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The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Pocono on Saturday as part of a tripleheader weekend for NASCAR at the iconic triangular track in Long Pond, PA.
Last week at Loudon, Justin Allgaier won for the third time this season. He's now just 16 points behind A.J. Allmendinger for the series lead as the regular season starts to wind down. Ty Gibbs is 28 points back of Allmendinger in third.
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 Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 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 7/23/22 at 5:04 p.m. ET.
Xfinity DFS Picks - DraftKings
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Justin Allgaier ($10,500) - Starting 1st
While he's only second in points, Allgaier has been the best driver in Xfinity lately and should be considered the favorite to win this race on Saturday. (Him or Ty Gibbs, who starts second—there's value in both of them as your lineup's anchor, but I'm only writing about Allgaier.)
Allgaier has led laps here in four of his six starts, and then he crashed out in the other two races. In a race that he finished, he's always led at some point and hasn't finished worse than 11th, with a pair of top three finishes include his third-place run here last year.
Allgaier starting on the pole is a big reason why I like him. Last year, Harrison Burton led 21 laps from the pole here, but crashed on lap 36. Allgaier, who started second, led 10 laps, so even with one driver crashing, you had 31 of the 90 laps led by a driver on the front row.
Cole Custer ($10,100) - Starting 16th
Custer's lackluster showing in the Cup Series might have led people to forget something important: that he's a really good race car driver.
I don't know what's going on up in the top level, but when Custer drops down to run a lower series race, he's always competitive.
He's run three Xfinity races so far in this 07 car, winning at Fontana in dominant fashion as he led 80 of the 165 laps. And then he was third at COTA before crashing out at Road America, but not before he led six laps.
Custer offers a little place differential upside. And he's also really good here at Pocono, with a win and three top 10s in three starts in Xfinity, which includes at least 14 laps led in each race.
Sam Mayer ($9,500) - Starting 12th
Mayer rolls off 12th, which offers fantasy players a little carrot of place differential upside from the No. 1 car.
While Mayer doesn't have the track record here of other drivers—his lone Xfinity start saw him finish 18h—he does have a third place finish here in an ARCA race in 2020.
But beyond Pocono, I like Mayer because, well...because he needs a good run. He's finished 15th or worse in three consecutive races, but let's not forget that before that, Mayer had a top five in five of six runs. Things have gotten a little funky, but Mayer has top five speed and starts 12th.
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Landon Cassill ($7,900) - Starting 21st
Cassill is in an interesting position. It's true that Kaulig hasn't had its usual speed this year and that Cassill has suffered from that, but starting 21st feels right around the range where our projections switch from "ehh, he needs too much to go right" to "okay, I see the place differential upside here."
Cassill has eight top 10s in 18 races this season, which doesn't include last week when he finished third and then was disqualified. His average finish this year is 16.2 and he definitely has moments where there's speed, but also plenty of others where he just feels like a 12th-15th place car.
But hey, he starts 21st. Being a 12th place car today wouldn't be the worst thing.
Ryan Vargas ($6,300) - Starting 35th
Vargas is one of two drivers starting outside the top 30 that I love for this one. We'll get to the other in a minute.
While Vargas doesn't have a top 10 this year and his average finish is just 25.3, he's been turning a corner. In his last three races, he has finishes of 19th, 21st and 19th. The two top 20s came at Nashville and Loudon, so it's not like he's just getting lucky at superspeedways. Vargas could gain 15 spots on Saturday, making him an intriguing value play.
Rajah Caruth ($5,200) - Starting 32nd
Here's my other value play: ARCA points leader Rajah Caruth, who will be in the 44 for Alpha Prime Racing.
This will be the third start for Caruth this season in this car. He was 24th at Richmond and 38th at Dover, but had a mechanical failure in the latter race. He qualified 15th for that one and has shown speed both races, but just hasn't gotten the finishes to match up with that speed.
Caruth also had a Truck start for Spire at Gateway and finished 11th. And he finished fourth at Pocono in ARCA on Friday. Despite being young, he's a smart driver who can get the most out of his equipment. We just have to hope the equipment holds up.
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