NASCAR Xfinity Series Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 DFS: DraftKings Lineup Picks for Darlington (4/5/25)

Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway. Read his daily fantasy NASCAR advice and Xfinity sleepers. (2025)

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Darlington Raceway on Saturday for the Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200. Entering this race, Justin Allgaier holds a 41-point lead over Sam Mayer in the point standings.

Last week at Martinsville, over 100 of the 256 laps in the race were run under caution. It was just a wreck fest, with three drivers who led double-digit laps finishing 28th or worse because the whole field kept crashing. Hopefully, we get a cleaner one this weekend.

Let's look at some NASCAR Xfinity DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 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 4/5/25 at 3:38 p.m. EDT.

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Post-Qualifying Updates

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Dominator Options

With Christopher Bell on the pole, this one might already be over, but Justin Allgaier starts third and is a good pivot. Maybe there's upside with Chase Elliott starting eighth, but it's one of the first two who should lead the most laps.

Sheldon Creed could be a sneaky good top play as well.

Place Differential Plays

• Connor Zilisch (16th)
• Austin Hill (19th)
• William Sawalich (20th)
• Parker Retzlaff (26th)
• Ross Chastain (27th) - This is the most obvious play of the race. I almost want to fade because of how heavy people will be on him, but Chastain should be good for +20 place differential if he keeps the car clean, so you probably have to play him in Cash games.
• Josh Williams (29th)
• Dean Thompson (30th) - This is probably my personal favorite play of the race.

Drivers to Avoid

These drivers start a bit too high for my liking:

• Brandon Jones (Second)
• Taylor Gray (Fourth)
• Daniel Dye (Seventh)

Top Plays

Christopher Bell ($11.0K)

We've got a Cup-heavy field this week, as the top three drivers in DraftKings price are all Cup guys. The most expensive of these is Christopher Bell, who is making his 2025 Xfinity debut.

Pre-practice Xfinity Series predictions for Darlington:

1. Christopher Bell 33.8%
2. Ross Chastain 13.7%
3. Chase Elliott 12.8%
4. Justin Allgaier 8.4%
5. Sam Mayer 5.0%

Full win/T3/T5/T10 sims plus values at @FDSportsbook ⬇️ https://t.co/HbzxA0WW7L

— Jim Sannes (@JimSannes) April 4, 2025

Last season, Bell ran two races in the series, including here at Darlington in the fall. Bell won both, and he dominated Darlington from the pole, leading 108 of 150 laps.

Ross Chastain ($10.9K)

Usually, when Ross Chastain dips down, it's to drive for an underfunded team, so the possibility of a dominant performance doesn't exist. That's not the case on Saturday.

Chastain will drive the No. 9 car for JR Motorsports this weekend, his second race in this car this year. He started second and finished eighth at COTA. This is a winning car, something Chastain rarely has in Xfinity — not since 2020 when he raced full-time for Kaulig, at least.

Chase Elliott ($10.7K)

2014 Xfinity Series champion Chase Elliott makes his first start of the season on Saturday. Last year, he ran two races in the series, including one of the Darlington events. Elliott finished fourth in that race.

While he's priced third of the three Cup drivers running this race, I think I have him ranked as the second-most likely winner after Bell. Obviously, qualifying could change that calculation, but at least at the start of the weekend, I'm very high on Elliott's chances.

Justin Allgaier ($10.2K)

This Cup-heavy field pushes Justin Allgaier down the rankings a bit this week, but the points leader certainly has the ability to beat the top drivers every week.

Allgaier already has two wins and five top-fives in 2025. Now, he comes to a Darlington track where he's won three times, including a dominant showing here in the first race last year where he led 119 of 147 laps.

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Mid-Tier Options

Sheldon Creed ($9.8K)

Want to hear a funny story? Alright, here it goes: Sheldon Creed finished second last week at Martinsville.

