Matt Vecchio 
202
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Bell (1) – $9.8K | Kyle Larson (17) – $10.8K | Kyle Busch (8) – $10.1K | Josh Bilicki (37) – $4.8K |
| Kevin Harvick (22) – $10.3K | Erik Jones (25) – $7.3K | Ryan Preece (28) – $6.6K | Cole Custer (33) – $5.1K |
| William Byron (7) – $10K | Denny Hamlin (13) – $10.7K | Brad Keselowski (12) -$8.6K | Austin Hill (30) – $5.2K |
| Alex Bowman (20) – $8K | AJ Allmendinger (24) – $6.8K | Harrison Burton (29) – $5.7K | |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (27) – $7K | Justin Haley (26) – $6K | Chase Elliott (10) – $9.5k | |
| Martin Truex Jr. (5) – $10.5K | Ryan Blaney (9) – $9.7K | Ross Chastain (2) – $9K | |
| Corey Lajoie (31) – $5.5K | Bubba Wallace (11) – $8.8K | Ty Dillon (34) – $5K |
*** NOTES ***
- We went from the short track in Richmond a week ago to the 2-mile track at Michigan this week. There is a big difference in how we build lineups between these two tracks. Last week we needed to focus on dominator points, but this week it’s more about finishing position and place differential. There are still 140 dominator points available, so I will still look to have 1 driver I believe can lead laps in my lineups.
- I mentioned some Harvick stats earlier this week in Discord, but it’s worth repeating. Since 2018, Kevin Harvick has had five wins in eight races and has not finished lower than 14th. Harvick will carry a lot of ownership this week (proj at 36%) but I am hard-pressed to find another driver starting near him who has a shot at winning here on Sunday.
- William Byron has been one of the best drivers in the Cup Series over the past twelve months on this track type. Byron has one win, three top 5s, the most avg laps led (55.4 – 20 more than Blaney, the next highest), and the most avg DKFP per race (59.9) in five races on this track type in 2023 (and ’22 Michigan).
- This season on this track type, Ricky Stenhouse has finished 12th two times and 7th in four races (finished 24th in Vegas). There is always a risk in playing Stenhouse but considering how well he’s performed at these tracks and how far back he’s starting, there is plenty of upside here in the 47 car.
- Martin Truex Jr. has the best avg finish on low tire wear intermediate tracks in 2023 (7th). Truex has arguably the best car coming out of Saturday’s practice session. In that session, Truex had the fastest lap avg and was 2nd in the long run as well.
- Kyle Larson has let us down a few times recently, but the equipment and driver are both too good to fade when he starts this far back. Larson has either been great or wrecked out at this track type in 2023. At both Auto Club and Charlotte, Larson wrecked and finished 29th and 30th but at Vegas and Kansas, Larson was 2nd.
- AJ Allmendinger showed some top-15 speed in practice on Saturday. Looking back at Dinger’s races this season, outside of when he wrecked at Fontana, Allmendinger has finished 18th or better in the next three.
