unlike last week, however, is the fact that the other ranges have a better chance of finding value (especially with no Monster Energy studs to quickly put most of the field multiple laps down). This should give the value plays and punts a better chance at scoring higher, which helps in both cash games and tournaments alike.
All in all, this is definitely a more approachable race than Bristol was, so if you didn’t have the best results last week, you’ll have a better chance at success this time around. For now, let’s take a look at some of the drivers this week:
Xfinity drivers
Elliott Sadler ($11,300) – Sadler is the most expensive driver again this week, and once again I will say the same thing about him that I always do; he’s got the best floor on the slate to anchor your cash games, but his ceiling just isn’t there to win you a tournament. He’s a top 10 machine, but he’s only led 78 laps here in 29 races.
Justin Allgaier ($11,200) – Somebody who can win you a tournament, however, is Justin Allgaier. While he didn’t lead for as long as I had anticipated, he still found his way into the winning lineup last week. He’ll look to do the same again, as Richmond is a track he’s dominated at before. He led a whopping 157 laps in this race last year; a performance that would have yielded 121.75 DKFP (and he didn’t even start from the pole).
Christopher Bell ($11,000) – Bell is another driver who can win you a tournament. He didn’t have the best race last week, as he wiped out his car and a bunch of lineups in the process (somewhere in the neighborhood of 40% in most tournaments). I expect him to have lower ownership this week as people fade him in retaliation for him burning a bunch of their lineups. I won’t be one of those people.
John Hunter Nemechek ($9,900) – JHN will make another appearance this week, and while he has yet to race at Richmond, he’s no stranger to short tracks or success in an Xfinity car. While he didn’t finish as well as he could have last week, he did have 17 fast laps, which shows that he has a good handle on that #42 car.
Brandon Jones ($9,000) – Jones surprised a lot of people last week with the best race of his career (60% of the laps led in his 78 Xfinity races happened last week). Hats off to him! He’s been fast all year and needed a chance to get up front and show what he can do. I’ll keep my thoughts about him for DFS Army members in my Slack channel, but one thing is for sure: he’ll likely have a hefty bump in ownership this week.
Austin Cindric ($8,600) – Cindric gets another shot in the #22 car, and he’ll look to improve on his 12th place finish from last week. He’s been pretty hit or miss this year, so I’d probably shy away from him in cash games, but he has the car and talent to be this week’s Brandon Jones.
Spencer Gallagher ($8,000) – His salary is finally starting to catch up with his performance, though he can still return plenty of value at this price. I don’t expect him to stay here for very long though, so you may want to get him at this discounted price while you still can!
Noah Gragson ($7,400) – One of this week’s newcomers is Noah Gragson, who will be driving the #18 car that Ryan Preece drove to victory lane last week. While this will be his first Xfinity race, make no mistake; he’s a talented driver and JGR wouldn’t let him drive this rocket ship if they didn’t think he could do something with it.
Jeb Burton ($7,000) – The other new face we’ll see this week is Jeb Burton, who has a fair amount of experience in every NASCAR series. He’s raced at Richmond several times, and while he hasn’t had a noteworthy finish, he also hasn’t driven a particularly spectacular car either. That changes this week, as he’ll get a crack at it with the #3 RCR car, which is fast enough to hang with the rest of the competition.
Driver X & Y ($6,XXX) – There are two in this range I’m really liking, and I’ll have a full breakdown in my VIP article explaining why. I would normally just list them anyway, but I’m sensing some nice ownership leverage this week, so I have to keep them for DFS Army members only. Sorry!
Tony Mrakovich ($5,800) – He was supposed to make his debut last week, but his team didn’t like how he was performing in practice so they put Dylan Lupton behind the wheel instead. That’s something that drivers don’t take lightly, so I expect Mrakovich to be at his best this week.
Driver Z ($5,XXX) – Wait, another one?! Nobody caught on to him last week (his ownership was very low) so I’d better just keep this one safe and sound for my fellow DFS Army members.
That’s all for now! If you’re new to NASCAR, be sure to check out my beginner’s and intermediate guides. If you’re not yet a DFS Army member yet and you want to come join us for the more in-depth discussions we have in our Slack channels, along with access to all of our tools/resources, you can do so here. Don’t forget to use promo code NILLY to lock in that 10% savings!