Matt Vecchio 
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the weekend of 6/4-6/5. This week we have all three of the top series in action, but in a rare occurrence, they are being run at two different tracks. Both the Truck and Cup Series will be racing at World Wide Technology Raceway which is right outside of St. Louis. This will be the first time the Cup Series will be racing here so we have no information to go on. The Truck Series has been here before and it is said that the teams used WWTR to prepare for Phoenix so that is where I plan on starting with my research and I suggest you do the same.
As for the Xfinity Series, they are at Portland International Raceway for the first time ever. There are a lot of non-Xfinity regulars in this race and I will go over them below.
NASCAR DFS: Truck Series
Laps: 160 (112 Dominator Points)
Previous Winner: Sheldon Creed
Over the previous two seasons, Zane Smith has led 64 laps at this track so he will once again be one of our top targets. Johnny Sauter will be back in the #13 for ThorSport this weekend at a track where he has been nothing short of elite. In nine career starts, Sauter has eight top-five finishes. Sauter is picking his spots this season as he is on a part-time schedule and this clearly is a track he enjoys coming to and will be one of the top plays on Saturday.
NASCAR DFS: Xfinity Series
Laps: 75 (52.5 Dominator Points)
Previous Winner: N/A
Since this is a road course, we won’t be hunting for dominator points and will instead be searching for place differential plays and finishing positions. I mentioned in the open that there are a lot of road-course ringers in this race, below I will break them down briefly.
- Andy Lally (#44 Alpha Prime): Lally is in one of the best cars of any ringer this week. The 44 car has raced in all thirteen races in 2022 and if you take out the 6 times it wrecked or had issues this car has an average finish of 20.14. You add in a driver who has nine top 10s in 18 Xfinity starts and you have a great play in the mid-tier.
- Scott Heckert (#5 BJ McLeod): Heckert is another veteran road course racer in both the Cup and Xfinity Series, he isn’t as accomplished as Lally, but he is talented. Heckert’s best career Xfinity finish is 13th and he has two total top 20 finishes.
- Connor Mosack (#18 Joe Gibbs Racing): Mosack is an accomplished road course racer, but he has never done it in an Xfinity car. Mosack is only 23 years old, but in his first full season in Trans Am TA2 Series he had ten top 5’s, 6 podiums, and one win in 14 races.
- Parker Chase (#26 Sam Hunt Racing): Chase drove this car earlier this season to a 19th place finish at COTA.
- Darren Dilley (#38 RSS Racing): Dilley is the most interesting story of all the drivers. While he has one win in 10 career Sports Car Club of America starts, Dilley is currently working as an elementary school P.E. teacher.
NASCAR DFS: Cup Series
Laps: 240 (168 Dominator Points)
Previous Winner: N/A
This week the Cup Series makes its debut at WWTR and while the series has never raced here, a lot of drivers have.
Drivers who have previously won here (Truck Series):
- Ross Chastain
- Kevin Harvick
- Christopher Bell
- Bubba Wallace
- Justin Haley
- Cole Custer
It’s not a long list, but just having experience here, combined with how they have run at Phoenix and other similar short, flat tracks will come into play when breaking down the field this weekend.
Check out my NASCAR DFS Tutorial to make sure you are ready and understand how I break down the races and build lineups (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-pit-stop-2021-introduction-to-nascar-dfs/).
There were a lot of changes in the cars and what driver is in what car/truck in 2022. Check out my What’s new in 2022 article (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-whats-new-in-2022/)
