Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Xfinity series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then, you know the drill, but welcome if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site with contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play. 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/)
NASCAR returns to the West Coast this week with both the Xfinity and Cup Series racing at Auto Club Speedway for the first time in two years. This weekend will be a stark contrast to last weekend in Daytona in such that there will be very few wrecks with a more spread-out field. Typically races here can be boring with one or two drivers dominating and leading 75% of the laps. Also unlike last week, we won’t necessarily be stacking drivers from the back of the field. In 2020, the last time the Xfinity Series raced here, nine of the top ten finishers started inside the top 13. Four cars DNF’d and all four were mechanical issues with only two cautions for multi-car wrecks and three for single-car spins. This was by all means a very tame race. Two drivers led a combined 113 of 150 laps in this race (76.7%) so it will be key to find these dominators on Saturday afternoon.
In two of the previous three races at Auto Club, two drivers starting inside the top 5 were in the optimal lineup. In 2020, four drivers starting 13th or better made the optimal lineup and in 2019 three did. No more than two drivers starting 30th or worse have been in the optimal line the last three races here. With all this knowledge we should be looking to use 2-3 dominators for this race and two value tier drivers. But sometimes things change and the way qualifying worked out we will be looking to the rear of the field for a lot of the top plays. There are still some good plays starting near the front, but there are fewer than usual at Fontana.
Starting Position: 20th
Allgaier is the top play on this slate and while he will likely be the highest owned driver it is hard to fade him. Allgaier has finished no worse than 12th at Auto Club in his last six races including four top 10’s. In Saturday’s short practice session, Allgaier had the best single lap speed and 5th best 10-lap average.
Starting Position: 1st
Allmendinger was fast in practice finishing with the 4th best single lap speed. AJ has only raced here once in the Xfinity Series 15 years ago so we can’t count that. I believe Allmendinger will be one of the two dominant cars in this race and be a contender for the win.
Starting Position: 12th
Gibbs will be popular, and that is why I slotted him below Allmendinger here. I think there is upside here, maybe more than Dinger but I think his ownership goes above the projection. Gibbs was fast in practice as well with the 5th best speed and 7th fastest 10-lap average.
Starting Position: 2nd
Custer is in the 07 SS Greenlight Ford, this is essentially a Stewart-Haas Ford though. In practice, Custer had the 10th best single lap, but he was 2nd in 10-lap average which is important because he shows he can take care of his tires in the “long run”. Custer won in his last Xfinity race here in 2019 and finished 6th the previous year. I look at Custer as a top 5 car with the potential to lead a bunch of laps.
Other Options: Daniel Hemric ($10,300 – P5), Noah Gragson ($10,900 – P6), Josh Berry ($9,500 – P11)
Starting Position: 31st
Snider projects as the second-highest owned driver but there is next to no downside with him today. Snider has only raced at Fontana once in the Xfinity Series where he finished 11th. In practice on Saturday, Snider was not fast, but I am not worried since he only ran 9 laps.
Starting Position: 28th
Alfredo was another car that was not fast in practice, but again I am not worried and look to Alfredo as a top 15 car on Saturday. In 2020, Alfredo was in the RCR #21 and finished 6th, this car he is in now is not as good as that car but he is a skilled driver in a good Our Motorsports Chevy.
Starting Position: 30th
Brown was a top 20 car in practice and was even in the top 10 in single-lap speed at one point. In 2019, Brown finished 15th here at Fontana, but in 2020 he had his engine fail on him and he finished 33rd. Brown had an issue in qualifying that set him back and has him starting where he is, this car is definitely a top 20 car (as long he stays clean) with top 10 upside.
Other Options: Sam Mayer ($8,700 – P13), Riley Herbst ($8,300 – P16), Kaz Grala ($7,400 – P29)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Xfinity series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then, you know the drill, but welcome if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site with contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play. 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/)
After a long offseason (not really) the Xfinity series is back on the track this weekend from Daytona! There have been a lot of changes during the offseason with guys like Austin Cindric heading to the Cup Series, but a lot of the top drivers are still in the field. Included in those drivers is 2021 series champion, Daniel Hemric. Hemric has left JGR and is now with Kaulig Racing in the #11 car that Justin Haley vacated when he moved to the Cup Series. Also back for another run at a title is Noah Gragson and Justin Allgaier as well as newcomers Ty Gibbs and Josh Berry (full time this season).
