Wild card tracks are opportunity events. This week the salary caps confirm that belief with relatively low amounts commanded by the five most expensive drivers in the field. Heck, even Kyle Busch is less than $11k this week for only the second time this year, while the beleaguered Kevin Harvick is the most expensive.
Better still, there are some great bargains in Group C and D who are well below the average cost-per-driver of $8,333, making it easy to build from the bottom up.
Last year eight drivers scored top-10s in at least two of the three road course races. Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Chase Elliott swept the top 10, which indicates this is a track where it is relatively straightforward to pick a lineup based on historic results.[[ad:athena]]
Group A: 5 Most Expensive (>=$9,900)
Chase Elliott ($9,900)
The winner of last summer’s race at Watkins Glen is the cheapest among the top five drivers this week. Consider this: Harvick is priced at $11,200 – in no small part because he has four consecutive results of sixth or better at Sonoma. Elliott finished sixth or better in all three road course races last year and can be had for $1,300 less. That is going to go a long way to enhancing your Group C or D pick if you start to build from the top down.
Kyle Busch ($10,400)
This week’s salary cap for Busch is remarkably and somewhat inexplicably low. He has not been this cheap since commanding a price tag of $10,500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. His last three races this season ended in top-three points. More importantly, he has finished seventh or better in eight of the last nine road course races with his only poor finish coming after crash damage on the Charlotte Roval last year. This week, he is well worth starting with an average points’ production of 58.19 that is third-best in the league.
Group B: (Between $9,700 and $8,500)
Clint Bowyer ($9,300)
It’s very difficult not to recommend Clint Bowyer this week. In his 13-race career at Sonoma, he has one win, seven more top-fives, and finished outside the top 10 only three times. With the exception of an electrical problem that sidelined him almost immediately in 2016 (while driving a car that he swore hated him), he has been close to perfect on this track since 2011. Bowyer was slowed by crash damage in 2014 and still managed to get a top-10. Everything else in recent years has been a top-five.
Kurt Busch ($9,700)
Busch has been a little more likely to finish on the high side of the single digits in recent years, but he nevertheless has an eight-race streak of top-12 finishes at Sonoma that includes a win in 2011 and a second-place finish in 2015 to his brother Kyle. It is unlikely that he will cost you very many points and so long as he fits into your salary cap strategy, he is a must-have.
Group C: (Between $8,300 and $7,300)
Alex Bowman ($7,500)
Bowman is one of this week’s hidden gems. In his first stint in the Cup series, he struggled on road courses and failed to crack the top 25 in four starts (2014/2015). Last year, he swept the top 15 with a ninth at Sonoma, 14th at the Glen, and fourth on the Charlotte Roval. We’re willing to bet another top-10 is in the offing and Bowman’s average will be in the seven-points-per-thousand range.
Erik Jones ($8,100)
Jones has run much better on road courses than his record implies. He ran into trouble at Sonoma in 2017 and again last fall at the Roval, but he spent enough time among the leaders to give him one of the best Fantasy Power Ranking numbers in the field. In between, the scored three consecutive top-10s that included a seventh in last year’s edition of this race. He is a little more expensive than Bowman and less consistent, but if you decide to go with only one Group B-priced driver and two from C, Jones will fit your cap management nicely.
Group D: (Between $7,200 and $6,400)
Michael McDowell ($6,900)
Road ringers are a thing of the past for now but there are still some great values on this track type. McDowell has been one of the most consistent drivers over the past couple of years on this course type with a 17th at the Glen in 2016 and no result worse than 21st in the five races since. He was 14th at Sonoma in 2017 and is capable of scoring another top-15 this week. If he misses, it will not be by much.
Matt DiBenedetto ($6,500)
Last year DiBenedetto was an even better value that McDowell with results of 17th at Sonoma and 13th on the Charlotte Roval. This year he will be in equal or slightly better equipment. While he has not quite lived up to our preseason projections, part of the reason for that is the new body style and an extreme leveling of the playing field. The road courses reward driver skill over aerodynamics.
