The Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this weekend. There have been four races at COTA in the Xfinity Series and we are guaranteed to have a new winner in Victory Lane. The drivers who won the previous races at COTA are not in the field this weekend. That does not mean there are no good choices for our DraftKings lineups. The field is stacked and it should be fun to see how it all plays out in the Lone Star State. The Focused Health 250 can be seen Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on the CW Channel.
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Xfinity Series was back to their normal schedule this weekend at COTA. The teams had a 50-minute practice session, followed by group qualifying Friday evening. COTA is a 2.3-mile road course, so most of the teams did not have time to make many long runs in practice. We can still learn a bit about which drivers have the speed by looking at the lap times from practice and where each driver qualified for the race. Track position is important at COTA, so it would be a good idea to select some of the drivers who start up front Saturday.
Here are the lap times from Friday’s practice session at COTA….
STRATEGY FOR COTA
NASCAR used the 3.4-mile track for the first four races at COTA. They will switch to the smaller 2.3-mile track this weekend. The shorter track means more laps and more dominator points for our DraftKings lineups. The race last year was 50 laps. The race Saturday is scheduled for 65 laps. That means there are 16.25 points available for leading laps and 29.25 points available for fastest laps (58.5 dominator points). AJ Allmendinger and Shane van Gisbergen each led 40% of the laps last year. Sheldon Creed and Allmendinger led about the same laps in 2023. I would not be surprised if Conner Zilisch and Ross Chastain could lead 40% of the laps Saturday (or maybe Connor Zilisch just leads every lap). I might not be a bad idea to play a dominator in your lineup at COTA.
DRAFTKINGS STATS FOR COTA
The best way to predict the future is it analyzes the past. Some of the drivers this week will be racing at COTA for the first time in the Xfinity Series, but it still does not hurt to look at the drivers who have experience at this track.
Here is the driver’s average DraftKings Points at COTA in the Xfinity Series….
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR COTA
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
Good Luck Saturday!
Follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR