The NASCAR Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series for another road course race in Sonoma. This is the fourth of seven road course races on the Xfinity Series schedule. The last two road course races in the Xfinity Series have been won by the No. 9 car for Hendrick Motorsports (Daniel Suarez in Mexico and Shane van Gisbergen in Chicago). Can anyone stop SVG from dominating the race Saturday? He has won 4 of the 7 road course races he has competed in, so the odds are in his favor, but it is not impossible to beat the Kewi Saturday. The Pit Boss / Food Maxx 250 can be seen Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET on CW Channel.
DRAFTKINGS STATS FOR SONOMA
The Xfinity Series has competed in three road course races this year. The best way to handicap the race Saturday is to use the stats from those races. The Xfinity Series has only been racing at Sonoma for two years. We can combine the stats from the two races at Sonoma to the stats from the road course races this season to predict which drivers will be chasing Shane van Gisbergen around the track Saturday.
Here are the stats from the two races at Sonoma Raceway and the three road course races this year, sorted by DraftKings Points….
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
NASCAR gave the teams 50-minutes to shake down their cars for Saturday’s race. Most of the teams made a 5-6 laps in practice and then came in to make some adjustments. The cars then lined up from group qualifying to set the field for the Pit Boss / Food Maxx 250. The cars were impounded after qualifying, so any changes to the cars will force the drivers to start in the back for Saturday’s race. We should be able to learn a bit from the single-lap and five-lap average speeds in practice.
Here are the speeds from Friday’s practice at Sonoma Raceway…
* William Sawalich, Christian Eckes, Corey Day and Will Rodgers will all get some extra seat time since they are running the Xfinity Series and ARCA Series races this weekend in 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). The trend in the first two road course races in Sonoma is for one driver to lead roughly 32 laps and score 20 fastest laps (17 dominator points). Another driver leads roughly 26 laps and scores 20 fastest laps (15.5 dominator points). A third driver leads roughly 21 laps and scores 6 fastest laps (7.95 dominator points). There is a great chance that the dominator points will be split between Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch so I expect this to be more of a two dominator race.
Shane van Gisbergen is the key to winning your DFS Contest Saturday. DraftKings has SVG priced at $13,000. That is $1,000 more than Connor Zilisch and $3,500 more than the rest of the field. Is SVG worth his steep price?
Shane van Gisbergen led 27 of the 50 laps last week and scored 57 DraftKings Points. Connor Zilisch scored 80 DraftKings Points, Austin Green scored 43 DraftKings Points, Brennan Poole scored 46 DraftKings Points and Josh Williams scored 48 DraftKings Points. The drivers who started in the back and finished up front scored nearly as many points as SVG. Zilisch outscored SVG by 23 DraftKings Points last week at Chicago, despite SVG winning the race.
Shane van Gisbergen has a good chance to be in the winning lineup if he leads 50% of the laps, scores 25% of the fastest laps and wins the race (like he did last week). You must pair SVG with the cheap drivers who start in the back and finish up front (like Austin Green, Brennan Poole and Josh Williams last week). Finding these drivers is easier said than done. I will play a lot of lineups for my Tournaments Contests were I use SVG and “scrubs with upside.” I will fade SVG in Cash Contests and simply use 5 drivers who have a good score some place differential points and finish in the top-10.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR SONOMA
DRAFTKINGS CASH LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT LINEUP
Good Luck Saturday!
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