NASCAR XFINITY Series picks for the Shady Rays 200

Welcome NASCAR fans!

We have an XFINITY race tonight at 8 p.m. EST, which consists of a shorter track than the norm. It will be a fairly quick race so dominators are not as important this time around.

I’ll usually focus on the NASCAR Cup Series races, but given it is our opening week, we will have a special edition for you all today. My plan is to focus on the drivers with the highest exposure in my 10 lineups. Similar to the Cup Series races, we will focus on a similar strategy for this XFINITY race. If you haven’t done so, please take a look into the “how to build” NASCAR lineups article. We also have our projections and optimizer.

Let’s dive right into it!

• Chase Briscoe – Not sure if anyone saw recently, but I became a fan of Briscoe, so I’m becoming more biased. The good news is he is one of the best XFINITY drivers out there today. Besides being a humble human being, he’s a stud driver. He has won three of the last four XFINITY races and is starting seventh today. He should have some PD (place differential) points plus finish in the top 5. He will be in at least 50% of my lineups today. 
• Noah Gragson – Gragson has shown incredible speed and is starting the race in the front. Given the speed he’s had and this being a short track, he should dominate a good portion of this race. This track isn’t the easiest to pass other drivers, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he leads half the race. Dominator points aren’t as big in this race but if he could dominate half the race and finish in the top 5, he will be an optimal play. 
• Austin Cindric – He's another guy who has shown incredible speed time and time again. His car this season is very good and one of the fastest in the XFINITY series. Given he is starting 12th and should easily finish top 5, he’s a lock today. I will most likely have him and Briscoe in a ton of lineups together. 
• Riley Herbst – I’m not sure if DK pricing algorithm is broken or what, but Herbst has no business being priced at $8,400, especially when starting 23rd. I could easily see him finishing top 10 and given the PD points, he could end up being one of the highest scorers today.
• Value Plays – Ryan Sieg, Chad Finchum, Colby Howard, Joe Graf Jr., Matt Mills, Ronnie Bassett Jr.

For lineup construction, I am probably forcing three of the four guys I wrote about on top of mixing and matching with the value guys. If I had an order of preference, I lean Howard, Sieg, Bassett Jr., Mills. 

Here are some other drivers I will include in player pool: Myatt Snider, Brett Moffitt, Tommy Joe Martins, Brandon Brown, Timmy Hill, Jeffrey Earnhardt.

Good luck and happy racing!