The Xfinity Series will once again be part of a double-header day of racing Saturday. The Truck Series will race first at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) and then the Xfinity Series will race at 5 pm ET on FS1. Hopefully the race this week will be better than what we had at Atlanta. That had to be one of the worst races I have ever seen in the Xfinity Series. The field is stacked Saturday, so I expect a good race.
XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Xfinity Series had a short practice session Friday and then they lined up the cars for qualifying. We probably will not be able to learn too much from practice because the track is 3.41-miles in length and the drivers did not have enough time to make any long runs. We simply need to base our picks Saturday on the drivers who have a history of running up front at the road course races.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at COTA…
XFINITY SERIES STATS ON ROAD COURSES
CUP SERIES “RINGERS”
Some of the Cup Series drivers will be dropping down to the Xfinity Series race Saturday to get in some extra laps at COTA. AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 10 car for Kaulig Racing, William Byron will drive the No. 17 car for Hendrick Motorsports, Ty Gibbs will drive the No. 19 car for Joe Gibbs Racing and Aric Almirola will drive the No. 08 car for SS-Green Light Racing (the car has full support from Stewart-Haas Racing). These four drivers will be a threat to win the race Saturday, so they are all worth paying up for. Allmendinger, Byron and Gibbs are my three top drivers.
There are some “road course ringers” in the race too. Miguel Paludo will drive the No. 88 car for Junior Motorsports, Brad Perez will be in the No. 53 car for Emerling-Gase Motorsports and Parker Chase will be in the No. 35 car for Emerling-Gase Racing. These three drivers have a good chance to be good “value picks” for your lineups. Paludo is by far the best from this group of “road course ringers.”
STRATEGY FOR COTA
The race Saturday is scheduled for 48 laps (156.86 miles). That means there are 12 points available for leading laps and 21.6 points available for fastest laps (33.6 dominator points). That is not a lot of dominator points to chase this week.
The two Xfinity Series races at COTA have been two dominator races, with AJ Allmendinger being the top dominator in both races. The top dominator typically leads 26 laps and scores 12 fastest laps (11.9 dominator points). The second dominator leads roughly 14 laps and scores three fastest laps (4.85 dominator points). I will pay up for Allmendinger, but my strategy this week will be to focus on finishing points. Our lineups will score well if we can get all six drivers to finish in the top-12 Saturday.
The drivers with the best chance to score dominator points tonight are: AJ Allmendinger, William Byron and Ty Gibbs
The drivers with the best chance to score place differential points include William Byron, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Preston Pardus, Alex Labbe, Brandon Jones, Brett Moffitt, Chandler Smith, Anthony Alfredo, Kaz Grala, Ryan Sieg and Kyle Weatherman
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR COTA
CORE DRIVERS FOR COTA
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: AJ ALLMENDINGER ($10,600), WILLIAM BYRON ($10,400), TY GIBBS ($10,100), COLE CUSTER ($9,900), AUSTIN HILL ($9,700), JUSTIN ALLGAIER ($9,300), JOSH BERRY ($9,000)
VALUE DRIVERS: SAM MAYER ($8,700), CHANDLER SMITH ($8,600), PARKER KLIGERMAN ($8,400), RILEY HERBST ($8,000), KAZ GRALA ($7,900), BRANDON JONES ($7,700), ARIC ALMIROLA ($7,500), BRETT MOFFITT ($7,400), ALEX LABBE ($7,300), MIGUEL PALUDO ($7,200), RYAN SIEG ($7,100), ANTHONY ALFREDO ($6,800), JEREMY CLEMENTS ($6,200), KYLE WEATHERMAN ($6,000)
PUNT PLAYS: PRESTON PARDUS ($5,800), JOSH BILICKI ($5,700), PARKER RETZLAFF ($5,400), JOE GRAF JR. ($5,200), KYLE SIEG ($5,000),
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS
Here are the drivers I will use for the Pit Boss 250 …
Good Luck Today!
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