1 week agoOne of the big surprises at Martinsville last fall was Shane van Gisbergen, who wound up finishing 12th last November in his very first start at the half-mile race track despite starting back in 29th. At a track that's super hard to pass at and as a driver making his first Cup Series start at the track, that was incredibly impressive. Now the question is, can SVG pull off a similar result this weekend? The No. 88 Chevrolet will roll off the starting grid from 33rd-place when the Cook Out 400 goes green on Sunday afternoon, so van Gisbergen will have to work hard to make his way through the field. However, SVG was ninth-quickest in practice on Saturday afternoon, so it's not like his Chevrolet is lacking speed--at least when it comes to one single lap. SVG never made a long run in practice, so it's hard to tell how the No. 88 Chevrolet will race. It's a bit of an unknown what to expect out of van Gisbergen this weekend, but with Place Differential upside (starting 33rd) and a low salary on DraftKings ($5,900), it's definitely worth having exposure to SVG with your DFS lineups this weekend.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Velocity
2 weeks agoShane van Gisbergen is making his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Homestead. He qualified 25th and finished 17th in his one Xfinity Series start, typically behind A.J. Allmendinger and ahead of Josh Williams. However, that isn't enough experience to make him necessarily valuable at Homestead or really any oval. The fact that he qualified 35th and is very cheap at $6,000 means that he could be valuable in terms of Place Differential points if he backs into a solid finish, but that seems much less likely at Homestead than a lot of other tracks because the races there tend to reward performance and don't devolve into the crapshoots that would be necessary for him to gain enough positions to be valuable in DFS. Once again, chalk this up as a learning experience.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
3 weeks agoEven though Shane van Gisbergen's teammate Ross Chastain was the fastest driver in Saturday's practice at Las Vegas, don't expect SVG to utilize his Trackhouse Racing cars to the same extent. Although it might be tempting to draft him because he is starting 28th and because of Chastain's speed, he is still a rookie who has only raced at this track once before in the Cup Series, finishing 29th in last fall's event. He didn't have much experience there in the Xfinity Series, either, as he had mechanical DNFs in both Las Vegas races last year before they were half over. It takes a while for even the world's best drivers to figure out the Next Gen car, and even though he is one of the world's best drivers, he isn't yet on ovals. It is probably advisable to stay away for DFS lineups.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
4 weeks agoShane van Gisbergen's season effectively lives or dies based on his road course performances to such an extent where his oval performances are something of an afterthought. He makes his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Phoenix today but he performed decently well here in the Xfinity Series, where he finished 6th and 12th in his two starts; he had a better average finish here than his veteran teammate A.J. Allmendinger. SVG starts 29th but his relative inexperience on non-drafting ovals in the Cup Series suggests that he still needs seat time before he has a lot of value on this track type, and it doesn't help that the Trackhouse Racing cars have very hit-or-miss speed on tracks less than 1.5 miles in length. The option tires may help him since he likely has more experience on them in Supercars, but he's probably not worth starting for DFS.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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