The rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on the highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by the value of each driver.
The DraftKings Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey 200 NASCAR slate locks at 4:00 p.m. ET on Saturday.
1. Austin Cindric ($10,100) — At DraftKings Sportsbook, Cindric is the favorite to win the Xfinity race at Watkins Glen (+180). It’s surprising that he’s plus money, but anything can happen in these races — Cindric is yet to win a road course race this season. If this race is semi-normal, then Cindric should earn his fifth Xfinity road course win.
2. Ty Gibbs ($10,800) — Das Wunkerkid is back. The JGR No. 54 car doesn’t take a step back when the 18-year-old jumps behind the wheel. He won at Charlotte in May and more importantly he won at the Daytona Road Course in February. Also, he’s competing in the Watkins Glen ARCA race, not that he needed any extra advantages.
3. AJ Allmendinger ($10,300) — If anyone in this field is going to beat Austin Cindric, then it’s going to be The Dinger. He’s done it at the Roval twice, Mid-Ohio and he might have won at the Daytona Road Course, if it wasn’t for a wreck at the end of stage 1 when he was leading.
4. Justin Allgaier ($8,900) — In the last Watkins Glen race, Allgaier got wrecked by Ross Chastain. He responded by blatantly dumping Chastain later in the race, destroying the No. 4 JD Motorsports car. NASCAR turned a blind eye, and Allgaier went on to rally to a fourth place finish.
5. Noah Gragson ($9,500) — The road course stats do not lie, but they are misleading. Gragson had a mechanical failure at the Daytona Road Course and COTA. He had a bad luck wreck at Mid-Ohio and blew an engine in practice at Road America. However, in the Road America race, his bad luck dissipated and he drove from 36th to a ninth place finish.
6. Harrison Burton ($8,500) — It sure would be nice, if Burton could get some practice at Watkins Glen this weekend. This will be his first ever race at The Glen and he’ll jump in cold. He finished eighth at the Daytona Road Course without practice last season, but he finished 38th at Mid-Ohio without practice this season.
7. Daniel Hemric ($9,100) — It’s time to stop waiting for Hemric to get his first ever win because it may never happen. However, he does have a lot of second place finishes and those can be celebrated. Second place is 43 fantasy points — only one driver can score more finishing position points. Hemric finished second in the last road course race (Road America).
8. Erik Jones ($10,600) — Anytime a driver not named Jordan Anderson races the Jordan Anderson No. 31 car (formerly an RCR car), it finishes inside the top 15. Jones is a pretty good road racer when he’s in top tier equipment. A top 10 or even top 5 finish is not outside the realm of possibilities.
9. Brandon Jones ($9,300) — Right on cue, Jones is entered in the ARCA race at Watkins Glen. He buys warm-up rides at every road course and it never pays off. At Road America, he participated in Trans-Am practice and those extra reps resulted in a 19th place finish in the Xfinity race.
10. Myatt Snider ($8,300) — Last season, there were high hopes for Snider at the road courses based on his experience in EURO NASCAR. The results were disappointing, but not terrible — 10th, 14th, 16th and 32nd. This season he has been terrible — 13th, 21st, 23rd and 29th.
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11. Timmy Hill ($5,700) — The Xfinity prices are tight this week. Hill is one of the few drivers starting in the back that is cheap. His previous races at The Glen have not been great, but this weekend he appears to have a legit sponsor. It might not matter, his Carl Long car may be too slow to compete at this high speed road course. However, if attrition comes into play, then he’ll likely be the No. 1 value play.
12. Austin Dillon ($9,900) — RCR has built a strong alliance with Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series, and they’ve established a strong partnership with Our Motorsports in the Xfinity Series. This is Dillon’s first race with Chris Our, but his third of the season. He finished 13th at COTA driving an old RCR car for the Bassett brothers.
13. Preston Pardus ($7,400) — He is a decent road racer in decent equipment, but he is inconsistent because he’s not consistently in an Xfinity car. Pardus can flirt with a top 15 finish, but he’s got quite a few DNFs under his belt. If he would play it safe, then he would be a lock, but he won’t, so he isn’t.
14. Jeremy Clements ($6,600) — He has always been a decent road racer even when his car wasn’t that great. This season, Clements is a top-15 driver every week and sometimes a top-10 driver. Ironically, this has been one of his worst road course seasons. He finished 10th at the Daytona Road Course, but he finished 23rd, 33rd and 28th in the other three road races.
15. Alex Labbe ($7,200) — This is a fairly soft field. Labbe finished 17th at Watkins Glen in 2019, but he was competing against Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, and Ryan Preece. Also working in his favor, is that rolling into a road course race without practice is an advantage for experienced road racers like Labbe.
16. Brandon Brown ($6,900) — Last season, Brown’s team took a big step forward and they have continued to improve this season. His growth has expanded beyond the ovals — Brown finished eighth at the Daytona Road Course, sixth at Mid Ohio and 11th at Road America. His only poor race was the wild weather weekend at COTA (26th).
17. Sam Mayer ($9,700) — Xfinity debuts can’t go much worse than Mayer’s. So far, he has wrecked his Jr Motorsports car in three of his four races, and that includes a miserable weekend at Road America where he wrecked in practice and the race.
18. Matt Mills ($4,800) — It’s hard for the BJ McLeod cars to hide at ovals. If they ease up, they go multiple laps down. If they run hard, they break down. At road courses, these cars can turn laps during the first two stages and remain on the lead lap. The tortoise beat the hair, so don’t take Mills out of your player pool.
19. Jesse Little ($4,600) — If Little holds his spot, then he’s fine. He doesn’t have to move forward at this price, but he could. In his six Xfinity road course races, he has three top 20 finishes. Pairing Little with Kris Wright will allow DFS players to roster any driver that they want with their other four picks.
20. Kris Wright ($5,400) — This is the stone cold minimum for a driver that is supposed to be a decent road racer in a decent Sam Hunt car. In the last race (New Hampshire), the No. 26 car finished 16th with an inexperienced Brandon Gdovic driving. Unfortunately, in Kris Wright’s four road races in the No. 26 car, he’s finished 18th, 32nd, 32nd and 25th.
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