The Truck Series wasn’t profitable for me last night, but it sounds like plenty of you had solid nights which is honestly great because my builds were trash. I accidentally plugged Jack Wood into my Cash lineup without noticing and knew I was toast as soon as I realized the mistake after the slate locked.

But on to Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. We have A LOT of drivers starting at the rear and there will be a good amount of chalk this week based on starting spots and prices. Today’s stages will be run in 45-45-110 lap intervals. That comes out to a maximum of 140 dominator points.

One big thing worth keeping in mind this week is that a lot of these cars are running the same car they ran at Auto Club last week. So for what it’s worth, here’s a recap of some drivers who experienced an accident or mechanical issues:

  • Landon Cassill – Engine basically blew up.
  • Jade Buford – Accident
  • Jesse Iwuji – Finished the race but did fall 34 laps down with some issues early in the race.
  • Ryan Vargas – Accident
  • Brandon Jones – Accident
  • Sheldon Creed – Accident
  • Stefan Parsons – Accident
  • Brandon Brown – Brown did sustain some damage to the front right quarter panel, but did finish the race 11th

For the drivers on larger teams (Cassill, Jones, Creed) we don’t need to worry too much about them, but the less-funded teams that experienced a wreck may be worth less exposure. Overall, here’s a breakdown of who is going to the rear for Saturday’s race courtesy of Bob Pockrass:

We at least don’t have to scramble to finalize our lineups. We can digest the practice/qualifying sessions and slowly construct our builds for Saturday’s race. Targeting two dominators is a perfectly fine approach for GPP’s this week and filling in the rest with PD targets and cheap guys that might finish well. It’s pretty fun building lineups for today’s action so I hope you all keep the weekend going with more green!

Driver Pool

Ty Gibbs ($11,000; Starting P11) – Truthfully, it hasn’t been unicorns and rainbows for Gibbs in his first full-time season at the Xfinity level. At Daytona and Auto Club he’s finished outside the top ten in both races, but we know the expectations are higher for him. What may hinder JGR’s Xfinity teams this year is the fact they’re keeping their pit crews separate from Cup and Xfinity. In previous seasons they had Cup pit crews working the Xfinity Series, but given the 5-vs-1 lug nut difference in the tires for each series, they’re keeping the teams separate so this may produce slightly slower pits in Xfinity. Either way, this is still a driver that is young and very talented and should pilot this car to the front at will. Gibbs finished 11th in his Vegas debut last Fall, but he did collect wins on intermediate tracks like Kansas and Charlotte. He’ll roll off P11 and I love him in all formats. He’s also Pockrass’ pick to win today’s race.

Noah Gragson ($10,800; Starting P4) – Gragson’s in line for a big year. And what better time for him to pick up his first win of the season than at his home track. Gragson has run Vegas six times and his worst finish is sixth. In the other five races he’s finished in the top five. Last week he finished second at Auto Club while leading 25 laps with 19 fastest laps. Gragson did pretty well on intermediates a year ago as long as he wasn’t caught up in a wreck. He’ll be one of my favorite dominator targets this weekend.

Justin Allgaier ($10,400; Starting P16) – I initially didn’t have Allgaier written up. Doesn’t mean I didn’t like him, but I try not to jam pack so many expensive drivers up top into the Playbook. But this week I do like a lot of the top plays for obvious reasons. Allgaier will likely be chalky once again as he’ll start P16 despite being pretty fast in qualifying. He has an average finish of 8.13 in 15 races at Vegas. He only really had one bad race where he had engine failure. He was the runner-up here in the Fall where he led 90 laps.

A.J. Allmendinger ($10,200; Starting P1) – Dinger was excellent in both races last year at Vegas. He won the Spring race while leading 44 laps and collecting 32 fastest laps and in the Fall race he may have only finished 7th but he led 20 laps and had 17 fastest laps. On intermediates, he’s going to be a tough driver to fade. Barring a mechanical issue, he’s a favorite to win the race if he shows up with the right setup.

Josh Berry ($9,700; Starting P2) – Berry, the instant fan favorite, ran a part-time schedule last year with JR Motorsports and managed to get a win in the Fall race last season at Vegas. He started 15th, led 38 laps with 29 fastest laps and a 123.2 driver rating on his way to a win. He had some rough luck at the other 1.5-mile tracks he ran last year, but I’d be a fool to leave out a driver from the Playbook who won here in 2021. He’s good and so is the equipment and he won’t cost as much as the drivers listed above and he’s a dark horse dominator candidate.

Brandon Jones ($9,500; Starting P21) Jones will drop to the rear for going to a backup, but truthfully I’m still on board with the play. Is he a risk? Absolutely, but he is in JGR equipment and has plenty of time to get back up front. You don’t even need him to get dominator points from where he’s being scored. In ten races at Vegas he has an average finish of 9.2 with seven finishes of 7th or better.

Ryan Truex ($8,500; Starting P7) –He’s going to run the 18-car for Joe Gibbs Racing and we know the equipment is among the best in the Xfinity Series. In four career Xfinity races at Vegas, Truex has never finished worse than 19th with three top 15 finishes. In four career Truck Series races at Vegas he’s finished 9th, 38th, 12th, and 12th and the poor finish that sticks out was due to the damaged vehicle policy. Truex was pretty fast in practice, which should surprise no one given the equipment. He did qualify P7 so while he’s not a lock for Cash games I still like the play for GPP’s.