Another change this season is the series is going back to practice and single lap qualifying so my articles will have a different look in 2022 because I will not have starting positions available to me when writing. I will use practice speeds and track history to give my thoughts on the field, but on most race days you will NEED to be in discord after qualifying (typically 2 hours before lock) to get my final thoughts. When we had qualifying in 2021 we typically had great days if you were in discord and made the appropriate changes. A lot of times the field will set their lineups and not come back to check who makes the race and where they start. Speaking of making the race, only 38 cars will race on Saturday so this means nine cars will be going home after qualifying on Saturday.
If you’ve played NASCAR DFS before then you probably have an idea of how we build lineups for tracks like Daytona. If you don’t, well there’s a hashtag for it, #Stacktheback. You want drivers from the back, specifically 20th and back. Last season at this same race the optimal lineup only used $41,700 of the possible $50K salary. Only two drivers were priced over $6,800 and the drivers starting in the final three spots were three of the four highest point scorers. If you are showing me lineups in discord this weekend and you used your entire $50K I will know you didn’t read this section. Don’t be that person!
I don’t plan on running more than one driver from this tier in my lineups unless, of course, we get a situation similar to the Truck Series race where a few drivers start towards the rear in this tier.
Gibbs was the fastest car in practice on Friday as he pulled his JGR teammates with him. I am not surprised by this as in every race Gibbs ran in 2021 he was one of the most dominant cars. Gibbs has never raced on a Superspeedway in an Xfinity car, but he did finish fourth in the Daytona race in the ARCA Series in 2021.
Narrative alert!!! Thanks to my NASCAR DFS Apprentice, we have a narrative alert with Brandon Jones’ birthday being Saturday. What better present could he give himself than a win in the opening race of the season. Jones, like his team Ty Gibbs, was fast in practice as we saw them work together with teammate Drew Dollar in the draft. These three cars will be trying to link up on Saturday as well to keep them up front and fight off all the fast Chevy’s behind them.
Cassill is arguably in his best ride ever in the Xfinity Series as he takes over in the #10 Chevy for Kaulig Racing. Kaulig always puts out great cars for Superspeedways and I expect Saturday will be no different. I don’t even want to use Cassill’s previous results here as a gauge for his potential this weekend because like I mentioned he’s never been in a car this good.
Truex is in the #26 Toyota for Sam Hunt Racing this weekend. While this is an SHR car, they are getting help from JGR so you can expect Truex to try and get in line with the JGR Toyota’s as he did in practice on Friday. Truex hasn’t raced at Daytona in the Xfinity Series since 2018, but he had two good finishes in both races here that year. If Truex can hang with the JGR cars he could have a great day.
Hill and teammate Sheldon Creed will be driving for RCR this season as both make the jump to running fulltime in the Xfinity Series. Depending on what happens in qualifying, I prefer Hill as of writing because of his price. If the top tier guys qualify poorly we may need to save some salary. Both Creed and Hill ran practice speeds that ranked them in the 20’s. Assuming that’s where they qualify they will both be high upside plays
Other Options: Anthony Alfredo ($7,500)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Truck series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then, you know the drill, but welcome if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site with contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play. 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/)
After a long offseason (not really) the trucks are back on the track this weekend from Daytona! There have been a lot of changes during the offseason but a lot of the top drivers are still in the field. Included in those drivers is reigning series champion, Ben Rhodes. Also back for another run at a title is John Hunter Nemechek and Matt Crafton.
Another change this season is the series is going back to practice and single lap qualifying so my articles will have a different look in 2022 because I will not have starting positions available to me when writing. I will use practice speeds and track history to give my thoughts on the field, but on most race days you will NEED to be in discord after qualifying (typically 2 hours before lock) to get my final thoughts. When we had qualifying in 2021 we typically had great days if you were in discord and made the appropriate changes. A lot of times the field will set their lineups and not come back to check who makes the race and where they start. Speaking of making the race, only 36 trucks will race on Friday night, so five trucks will be going home after qualifying on Friday.
