NASCAR DFS DUDE Wipes 250 Playbook & Top Picks

Another Saturday in the Spring, another short track race. This week we get the historic track that is Martinsville Speedway. Known as the Paperclip, for it’s shape, it’s one of the toughest tests on the Xfinity schedule. The Dude Wipes 250 on Saturday night is setting up to be another exciting race at Martinsville based on practice and qualifying results from Friday. Let’s dig into the NASCAR DFS strategy, practice results, and the top plays for the Dude Wipes 250 on DraftKings.

Xfinity Martinsville Race Trends

Looking at the table below, some of the trends and stat averages shouldn’t be shock at a track like Martinsville. The tight racing surface and racing lines make it tough to pass and pass for the lead. Even though they’re expected, it still helps us sort out the field for DFS and where we should be looking for the stats we need.

For position differential points we can see there an average more than seven drivers that move up double-digit spots a race, mainly thanks to chaos that seems to erupt here. That being said though, to get top-10 finishers in your lineup, they generally are coming from the top-12 starting spots.

Laps led here tend to come from one source, in terms of a dominator, but you can get chunks of laps led from a few different drivers in each build. With 250 laps on the table on Saturday night, we should still be looking to get two drivers into builds for laps led upside and generally speaking, the vast majority are coming from guys starting inside the top-10 in the grid.

Xfinity Series Practice and Qualifying Results

Below is a chart, sorted by qualifying spots, showing practice ranks based on different lap averages. It can be helpful in finding position differential plays and who may fall back in the field during the race.

DraftKings Scoring Trends At Martinsville

The following graph shows the average points over the last five Martinsville Xfinity races based solely on starting spot. It’s designed to show the strategies and where the points come from in the Martinsville races.

Dude Wipes 250 DFS Strategy

When we take everything above into account, how are we looking to build our lineups? The first thing that sticks out is drivers starting toward the front tend to score the best here. But we can’t just load up on the top-15 drivers, as several will also go backward throughout the race. So, like Richmond, it’s a mix of a few guys from the top-15 and a few starting P25 or better, and perhaps one guys starting outside the top-30 who can move up quickly and avoid being lapped. Getting lapped here can happen quickly, as the race trends show with just over half the field finishing on the lead lap. So loading up on only big PD plays can back fire if they get lapped and have their PD upside capped because of it.

Top Tier Driver Plays

Chandler Smith

He’s starting far back in the field, that’s usually concerning here. However, he has the ability to move up quickly and use pit strategy to his advantage. If he uses it well, he could finish top-10 and that gives the value we need. At this price point we need him to nab a top-eight at least and get a chunk of fastest laps so there is risk here. We’re really only looking at him as a boom or bust for GPPs.

Justin Allgaier

Allgaier has been the model of consistency at Martinsville as well as the similar tracks. He’s won here in the last six and has four top-six finishes, then when you add in the three wins and nine top-10s in the 16 similar races it’s hard to beat his record. Starting P5 and posting some of the best lap times at practice makes him a very solid threat for laps led dominator points and a bit of PD as well.

Sheldon Creed

Creed has an interesting record at Martinsville. In the Fall races here he’s finished P2 back-to-back races, but in the Spring races it’s not been smooth sailing. If the Spring luck turns into Fall fortune, we can see Creed be a threat to be a dominator. The speed in the car should keep him in the top-three, assuming no pit road mistakes, which also gives him win equity.

Mid-Tier Driver Plays

Riley Herbst

Herbst has been a master at finishing in the top-10 here and similar races. He’s nabbed four such finishes in six Martinsville races and nine such in 16 similar races. Starting P22 isn’t deep enough to be concerned with getting stuck laps down and his practice speed hints at another top-10 finish as well.

AJ Allmendinger

Of the drivers with at least 10 of the last 16 similar races run, Allmendinger is third in average finish at 10.6. This type of track suits Allmendinger with it being a rhythm style track, much like a road course. Starting P15 and posting practice speeds that were some of the best suggest he has it in him to better his average finish here once more. Expect him to be one of the more popular mid-tier plays for a driver with nice PD upside.

Brandon Jones

The pole sitter at Martinsville is usually a lock and load for tournaments for the chance at easy laps led. When you add in it’s a driver like Jones who has four top-six finishes in the last six Martinsville races including a win. His speed should allow him to stay at or near the front of the field as well and that gives tremendous value upside. However, he will be popular because of the mid-tier price and a dominator ability.

Parker Kligerman

It’s been a good run for Kligerman at Richmond and Phoenix with him moving up or holding spots well. At practice he ran around the top-10 in speed though the longer runs were limited in terms of how many cars ran them. He’ll start P18 with a shot at a top-12 finish, which he’s done five times in nine similar races. Finding him at this price is a nice value for us, however he is likely to be popular because of it.

Value Tier Driver Plays

Logan Bearden

He’s starting P35 on Saturday night which normally would give us pause. However, if we trust the practice speed, he was quicker than that. Even if we don’t trust practice, he started toward the back at Richmond last week and finished just outside the top-20. So we’ll take a bit of a risk here in the value tier and get some PD at a track where it can be tough to find.

Leland Honeyman

Honey has nabbed two top-20s in the two similar tracks to Martinsville this year. When we look at his lone run at Martinsville and his five similar races, he’s finished P25 or better five total times. Honeyman is starting P25 so a history of finishing better than that is intriguing. Practice was a bit convoluted on Friday so we’ll bank on his track histories to give us some nice value for cheap.

Driver Pool To Use