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Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. Read his daily fantasy NASCAR advice and Xfinity sleepers.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Phoenix on Saturday to decide the championship. Four drivers enter this race with a shot to take home the title: Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, John Hunter Nemechek, and Cole Custer.
The math is easy here. Barring a disqualification, the highest-finishing driver out of those four is the champion. Will we get a clean race, or a wreck fest like we saw last night during the Truck Series race, when Ben Rhodes survived to win the title?
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 Championship Race 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 11/4/23 at 7:16 p.m. ET.
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Xfinity DFS Picks - DraftKings
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Championship 4 Breakdown
John Hunter Nemechek ($11,500): Nemechek enters this race as the highest-priced DraftKings option, which makes sense as he should be viewed as the favorite. The winner of seven races this season, Nemechek was sixth here in the March race and has six consecutive Truck or Xfinity top-seven finishes at the track. He's never won here though, with his best finish being a pair of runner-up finishes in the Truck Series.
Justin Allgaier ($11,200): Could this finally be the year that Allgaier gets that Xfinity title? He has 12 finishes of seventh or better in the final standings but has never won it all. He has won twice at Phoenix though, including taking the 2019 win here back when Homestead was still the championship race. Maybe Allgaier will finally get it done.
Cole Custer ($11,000): Cole Custer enters this race with two wins on the year. He won the pole for the spring Phoenix race, but ended up finishing 12th. This has been a relatively solid track for Custer during his career. He ended his Cup Series run with three straight top 20s at the track, and he's finished as high as second in Xfinity here. His only win came in a 2014 K&N West race. I wouldn't say he's as likely as JHN or Allgaier to come out ahead here, but you can sprinkle him into some lineups.
Sam Mayer ($10,800): At the beginning of the season, a lot of the talk about Mayer was about if he could win an Xfinity Series race. Well, he quieted that, taking home four Xfinity victories. By far the least experienced of the Championship 4, Mayer would be the most surprising winner today. It doesn't help that Mayer's struggled at Phoenix, with just one top 10 here in any series. That was a second-place K&N West finish in 2019, in which he led 63 of the 75 laps he's ever led here. Definitely the longshot play.
Non-Championship 4 Drivers To Watch
Sammy Smith ($10,300): Smith, in his last race for Joe Gibbs Racing, has a chance to play spoiler at a track where he's been really good. He won here in March, leading 92 of 200 laps. He was 10th in his other Xfinity race at the track and has three top-three finishes in three ARCA Menards West starts here.
Riley Herbst ($10,000): Riley Herbst has figured something out lately. He has four consecutive finishes of fourth or better, including his first Xfinity Series victory in that span. Herbst has also finished fourth here three times in the Xfinity Series.
Chandler Smith ($9,200): Smith has run really well at Phoenix. Between ARCA Menards West, the Truck Series, and the Xfinity Series, he's run here six times. His worst finish was in the March Xfinity race, when he finished fifth.
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Potential Value Options
Derek Kraus ($8,200): Another start here from Kraus for Kaulig Racing. He has three top-12 finishes in a row in the Xfinity Series. He's logged a lot of laps here in the past in the Truck Series and the K&N/ARCA West Series, which includes three Truck Series top 15s.
Brett Moffitt ($7,700): Moffitt was 13th here back in March. He has five consecutive top 20s here in Xfinity, including a pair of top 10s in 2021 while driving for Our Motorsports. Moffitt's also a former Truck Series winner at the track.
Anthony Alfredo ($6,400): Alfredo had been struggling before he ran a solid eighth at Martinsville. Can he bring that momentum to Phoenix? Fast Pasta hasn't had many good finishes at Phoenix, but he did have his best run here in March, starting 25th and finishing 14th.
Daniel Dye ($5,200): There's always a lot of risk with a driver who hasn't done much in a series. Dye has two Xfinity starts this year, finishing 17th at Texas and 21st at Las Vegas. But he's only $5,200 and has positive place differential in both starts. He crashed out of yesterday's Truck Series race, but he was second in the ARCA Menards West race here last year.
UPDATE: Dye has not been medically cleared to race after his crash last night, so take him out of your lineups.
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