If you’ve played NASCAR DFS before then you probably have an idea of how we build lineups for tracks like Daytona. If you don’t, well there’s a hashtag for it, #Stacktheback. You want drivers from the back, specifically 20th and back. Last season at this race only one driver in the optimal lineup started higher than 20th (Carson Hocevar – P12). Another thing you need to understand is the fact you WILL have salary leftover and a lot of it. I know it is a hard thing to do, but it is a must. Last season at this race the optimal lineup only used $39,700 in salary leaving over $10K on the table. If you are showing me lineups in discord this weekend and you used your entire $50K I will know you didn’t read this section.
I don’t plan on rostering many drivers from this tier unless something dramatically bad happens in qualifying. I won’t spend too much time breaking anyone down from this tier for that reason.
Starting Position: 27th
Rhodes won this race last season from P23 and will start further back from that spot on Friday. I still see Rhodes as a potential winner here since his truck was fast in practice. This leads me to believe that he is in race trim and did not care too much about where he starts. Rhodes is the top overall play in this race.
Starting Position: 29th
After Rhodes, Crafton slots in as the next best play in this race. Crafton had a top 15 truck in practice on Thursday and could easily win this race. As an experienced driver with 21 career starts at Daytona (only wrecking 3 times) in a truck, Crafton is a driver I trust and will have a lot of exposure to.
Starting Position: 2nd
JNH was the best driver last season but just missed out on the title. If anyone from this tier would be able to avoid the big ones on Friday night it would be Nemechek. We know he has the best equipment in the field and if he is able to avoid all the carnage Nemechek could have a great night. This is a super-risky play, but if anyone can start up front and end up in victory lane, it’s Nemechek.
Other Options: Zane Smith ($10,200) – P20
Johnny Sauter ($8,500)
Starting Position: 36th
Sauter is a three-time winner at Daytona and is in the G2G Racing #47 on Friday. This is a downgrade for Sauter after moving on from ThorSport and at any other track, I would be fading Sauter but at Daytona nobody outside the front row is a fade necessarily. Sauter was 9th fastest in practice because he ran in the draft a lot, but when he ran alone he was much slower. This was proven by his poor qualifying effort, but I fully expect Sauter to be top 10 at the end of the day.
Starting Position: 30th
As with every driver in this article, it will all depend on where they qualify, but Kraus has a fast truck and if he qualifies far enough back he could be one of the top drivers in this race. Last season Kraus wrecked out early and finished where he started in P33, but in 2020, Kraus finished 4th after starting from P16. Kraus was second in practice on Thursday.
Starting Position: 22nd
Hocevar is a talented driver who finished 5th at this race last season. Overall 2021 was a success for Hocevar and he is expected to improve on his 8 top 10’s and 3 top 5’s in 2022. This is a semi-risky play because there are better options lower in price than Hocevar but he will come in at lower ownership than those plays and could be a factor in getting you a takedown as opposed to min cashing.
Other Options: Parker Kligerman ($8,600) – P31, Tanner Gray ($7,500) – P24
Because of how qualifying turned out you can get by with only 3 of these drivers in your lineups, but the higher-priced drivers will be the chalkier plays. I will recommend fading some of them and going 4 deep on the value plays especially if playing multiple lineups.
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop: Cup Series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then you know the drill, but if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content, welcome! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site that has contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play.
Welcome to Speed Week from Daytona! After a fun and entertaining exhibition race from the LA Coliseum two weeks ago NASCAR prepares for their Super Bowl from Dayton Beach, Florida! While Daytona is still a few days away, we do have some racing to look forward to tonight. The BlueGreen Vacations Duels from Daytona take place tonight to set the field for Sunday’s Daytona 500. Both Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman know they will lead the field to green on Sunday afternoon, but beyond that nothing is set. Well, I shouldn’t say nothing is set because both Noah Gragson and Jacques Villeneuve locked themselves into the 500 on speed Wednesday night in qualifying but their starting position is still to be determined. There are now four drivers racing for the final two spots in tonight’s duels. Two of Kaz Grala, Timmy Hill, JJ Yeley, and Greg Biffle will have to race their way into Sunday’s big event tonight so they will be working hard on the track to make that happen. As for the rest of the field, they will just be running laps to get a feel for the track and more importantly keeping their cars clean and damage-free. We won’t see carnage as we will on Sunday in these races, they are generally tamer and tend to run fully clean.
