Matt Vecchio 
627
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Truex Jr. (31) – $10.8K | Ricky Stenhouse (25) – $7K | Denny Hamlin (2) – $11K | Ty Dillon (26) – $4.9K |
| Kyle Larson (18) – $10.5K | Austin Cindric (14) – $6.1K | Ryan Newman (35) – $5.6K | Carson Hocevar (15) – $5.7K |
| William Byron (23) – $10.2K | Bubba Wallace (19) – $8.2K | Ryan Blaney (4) – $8.6K | Aric Almirola (10) – $6.7K |
| Justin Haley (29) – $5.5K | Austin Dillon (28) – $6.8K | Ryan Preece (34) – $5.9K | |
| Harrison Burton (32) – $5.4K | Alex Bowman (24) – $7.6K | Ty Gibbs (17) – $7.2K | |
| Christopher Bell (1) – $9.4K | Corey Lajoie (22) – $6.2K | Brad Keselowski (5) – $8.7K | |
| Ross Chastain (27) – $9.6K | Todd Gilliland (30) – $5.2K | Kyle Busch (11) – $10K |
*** NOTES ***
- Even though he starts 31st, Martin Truex Jr. has one of the best cars on the track, especially on the long run. Truex should be able to navigate his way through the field pretty easily and be in the top 10 in no time. Truex was 5th best in 15-lap average in practice and has the best avg running position (6.9) and avg laps led (85.3) in the last eight races at Darlington.
- Kyle Larson may have the only car better than Truex on the long run on Sunday night. In Saturday’s practice session, Larson had the best 20 and 25-lap averages. Larson has never won a Cup Series race at this track, but he does have four top-three finishes in the last 7races here.
- Christopher Bell starts Sunday from the pole and has a car that can keep him in contention all race. Bell is also getting a pit crew upgrade this weekend. Joe Gibbs Racings swapped the #54 team for the #20 team for the playoffs, this means Bell went from the 20th-ranked pit crew to the 3rd-ranked. This is a definite upgrade that could be the difference on Sunday night.
- One driver who should have been preparing for this race all season is Ricky Stenhouse. With his Daytona 500 win, Stenhouse became the first driver locked into the playoffs back in February. Stenhouse is good at Darlington as well, so I look at him as a mid-teens driver on Sunday night. Stenhouse finished 13th in the spring race here and has two top-13 finishes in the last three Darlington races.
- Bubba Wallace is coming off a great finish at the spring race here where he finished 5th. Wallace hasn’t had a great run here prior to 2022 but in those three races, he did run well. If not for a wreck in the spring 2022 race, Wallace was in line for a top 10, and in the fall race that year, he earned a 9th-place finish. I see Bubba as a top-10 car on Sunday night.
- Nobody is better at Darlington than Denny Hamlin. He normally would be an “A Group” play, but when you factor in salary, starting position, and the upside of the cars around his price he just didn’t make that list. Nevertheless, Hamlin is still a good play on Sunday night. I think he does win this race and has a good score, but just not higher than the Truex’s and Larson’s of the world. Hamlin has won here four times and won his 6th Xfinity race here on Saturday.
- Brad Keselowski is a sleeper to win this race in my opinion. Keselowski has the 2nd-best avg finish in this race in the last five seasons (6.2) and he has a 4.6 avg finish on ovals since the 2nd Atlanta race (5 races).
