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On Saturday, the Xfinity Series makes its second trip to the Daytona road course.
Last year, Austin Cindric led 21 laps on his way to a win. His biggest competition, Chase Briscoe, crashed after 46 laps, but Briscoe did lead 26 laps. The race saw some strong showings from unexpected places, including a top-five finish for Andy Lally in the Our Motorsports 02 car.
Here at RotoBaller, we want to help you make informed decisions about your DFS lineups, which is why I'll be breaking down the slates for the Xfinity Series. Let's look at some NASCAR Xfinity DFS lineup picks for the Super Start Batteries 188 At Daytona on DraftKings. Be sure to also check out our NASCAR Premium Tools for Xfinity Series including our DFS Lineup Optimizer and powerful Research Station.
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Xfinity DFS Lineup Picks - DraftKings
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AJ Allmendinger #16 ($10,900) - Starting 6th
Allmendinger offers a little more differential upside than Austin Cindric, which probably explains the $200 price difference.
While he's not as great a play this year as he was last year when a part-time schedule meant he often started really far back, he's still a strong play because he's an elite road course driver and now replaces the place differential points with the potential for a lot of laps led, provided he can get past the 22 car. The winner of the Charlotte roval last year and a top-five finisher at the other three road course races, Allmendinger is going to finish in the top five of this race if he doesn't crash, run into mechanical difficulties, or make a back-breaking mistake on pit road.
Austin Cindric #22 ($10,700) - Starting 2nd
Last year's race winner starts on the front row, which means he should be expected to lead some early laps unless AJ Allmendinger is able to quickly get up to the front.
Barring some misfortune, this is a two-driver race. Either Cindric or Allmendinger will lead the most laps. One of them will probably win. The other has a great shot to finish second. You can't really go wrong with either driver, as both have chances to dominate this race. Cindric has four road course wins in Xfinity between 2019 and 2020, plus a 2017 road course win in the Truck Series. He doesn't really have road course success outside of NASCAR, so I'll still call Allmendinger the best road racer in the series, but Cindric is hot on his tail. It's a shame he isn't running this week's Cup Series race, but I hope that he gets some road course Cup starts later this season.
Alex Labbe #36 ($8,800) - Starting 36th
If you're paying up for both Allmendinger and Cindric -- which you probably should do in at least some of your lineups, even if they might cannibalize each other's value just a bit -- then you'll end up going a little deeper down the list than you might want to find your next guy.
But maybe that next guy can be Alex Labbe! He starts extremely deep, offering a ton of place differential upside. He only finished 27th here last year but was fourth at the Charlotte roval race and eighth at the Indianapolis roval. He has seven Xfinity top 10s in his career, with four at road courses. Three of those are at rovals.
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Miguel Paludo #8 ($8,200) - Starting 35th
Ooh, ooh, ooh.
Paludo's driving a JR Motorsports car this week. We haven't seen him in Xfinity since his only two career starts in 2012, when he led laps at both Road America and Watkins Glen. He didn't manage to get a top 10 in either of those races, but he did have a top five in 2013 in the Truck Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
I can understand some hesitance on your part because Paludo hasn't been in one of these cars lately. But the Brazilian driver has still been running endurance races in Brazil and has been doing really well in them, with 16 wins and 53 podium finishes. He should be a big threat in this one and has a great chance to be in the optimal lineup.
Cody Ware #17 ($6,200) - Starting 38th
Rick Ware Racing rightly gets a lot of flack for their struggles in the Cup Series, but they aren't a terrible team in other series. A crash last weekend kept this team from showing that in the season opener, but let's not forget that Ware's lone race last year saw him place seventh in the Charlotte road race last Fall.
Ware's an experienced road racer who ran in the Rolex 24 this year, with a fourth-place finish in the LMP2 class. He also starts 38th, so huge place differential upside here, which means that Ware doesn't even have to compete for a top 10 to be a hit.
Ty Gibbs #54 ($4,700) - Starting 15th
This is the most interesting play of this entire slate.
Gibbs is making his first Xfinity start. As his last name suggests, he's driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. On the surface, a Gibbs car at $4,700 is a must-play, regardless of driver.
This being at a road course complicates that, but Gibbs has run here before, finishing second in last year's ARCA race after leading 19 of the 28 laps. Obviously, a driver with zero Xfinity starts who'll roll off the grid in 15th is a risky play, but at this price, I'm getting a lot of Gibbs in my lineups.
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