This weekend we head into the second race on the west coast swing at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. Fontana is a 2 mile track that somewhat compares to Michigan International Speedway. The main difference between the two is the immense tire wear that happens at Fontana. If you watched the Xfinity race you saw how much the cars fell off from the start of a run to the end of a run. In a race that won’t see a lot of cautions, cars that can minimize their fall off over a long run will have success on Sunday. Between tech and qualifying there’s a couple ways to attack this slate in cash and gpp. In cash we have a couple of high priced drivers starting back in the field who could be considered dominators as well as place differential plays. Well I’m not sure you need a true dominator in cash (a driver that leads laps and fastest laps) if you classify those high priced guys near the back dominators then I will be targeting 1-2 doms in cash
Martin Truex Jr
Any article evaluating Sundays Nascar dfs plays should start with him. Martin Truex Jr will start and be scored from the 38th and final position. He has the highest floor on the slate. He has to start from the back because he failed tech 3 times and was not allowed to run a qualifying lap. Truex has done well here over recent years with finishes of 4th, 1st and 8th in the past 3 years. The 8th place finish came after starting 27th so he has the ability to move his way towards the front and at his price is a “dominator” along with being a place differential option. He also had top 3 speed in 15 lap consecutive average which tells me he will have a good long run car.
Kyle Busch
I think Kyle Busch is an interesting gpp option this week. He starts 17th and has a car that is capable of running up near the front in my opinion. He dominated this race and won last year and finished 3rd and had similar success in laps led as well. Looking at Kyle’s consecutive lap practice speeds, his speeds really didn’t fall off dramatically and finished top 6 in 15 lap speed. Well I think there are better floor options in cash, I definitely like sprinkling Kyle into some tournament lineups.
Denny Hamlin
The JGR train keeps rolling on in this article and why not all 4 main JGR drivers are good options this week. I won’t write up Erik Jones but he has just as much upside as Denny this weekend. I like Hamlin this weekend for his floor. Starting 28th, I would be looking for a top 15 out of him this weekend which is definitely not unreasonable. His 15 lap speed was 15th He has finished 7th and 6th in the last two races here. I could also see this being a spot in gpps that you go under on the field with Hamlin as a good pivot spot.
Alex Bowman
Depending on how you decide to attack cash games, I can see you playing Alex in cash games. He starts 3rd and has been the class of the field in practice this weekend. He led both practice sessions in both overall and consecutive lap speed. I can see Alex getting out front early and leading a good portion of the first stage racking up dominator points. He was going to compete for the win last week in Vegas if not for the late race caution and pit strategy. If you dont want to use Alex in cash he makes for a great gpp play as well.
Austin Dillon
This is the second week in a row I’m writing up Austin Dillon. He did really well for me last week in Vegas due to great pit strategy at the end. This week I like Austin for two reasons. The first reason is where he starts, 25th. He provides floor for cash games and his price is right. Second is for the upside that he provides looking at his track history. In his last three races here he has finished 10th, 10th and 11th. Those results would not only be great for cash games but would also be a giant step into landing on the optimal lineup for gpps.
Ross Chastain
Ross is in his second week of subbing for the injured Ryan Newman and his price is still very reasonable. At 6500 and starting 27th he provides not only salary relief but place differential upside. We can’t look at this track history because he has been in worse equipment when here. However the 6 car is much better then his previous equipment. He was doing decent last week in the car until a late race spin and after another week with the team I suspect a better performance this week.
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