Matt Vecchio 
913
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the NASCAR Cup Series. Below you will find my rankings for the drivers in this race.
A Group: Drivers I will have the most exposure to and are high priority
B Group: This group is drivers I feel have a high upside and are great filler pieces to pair with the A Group
C Group: The drivers in this tier are a bit risky, but could still be optimal. This group should be used in GPP’s
F Group: These drivers are on my do not play list
(Starting position in parenthesis)
Drivers highlighted in yellow are potential dominators
(All pricing is for DK)
| A Group | B Group | C Group | F Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Truex Jr. (1) – $10.5K | Kyle Busch (12) – $10.1K | Kevin Harvick (20) – $8.8K | BJ McLeod (35) – $4.9K |
| Chase Elliott (21) – $9.6K | Ross Chastain (5) – $9.4K | Ty Dillon (33) – $5.1K | Brennan Poole (36) – $5 |
| Corey Lajoie (34) – $5.4K | Bubba Wallace (2) – $8.6K | Tyler Reddick (9) – $9.9K | |
| Kyle Larson (7) – $10.9K | AJ Allmendinger (30) – $6.6K | Joey Logano (15) – $9K | |
| Erik Jones (28) – $7.1K | Austin Cindric (25) – $5.9K | Michael McDowell (19) – $6.1K | |
| Chris Buescher (27) – $7.6K | Christopher Bell (16) – $9.2K | Chase Briscoe (31) – $7.3K | |
| William Byron (4) – $10.3K | Ryan Blaney (11) – $8.4K |
*** Notes ***
- Darlington is a 293-lap race which means we have 205.1 DK dominator points. In recent history (since 2020 – 7 races) only one driver has led 100+ in 5 of 7 races and only one time (Martin Truex Jr.) led over 200.
- Historically, Truex is a solid play at Darlington even though he had two poor races last season. Truex didn’t look fast in practice but the team made an adjustment and it showed in qualifying as he won the pole. Since 2020 (7 races), Truex averages 76.7 laps led and has four top 10s including a win.
- Chase Elliott is hit or miss at Darlington but he had the fastest lap in Saturday’s practice and should be one of the top PD plays on the slate.
- Lajoie has not finished lower than 30th this season so he should be a good place differential play. At Darlington since joining Spire, Lajoie has only finished lower than 24th once in four races.
- Darlington is one of Erik Jones’ best tracks. The last time the series was here, Jones went to victory lane. Jones had a bad stretch before that win, but his car looked fast on Saturday in practice and could be a top 10 car at the end of the day.
- Bubba Wallace, along with most of the other Toyota’s, was fast in Saturday’s practice. Wallace then went out and put down a great qualifying lap. To top it off, Wallace will be one of the lowest-owned drivers in the race. This is a risky play, but I am one of the few people who believe in Bubba and will be playing him on Sunday when no one else will.