To finish among the top 15 again this week will take a little luck – and it’s unlikely that both McDowell and DiBenedetto will do so, but one has to make room for the marquee drivers somehow.
Group E: (Less than or equal to $6,300)
Parker Kligerman ($5,500)
Kligerman made two road course starts last year. He finished 23rd at Sonoma and was 24th at the Glen – both results were acceptable in regard to his salary cap. If you want to take a bargain basement driver instead of two Group D racers, Kligerman is going to allow you to spend pretty much whatever you want on a Group A pick. He has earned points in the mid- to high-20s in his last three races this year.
Draft Kings points earned | ||||||
Driver | Avg. | Total | Avg. | This | Points | Group |
6.50 | 239.25 | 59.81 | $9,900 | 6.04 | A | |
10.00 | 232.75 | 58.19 | $10,400 | 5.59 | A | |
5.50 | 216.50 | 54.13 | $10,100 | 5.36 | A | |
13.75 | 220.50 | 55.13 | $10,800 | 5.10 | A | |
12.75 | 177.25 | 44.31 | $11,200 | 3.96 | A | |
| ||||||
5.75 | 236.25 | 59.06 | $9,500 | 6.22 | B | |
13.00 | 158.50 | 39.63 | $8,700 | 4.55 | B | |
17.00 | 145.25 | 36.31 | $8,500 | 4.27 | B | |
14.25 | 139.75 | 34.94 | $9,100 | 3.84 | B | |
15.00 | 138.75 | 34.69 | $9,700 | 3.58 | B | |
18.00 | 122.25 | 30.56 | $8,900 | 3.43 | B | |
23.50 | 71.75 | 17.94 | $9,300 | 1.93 | B | |
| ||||||
8.25 | 207.75 | 51.94 | $7,500 | 6.93 | C | |
9.25 | 186.50 | 46.63 | $7,800 | 5.98 | C | |
16.00 | 125.00 | 31.25 | $7,300 | 4.28 | C | |
15.75 | 136.75 | 34.19 | $8,000 | 4.27 | C | |
15.75 | 139.50 | 34.88 | $8,300 | 4.20 | C | |
17.25 | 116.00 | 29.00 | $7,600 | 3.82 | C | |
22.00 | 72.50 | 18.13 | $8,100 | 2.24 | C | |
| ||||||
17.25 | 118.50 | 29.63 | $7,000 | 4.23 | D | |
22.00 | 98.75 | 24.69 | $6,600 | 3.74 | D | |
21.50 | 99.50 | 24.88 | $6,900 | 3.61 | D | |
22.50 | 89.75 | 22.44 | $6,400 | 3.51 | D | |
22.00 | 93.00 | 23.25 | $7,200 | 3.23 | D | |
27.25 | 48.00 | 12.00 | $6,500 | 1.85 | D | |
31.75 | -6.25 | -1.56 | $6,800 | (0.23) | D | |
| ||||||
19.00 | 28.50 | 28.50 | $5,500 | 5.18 | E | |
20.75 | 101.00 | 25.25 | $5,000 | 5.05 | E | |
22.25 | 91.00 | 22.75 | $5,900 | 3.86 | E | |
25.25 | 74.75 | 18.69 | $5,800 | 3.22 | E | |
27.67 | 48.50 | 16.17 | $5,400 | 2.99 | E | |
25.50 | 71.00 | 17.75 | $6,100 | 2.91 | E | |
26.00 | 45.25 | 15.08 | $5,600 | 2.69 | E | |
31.00 | 13.00 | 13.00 | $5,300 | 2.45 | E | |
27.75 | 59.50 | 14.88 | $6,300 | 2.36 | E | |
31.00 | 39.50 | 9.88 | $4,900 | 2.02 | E | |
33.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | $4,800 | 1.25 | E | |
|
|
| $5,200 | - | E |
