Welcome back everyone. It was a nice week away for Father’s Day for the Cup guys. This week we are presented with one of the more unique tracks in Sonoma, a road course. Road courses always present new challenges for the drivers, you know like turning right. They have opened up a part of the track that hasn’t been a part of this race since 1997 so its been a learning experience for every driver in the field. We saw Kyle Busch spin multiple times in practice testing the limits of what you can and can’t do there. As for strategy, Sonoma doesn’t really offer a lot of dominator points so for cash games, the focus should be more on place differential plays to gain your points on draftkings. I like what this week has to offer so here we go:
Kevin Harvick (DK $11,200 FD $14,500)
Kevin Harvick will be the highest owned driver this weekend in cash games. He had a slow qualifying lap and will start 23rd. In his last four races here, Kevin has not finished worse then 6th including 1 win. Harvick was going to be a driver to look at before this weekend even began so the added bonus of the upside on place differential makes him a lock and a driver you cannot ignore this weekend.
Kurt Busch (DK $9,700 FD $11,000)
Kurt is another one of those drivers that has had recent success here at Sonoma. He offers up place differential upside as well starting 16th Sunday. In the last four races, Kurt has finished in the top 10. He hasn’t finished outside of the top 12 since 2010 here. Take all that into account along with his speed being near the top in final practice in single lap and 15 lap runs.
Clint Bowyer (DK $9,300 FD $12,000)
Clint Bowyer is not only my favorite driver but also one of the top plays this weekend and thats an unbiased opinion, I swear! He has a career average finish of 10.08 and that includes the season when he drove for H Scott which was a wash season. If you take that season out, he hasn’t finished outside of the top 10 since 2010 as well. He has had a fast car in practice in single and consecutive lap speed. He starts 14th and gives us some place differential upside as well.
Erik Jones (DK $8,100 FD $9,700)
I know, I know, I can hear the groans already. Hey, but guess what Erik had a tire issue in qualifying so that has to mean his tire issues which have seemed to plague him all season(at least when I play him) should be done with….right? Honestly, he is a supreme place differential play starting 32nd. He has two career Cup starts here, 25th and a 7th place finish last year. He will get ownership just because of that and no matter how you feel about it Erik should be a cash game staple
Kyle Busch (DK $10,400 FD $15,000)
The debate for me this week in GPP’s is Kyle or MTJ. On draftkings, I will take the $400 savings and play Kyle Busch. In the last four races here, he has 1 win and no finish worse the 7th. As I mentioned above, Kyle tested the limits in practice. He knows what he can and what he can’t get away with at Sonoma. I won’t be playing Kyle in cash but he is a great pivot off chalk Harvick in tournaments and with Kevin(23rd) and Brad(22nd) qualifying so bad you might just get Kyle Busch at lower ownership.
Parker Kligerman (DK $5,500 FD $3,500)
When it comes to value this week I think there are a couple good options this week. Parker finshed 23rd here last year. Parker starts 29th and gives us some possible place differential upside at a decent value. I will say this is more of a Draftkings play as they reward place differential and at his price he only needs to move up a few spots to hit value easily. Plus at $5500, he allows you to fit more of these place differential guys into your lineup.
If you have any questions about drivers, strategy, lineup construction or just Nascar in general either message me on twitter @davidjr831 or jump into our Nascar Discord.
