RADIO
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville on Saturday. Will we see a fight after the race like we saw Friday after the Xfinity Series race, when Ty Gibbs punched Sam Mayer? Hopefully not.
Last week, Denny Hamlin shook off his disappointing season to earn his first win of 2022 at Richmond. While he's still buried in the point standings, he now should be locked into the playoffs.
Below are some drivers to consider for DFS purposes this week. If you have any questions or want to talk NASCAR, you can find me on Twitter at @juscarts.
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Martin Truex Jr.
Starts 20th - DraftKings $11,500 | FanDuel $14,000
Last week, Toyota finally seemed to get it all together. Was it a fluke, or is Toyota back? (Maybe having just one Toyota qualify in the top 10 this week is a bad sign?)
Truex has some good place differential upside as he'll fire off 20th. Truex is a three-time winner here, all coming in his last five starts here. He's led 100-plus laps in three of those five races, including his dominant 2019 race here where he led 464 of the 500 laps on his way to a win. Truex is great here. Sure, he's pricy, but he's worth paying up for.
Chase Elliott
Starts 1st - DraftKings $11,200 | FanDuel $13,500
You'll see a lot of place differential plays in this piece because of how qualifying shook out, but sometimes you just have to grab someone who you think could dominate. That's polesitter Chase Elliott, in my opinion.
Elliott has led 200-plus laps in two of the last three races here and in the other race, he didn't lead laps but finished second. Last time we were here, some late trouble dropped him to 16th, but Elliott started on the front row. Fellow front-row starter Kyle Larson led the first 55 laps of that one, but I'm not really worried about Aric Almirola, the other driver on the first row, grabbing the lead away from Elliott. He'll lead a bunch of laps early and should be a popular pick to win.
Erik Jones
Starts 24th - DraftKings $7,100 | FanDuel $7,000
Jones has shown speed all season, but keeps running into issues that hurt his final result. His average finish this year is 19.1, but in five of the seven races this year, his average running position has been 17th or better.
Martinsville wasn't a great track for Jones early in his career, but he was eighth here last season and has been top 12 in two of his last three starts here. I think there's some good upside for a top 15 or so finish out of this car on Sunday, with an outside chance at a top 10.
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Daniel Suarez
Starts 30th - DraftKings $6,800 | FanDuel $6,300
Now we get to the big place differential swings. Suarez drives for Trackhouse, which has shown some real speed this year. Sure, much of that speed is from teammate Ross Chastain, but Suarez has had his moments, with two top fives already.
Suarez has run 10 Cup races here, with a pair of top 10s. He's struggled here since leaving Stewart Haas, but I still feel decent about this pick. Suarez was top 20 in practice. If he can generate top 20 speed and stay out of trouble, he stands to gain 10-plus spots by the end of the race.
A.J. Allmendinger
Starts 36th - DraftKings $6,600 | FanDuel $5,000
Allmendinger's season in this Kaulig Cup car has been a struggle, with an average finish of 26.7.
But he's a pretty good driver at Martinsville, so if there's going to be a bounce-back for this team, this week could be it. He drove a JTG-Daugherty car to a second-place finish here in 2016, for instance. And in Xfinity, he's coming off of a third-place finish here yesterday.
Should be a solid run for Allmendinger on Saturday night.
Bubba Wallace
Starts 21st - DraftKings $6,400 | FanDuel $6,000
Wallace posted the third-best time in practice, but wound up qualifying 21st. He hasn't had a top 10 here in Cup, but he does have a couple of top 15 showings and in 2021, he led 23 laps here before finishing 16th.
The Truck Series is where Wallace has really shone here. In five starts, he has five top 10s, including wins in 2013 and 2014. I'd be willing to bet that Wallace with good equipment under him can show something here, and those 23 laps he led last year are some good evidence to support that position. Here's my bold take of the week: Bubba Wallace finishes at least seventh on Saturday.
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