Hello again everyone, welcome back for some more NASCAR Xfinity fun brought to you by the DFS Army! I’m your host @nillyJay and you can find me on Twitter or in our Slack chat (I try to be everywhere, but you can always find me in #nillys-garage-nas-mlb). Pocono is one of my favorite tracks (as both a fan and a DFS player), so I can’t wait for these races. Let’s dive right in!
Pocono Raceway
We kick off the weekend with a 250-mile, 100-lap run around Pocono – the Tricky Triangle. If you’re unfamiliar with this track, it gets its nickname due to it having three distinctively different turns at very high speeds (this is among the fastest tracks on the circuit). It’s also a wide track like Auto Club, which can make for some really interesting (chaotic) situations in these tricky turns. It’s basically the best of a super-speedway (the need for raw horsepower) and a short track (being able to out-skill your competition) rolled into one race. What’s more, the track has a great mascot; a fox named Tricky. What else could we really ask for?
Though the track may be tricky for the drivers, this is a great one for us at the DFS Army. This is personally one of my favorite/best tracks, and as usual, I will be going into detail in my VIP article and Slack notes on how I approach this race. That goes along with Brady’s Monster Energy VIP article and taco manning the research station and our lineup optimizer, the Domination Station, for both races. Really excited for this weekend!
Something else unique about Pocono is the fact that we’ve only had two Xfinity races here. Not to worry though, there are plenty of places to look to find what we’re looking for. The more in-depth information about that will be in my VIP article, but I can say this; we want guys who aren’t afraid of shifting a lot.
Monster Energy drivers
Once again, we have a handful of full-time Monster Energy drivers who will accompany us on this 250-mile journey. Let’s first take a look at them:
Kyle Busch ($13,500) – Busch is coming off of a win and will look to dominate this race the way he did last weekend, but the question will be if he’ll be able to pay off his salary or not.
Chase Elliott ($10,100) – Chase joins us again and will look to have a better result than he did last week. He’s not likely to dominate this race like other drivers can, so he’ll need to return value in some other way. Qualifying position and practice speeds will be very important this week, especially for somebody over the $10k mark.
Paul Menard ($9,200) – Menard is no stranger to Pocono and will be driving the #22 car this weekend. At only $9,200, he looks to be in a good spot to return a fair amount of value. At a track where experience and raw horsepower are of equal importance, Menard fits the bill very nicely.
Xfinity drivers
Elliott Sadler ($10,700) – Sadler tops the charts for the Xfinity regulars once again. While I usually call him a cash play and move on, I actually have some interest in him in tournaments this week. Few drivers can match his experience at Pocono, which could easily turn into a game of survival if the newer guys can’t tame the Tricky Triangle. In a battle of who can survive this race the longest, I’d be glad to have Sadler on my side.
Christopher Bell ($9,900) – Bell won here last year in the truck series, and there’s no reason to believe he couldn’t do it again in his #20 car on Saturday. He’ll likely be a strong candidate for all formats once again, especially at a track where he should be able to rack up another 20+ fastest laps.
Justin Allgaier ($9,600) – Allgaier finished here second last year (there’s no shame in being the runner-up to Keselowski in an Xfinity car), so he’ll be another to keep an eye on. He doesn’t quite have the fastest lap potential that Bell does (unless he dominates the race), which will hurt his ceiling if he can’t do that. As of right now, he looks to be more of a tournament play if he’s in a position to get out front early and dominate.
Cole Custer ($9,400) – Custer is sort of in the middle of what I said about Bell and Allgaier. For his price, I would prefer him to dominate to “guarantee” some fastest laps, as I would see Bell getting more of them otherwise. In other words, I’m leaning more towards GPP play for Custer as well.
John Hunter Nemechek ($9,100) – JH Nemechek also joins us again this week, and this should be a great track for him to soar towards a strong finish with a few fastest laps along the way. He’s raced here three times in the truck series with three strong finishes (13th, 9th, and 4th), so I have no reason to believe he can’t compete for at least a top-10. His car is fast enough for a top-5 with some dominator potential, so he could be another solid play for all formats.
Brandon Jones ($8,600) – Jones is fast and keeps getting faster; he only had 6 fastest laps in the first five races this year but has picked up 66 in the previous five. At a track where drivers need that sort of speed to keep pace and finish strongly, he’s in a great spot (especially for his price).
Matt Tifft ($8,200) – Tifft is coming off of two straight top-10s and will look to make it three in a row. Seeing that he finished 10th here last year, there’s no reason to believe he can’t do just that. A top-10 finish for $8,200 is very enticing, and you could almost consider him as a cheaper version of JH Nemechek.
Kaz Grala ($7,200) – Kaz finally cracked into the top-10 (at a non-plate race) last week and has a good opportunity to do it again. As always, I’d suggest keeping him out of your cash games, as consistency isn’t exactly his selling point yet. Still, he’s worth having some exposure to in tournaments, as he’s capable of surprising a lot of people at any given race.
Shane Lee ($7,000) – Lee looks to be a solid mid-range value play again this week. His ceiling has been low due to him qualifying in the top-10 and finishing in the teens, but he’s worth keeping an eye on either way since he’ll be piloting a fast car again. He has not finished worse than 15th this year, which is a very nice stat for his price tag. This will be his first time around Pocono, so it’s hard to recommend him for cash games, but he’s definitely worth consideration for your GPP player pool.
Jeremy Clements ($6,600) – Always a hit or miss, Clements offers top-15 upside with a very low floor (or a basement, really, since he’s dropped down to -17 DKFP before). Few in his price range have a 50+ ceiling though, so be sure to take a few swings with him if he qualifies where we would want him to.
Driver X ($5,xxx) – This one is easy and I expect our sharp DFS Army members to pick him out of the group, but you knew this was coming either way! Truth be told, the real driver X this week isn’t really a driver at all; it’s strategy on how to approach this race. All of that will come in my upcoming VIP article as well as Slack notes, so stay tuned for that if you’re a member.
That’s going to do it for now. If you haven’t quite figured out a good research process yet, consider reading my beginner NASCAR strategy articles to help get you pointed in the right direction; beginner’s – intermediate. And of course, if you’re not yet a member 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!