My apologies in advance if this write-up is a little brief. While I do love plate racing at Talladega and Daytona, this track is far from our favorite for DFS. The general strategy is to stack the back of the field as we saw trending on social media this year for superspeedway races. I do three GPP lineups per race and call it a day. I’ll save my bankroll for another week and if I make a little coin, then great.

The nature of “pack racing” and drafting means the field drives in large groups at high speeds. Naturally, this leads to chaos and big wrecks. Sure, sometimes we get the rare clean race at Daytona or Talladega that doesn’t see a big wreck until maybe the very end. But don’t be surprised if we get a lot of single file, green lap runs this weekend, especially for the Xfinity and Cup series. A lot of drivers will look to survive the first 90% of the race before they get aggressive and go for the win later on.

Talladega is the biggest track on the NASCAR schedule. It’s high-banked and 2.66 miles long. This race is Saturday afternoon so we get a nice doubleheader with Xfinity during college football, so hopefully you have a setup that offers multiple TV’s. We only have 94 laps for this race and if we account for all the cautions we could see then we might only have 60-ish dominator points available in this race. So targeting PD, finishing position, and drivers that’ll avoid the Big One will be key. I wouldn’t even try to focus on looking for dominators. Obviously, you can leave money on the table this week if you like your build. It’s really about getting six drivers that can survive and finish the race.

This week’s driver pool will be thinner than normal because of the general nature of superspeedways. Truly, nobody is off the table. Matt and I preach you can make an argument for all drivers, but we’re lighters on those starting too high. I’ll be in the chat ahead of both the Truck and Xfinity series to answer questions regarding lineups and why some drivers may not have made the Playbooks. Truthfully, if you built a lineup with one or two drivers in the top 20, with four drivers outside the top 20 I’d have a hard time saying ‘no’ to it for GPP’s.

Driver Pool

Parker Kligerman ($10,900; Starting P37) Kligerman’s the most expensive driver on the slate, but potentially worth it. He hasn’t raced in the Truck series at a superspeedway in about three years. But price tags are irrelevant when you’re starting this far back. He’s won at the Truck level at Talladega twice and has a knack for moving up through the field. I wouldn’t expect him to win, but the starting spot makes it easy for him to pay off the price tag if he runs a clean race.

Jordan Anderson ($10,100; Starting P34) I don’t know how he does it, but Jordan Anderson possesses the rabbit’s foot at superspeedways. He’s never finished worse than 21st at Talladega and that includes finishes of 6th and 7th in 2020 and 2018 at this very race. He also has back-to-back runner-up finishes at the season opener at Daytona. Similar to Kligerman, at this price tag and starting spot he’s worth the play in all formats.

Johnny Sauter ($9,900; Starting P11) If you want to gamble on a driver that typically runs at the front of the field at Talladega, Sauter might just be your guy. He won this race eight years ago, and has led 86 laps over the last four races here. He hasn’t grabbed a top ten since 2016 but his knack for running up front makes him eligible in GPP’s. I wouldn’t play him in Cash since we should target drivers with more PD but I really like Sauter as a guy to play starting in the top 20, while targeting five other drivers offering PD.

Grant Enfinger ($9,100; Starting P17) In seven races at Talladega, Enfinger has five finishes of 13th or better and he’s avoided wreckage in his last six races. In seven races at Daytona he’s never finished outside the top 20, including four straight top 11 finishes. He’s coming off some news Friday night that he’ll be transitioning to a full-time ride at GMS Racing in 2022 so the “good vibes” are with him as well.

Stewart Friesen ($7,500; Starting P4) Friesen may come off as a bit of a surprise based on his starting spot, but he’s very cheap and we’re hoping he holds his starting spot. As someone who is only making three lineups, I’m not sure how much Friesen I’ll play given that I’m only making three builds, but I like him for GPP’s. In four races at Talladega he’s finished 17th twice as well as 5th and 6th. Avoid him in Cash, but get some exposure in GPP’s as a playoff driver in search of a win.

Cory Roper ($7,000; Starting P31) Roper gets a little love because he almost won Daytona earlier this year and while he’s never raced Talladega (I don’t think) he has three top 20 finishes at Daytona. That’s either incredible good luck or… Alright, hell, he’s gotten lucky. Pray for similar levels of luck and some PD on Saturday.

Spencer Boyd ($6,500; Starting P28) Want to know how ugly things get in the Truck series at superspeedways? Spencer Boyd won this race two years ago! We never play Spencer Boyd. He’s typically off our radar. But he’s won here. In six career races at superspeedways, he has five top 20 finishes and just one wreck (last October). You have to gamble a little bit and luckily for us Boyd is cheap and offering PD. Is he going to win on Saturday? Probably not, but maybe he moves up and finishes 10-15 spots ahead of P28.

Bryan Dauzat ($6,400; Starting P40) Dauzat is in a spot to not go backward for Saturday’s race. And that’s something we like to target for Talladega. In three races at Talladega, Dauzat has finished 21st, 17th, and 8th while at Daytona he’s finished 19th, 29th, 31st, and 18th. So naturally, he seems like an obvious affordable play that offers PD and salary relief. He offers 5X value if he finishes 25th and anything more than that is gravy.

Codie Rohrbaugh ($5,700; Starting P29) Rohrbaugh is racing and has three top tens in four superspeedway races. That doesn’t necessarily make him a lock but if he’s running around the back long enough to avoid the big one then we have to admire the strategy. He only needs to finish 22nd for value, but we’ve clearly seen that he can do far better than that.

Jason White ($4,900; Starting P35) White’s cheap and offering PD. He grabbed a top 20 at Daytona back in February and he’s cheap enough where he’ll be chalky, but a relatively safe play if you venture to play Cash games this weekend. The equipment sucks, but superspeedways present an opportunity for the worst equipment to still offer PD if they run clean.

Core Drivers

I will not be offering core drivers this weekend given the nature of superspeedways. You can safely play drivers offering position differential in Cash games, but the Truck and Xfinity series have routinely shown that they don’t know how to drive so I don’t believe with a ton of confidence that there are core drivers you can feel safe about in these two series.