Myatt Snider ($8,000; Starting P34) – He’s offering PD. The equipment is going to be a concern every damn week, but he’s starting P34. He’ll need to creep into the top 20 to return value. If you don’t love the play, I don’t blame you. Luckily there are cheaper drivers available offering PD as well.

Brett Moffitt ($7,900; Starting P13) – In the last four years, Moffitt has run four races at Vegas. He wrecked out of the race a year ago here, but other than that he’s logged three top 15 finishes at Vegas in the 02-car for Our Motorsports. He also had a decent history in the Truck Series when he ran here so we would like some PD to come with rostering Moffitt, but I don’t hate the idea of rostering him at lower ownership in GPP’s since he’s starting P13. His practice speeds were in the top 20 so you can hang your hat on that. 

Anthony Alfredo ($7,800; Starting P25) – Alfredo essentially broke the slate last week with a bold, but impactful pit strategy that allowed him to pit and run on fresher tires to finish the race. Our Motorsports equipment is actually pretty damn good as I just noted with Moffitt. Alfredo’s grabbed top tens at Daytona and Auto Club to start the year. Let’s see if it’s a fluke or if he’s consistent in this ride.

Jeb Burton ($7,500; Starting P38) – Burton’s getting a downgrade in equipment this year but he’s probably too cheap at $7,500 to begin with and he’s way too cheap for a guy starting 38th. Basically he’s returning value with a top 20, which hopefully isn’t too much trouble. He’s already going to the rear for going to a backup, which doesn’t matter since he’s starting P38 anyway.

Ryan Sieg ($7,200; Starting P20) – He will not be the last Sieg to appear in this article. Ryan Sieg has a pair of top ten finishes to kick off the 2021 season and this week the price has barely moved and he’s offering PD. We know there’s top ten upside as we’ve seen, but the safety net is that he’s a top 15 driver in this field. He has finished in the top five here before but if he pulls off another finish in the top 10-15 we’ll be happy. If you can afford him, you can also look at Kaz Grala in this price range. He’s more of a GPP target with less ownership and he’ll be dropping to the rear.

Kyle Sieg ($6,200; Starting P24) – Yes he’s starting a little high and the price tag is creeping up. I slept on him for the first two races but will mix him in some builds today. He moved up 15 spots last week and finished with 36 DK points at a $4,800 salary. If he can run that well at Auto Club then I have faith on him at Vegas as long as he stays clean. I’m not opposed to him in Cash games, but prefer him in GPP’s.

Ryan Vargas ($5,800; Starting P28) – I’m willing to give him another shot. Sure he’s starting a little high, but he was running pretty well prior to his late wreck at Auto Club last week. Is he a lock in our lineups? No, but he’s a way to possibly get off the Joe Graf chalk this week. Vargas finished 23rd here a year ago and grabbed a top 20 in the Fall. Hopefully he stays clean this week. 

Joe Graf Jr. ($5,200; Starting P22) - This one is going to be interesting. By all accounts, we know that teams have to run the same car they ran last week. We've seen plenty of drivers already penalized ahead of Saturday's race for announcing they'll be going to backup cars. Graf's 07-car isn't one of them. We saw Cole Custer drive this ride to a win last week at Auto Club. And if teams are required to run the same car as last week then we have to assume the equipment will be great for Graf this week since the car was prepped by SHR. He’ll roll off P22 so hopefully he doesn’t screw the pooch here.

Brennan Poole ($4,800; Starting P33) The equipment isn’t great for Poole, let’s be completely honest. But he’s a relatively underrated driver who I was hoping would be able to run the Truck race last night. This car also didn’t finish many races a year ago, but Kyle Weatherman did log a couple top 20-25 finishes with it. I’d probably only go to Poole in GPP’s as a cheap punt and hope for a top 25 finish. I have a hard time trusting the equipment in Cash games.

Example Lineups

DraftKings Cash Game Example Lineup

  1. Ty Gibbs
  2. Brandon Jones
  3. Jeb Burton
  4. Kyle Sieg
  5. Myatt Snider
    1. Justin Allgaier (Pivot)
  6. Anthony Alfredo
    1. Joey Gase (Pivot)

I know I’ll get questions on why Gase is in the Example Lineups but not in the Playbook. Simply put, he finished 20th at Daytona and 26th last week at Auto Club. He’s starting P36 and he’s cheap. I’ll be happy if he simply finishes in the top 30.

Draftkings GPP Example Lineup

  1. Ty Gibbs
  2. Noah Gragson
    1. A.J. Allmendinger (Pivot)
  3. Austin Hill
    1. Brandon Jones (Pivot)
  4. Jeb Burton
  5. Ryan Sieg
    1. Kyle Sieg (Pivot)
  6. Joe Graf Jr.
    1. Joey Gase (Pivot – You could stick with Graf, but I do like that Gase can’t really kill you with negative PD)