Typically at Superspeedways, we want to stack drivers from the back of the field because when wrecks happen they will happen at the front of the field. These races are different because like I stated above, drivers aren’t too concerned with where they start and are just trying to get through this race clean. In fact, in the last 5 years (10 races) only two drivers that have started worse than 14th finished in the top 5. In that same time frame, only 18 drivers starting worse than P14 finished in the top 10. Stacking up drivers from the back of the field is not optimal in these races. Looking back to last season only two drivers starting 15th or worse finished in the top 10 of Duel #2 and the other eight drivers all started inside the top 10.
As for the first duel, it was slightly different. Four of the six drivers in the optimal lineup started inside the top 12 and only two started lower than 15th. In both races, all six drivers in the optimal lineups finished in the top 10. In both races last the season the pole sitters dropped back and stayed safe and out of the way. To summarize, don’t roster the pole sitters in each race but do roster drivers starting in and around the top 10.
Three of the four Hendrick Chevy’s are in this race, but we already know that Larson will not be pushing his car in this race and will likely fall to the back. Chase Elliott and William Byron start 2nd and 3rd in this duel and will likely lead a good chunk of the laps in this race and could finish 1-2. I like the strategy of stacking them together in builds for this race.
Right behind Elliott and Byron in this race are the two Trackhouse Chevy’s of Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez. We could see them team up with the HMS cars to lead this race. Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley, and Tyler Reddick are also in Chevy’s so they all could team up together, but I would prefer to stick with the HMS cars and go in a different direction.
A lot of people have said the Fords are ahead of the curve and faster than both Chevy and Toyota. Ryan Blaney starts 7th and is the best Ford in this race. Blaney’s teammate Austin Cindric is also in this race starting from P11 and will most likely be joining Blaney to push towards the front. Other Ford’s in this race are Chase Briscoe, and his SHR teammate Cole Custer as well as Brad Keselowski and Todd Gilliland. All of these drivers have backup cars so they shouldn’t have an issue pushing themselves.
Kurt Busch is the lone Toyota in this duel and could have a hard time getting in the draft. I think he will try and race with the front back and starting from P13 he could be a decent pivot off the plays mentioned above if making multiple lineups.
Stack up 4-5 Fords in your lineups with one or both of Elliott and Byron
You can also use both HMS cars with the Trackhouse cars and two Fords.
This duel is all about the JGR and JGR-adjacent cars. All four of Joe Gibb’s Toyota’s and Bubba Wallace are in this race. I fully expect them to join up and be in the top 5 for this entire race. Similar to the first duel, the pole sitter (Alex Bowman) will most likely fall back and finish in the late teens leaving the top spot open to one of these Toyota’s.
There are some other top-end Ford’s in this race, including Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Aric Almirola. These three could link up and run together to push the Toyota’s at some point. You can also include Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher in your Ford stacks for salary savings.
Stack the Toyota’s first and foremost. I would suggest only one of Denny Hamlin or Martin Truex Jr. They both start near the front so their upside is capper compared to the other Toyota’s.
While you can run all five JGR cars, I would suggest no more than four and adding two of the aforementioned Fords.
Ricky Stenhouse is the best of the few Chevy’s in this race with Bowman and Ty Dillon likely sitting towards the back.
David Ragan is a decent cheap option if needed starting P20 and likely finishing somewhere in the mid-teens.
Play these races light and use them to pick up some tickets for Sunday’s race. There are A LOT of satellites in the lobby for these races. There are all kinds of price points and sizes, depending on your budget you should be able to enter a few of these contests.
Thank you for reading my weekly NASCAR DFS Pit Stop articles and make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop: Cup Series for the 2022 season! If you’ve been with us before then you know the drill, but if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content, welcome! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site that has contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play.
After what seemed like an eternity NASCAR is back! If you haven’t had a chance, please check out my What’s New in 2022 article before going forward. It’s fine, I’ll wait…. ok welcome back! I want to be honest and tell you upfront that I have no idea what is going to happen and how these cars are going to react to the tracks to start the season. Any content provider who tells you they do is lying to you because even the NASCAR teams don’t know what to expect so how can someone from the outside?
