Wawa 250 DFS Picks: NASCAR Xfinity Series Playbook From Daytona, 8/23

The NASCAR Xfinity Series is about to go drafting after last weekend’s action in Michigan. NASCAR returns to the World Center of Racing as the playoffs approach. Justin Allgaier claimed his second victory of the season as Sheldon Creed managed to finish as the runner-up for the 11^th time in his Xfinity Series career. 

Perhaps the bigger news to come out of Michigan was the penalty to Parker Kligerman. A prerace inspection found a spoiler violation. He was docked five playoff points and 20 regular-season points. Kligerman is now just 16 points to the good for the last playoff spot ahead of Ryan Sieg.

Now with the summer winding down, it does feel like the playoffs are approaching fast. The Craftsman Truck Series begins their playoff round in Milwaukee Sunday afternoon. And the Cup Series only has two races left in its respective season. The Xfinity Series still has five races left and their playoffs don’t begin until the end of September.

So, there are still wins and points to be had. And what better place to invite some chaos than Daytona International Speedway? Do I like these races for DFS? Absolutely not. We encourage responsible bankroll management because, while we can build “sound” lineups and find the right pivots, at the end of the day we are trying to guess and pick six drivers that can move up, score well, and avoid wrecking for our NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS lineups.

Wawa 250 DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

Daytona is a 2.5-mile superspeedway with roughly 31 degrees of banking in the turns. We will see pack racing this weekend and this field will do laps as one giant group. This style of racing isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Long, single-file green flag runs are a bit boring despite the high speeds. The best parts of this racing don’t really begin until the final 20 laps.

So how do we approach this particular race and how do we construct lineups? If you’re playing cash games, the easy answer is to stack the back. Compose your lineup of drivers starting deeper in the field. They offer a safe floor but also the upside to move up and gain position differential points. Starting the polesitter in cash games is very risky. If they wreck out, they’re likely destroying your lineup.

For NASCAR DFS tournament builds, there aren’t many correct answers but there is a theory to building out lineups. You can certainly stack teammates and/or manufacturers. This is done because drivers of the same make tend to pit together and work together in the draft.

Starting position still matters as well. You likely don’t want to play more than two drivers starting in the top 10, and even a pair of them is risky. The closer drivers start to the front, the less rostered they’ll be in tournaments. So you do aim to mix and match about four good position differential options starting deep in the field, with probably two drivers starting in the top 20. It’s not an exact science, but we need all our drivers to finish top 10, and we prefer some win juice.

This race in particular goes green Friday night around 7:30pm ET. And we only have 100 laps for this one with no practice session. 100 laps equate to 70 dominator points at the most. And fastest laps are hard to gauge because of the draft. Sure, one or two drivers could lead a handful of laps but running up front doesn’t normally correlate to collecting fastest laps. 

These Wawa 250 DFS picks and NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS playbook will be updated Friday afternoon after qualifying with notes in RED and the complete driver pool will be published at the bottom of the article.

Top-Price Wawa 250 DFS Picks

Austin Hill ($10,500)

Listen, you can gain leverage on the field if you simply avoid Austin Hill. We don’t even know where he starts yet, and you’ll already have leverage if you just lay off him entirely. Simply put, he’s the best superspeedway driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Hill has won each of the last three spring races at Daytona. And that’s quite the feat and one hell of a way to kick off the year. He’s also won three of the five races at Atlanta’s new configuration, which lends itself to more drafting. Now Talladega has been a difficult one for him to crack as he’s yet to win there, and honestly, the finishes haven’t been great.

However, there’s plenty of win equity with this play. He started on the pole in this very race a year ago. Finished first and second in the first two stages with 36 laps led, but he wrecked in stage three. If you’re fading him, that’s basically what you’re hoping to happen in this race.

A.J. Allmendinger ($10,000)

I’m fairly certain Allmendinger has gone on record saying he hates this style of racing. But that doesn’t mean he sucks at it. In the last five Xfinity Series races at Daytona, Allmendinger has finished top 10 in all of them, including four top five finishes, and a pair of runner-up results. If we expand this sample size to the last six races, in the summer of 2020 he started P34, led 58 laps and finished 15^th because he wrecked on the final lap. But despite the wreck he put up a very good score.

He also has a win at Talladega on his resume from two years ago. And that’s important to note, because at one point, this organization fielded a team of Allmendinger, Justin Haley, and Jeb Burton. And all three are highly touted when it comes to this style of racing. 

So, while Kaulig may not have the drafting prowess it did a few years ago, Allmendinger still has plenty of upside and he’s consistent in NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS, which we can’t say about many drivers.

Sheldon Creed ($9,600)

We all love to poke fun at Creed. Some of it is warranted. But if we’re being honest, he’s had a really strong year. Yes, he’s still without a win. And we know he’s finished as the runner-up in this series on 11 occasions. Four of those have happened this year. But even if he doesn’t win, this is a strong top five candidate.

Earlier this year he finished second at Daytona to his former teammate, Austin Hill. He followed that up by finishing fourth at Atlanta and then was sixth at Talladega. Even last year he finished second at Talladega and Daytona-2. 

