The Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series on the road course at Watkins Glen this weekend. The Xfinity Series is no stranger to road course racing. They have competed at six road courses this season (COTA, Portland, Sonoma, Chicago, Road America and the Brickyard). They still have two more on their schedule (Watkins Glen and the Charlotte Roval). The field is stacked once again with Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, Alex Bowman and Ross Chastain dropping down from the Cup Series to compete Saturday. It will be fun to see if any of the Xfinity Series drivers can beat the Cup Series stars this weekend. The Shriners Children’s 200 can be seen Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA.
XFINITY SERIES PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Xfinity Series had a short practice session Saturday morning to shake down their cars for the race Saturday evening. Watkins Glen is a 2.5-mile road course with 14 turns. The teams did not have enough time to make many long runs in practice. We should be able to learn a bit from the single-lap speeds, but sometimes traffic can skew the lap speeds for some drivers. I will be looking at the single-lap speeds and the qualifying positions for each team. The drivers who are at the top of the chart in practice and qualify up front are the drivers I want in my lineup Saturday.
Here are the lap times from the practice Saturday at Watkins Glen…
XFINITY SERIES STATS ROAD COURSE
We have a lot of data to use to help handicap the race Saturday. The Xfinity Series has competed at six road course races this year and the data from those races is more important than the lap speeds in practice. It will be a good idea to look at the drivers who consistently run well on the road courses this year when you are selecting the drivers for your lineups.
Here are the average DraftKings points from the road course races in 2023 and the last two races at Watkins Glen…
STRATEGY FOR WATKINS GLEN
It is going to be tough to win without Kyle Busch and/or Ty Gibbs in your lineup Saturday. They have been the class of the field when they have raced in the Xfinity Series this year and one of them are likely to win Sunday. I will pivot some of my ownership to Alex Bowman. We saw Aric Almirola drop down from the Cup Series to win the road course race at Sonoma earlier this year. Maybe Bowman can do the same today. I also like Cole Custer, Just Allgaier and Sam Mayer. I will be building my lineups are these drivers at Watkins Glen.
The drivers with the best chance to score the most dominator points includes Justin Allgaier, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs and Cole Custer
The drivers who start in the back with the best chance to score place differential points includes Kyle Busch, John H. Nemechek, Austin Hill, Sheldon Creed, Parker Kligerman, Ross Chastain, Kaz Grala, Brett Moffitt, Brandon Jones, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton, Josh Williams, Brennan Poole, Ryan Ellis
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR WATKINS GLEN
CORE DRIVERS FOR WATKINS GLEN
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: KYLE BUSCH ($11,500), TY GIBBS ($10,900), ALEX BOWMAN ($10,500), COLE CUSTER ($10,200), JUSTIN ALLGAIER ($9,700), JOHN H. NEMECHEK ($9,700), SAM MAYER ($9,600), SHELDON CREED ($9,400), AUSTIN HILL ($9,200), PARKER KLIGERMAN ($9,000)
VALUE-TIER DRIVERS: ROSS CHASTAIN ($8,600), KAZ GRALA ($7,900), BRANDON JONES ($7,400), BRETT MOFFITT ($7,200), JEB BURTON ($7,000), ALEX LABBE ($6,500), RYAN SIEG ($6,300), PARKER RETZLAFF ($6,200), JOSH BILICKI ($6,100)
PUNT PLAYS: ANTHONY ALFREDO ($5,800), STANTON BARRETT ($5,400), KYLE SIEG ($5,300), JOSH WILLIAMS ($5,200), BRENNAN POOLE ($5,100), RYAN ELLIS ($4,900)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST LINEUP
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS
Here are the drivers I will use for Shriners Children’s 200 at Watkins Glen…
Good Luck Saturday!
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