Since this track is set up as a .25 mile track the lap times are quick and the speeds are low. Chase Elliott was tops after Saturday’s two hour session with a top lap time of 13.455 and a top speed of 66.89 MPH. Elliott also had the best 15, 20, 25, and 30 lap average. Kevin Harvick was second quickest at only .002 seconds behind Elliott while also having the best 5-lap average. Kyle Larson, the 2021 champion, had the best lap average and Kyle Busch had the best 10-lap average.
This race is unique and in turn my breakdown for it will be as well. Sunday’s 23 car field will be set by four heat races (top 4 from each qualify for main event) followed by two last chance qualifiers (three drivers from each qualify) and the one driver who didn’t qualify through the qualifier races who had the most points in 2021. Since the field will be set so close to the start of the race I cannot give you my usually style of article, so I will go heat by heat and tell who I think moves on into the field. It will be vital that you come back to discord before lock to see my updates.
Each of the four qualifying heats are only 25 laps so it will be difficult for the cars starting towards the back to get into the top four. As for the last chance qualifiers, they are 50 laps each which will give the drivers starting towards the back in those more time to get through the field.
Heat 1 Lineup: #18-Kyle Busch, #99-Daniel Suarez, #47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr., #12-Ryan Blaney, #11-Denny Hamlin, #10-Aric Almirola, #78-BJ McLeod, #38-Todd Gilliland, #1-Ross Chastain
Both Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez appear to be locks for the main event on Sunday. Both Busch and Suarez looked fast in practice and put down two of the top times in qualifying. Because of his price Suarez ($5.9K) is one of the top plays in this race. As long he qualifies for the race, Suarez makes fitting practically any build you want possible. I expect to be using him in the majority of my builds on Sunday
Others from this heat to qualify LCQ: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Heat 2 Lineup: #8-Tyler Reddick, #41-Cole Custer, #21-Harrison Burton, #48-Alex Bowman, #23-Bubba Wallace, #3-Austin Dillon, #14-Chase Briscoe, #6-Brad Keselowski, #19-Martin Truex Jr.
This group is pretty tricky to predict with only Tyler Reddick seeming like a sure thing. Chase Briscoe was a top three car in practice but put down a terrible qualifying lap which leads me to believe his car is in race trim and better on the long run. Both Cole Custer and Alex Bowman will have track position to start the race so I think that is what will get them through into the field.
Wallace and Burton were bad in practice but did seem to make adjustments to improve their cars so they could beat out Briscoe, but I think it’s unlikely. Similar to Suarez, Reddick ($6.7K) is priced at a point where he is a top play and is my favorite play under $7K.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon
NASCAR DFS: Heat 3 (Driver names in bold are my picks to transfer)
Heat 3 Lineup: #31-Justin Haley, #9-Chase Elliott, #24-William Byron, #20-Christopher Bell, #16-AJ Allmendinger, #4-Kevin Harvick, #17-Chris Buescher, #7-Corey LaJoie, #51-Cody Ware
Chase Elliott was the top car in practice and laid down a great lap in qualifying on Saturday. Elliott is my top play from the $9K plus drivers because of this. Using Suarez and Reddick with Kyle Busch and Elliott leaves you $9.6K per driver for your final two spots which allows you to roster practically whoever you want. Justin Haley ($5.3K) is another top value play on this slate. Haley was top 5 in both individual lap time and average lap time on Saturday in practice as well as putting down the third best qualifying lap.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: William Byron, Christopher Bell
NASCAR DFS: Heat 4 (Driver names in bold are my picks to transfer)
Heat 4 Lineup: #22-Joey Logano, #5-Kyle Larson, #34-Michael McDowell, #77-Landon Cassill, #2-Austin Cindric, #43-Erik Jones, #15-Ryan Preece, #45-Kurt Busch, #42-Ty Dillon
This is the weakest heat by far with only two drivers who stand out as quality drivers. Both Joey Logano and Kyle Larson are locks but outside of them it’s pretty open. Any of the other drivers in this field could come through but I don’t think there will be much of a desire to roster any of them. Landon Cassill was top 10 in practice and put down a good qualifying lap as well. Cassill does potentially have some value if he finds his way into the main event coming in at $5K.
