The field is set for Friday night’s race with Harrison Burton and Justin Allgaier on the front row. Let’s jump into the top Xfinity NASCAR DFS picks on DraftKings and FanDuel for the Cook Out 250 at Martinsville Speedway.
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Cook Out 250 NASCAR DFS Picks | DraftKings & FanDuel
Harrison Burton, 1st ($9,300)
Justin Allgaier, 2nd ($10,200)
With just one race worth of track history, a lot of people will probably pair the front row. With this $19,500 pairing, Allgaier and Burton, last year’s Martinsville winner, are locked up. However, do not be held captive by a misleading box score. Yes, Burton crushed last year’s field with his 102 DraftKings points. It was 41 more points than A.J. Allmendinger, a gap that most would have foreseen the other way around. Regardless, Burton was able to stay out, alongside Allmendinger, at the start of Stage 3 since he was out of the playoffs. His off-sequence pit strategy played right into the No. 20 team’s hands, and he ended up leading the majority of the race in the final stage en route to victory.
If Burton has to pit with the rest of the playoff contingent, who knows what his fantasy numbers look like? That is why the better play is to fade the pole sitter, who should come in at pretty high ownership, and just play Allgaier instead. Allgaier’s calling card in the Xfinity Series has been short tracks. He finished second in this race to Burton last season, was fifth in the championship finale and swept the two Richmond races last year.
Allgaier is the outright favorite tonight at DraftKings Sportsbook at +350.
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A.J. Allmendinger, 3rd ($11,900)
It cannot be emphasized enough the experience advantage that Allmendinger will have over the rest of the field Friday. For most of this Xfinity field, this will be just the second time they have seen this track, as the Xfinity Series went on a hiatus from racing at Martinsville following the 2006 season. As per Allmendinger, he has raced at Martinsville 21 times in the Cup Series. Within those 21 starts, he has two top-five and seven top-10 finishes; most of those came in mid-tier or worse equipment.
Yes, this was the same argument made last year, and Allmendinger finished 26th. However, he was running in the top 10 at the end of Stage 1, was leading at the beginning of Stage 3, but had an unscheduled pit stop with a flat tire and lost two laps he never regained. Assuming unscheduled chaos doesn’t befall Allmendinger again, he should be one of the major threats to lead the majority of laps and win.
With 250 laps on tap tonight, there should be plenty of two-dominator builds with either Allgaier or Allmendinger as the main dominator, if not paired together. Playing Allmendinger may seem pricey, but the DraftKings salary algorithm gave a gift to help make lineups work.
Bayley Currey, 26th ($4,500)
There is no way this pick will go wrong. Who wouldn’t make a Mike Harmon vehicle part of their core?
To begin with, despite starting further back than the past few weeks, DraftKings decided to keep Currey’s price static. Therefore, Currey, his teammate Kyle Weatherman, unsponsored Timmy Hill starting 20th and then Matt Mills in B.J. McLeod’s prone-to-breaking-down No. 5 are all in this price range. The only real viable pivot would be Blaine Perkins starting 32nd for Our Motorsports in what is probably a better vehicle. However, take Currey’s experience over Perkins’ slight car upgrade.
Second, Currey has actually provided a ceiling week on a similar track, finishing seventh at Phoenix. By no means should anyone project Currey for a similar finish, but it’s nice to see that number attached to his short-track resume, on top of the 15th at Phoenix in the championship race and 19th and 21st in the Richmond races last season.
For the most part, this is simply a price play for the cheapest driver on the board. However, due to this salary, gamers don’t need much from Currey, and based on his recent short-track resume, he’s very capable of producing that this evening.
Josh Berry, 29th ($8,000)
At first glance, $8,000 for Berry’s perceived volatility is steep. However, remember that 36th-place finish at Phoenix when he and Santino Ferruci made contact and Berry got the worse end of it. Outside of that race, Berry has been fine, with top-20 finishes in every other race he’s competed in.
That is not the most compelling case for a driver in one of the better cars in the Series. This makes Berry suited for cash games but not worthwhile in tournaments. For Berry to be worth rostering in tournaments, gamers will need a career-best finish tonight. That may happen at Talladega in a few weeks but probably not tonight in a race that’ll be more of a fight than what happened at Phoenix.
J.J. Yeley, 33rd ($7,300)
Experience is going to be the name of the game tonight, especially when filling out cash-game teams. Yeley fills the bill, as he is driving the No. 17 this week for Rick Ware Racing. Yeley will be one of the most experienced Martinsville drivers in this field. He rode that experience to a 14th-place finish in this race last season and 13th in the most recent short track race at Phoenix.
Perhaps it is name bias carrying over from the Cup Series, but Yeley should be in the mid-$8,000 range. However, DraftKings didn’t bump up Yeley quite as much as they could have, so there’s still plenty of value to milk from this salary.
David Starr, 34th ($5500)
The enigma of Starr’s viability takes on a new wrinkle this weekend. Starr isn’t driving for Carl Long this weekend in one of the MBM vehicles, as he’s back in the No. 61 for Hattori. However, Starr is still linked to Carl Long, as MBM is the sponsor of this vehicle and not Whataburger.
For cash games, Starr is safe and will probably pick up five to eight positions. It would be better if Starr had an actual sponsor and not another Xfinity team on his hood. Regardless, he just doesn’t have a ceiling. Yes, he had a ceiling race at Homestead before he wrecked with Noah Gragson. Even then, Starr’s finishes have gone 38th, 22nd, 29th, 28th and 27th since the Daytona Road Course.
Perhaps through some attrition, combined with Starr’s familiarity with Martinsville from his Cup starts here, he can sneak away with a 20th-place finish or better. But no one should hold their breath for 250 laps waiting for that result.
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