The O’Reilly Series will join the Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway this weekend. This will mark back-to-back road course races for the O’Reilly Series, but this race will be much different from what we saw last week at Navy Base Coronado. The Cup Series drivers were not allowed to compete last week. Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain are entered into the race Saturday. I doubt Austin Hill is going to dominate like he did on the base. This should be another battle between SVG and Zilisch. The Pit Boss / FoodMaxx 250 can be seen Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on CW Channel.
FANTASY STATS FOR NAVY BASE SONOMA
The O’Reilly Series has competed on three road course tracks this year (COTA, Watkins Glen and Navy Base Coronado). The stats from the race at COTA typically do not transfer to the race at Sonoma because the two tracks are both road courses, but both require different driving styles. I am using the stats from Watkins Glen and Navy Base Coronado and combining it with the stats from the last three races at Sonoma to handicap the race Saturday.
Here are the stats from the races on the road course tracks this year and the last three races at Sonoma Raceway, sorted by DraftKings Points….
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The O’Reilly Series had their normal practice session this week. The teams had 50-minutes to dial in their cars for the race this evening. Navy Base Coronado is 1.99-mile track with 12 turns. It is much smaller than what we had last week in San Diego, but most of the teams only made short runs and then came in for some adjustments. We will have to focus on the single-lap speed chart and the five-lap speed chart (post on the NASCAR.com website) for our picks Saturday.
Here are the O’Reilly Series practice speeds at Sonoma Raceway….
* Austin Green crashed his car pretty hard in practice. He was unable to post a qualifying lap, so Green will start in the back in a backup car.
* Conoor Zilisch had a flat tire in qualifying. He will start near the back with the second-fastest car in the field.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR SONOMA
STRATEGY FOR SONOMA
The race Saturday is scheduled for 79 laps (157 miles). That means there are 19.75 points available for leading laps and 35.55 points available for fastest laps (55.3 dominator points). We need to decide what we are going to do with Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch this weekend. SVG has averaged 60 DraftKings Points in his two races at Sonoma. Zilisch starts in the back and he should outscore SVG if he finishes in the top-five. The safest build this week is with Connor Zilisch and Austin Green from the back and fading SVG.
WINNING LINEUPS AT SONOMA (2024-2025)
Shane van Gisbergen has had a high price in both of his races at Sonoma Raceway. He was still able to end up in the winning lineup. The winning strategy last year was to jam SVG and Connor Zillisch into the lineup and fill in the rest with scrubs. That is a risky move, but it could pay off again. Austin Green has been the best value pick, because he has ended up in the last two winning lineups too. We are going to need to spend most of the $50K cap and play at least one driver from the front row Saturday.
DRAFTKINGS CASH LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS SVG/ZILLISCH LINEUP LINEUP
I am going to play a lineup with Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch. If SVG leads 80% of the laps and Zilisch finishes in the top-5, the two drivers will score 160-180 DraftKings Points. We do not need much from the other drivers in order to win. Here is my SVG / Zilisch lineup…
Good Luck Saturday!
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