Others from this heat to qualify in LCQ: Kurt Busch
Once again, make sure you are in discord after the heat races are complete where I will update my picks based on the results of the qualifying heats and starting positions.
Thank you for reading my weekly NASCAR DFS Pit Stop articles and make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
As we welcome in the new year, we also need to welcome in changes, many, many, changes coming to NASCAR in 2022. We have plenty of drivers changing teams, new teams, new sponsors, and the like but one big change coming this season is the new NextGen car for the Cup Series. This will be the 7th generation car for the Cup Series and arguably the most drastic change. One thing that seems to be making everyone happy is that NASCAR has announced that they will be running the 670 horsepower engine for all tracks (except SuperSpeedways and Atlanta) in 2022. Most 1.5-mile ovals ran the 550 horsepower engine that led to boring races with very little passing.
When the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season kicks off at the Daytona 500 with the Next-Gen car, it’ll be the first one to have aluminum wheels, rack-and-pinion steering, and an independent rear suspension. And those are just a few of the changes made to the new cars. These cars were initially slated to begin in the 2021 season, but development was paused because of COVID-19.
Without getting into too many details, the bodies are now symmetrical, with dimensions that are similar to the regular cars you drive every day. The body is now assembled with carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic panels that are more flexible, durable, and cheaper than the old sheet metal bodies. This will make it easier for the smaller teams to compete because their expenses will be less. The suspension has also been overhauled, with the addition of four-way adjustable dampers and the switch from an out-of-date live rear axle to a sophisticated independent setup.
The new aerodynamic elements beneath the car are also new and drastically changed. Unlike in the previous generation car, there’s now a rear diffuser that NASCAR will switch based on the track type. This eliminates the cost of engineering exposed pieces for the car’s underside to create more downforce. Unfortunately, the new underfloor has led to heat being trapped inside the cockpit. This forced NASCAR to redesign the exhaust to be three feet shorter and exit behind the front wheels as opposed to in front of the rear wheels to combat the excessive heat.
Like with all professional sports, NASCAR has its own crazy offseason. Drivers move from the lower series’ up and move from team to team. In this section, I will go over a few of the changes that will have the greatest effect on the Cup Series.
Brad Keselowski spent over a decade in the #2 Penske Ford but he has left the team he won his Cup Series Championship with to take over the #6 for Jack Roush. Keselowski is also part owner now of the team formally known as Roush-Fenway racing and it has been rebranded at RFK Racing.
Fantasy Analysis: This is a step down in equipment and funding for Keselowski which lowers his value in DFS weekly. I think we will need to see how this team fares in the Next-Gen car and see how he is priced before we can safely roster Keselowski weekly.
Taking over for Keselowski in the vacated #2 is former Xfinity Series Champion Austin Cindric. Personally, I love this move for Cindric and I think he will be a force in this series and is my pick for NASCAR Rookie of the Year.
Fantasy Analysis: Cindric will be in the mix every week in the #2 and will be lock-button for every road course race in 2022.
Bubba Wallace had a good year in the first season for 23XI Racing and it will only get better with the addition of former Cup Series Champion, Kurt Busch. After three seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing, Busch will switch from the #1 Chevy to the new #45 Monster Energy Toyota.
Fantasy Analysis: I expect a lot from Busch, and Wallace, in 2022. I think this team can produce weekly top 10’s and compete for 2 playoff spots. Kurt brings a plethora of experience and will help Wallace and this team grow.
Last season Trackhouse debuted with Daniel Suarez in the #99 as a single-car team, but this offseason Justin Marks (owner) purchased Chip Ganassi Racing making them a two-car team. In that second car will be Ross Chastain. Chastain will move from the #42 to the #1 that was vacated by Kurt Busch.
Fantasy Analysis: There should be some improvement with two cars now for Trackhouse, but I do not expect them to be a factor for wins or a championship, yet. Most weeks I would expect these two cars to be in the mid-teens to low 20’s.