He will get a win at some point, we’re just not sure if it’s this year. But he’s with a great organization and he’s managed to get his car to the front of the pack numerous times. I don’t know if I’d bet him to win at 12-1 but he’s been flirting with a win for far too long.

Mid-Price Wawa 250 DFS Picks

Riley Herbst ($9,000)

Herbst is an even $9,000 for this race. That’s the eighth-highest price tag in the field, but also relatively close to the mid-range so I’ll slot him in this section. Herbst is a pretty strong drafter, who likely goes overlooked because Austin Hill is so damn good at these tracks.

But Herbst has been sporty and getting better lately. Both his wins in the Xfinity Series have come in the last calendar year. And in the last three spring races at Daytona, he hasn’t finished worse than sixth. He was the runner-up at Talladega this past spring and he has a pair of top five finishes at Atlanta since 2022.

Herbst is even good enough to run the past couple Daytona 500’s. He grabbed a top 10 in 2023 and gained a dozen spots of PD in this year’s race but finished 24^th. The kid’s a solider drafter and can maneuver his way to the front of the field.

Parker Kligerman ($8,300)

Kligerman appeared at the top of this article as we briefly discussed his penalty from Michigan. He’s still in okay shape to make the playoffs, but obviously enters this week without as much of a cushion. The good news is that he’s pretty good on superspeedways, which we’ll address shortly.

The bad news is that he’s really over-qualified the car this year. So that has almost immediately taken him out of the player pool. So far this year at Daytona, Atlanta, and Talladega he started in the top five and finished outside the top 15. Not great, but I’m hoping this potentially keeps people off him.

The good news is that if we expand the sample size, he has shown he can provide a great ceiling in these races. Last year at Daytona-1 he started on the front row but finished 23^rd. However, he finished fourth at Atlanta-1, eighth at Atlanta-2, third at Talladega, and fourth at Daytona-2. So sure, the results this year have been rather forgettable. But perhaps this is the weekend he finds that mojo from a year ago.

Anthony Alfredo ($7,500)

Alfredo was an outstanding play last week at Michigan. He grabbed a top five finish and it makes a little sense when you consider that they ran last week’s race with more horsepower and Alfredo thrives at higher speeds.

Alfredo finished third at Talladega earlier this year after he finished seventh at Atlanta. Last year was a bit of a wash because he drove for BJ McLeod’s team. But even in 2022 with Our Motorsports he grabbed top 10 finishes in the first two races at Daytona and Talladega in the spring.

There probably isn’t much win equity here (although he is a fun bet at 45-1), but $7,500 isn’t a bad price tag for a driver that has shown he can move up and finish top 10 at these tracks.

Value Wawa 250 DFS Picks

Matt DiBenedetto ($6,900)

The sample size for Matty D is a little odd because he hasn’t run a full season with RSS Racing. But he did start P28 at Talladega earlier in the year and he grabbed a top 10 finish.

For the most part, I like the price tag here because he might qualify deep in the field, as has been the case since he joined this team. But he has plenty of experience across all three series. He even won a Truck Series race at Talladega in 2022.

In the Cup Series he has a couple top 10 finishes on superspeedways so he’s hard to ignore at this price tag. He’s coming off a seventh-place finish at Michigan last week so let’s see if he rolls in with that same momentum.

Parker Retzlaff ($6,600)

This one surprised even me, and I absolutely love that he’s running in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in the Cup Series this weekend as well. Despite coming from a short, flat track background, Retzlaff is surprisingly good on superspeedways. My concern is that he might qualify too high. If he starts in the top 10, I won’t fade him completely, but he is a tough play on paper.

But with that said, he’s raced here three times in his Xfinity Series career. In all three races he’s finished seventh or better and that includes a top three finish this past spring. He had an ignition issue in April at Talladega, but he finished seventh there in his debut last year. Earlier this year he grabbed a top five at Atlanta.

So who knows, maybe if he starts in the top 15 we can still get exposure. He does drive for Jordan Anderson Racing after all. Both his team owner (Jordan Anderson, obviously) and teammate, Jeb Burton, are very good at this style of racing and its definitely rubbed off on Retzlaff.

Jeffrey Earnhardt ($6,500)

I know I’m not digging too deep into this driver pool, but I’ll add some extra plays once we know the starting lineup. But Earnhardt made the Playbook last week for Michigan. He had decent running position and was in the top 15 frequently, but he ultimately finished 21^st.

But races that incorporate drafting are generally his bread and butter. In the three races he’s run with Sam Hunt Racing at Atlanta’s new setup, he’s finished top 20 in all three including a top 10 finish this last spring. In this race a year ago with Alpha Prime he finished 11^th and was 15^th in 2022 at Daytona with Sam Hunt Racing.

I don’t necessarily think he’ll start deep in the field, but I imagine he qualifies between P15 and P25 so that still puts him in play and he’s providing a quality score for Wawa 250 DFS picks if he scores another top 10.

Wawa 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS Driver Pool

So unfortunately, I am stuck at work and will likely be here for a few hours. I do not have the ability to provide updates in red to the drivers listed above. Please use the table below as reference if playing tonight's slate. Some drivers above did not make the table.