NASCAR DFS: Steakhouse Elite 200 Playbook

I apologize for the brevity of this article and lack of an introduction. I thought this race was later in the day and realized rosters lock at 1:10pm ET when I woke up. We have 147 laps on Saturday with the stages broken into 45-45-57 segments just like the Truck series race last night. Competition caution will be on lap 20 and I’ll be in the chat starting at 12:00pm ET leading up to lock.

Driver Pool

Ty Gibbs ($11,100; Starting P29) Fire up Ty Gibbs again this week. For a driver who only needs to finish ninth for 5X value, he’s finished in the top five in his other three Xfinity races this season. He’s back in the Star Car for JGR and the PD is there, and he’ll probably get some fastest laps along the way. He’s a lock in Cash, but I might aim to be slightly under exposure compared to the field. This is a tough track for rookies lacking experience and if anything were to happen to him in terms of wrecking, it’s not an awful idea to have some leverage. I might keep exposure to maybe 30% of my lineups because I’m assuming he’ll be roughly 45-50% owned in GPP’s.

Justin Allgaier ($10,700; Starting P16) I might fire up Allgaier a good amount today to get leverage off Ty Gibbs. He hasn’t been awful here despite his finish last Fall outside the top 30. Prior to last Fall’s race he had finished in the top ten here on four straight occasions including a top three a year ago. In this price range, most people will go to Gibbs, Brandon Jones, or A.J. Allmendinger for dominator points. His path to 5X value is a little more difficult compared to Gibbs so that’ll drive down ownership. Most importantly he has plenty of experience here.

Brandon Jones ($10,400; Starting P22) An obvious GPP play here. Jones has either finished in the top five this year or outside the top 30. There’s no happy medium as he’s ended up on either end of the spectrum. The good news is that he scored a win here last Fall and he has a couple other top tens at the Lady in Black. He needs to finish seventh for 5X value, which is easily in play given his resume here.

A.J. Allmendinger ($10,100; Starting P1) Finally a look at some early dominators. He has four top fives in his last five races and has plenty of experience here at the Cup level. The Kaulig cars have been fast this season, but strangely enough he hasn’t led any laps in the last four races. $10,100 is actually a bit of a discount for a driver of Dinger’s caliber and one who is on the pole. I’m assuming he’ll take the outside lane and jump out to an early lead as long as he doesn’t spin the tires.

Austin Cindric ($9,900; Starting P2) Just your weekly reminder to get exposure to one of the best drivers in the field. Cindric’s on the front row for Saturday’s race and he’s led laps in all but one race this season. Strangely enough, Darlington has been a track he hasn’t been able to tame even as good as he is. But he’s finished 12^th, fourth, and tenth in his last three races here. Ownership might not be incredibly high given the track history and anytime you can get Cindric under $10K you should take advantage with exposure in some GPP’s.

Noah Gragson ($9,700; Starting P5) Gragson’s probably a better candidate to lead laps in stages two and three. A year ago here he grabbed a top five and led over 40 laps. Mr. Checkers or Wreckers is still seeking his first win of the season and he’s never finished worse than eighth here.

Michael Annett ($9,300; Starting P20) Annett’s a solid Cash play today assuming he finishes inside the top ten. However, that’s probably his ceiling. He’s an okay source of PD at this starting spot but DK priced him right about where he should be. I was somewhat optimistic he’d be about $500 cheaper. I’ll be lighter on him in GPP’s since he’s better suited for Cash games today. It is worth noting Darlington isn’t one of his better tracks, but he finished eighth here last Fall.

Josh Berry ($9,100; Starting P24) I don’t quite understand how Berry is cheaper than Annett when he’s starting further back and has a win on his resume this year. Berry surprised everyone when he won at Martinsville and this is a track that requires some aggressive driving and Berry doesn’t seem like the type of rookie that’ll easily be bullied on the track. A top ten will easily hit value and he’s playable in both formats today.

Mid-$8K Range – I want to dedicate this section to three drivers: Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Riley Herbst because they’re all very similar to me this week and make for good GPP plays if seeking out a dark horse to potentially get some laps led. I wouldn’t play any of them together and you have to understand they really need to hold their positions. Ownership won’t be high, especially on Herbst who has run well on tracks that account for tire wear this year, which is why I’m willing to play him. Chase Briscoe won at Darlington last year in this ride and Herbst has been turning out better results lately. Burton grabbed a pair of top ten’s here last season while Haley probably goes backward, he’s also shown great speed everywhere this season and he’s done well on tire wear tracks.

UPDATE: JJ Yeley ($7,700; Starting P35) So I didn't have Yeley in the Playbook earlier this morning because I wasn't sure if he was racing. He was listed on the entry list, but wasn't in NASCAR's starting order on their website this morning. But it's confirmed that he's running so I'm getting a healthy amount of exposure to him hoping that a lot of players didn't have him on their radar assuming he wasn't running.

Myatt Snider ($7,500; Starting P10) I haven’t shown much love to Snider this year, but he did win at Miami which is a similar track to Darlington in terms of tire wear. He’s coming in with four straight top 15 finishes and I don’t anticipate a significant amount of ownership on Snider. He grabbed a top ten last year at Darlington in worse equipment and the experience has to count for something.

BJ McLeod ($7,400; Starting P38) Kudos to DraftKings for really catching on this week. A lot of folks may fade McLeod because of the price tag and rightfully so. But he stills gets the most out of his equipment. He’s normally driving in significantly worse equipment but today he gets to drive in the 90-car which is a step up for him. Dexter Bean normally fills this seat and McLeod’s a better driver than he is. Alex Labbe got a top 20 out of this car here a year ago. The price does suck, but there’s GPP appeal here.

Landon Cassill ($6,800; Starting P19) I wish he was a little bit cheaper, but I feel pretty good about Cassill today. He has plenty of experience here and I don’t anticipate a ton of ownership. He didn’t have a great run here a year ago but he was also in worse equipment. With JD Motorsports, he’s never finished worse than 18^th at Darlington in four races. He does need to move up about four or five spots to hit value, but this is another veteran driver who probably won’t have significant ownership.

Ryan Vargas ($6,400; Starting P34) I don’t love Vargas this week, but I need to at least acknowledge his ability on tire wear tracks. He grabbed a top 25 at Miami, gaining ten spots of PD and he had a good run at Vegas which is similar to Darlington in terms of banking. He got a top 25 here a year ago so by all accounts he has the ability to gain ten spots here and not kill you. But he’s had some bad luck this year as well so you’ve been warned.

Tanner Berryhill ($6,200; Starting P36) Berryhill steps into the 23-car for Our Motorsports, which we know can be a decent ride. Tyler Reddick showed speed in this ride, but we’re pretty sure that was a much better setup than we’ve seen recently. He hasn’t made a start in Xfinity in quite some time and his previous results aren’t overwhelming. But the equipment should catch your eye so he’s an okay option if you need some value.

Jade Buford ($4,500; Starting P18) For an absolute GPP punt you can look to Buford and pray he grabs another top 20 finish. There have been a few times this year when I haven’t played him and watched him run well, only to get caught up in a wreck. So I got bailed out previously. But lately he’s been turning in decent runs and as the cheapest driver on the slate he allows you to allocate money to multiple dominators or PD drivers.

Core Drivers