Matt Vecchio 
785
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ryan Blaney (31) – $9.5K | Tyler Reddick (6) – $9.1K | Ryan Preece (1) – $7.4K | Todd Gilliland (11) – $5.5K |
| William Byron (8) – $10.8K | Corey Lajoie (27) – $5K | Harrison Burton (32) – $5.7K | JJ Yeley (36) – $4.9K |
| Ross Chastain (34) – $8.8 | Kevin Harvick (7) – $8.4K | Erik Jones (28) – $6.5K | Anthony Alfredo (30) – $4.8K |
| Chase Elliott (24) – $9.3K | Brad Keselowski (21) – $7.7K | Christopher Bell (22) – $10.5K | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (16) – $6K |
| Denny Hamlin (11) – $10.1K | Kyle Busch (17) – $9.7K | Noah Gragson (29) – $5.3K | |
| Kyle Larson (19) – $10.6 | Martin Truex Jr. (5) – $10.3K | Bubba Wallace (9) – $7.1K | |
| Austin Cindric (25) – $6.8K | AJ Allmendinger (14) – $6.6K | Alex Bowman (23) – $8.2K |
*** Notes ***
- This weekend revolves around two things, well according to FOX, the return of Chase Elliott and showing replays of “The Hail Melon”.
- This is a 400-lap race, so I recommend using three dominators for your lineups on Sunday. There are 280 dominator points available (on DK) for this race so it will be vital you try to maximize your exposure to those points.
- Byron and Reddick were tops in speed in their practice sessions on Saturday and should be able to get out front at some point and lead laps in this race.
- Denny Hamlin has been great at Martinsville during his stellar career. Recently, Hamlin has either been top 5 or bust. Since 2018 (10 races), Hamlin has five top 5s but also has three finishes of 24th or worse (his other two finishes were 11th and 12th).
- I expect a lot of long-run stretches in this race. Because of this, I am focusing on drivers who had great long-run speed in Saturday’s practice sessions.
- Truex is similar to Hamlin when it comes to recent finishes at Martinsville. In his last eight races here (2019 – the year he joined JGR), Truex has earned himself three grandfather clocks (winners trophy) but also has three finishes of 20th or worse.
- Ryan Preece is super risky, of course. But, he can pay off his low price if he is able to hold the lead for the start of the race and manages a top ten finish.
- Both the Dillon brothers and Zane Smith get honorable mention nods as they kept popping up when I ran the optimizer, but I don’t know if I end up there in my lineups today.
