DailyFanRacing Newsletter - Martinsville
Two races to go, and the battle for the final championship spots couldn’t be tighter! It’s Dustin Maybin (@CUPharmDFS) back with your weekly DailyFanRacing newsletter. After Kyle Larson self-sabotaged his own dominant performance, Christopher Bell came away with the win, locking himself into the championship 4. Who will join Bell and Larson this weekend?
Let’s first take a look at this weekend’s schedule of events:
Friday, October 27th, 2023
5:00 pm ET - Xfinity Series Practice/Qualifying
Saturday, October 28th, 2023
12:35 pm ET - Cup Series Practice/Qualifying
3:30 pm ET - Xfinity: Dead On Tools 250
5:00 pm ET - F1 Qualifying
Sunday, October 29th, 2023
2:00 pm ET - Cup: Xfinity 500
4:00 pm ET - F1: Mexico City Grand Prix
We still have a bunch of racing left in 2023. That means we have plenty of opportunities to win money and get those DFR avatars to the top! You can take advantage of our end of your promo through the link below and get the best racing DFS coverage in existence!
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For the penultimate race of the season, NASCAR will be in Martinsville, Virginia, while F1 will be south of the border in Mexico City. As we’ve gotten used to, the Truck Series has yet another week off before next week’s championship.
Martinsville Speedway is a 0.500-mile flat, short track with a shape resembling that of a paperclip. The closest comparable track is New Hampshire since they both have longer straightaways and tight corners, but Martinsville is its own beast. When analyzing comparable tracks, you could look at Richmond, Phoenix, and Gateway as other short, flat tracks, but they’re quite different.
In last year’s race here, Ross Chastain set social media ablaze with his ‘Hail Melon’ move. Not only did it seem like something straight out of a video game, it had huge implications as Chastain punched his ticket to the championship 4, knocking out rival Denny Hamlin in the process. It won’t happen this weekend since the move has since been outlawed, and Chastain is already eliminated from the playoffs.
The racing at the short tracks, especially Martinsville, has been quite boring with very little passing in the Next Gen package. Track position is king, putting a huge emphasis on qualifying for the drivers.
Dead On Tools 250 (Xfinity)
Saturday’s race is scheduled for 250 laps. Over the past six races here, there have been an average of 12.5 cautions for 81 laps. In that scenario, there would be a max of 139 dominator points available on this slate.
It’s highly likely that one of the top dominators comes from the front row. Over the past 6 races, a driver starting on the front row has led an average of 108.5 laps. This spring, the 2nd place starting position led 198 laps, while the previous 5 instances had all been the polesitter.
Over that same interval, drivers starting 10th or better accounted for 46.7% of top 10 DraftKings scores. The rest of the field scored a top 10 DraftKings score at approximately 10% clip given their respective starting positions.
Drivers starting in the rear are at risk of going a lap down early and never being able to recover with how difficult passing can be. On the other hand, double-digit cautions allow for some backmarker plays to finish well via attrition. For this reason, place differential is still important, but not as much as nailing the right dominators.
Xfinity 500 (Cup)
As implied in the race title, there are 500 laps on deck this Sunday. Though we have been used to more cautions and mayhem at short tracks in the past, the Next Gen era has put up some different results. In the three races here since the beginning of 2022, cautions have been more rare than in the past, averaging 5 times for 43 laps.
Similar to the Xfinity Series, punt plays for salary relief are common due to how many laps are scheduled. Two drivers have led over 100 laps each in every Martinsville race since 2020. Typically, these dominators have come from a top 5 starting position, though occasionally there could be exceptions. Place differential can be important but on this slate, nothing is more important than nailing the right dominators.
Final Lap
We will have much more lineup construction tidbits and advice in our race breakdowns, so join DailyFanRacing today to take advantage of the most comprehensive fantasy NASCAR coverage in the industry!
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As usual, for premium members, we will have full driver-by-driver breakdowns, expert rankings, and projections for each slate this weekend, in addition to a slate strategy article and podcast for Cup and F1.
Have a great week, and we’ll look forward to you winning with us again this weekend!