NASCAR Xfinity Series Daytona DFS Picks

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Daytona this week with only a few races left before their playoffs start. Place differential is the biggest factor to build your lineups around when it comes to these drafting tracks so picking drivers that start farther back and have more place differential upside is the better strategy to deploy for DFS. 

Fades

Austin Hill

Connor Zilisch

Sam Mayer

Sammy Smith

Justin Allgaier

Carson Kvapil

Brandon Jones

Harrison Burton

Dean Thompson

Brennan Poole

Natalie Decker

Garrett Smithley

Mason Maggio

Even though there have been dominant performances from the front in recent races from guys like Austin Hill, the risk is too much when compared to other drivers starting outside the top 15 in the race. Fading drivers starting at the front is a much better strategy and much more likely to end up optimal at the end of the day. All of these drivers start too far forward for my liking and you will not find any of them in my lineups this week. Also Zilisch is expected to get out of the car after he starts due to his collarbone injury he got a few weeks ago so he is definitely someone you don’t want to play. Thompson and Poole start too far up for my liking on 11th and 12th. There are a lot better drivers and equipment that have much more upside for the race. Then there are drivers like Decker, Smithley, Maggio who I think are the worst of the back markers and are likely to be the worst of the drivers starting in the back with potential to lose the draft and get lapped.

Top Place Differential Plays

Aric Almirola

Sheldon Creed

William Sawalich

Ryan Sieg

Justin Haley

Nick Sanchez

Taylor Gray

With there being a road course for the last race for the Xfinity Series and with qualifying getting rained out, there are a lot of top drivers with big place differential potential. All of these drivers are in some of the top cars on the series and should be racing towards the front in this race. They all start outside the top 10 and a few have huge place differential potential starting outside the top 20. These will all be popular plays and are the most likely to be some of the higher point scorers if they can miss the wrecks and end up somewhere around the top 5. I expect Almirola and Creed to be the highest owned as they start the farthest back and are two top drivers in the series.

Cheap Options

Anthony Alfredo

Matt Dibenedetto

Kyle Sieg

Ryan Ellis

Josh Bilicki

Leland Honeyman

Patrick Emerling

Caesar Bacarella

There are kind of two groups of the cheap drivers that are likely to have a little different strategies. Guys like Alfredo, Dibenedetto, and Sieg start towards the back so they have big place differential opportunities and I expect them to try to be a little more aggressive and race towards the front more often in the race. While other drivers like Emerling and Bacarella also have a lot of place differential potential but I don’t think they will be as aggressive and are more likely to ride in the back to avoid the large wrecks that are likely to happen at somepoint. Both can be good strategies depending how the race plays out. But the guys that choose to ride in the back will need some big wrecks while drivers that decide to try to race towards the front will need to not get caught up in the wrecks when they happen.

There are also some drivers that start a little closer to the front but could be good tournament plays due to their low ownership if they can miss the wrecks and end up around the top 10. Josh Williams, Blaine Perkins, Daniel Dye, Parker Retzlaff are all pivot options to get off the likely high owned drivers starting in the 30s and could help you take down a big tournament.