Kaulig has had consistent success in the Xfinity Series and even earned a win with AJ Allmendinger in the Cup Series in 2021. This season Kaulig will field two full-time Cup cars with Justin Haley running the full season in the #31 while there will be a rotating cast of drivers in the #16. Daniel Hemric, Noah Gragson, and AJ Allmendinger .
Fantasy Analysis: Justin Haley is a good driver and should be competitive in the lower mid-tier this season. Kaulig is exceptional at road courses and superspeedway’s so I expect to give them a hard look when we are at those track types.
GMS didn’t leave the Truck Series, but they did purchase a charter in the Cup Series. Ty Dillon was tapped to drive the #94 for GMS, but that didn’t last long. In December GMS purchased a majority stake in Richard Petty Motorsports creating GMS Petty. Ty Dillon remained with the team, but was moved from the 94 car to the #42 teaming up with Erik Jones who will drive the #43 again in 2022.
Fantasy Analysis: We saw Jones and the 43 team improve and have some decent runs late in the season. Ty Dillon had a few good outings in the Xfinity Series but being back in the Cup Series he could be a backmarker most weeks. Both of these drivers will be priced in the high-end value tier each week and depending on qualifying they should be viable.
I won’t go into the same detail for the Xfinity Series, and also the subsequent Truck Series section, as I did the Cup, but I will just quickly give you some of the key moves in each series.
Thank you everyone for reading the 2022 NASCAR season preview! Don’t forget to come back in early February for my weekly articles breaking down every single race in all three top NASCAR series. Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Xfinity series for the 2021 season! If you’ve been with us before then, you know the drill, but welcome if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to 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/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles. Since they are the only site with contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play.
As this is the last race for all three NASCAR series’ this weekend I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for reading my article throughout the season. I also want to thank everyone for interacting with me in discord each and every weekend and for making this our best season ever. I will miss the races each weekend, but luckily NASCAR has an incredibly short offseason and we will be back on Sunday, February 6th for the NASCAR Clash from the Los Angeles Coliseum! Hopefully, GravMatt52 and IDrago15 can get tickets and get to enjoy the show!
Phoenix is a short flat track that runs similar to Richmond and New Hampshire so those are two places where we can look at results to see how drivers ran in conjunction with Phoenix. Earlier this season Austin Cindric led 119 of 200 laps on his way to a dominant victory. That race was very similar to his championship win in 2020 where he led 72 of 206 laps on his way to victory lane. Cindric is the clear favorite on Saturday night, but you cannot rule out the other three drivers in this race. We have to remember that this race in the spring was full of wrecks and engine issues for the JRM teams. I don’t expect that we have that type of race on Saturday. Looking back at last year’s championship race there were only 4 cars that didn’t finish and one wreck involving three of them. Those four cars were all back of the pack-type cars and did not affect the championship. We should see a similar race to that one on Saturday, not the wreck-filled engine failure party we saw in March of this year.
This weekend all three races will have traditional practice and qualifying so the articles will be a little different since I don’t have starting position at the time of writing. I will either update the article, in discord or both after qualifying on Saturday. I will be away with my family from Saturday into Sunday so I will not be as available as usual when it comes t updating and answering questions. Just know if the 6 drivers you pick are in the article or the updates I do make in discord, I approve! I would also suggest playing a little lighter than usual for this race because of this.
There is a separate section to break down the Championship 4 for this weekend as well. I believe that the winner of this race will be one of those four drivers so I plan on rostering 1-2 in each lineup. Depending on how they qualify, I could see trying to cram three of them into some lineups as well.
(Ranked in salary order)
Austin Cindric ($11,000) – Practice Speed Ranking: 2nd
Noah Gragson ($10,400) – Practice Speed Ranking: 4th
AJ Allmendinger ($10,200) – Practice Speed Ranking: 7th
Daniel Hemric ($10,000) – Practice Spreed Rankong: 3rd
Like I went over in the open, Cindric has been dominant here in the last two Phoenix races and it is hard to doubt he won’t be again. Gragson had an unfortunate ending to his race here in the spring but traditionally he runs well at Phoenix. Last season, Gragson finished second behind Cindric in this race and finished 7th in the spring 2020 race. If you remove the poor finish from the equation, Gragson has an average finish of 7.5 in his previous four races here.
