NASCAR heads to the unique egg shaped Darlington track this week for the Cup and Xfinity Series. The Cup Series race is the last race before the playoffs start for them while the Xfinity Series has a few more races. Both series raced here earlier this season in the spring so we will have some recent data to go off of. Darlington is a high tire wear track so we should expect a lot of 4 tire pit stops at almost every caution and that will open the door for some teams to try some different strategies depending when the cautions fall.
Cup Series
With this being the last race before the playoffs we will see some teams try to throw a hail mary to get points or a win to make the playoffs. The cut line is currently not that close as Ty Gibbs is 39 points above and Chris Buescher is 21 points above with Bubba Wallace 21 points below and Ross Chastain 27 points below. That is a lot of points to make up in one race if Gibbs and Chastain don't have any issues so we could see Bubba and Chastain go all in to try to get a win. Ross Chastain has had some fast cars here but has not put a full race together to get a win. But he could be a solid option if he has speed again here. Wallace has some top 10 runs and the 5th best average running position of any driver over the last 5 races. We will have to see how they look in practice.
Tyler Reddick dominated lap led in the spring at Darlington and I expect him to be a top contender this week as well. He has been one of the best cars as of late and has the second best average running position here of any other driver.
Denny Hamlin is always fast here and this is a track where he has led a lot of laps and has one of the better cars often. He should be good again this week and will be a solid option.
Kyle Larson is one you can't count out here as well. He won this race a year ago and had one of the fastest cars in the Spring until he had an incident. He will be a top play this week especially if he shows speed in practice.
William Byron has the best average running position of anyone over the last 5 Darlington races but he hasn't been quite as good as of late. So we will see how he looks in practice and if he could be a contender this week.
The RFK cars of Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher were the top 2 cars here earlier this season and Brad ended up getting the win. So you won't want to count them out as they could have the speed again to contend for the win.
Erik Jones is likely to be one of the solid cheaper options this week. This is his best track as he usually finds himself running better here than he does at other tracks. He could have top 15 potential this week depending on the speed of his car. If he looks solid in practice he is going to be a popular cheap option for DFS.
Michael McDowell is another good option this week. He runs well here and the Front Row cars of him and Todd Gilliland both ran top 15 here in the spring race this year. I think they both will potentially be good options this week and maybe sleepers to sneak into the top 10.
Xfinity Series
This is a week that a lot of the veterans of the series seem to run well. Justin Allgaier is really good at Darlington and won here earlier this season in the Spring. He should be the favorite going into the week and I would be very surprised if he is not one of the top contenders as he seems to have one of the fastest cars every time we come here.
Another driver that has speed and seems to run well here is Cole Custer. My only concern is he did not have the best car here in the spring as he had an 11th average running position in that race.
Austin Hill has been great on high tire wear tracks as he has ran top 5 at all the recent Darlington and Homestead races. He should be at the front again this week as he has been a contender for all 3 of the Darlington races since the start of 2023. Allgaier, Custer, and Hill are all going to be good this week and should be top contenders this week at Darlington.
A cheaper options that could have a good run this week is Jeb Burton. He has ran top 20 in the last 3 Darlington races and I think he could have top 15 upside in the race. He is usually priced in the low $7000 salary range and depending on his starting spot he could be a good play this week.
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