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NASCAR Cup Series Preview for DFS: Sonoma Raceway

Welcome to the Monster Energy Cup Series Preview. I’m Ryan Larkin aka The Warlock and This week we will be looking ahead to the Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. If you are just finding the DFS Army and are not a  VIP member sign up and use code LARKIN to save 20%!! Our DFS Army VIP members get access to the Domination Station and Research Station post qualifying. Also, VIP members get access to our VIP Slack and direct contact to the NASCAR coaches. Come join the best team in NASCAR DFS!

The Monster Energy Cup Series is in Sonoma this week for the first road course race of the 2019 season. This year at Sonoma they have switched to the traditional track layout by running the carousel. This will make the track length 2.52 miles or .53 of a mile further than the previous Cup Series track layout. Due to the increased lap length the total number of laps has dropped from 110 to 90 for this years race. As one of our NASCAR coaches Taco pointed out in the VIP Slack, pit strategy is going to be a major factor. We should see most teams pit shortly before the end of stages once in their fuel window. On the other side of this equation will be drivers searching for points and staying out to finish as high as possible in each stage. The drivers most likely to do this will be drivers around the playoff cut line. Drivers who stay out for stage points will find it much harder to finish towards the front. Also, tire wear will be a huge issue this weekend with 3-4 seconds of lap time fall off on the long run.

Quick Facts

Date: June 23nd

Practice 1: Friday 2:35 pm ET.

Practice 2: Friday 5:35 am ET.

Qualifying: Saturday 3:10 am ET.

Race: Sunday 3:00 pm ET.

Laps: 90 Stages: 20/20/90

Drivers: 40

Defending Champion: Martin Truex Jr

AVG. # of Cautions: 6 excluding stage breaks

AVG DNF’s: 4 per race

Lineup Building

Dominator / Top Tier

With only 90 laps its hard to say you will need more than 1 dominator plus 1 stud. There aren’t a lot of fast laps available and given the importance of fresh tires it will be hard to imagine enough to go around for 2 doms. Look to play top tier drivers like Truex, Harvick and Chase Elliott who can go for the win, and finish top 5 with some fast laps and laps led. Positive position differential can be as important as leading the race so be sure to take advantage of any elite drivers starting deep in the field. Qualifying is back to the group, 2 round format meaning drivers will have more than one shot to improve their starting position. Given the significant tire fall off though we could see drivers elect to not go for additional laps to try and make round 2. Instead they will settle for their position and hope to make up spots over the course of the first stage.

The level of domination the DFSArmy has experienced this year in NASCAR has been unbelievable. Our VIP Slack was filled with winners thanks to the hard work of all the NASCAR coaches.  If you aren’t already a part of  the winning culture then sign up to become a VIP Member and use code LARKIN to save 20%!!

Mid to Low Tier

In this group it will be important to find guys who can offer position diff. upside and also finish top 10 or top 15 in the lower tier. Guys like Hamlin and Bowyer are at the higher end but can be threats for the win while guys like Buescher, McDowell and Dibenedetto offer top 10 upside at great prices. Using past road course results is a great idea which is why the DFS Army Research Station is the perfect tool to get info on every driver. Inexperienced drivers tend to struggle here with rookies really having a hard time. Since 2010 no rookie of the year contender has finished inside the top 15.

Punts

We don’t see a lot of DNF’s at Sonoma making it hard for these drivers to gain many spots. If a punt is needed to do your best to identify the punt with the best position upside. For example last year Dibenedtto went from 30th to 17th and Parker Kligerman went from 34th to 23rd. With the track length it should be easy for most of these drivers to stay on the lead lap at least until very late in the race. This does give them a shot at paying off if things get a bit chaotic but stay green late.

If you are looking for more NASCAR info we have a new VIP article called The Inside Line: Truck Series featuring Driver/Team notes, news, as well as stats and my own personal viewpoints for every driver involved in the Truck Series race. This article will be available to DFS Army VIP members for every Truck race.

I will also answer any questions you may have in the VIP Slack!

This will conclude this edition of The Monster Energy Cup Series Preview. If you would like to reach out and talk NASCAR Follow me on twitter @Larkin8 or of course Become a VIP member and join me as well as our other DFS Army NASCAR contributors (Brady Miller, Taco, and NillyJay) in the NASCAR coaching channels.