steve hall 
584
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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Elliott (35) – $9.6K | Ryan Preece (34) – $6.6K | Kyle Larson (3) – $10.3K | Noah Gragson (32) – $5K |
| Denny Hamlin (8) – $10.6K | Ryan Blaney (14) – $9.8K | Daniel Suarez (17) – $7.7K | Ty Dillon (33) – $4.8K |
| Kyle Busch (25) – $10.5K | Tyler Reddick (7) – $9.2K | Chris Buescher (18) – $7.5K | JJ Yeley (28) – $4.9K |
| Alex Bowman (20) – $7.9K | Chase Briscoe (29) – $6.8K | Ricky Stenhouse (22) – $6.2K | Austin Cindric (9) – $5.9K |
| Austin Dillon (23) – $7.2K | William Byron (1) – $10.2K | Martin Truex Jr. (2) – $10.7K | |
| Bubba Wallace (10) – $8.5K | Erik Jones (24) – $6.7K | Harrison Burton (26) – $5.7K | |
| Todd Gilliland (36) – $5.4K | AJ Allmendinger (16) – $7.3K | Aric Almirola (27) – $7K |
*** NOTES ***
- Pocono, also known as The Tricky Triangle, is a 2.5-mile track that takes a lot of skill and knowledge to dominate. Similarly to a superspeedway, there are not a lot of laps (160 laps) so we don’t need multiple dominators here. Unlike superspeedway racing there is no drafting or pack racing so the field ends up getting a little spread out, making it hard to pass.
- **** Hamlin and Busch were disqualified after the 2022 race but DK scoring did not reflect those DQs so I am counting it as they finished 1st (Hamlin) and 2nd (Busch) ****
- Denny Hamlin has been the best driver at Pocono in the past four races. Hamlin has two wins (he was DQ’d post-race for one), three top 5s, and the best average finish (5th) during this span. In Saturday’s practice session, Hamlin was the fastest in the first session (7th fastest overall) and had the 5th best 10-lap average.
- After Hamlin, Kyle Busch has been the best driver here. Like Hamlin, Busch was DQ’d after finishing second here in 2022 but like I mentioned, that didn’t count in the DFS world. Busch has three straight top 5 finishes at Pocono and was second in single-lap speed on Saturday. Busch also has the most avg laps led per race in the last four here.
- Surprised to see Alex Bowman in the A Group today? Well, maybe you shouldn’t be. Bowman has been excellent at Pocono in recent years with four straight finishes of 11th or better including his win in 2021. Bowman also has the 2nd most avg DKFP per race and the most avg FDFP per race.
- Austin Dillon is a driver who will fly under the radar on Sunday but has put in some solid finishes at Pocono recently. In the last four races here, Dillon has three top 15s and has finished no worse than 21st. On Saturday, Dillon was 7th in 10-lap average.
- Even when his car isn’t the fastest, Erik Jones finds a way to have a good day at Pocono. Last season, Jones started 34th and finished 9th, his 2nd top 10 in four races here. Jones also has the best avg +PD among all drivers in the span.
- One of the hottest drivers in the Series is going to be sub 20% owned on Sunday, sign me up! I know Martin Truex is expensive, but he has 2 wins and five top 5s in his last seven races. Truex also had a top 5 car in practice on Saturday. If no one wants to play the 19 car on Sunday, I will!