We say it every week, but is this the week Daniel Hemric finally gets a win? Not for me, but he can easily have a solid day here with a top 5 finish to make value. Hemric has run well here, but those races were in 17-18 when he was racing in the RCR #21, since joining JGR in 2019, it hasn’t been as good for him. Daniel Hemric has three straight poor finishes here after a string of four top 10’s. Hemric did lead 44 laps from the pole here in March before a late-race incident send him back and left him with a 23rd place finish. Hemric has just some bad luck of late here because he knows how to run well at Phoenix, I think that bad luck ends on Saturday and he comes home with a top 5. Traditionally, Allmendinger is not a good short-track driver, but at Phoenix, he has performed well. In three races here in the Xfinity Series, AJ has an average finish of 10th. In March, Allmendinger earned his first top 5 after two finishes of 12th and 13 respectively at Phoenix. Allmendinger has run great all season, but he seems like the dark horse to win the championship.
My Prediction: Austin Cindric dominates this race again on his way to his second straight title.
Practice Speed Ranking: 9th
Phoenix is probably one of Allgaier’s best tracks, if not his best. Allgaier came back to the Xfinity Series in 2016, and since then he has fared incredibly well. In eleven races at Phoenix since then, Allgaier has had two victories, six top 5’s, and eight top 10’s. Allgaier has also led 476 laps in those eleven races (43.3 per race) and led at least 50 six times. It will be hard to make Allgaier fit with two of the Championship 4 drivers, but there is some decent value in this race where we can make it work.
Practice Speed Ranking: 1st
Nemechek will be in the Joe Gibbs #54 car on Saturday night and should be expected to compete for the win. This car has seen an All-Star cast of drivers take it to victory lane, including Nemechek at Texas three weeks ago. JHN has run three Xfinity races at this track, but none since 2019. In his three races from 2018-19, Nemechek has never finished lower than 9th and has a 4th place finish as his best. Those races were run in inferior equipment though, nothing on the level of this car. Like with Allgaier, I fully expect Nemechek to push the Championship 4 drivers for the win in this race, unless Hemric is leading then he could become a blocker for him.
Other Options: Justin Haley ($9,100): Crashed in the spring but had three straight top 10’s prior. Harrison Burton ($9,700): In three races here, Burton has three top 12 finishes including a second place in spring 2020.
With all the drivers in the top tier that we want to play this week the mid-tier may not factor into your lineups too much, but we still have some good value here as well that can fit into three dominator type builds
Practice Speed Ranking: 17th
Clements is having a great season in 2021 and looks to wrap it up with a solid day on Saturday. Phoenix actually has been one of Clements’s better tracks over the past twelve months. Clements has finished 10th in back-to-back races here and has five finishes of 18th or better in his last six.
Practice Speed Ranking: 12th
Mayer has had some growing pains this season but he has become a top 10 contender every week late in the season. I know the price is high for him this week comparatively speaking. We have a lot of drivers over $10K we want to roster and Mayer doesn’t fit those builds necessarily. But we aren’t the only ones who are going to be building lineups with three $10K drivers, so Mayer will come in at incredibly low ownership I predict. In lineups where we roster two, say Cindric/Allgaier builds, Mayers fits beautifully. Now, this all depends on where he qualifies. If Mayer qualifies top 5 he may not be a good play, so make sure to be around late in the afternoon on Saturday for an update on him.
Mayer finished 4th last week for his second straight top 10. Mayer also has three top 10’s in his last four races and four in his last seven. I see Mayer as a fringe top 5 driver, but a top 10 lock on Saturday.
Practice Speed Ranking: 30th
Brown was third here in the spring and has three straight top 12 finishes at Phoenix. Since his win at Talladega, Brown has not had a good run of it, but we know that he has good equipment he just had some bad luck with two wrecks in his last three races. Brown did have a great run at Richmond earlier this season finishing 8th. I see Brown as a low-teens driver again on Saturday.
Other Options: Michael Annett ($8,400): This will be Annett’s last race as a full-time driver and he will do everything he can to make it a good one. Annett does have three top 10’s in his last four races here (if you remove his engine failure in the spring). Brett Moffitt ($8,200), Sage Karam ($7,200)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
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