Matt Vecchio 
797
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Larson (2) – $11.2K | Chase Elliott (21) – $9.8K | Ty Gibbs (7) – $7.8K | Ty Dillon (26) – $4.8K |
| Josh Berry (29) – $7.7K | Martin Truex Jr. (4) – $10K | Ryan Blaney (10) – $9.2K | Brennan Poole (34) – $4.6K |
| Denny Hamlin (8) – $10.7K | Austin Cindric (15) – $6.5K | Ross Chastain (3) – $9.6K | |
| Christopher Bell (12) – $10.2K | Ricky Stenhouse (33) – $7K | Bubba Wallace (17) – $9K | |
| Corey Lajoie (24) – $5.6K | Todd Gilliland (32) – $5.4K | Tyler Reddick (5) – $10.4K | |
| Kyle Busch (16) – $9.4K | Brad Keselowski (20) – $8.2K | Noah Gragson (22) – $5K | |
| William Byron (1) – $10.9K | Joey Logano (6) – $8.4K | Michael McDowell (23) – $5.9K |
*** Notes ***
- As with any race, we will want to earn dominator points, but with only 267 laps (186.9 DKFP) we don’t need to focus on them. I will have at least one in each lineup.
- Since we want at least one dominator, why not Kyle Larson? In the last four races here, Larson has the most avg fastest laps, most avg laps led, and the most avg DKFP per race (he is second to Hamlin on FD).
- Denny Hamlin has been outstanding at Kansas. Hamlin has three wins (tied for most all-time) and in the last four races here he has the best avg finish (5.8) and has three top 5’s.
- Bell, along with the rest of the Toyota camp, was exceptionally fast in practice and I would not be surprised to see 4-5 finish in the top 10 on Sunday.
- Let’s keep the trend going and talk about another fast Toyota. MTJ was one of the slower Toyotas in practice, but he put down some fast laps in qualifying. Over the past two seasons, Truex is 4 for 4 in finishing in the top 10 at Kansas and has the second-best avg finish (6).
- When we have a lot of high-priced plays we need some solid value with upside. Some weeks it is difficult to find that, but not this week. With drivers like Gilliland, Lajoie, and Cindric having fast cars and good PD upside we are not lacking for value on Sunday.
- Logano is too cheap on DK for his upside here. He had a fast car in practice and qualified well. All three of the Penske cars looked fast in practice and should have good points days on Sunday.
- If Tyler Reddick wins this race on Sunday, it will be the first time in NASCAR history that a car has won three straight races at one track with three different drivers behind the wheel (The 45 car won with Kurt Busch and Bubba Wallace behind the wheel last year).
- He didn’t make the rankings because I prefer the drivers listed above, but Justin Haley (30) – $5.5K is in play. Neither of the Kaulig cars was fast in practice, but Haley has some good PD upside starting P30.