Do not let all this distract you from the fact that somehow Sheldon Creed finished second AGAIN pic.twitter.com/6FujCdG2No

— Nascar Nation (@nascarnation__) March 30, 2025

Creed, who has never won an Xfinity Series race, now has 14 runner-up finishes since joining the series in 2023. His ability to almost win a race is astounding at this point. Surely he has to break through at some point, yeah?

Darlington was the site of one of those second-place results in 2022. Last fall, he led 30 laps and finished third here.

Austin Hill ($9.5K)

Austin Hill, uh, finds a way. Somehow, he emerged unscathed from the carnage at Martinsville last week to take the win, leading only the final lap of the race. He now has three consecutive top-fives.

In fact, through seven races, Hill has been running at the end five times. His worst finish in those five races is fourth place. Hill should be viewed as a championship contender.

Connor Zilisch ($9.2K)

It's been an up-and-down year for Connor Zilisch as he figures out ovals. He clearly has figured out single-car runs on them as he's qualified fourth or better in consecutive oval races, but he has just one top 10 to show in that time.

Zilisch could have earned his first oval win at Martinsville, though. He led 100 laps in last week's race but couldn't follow through with the victory because he got caught up in the day's series of cautions.

Jesse Love  ($9.0K)

Jesse Love was really good as a rookie and has stepped up even more in his sophomore season. He's sitting fifth in points with a win and five top 10s through the first seven races of the 2025 season.

Love has run Darlington twice in the Xfinity Series, finishing eighth and sixth last year. He ended the day with a positive place differential in both races, including going +17 in the fall race.

Taylor Gray ($8.4K)

Taylor Gray looked like he could potentially win at Martinsville. The rookie led 87 of 256 laps but got caught up in all the chaos of the day and ended up just 29th. It's his fourth finish of 19th or worse this season.

Luck has not been on Gray's side, but he's consistently had speed. Better finishes are coming for this No. 54 car, which should run in the top 10 most weeks if Gray can stay out of trouble.

Value Options

William Sawalich ($7.8K)

Three consecutive finishes outside the top 20 for rookie William Sawalich, who is struggling to figure out the Xfinity Series car. Still, any time a Joe Gibbs Racing car is priced under $8.0K, I want at least some exposure. There will be a point where Sawalich starts to contend for top 10s on a weekly basis.

Christian Eckes ($7.6K)

At some point, Christian Eckes is going to get luck going his way. In his first Xfinity Series season, Eckes is currently mired back in 20th place in the overall standings and is averaging -8.0 place differential per race.

Christian Eckes finished 34th in the Marine Corps 250 at Martinsville pic.twitter.com/bUA0jqHSEZ

— Where did Christian Eckes finish? (@EckesResults16) March 29, 2025

But a lot of that is bad luck. He's recorded three DNFs, including crashing out at Martinsville last week after it looked like he might be a contender. Eckes led 22 laps in that race.

Could this be the week that he gets moving in the right direction? Maybe, considering he has a win here in the Truck Series as well as two other top fives.

Daniel Dye ($7.3K)

Daniel Dye is quietly running a solid season. Through seven races, he has three top 10s and an average finish of 15.6. He's not going to win a race on pure speed or anything, but Dye has the ability to keep the car clean and sneak out a low-end top 10 at the end of the day. There's value in that.

Dean Thompson ($6.7K)

It feels like Dean Thompson is figuring out this car pretty quickly, as he's recorded three top 15s in a row, including a sixth-place result at Martinsville last weekend.

Thompson seemed to have a nose for trouble in the Truck Series, crashing on an almost bi-weekly basis, but he has just one DNF through seven Xfinity starts this year. In the back of my head, there's still a voice saying, "Thompson's gonna wreck," but that voice is getting quieter, and his DFS value is rising.

Kris Wright ($5.0K)

I write this with a strong, strong caveat: Kris Wright's average starting spot this year is 29.0. If he starts higher than, like...27th, I'll fade him, but as a dirt-cheap carnage play, there's an upside. Wright survived Martinsville last week to earn his first career top 10 in the Xfinity Series.

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