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Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 at Daytona. Read his daily fantasy NASCAR advice and Xfinity sleepers.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Daytona this weekend. With just three races left before the playoffs begin, this might be the best shot for a handful of drivers below the cut line to get an upset victory and lock their way in. Daytona tends to be a chaotic track.
Look at this race last year, for example. 18 drivers failed to finish and 41 of the 118 laps were run under caution. Jeremy Clements scored an upset win, while Timmy Hill, Brandon Brown, Sage Karam, Ryan Vargas, Alex Labbe, J.J. Yeley, and Kyle Sieg all had top 10s. The only "normal" top 10 finishers were A.J. Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs.
Here at RotoBaller, we want to help you make informed decisions about your DFS lineups, which is why I'll be breaking down the slates for the Xfinity Series. Let's look at some NASCAR Xfinity DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Wawa 250 on DraftKings. Be sure to also check out our NASCAR Premium Tools for Xfinity Series including our DFS Lineup Optimizer and powerful Research Station. This slate locks on 8/25/23 at 7:49 p.m. ET.
Xfinity DFS Picks - DraftKings
Be sure to also check out all of our other weekly NASCAR DFS articles and analysis to help you set your optimal DFS lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Post-Qualifying Updates
Check back here later for some post-qualifying updates. I'll likely thread in a Twitter thread with some thoughts on place differential.
Superspeedway DFS Strategy
Place differential is king at superspeedways. Drivers often come from the back of the pack at places like this because the pack racing here produces a lot of crashes, leading to unpredictability.
Usually, a winning DFS lineup uses up most of your salary room. At Daytona? You can leave thousands on the table and still take home the top prize because things get that wild.
I mean, let's look at the starting spot of the top 10 drivers last year. In order from the winner down to 10th, we have: 9th, 37th, 1st, 25th, 24th, 36th, 8th, 21st, 28th, 32nd.
Compare that to, say, the most recent oval race this season at Michigan: 10th, 1st, 14th, 8th, 4th, 5th, 11th, 17th, 24th, 23rd.
Lot harder to predict things at Daytona. What that really means for DFS: things are kind of just a crapshoot. You're going to need to get really lucky to win. My advice is to play lower-priced contests and build more lineups. Quantity over quality. Limit your exposure to any one particular driver. Don't get excited about seeing that moneybag beside your lineup until the checkered flag flies. I've lost so much expected money on the last lap at this place.
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Drivers With Good Superspeedway Track Records
Usually in a pre-qualifying piece, I break everything down into tiers, with some thoughts on the top drivers, mid-pack drivers, and potential sleepers. I do that because even though we don't know how place differential fits into the puzzle, we still have a decent idea before qualifying about which drivers should run well.
But this is Daytona. It's likely to be a bit of a crapshoot. So instead, I'm just going to look at some recent superspeedway races and try to get a sense of which drivers tend to be around at the end of these things.
One group of drivers to monitor: the Kaulig drivers. For the purposes of this race, that means Justin Haley ($10,300), Daniel Hemric ($8,700) and Chandler Smith ($8,500). This team was dominant at superspeedways for a while in Xfinity. Haley win here in 2020 and 2021, and in that 2021 race, Kaulig cars finished first, second, and fourth.
Austin Hill ($10,500) has won two of the last three races here and four of his six career wins are at superspeedways. Hill might be the only driver I really trust regardless of his starting spot, though if he does start near the front, there's downside in terms of PD if he gets caught in a crash.
Jeremy Clements ($6,900) won here last year. He has just three top 10s all-time at Daytona, plus two at Talladega, so plenty of risk there, but he's been running at the finish in seven of the last eight Daytona races. Keeping the car clean gives you a shot.
Parker Retzlaff ($7,500) doesn't have much experience here, but he was top 10 in his only Xfinity Series starts at Daytona and Talladega. He could be developing into a good superspeedway driver.
Ryan Sieg ($6,700) has a good history here as well, with seven top 10s in 19 Daytona starts. For a driver who isn't in elite equipment, that's about as good as you can ask for. He also has five top 10s in 13 Talladega starts. Sieg's never won a Cup Series race, but I'm not against throwing a bet on him as well based on his solid runs in the past and the fact that this race can end up being a crapshoot.
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