The Xfinity Series will join the Truck Series in a double-header day of racing at Pocono Raceway Saturday. The racing at the “Tricky Triangle” is always exciting in the Xfinity Series races, but this week the fans get to see the most popular driver in NASCAR compete. Chase Elliott will be behind the wheel of the No. 17 car for Hendrick Motorsports. It should be a fun race to enter some DraftKings lineups and try to win some cash. The Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 can be seen Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Xfinity Series had a short practice session to shake down their trucks for the race Saturday. Pocono is a 2.5-mile, triangle-shaped track. The track is too large for most of the teams to make a 10-lap run in practice, but we can still learn a bit from the single-lap speed and the five-lap average speed.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at Pocono…
FIVE-LAP AVERAGE SPEED
XFINITY SERIES STATS ON LARGE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS
Pocono is one of the toughest tracks to predict. It is a unique triangle-shaped track that has long straightaways and rolling corners. There is no other track on the schedule to compare it to. The closest comparison we can get is from the races on the large intermediate tracks (Auto Club, Las Vegas and Charlotte). I will be using some of the data from these races for the picks this week.
I am focusing the driver’s history at Pocono for my lineups this week too. The Tricky Triangle has three distinct corners which make it tough on crew chiefs. If they get the balance right in our corner, it typically causes the car to lose speed in another corner. Some crew chiefs have figured this track out and their drivers always perform well at Pocono.
Here are the driver rankings for the last three races at Pocono and the race at on the large intermediate tracks (Auto Club, Las Vegas and Charlotte) this year…
STRATEGY FOR POCONO
The trend at Pocono is for the Xfinity Series race to have two dominators. The main dominator leads roughly 44 laps and scores 18 fastest laps (19.1 dominator points). The second dominator leads roughly 20 laps and scores 12 fastest laps (14.5 dominator points). I will pay up for the two drivers I think can lead the most laps Saturday and score the 33.6 dominator points they are expected to score.
The drivers with the best chance to be the top dominators include Josh Berry, Justin Allgaier, Chase Elliott, Cole Custer and John H. Nemechek
The drivers who start in the back with the best chance to score place differential points includes Chase Elliott, Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, Daniel Suarez, Ty Dillon, Park Kligerman, Brett Moffitt, Corey Heim, Sage Karam, Jeffrey Earnhardt and Blaine Perkins
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR POCONO
CORE DRIVERS FOR POCONO
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: CHASE ELLIOTT ($11,200), JOHN H. NEMECHEK ($10,800), JUSTIN ALLGAIER ($10,500), COLE CUSTER ($10,200), JOSH BERRY ($9,900), CHANDLER SMITH ($9,700), AUSTIN HILL ($9,500), SAMMY SMITH ($9,300), DANIEL SUAREZ ($9,100)
VALUE DRIVERS: SHELDON CREED ($8,900), SAM MAYER ($8,700), RILEY HERBST ($8,400), PARK KLIGERMAN ($8,000), KAZ GRALA ($7,900), BRETT MOFFITT ($7,600), COREY HEIM ($7,400), CONNOR MASACK ($7,200), TY DILLON ($7,100), PARKER RETZLAFF ($6,700), JEREMY CLEMENTS ($6,500), SAGE KARAM ($6,100)
PUNT PLAYS: JOE GRAF JR. ($5,900), JOSH WILLIAMS ($5,800), KYLE SIEG ($5,600), JEFFREY EARNHARDT ($5,500), BLAINE PERKINS ($5,200)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS
Here are the drivers I will use for Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono…
Good Luck Saturday!
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