The Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series on the streets of Chicago this weekend. This is the first time any series has competed on a street course and the Xfinity Series gets to go first. The Cup Series drivers are not allowed to compete in this race, so it will be mostly Xfinity Series regulars, a Cup Series owner (Justin Marks) and a few road course ringers (Alex Labbe, Preston Pardus, Migauel Paludo, Alex Guenette and Parker Chase) in the race today. This may be the highest watched Xfinity Series race in a long time. The Loop 121 can be seen Saturday at 5 p.m. ET on USA.
XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Xfinity Series had 50-minutes to dial in their cars for today’s race. The teams usually do not get this much practice time but this is a new track for the Xfinity Series. The street course in Chicago is 2.2-miles long, so only a few drivers were able to make a long run. I am not sure we will learn much from this practice, but it never hurts to check out the speeds each team unloaded with Saturday.
Here are the practice speeds for The Loop 121 in Chicago…
XFINITY SERIES STATS ON ROAD COURSES
The Xfinity Series has competed on three road course tracks this year (COTA, Portland and Sonoma). I will be using this data for my picks this week. The street course in Chicago is different from any of the previous road course tracks, but it takes the same skill set to run up front. The drivers who ran well at COTA, Portland and Sonoma should be good pick for your DFS lineup today.
STRATEGY FOR CHICAGO
The race Saturday is scheduled for 55 laps (120 miles). That means there are only 13.75 points available for leading laps and 24.75 points available for fastest laps (38.5 total dominator points). One driver should lead 30 laps and score 18 fastest laps (15.6 dominator points), based on the % of laps led in the previous three road course races in 2023. Another driver should lead 16 laps and score 12 fastest laps (9.4 dominator points). It would be nice to have these two dominators in our lineup today, but it will not be necessary. We need as many drivers as possible to finish in the top-10. We will win most contests if all six of our drivers finish in the top-10 today.
The drivers with the best chance to be the top dominators include Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Justin Marks and John H. Nemechek
The drivers who start in the back with the best chance to score place differential points include: Parker Kligerman, Sam Mayer, Justin Marks, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, Riley Herbst, Jeb Burton, Jeremy Clements, Alex Labbe
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR CHICAGO
CORE DRIVERS FOR CHICAGO
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: COLE CUSTER ($10,600), JUSTIN ALLGAIER ($10,400), SHELDON CREED ($10,200), JOHN H. NEMECHEK ($10,000), PARKER KLIGERMAN ($9,900), AUSTIN HILL ($9,700)
VALUE DRIVERS: JUSTIN MARKS ($8,900), JOSH BERRY ($8,500), DANIEL HEMRIC ($8,300), RILEY HERBST ($8,100), BRANDON JONES ($7,900), BRETT MOFFITT ($7,800), JEB BURTON ($7,500), ALEX LABBE ($7,300), KAZ GRALA ($7,100), CONNOR MOSACK ($6,900), JEREMY CLEMENTS ($6,800), SAGE KARAM ($6,500), PARKER RETZLAFF ($6,400), ALEX GUENETTE ($6,000)
PUNT PLAYS: BLAINE PERKINS ($5,700), SPENCER PUMPELLY ($5,500), BRENNAN POOLE ($5,100), BRAD PEREZ ($5,000)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS
Here are the drivers I will use for The Loop 121 in Chicago…
Good Luck Saturday!
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