Drive for the Cure 250 DFS Expert Picks & Lineups: NASCAR Xfinity Playbook

After three straight weeks of all three series being in action, we get just the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series for this weekend’s racing action from Charlotte. Last weekend signaled the final superspeedway race of the 2024 season. 

This weekend delivers the final road course race, and in addition, this is the final race of the Round of 12 for the Xfinity Series playoffs. Here are the top drivers and strategies for Saturday’s Drive for the Cure 250 DFS picks on DraftKings!

Drive for the Cure 250 DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

Charlotte Motor Speedway plays host this weekend. We do not get the traditional oval, rather we’ll see the NASCAR Xfinity Series run the new ROVAL layout for the final road course race of the year.

As things currently stand with the Xfinity Series Playoffs, Aric Almirola and Sammy Smith won the previous two races. One of those is a non-playoff driver. Smith won last week at Talladega and shook up the standings as he really needed that win to move on. If you’re one of the remaining 11 playoff drivers, you advance with a win. But the Xfinity Series Playoff Standings offer some intriguing storylines.

Justin Allgaier sits seven points below the cut line and he’s always a favorite to win the series championship each year. Even his teammate, Sam Mayer, is below the cut line. And I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised, but Shane van Gisbergen is 10 points below the line after some poor results in the Round of 12. However, road courses are his bread and butter, so he has a legitimate chance to win his way into the Round of Eight.

As is always the case when it comes to road courses, we have less laps at our disposal so dominator points don’t weigh heavily. However, there are some road ringers in this race with significant dominator upside. We have a maximum of 46.9 dominator points for this race, but when we account for cautions, we’re probably looking at maybe 40-43 points. Position differential and overall finish are what we’re looking for. But if you have that one road ringer that leads a majority of the laps and wins, then you’ll want them in your lineup.

When we look back at the course of how these races usually unfold, we’ve typically seen two-to-three drivers lead double-digit laps. That’s not necessarily a large number considering we have just 67 laps, but it does emphasize that pit strategy dictates track position and the running order tends to be shaken up.

Sam Mayer won this race a year ago and led 50 laps from the pole. But remember, last year NASCAR introduced new road course rules that didn’t have a stage break. So as long as things were caution free, we didn’t see many opportunities for drivers to move up. The four cautions we did see last year were the fewest in any of the six ROVAL races for the Xfinity Series.

The Xfinity Series will have a 50-minute practice session Saturday morning and then qualifying will be at 11:00am ET. Check back for updates in RED leading up to this race as well as the final driver pool at the bottom of the article.

Top-Price Drive for the Cure 250 DFS Picks

Shane van Gisbergen – DraftKings: $10,500

We kick off the Drive for the Cure 250 DFS picks with a pair of road ringers from Kaulig Racing. We aren’t breaking new ground with this article. They’re simply the two drivers with the best chance to win. And mind you, it probably isn’t wise to play them together unless they both lead about 20-25 laps and finish in the top five. We should assume they’ll qualify very well. So there’s a narrow path to both being optimal. Pick one or the other.

SVG has easily shown he’s one of the best road course specialists in NASCAR. He won his Cup Series debut at Chicago in 2023 and just a few weeks ago he was in the mix with Chris Buescher for the win at Watkins Glen, but finished as the runner-up.

As far as this year goes in the Xfinity Series, SVG has wins at Portland, Chicago, and Sonoma. He was top five at Watkins Glen with 14 laps led and he even led 20 laps at COTA but finished poorly. It’s entirely possible he needs a win to move on, but he certainly has plenty of win equity ahead of this race.

Update: SVG secured the pole for this afternoon's race. He has plenty of win equity and a chance to lead 20+ laps as well. He was incredibly fast in practice and qualifying so it would take a disaster or poor strategy to screw this one up.

A.J. Allmendinger – DraftKings: $10,200

It certainly feels odd that Allmendinger doesn’t have a win on his resume this year, but that’s what happens when his team brings in another road course specialist. But Allmendinger has the more well-rounded schedule so he’s currently in better position in the playoff standings than SVG who has three wins.

We all know that Allmendinger is elite on road courses. There’s obviously a reason he’s called Road Ringer Dinger. Allmendinger has raced at the ROVAL four times in his Xfinity Series career. He’s won all four races and on three occasions he’s led 20+ laps. He even won last year’s Cup Series race at this track with 46 laps led, and in 2022 he led 24 laps and finished fourth.

Update: He rolls off without the pole but even his teammate, SVG, indicated that their Kaulig cars are very fast ahead of this race. Dinger, as always, is a great play here as he's four-for-four in wins at this track in the Xfinity Series.

Sam Mayer – DraftKings: $9,500

Mayer won this race a year ago, but it is worth adding the context that the road course rules were different for that race, and A.J. Allmendinger wasn’t in the field since he was racing full-time in the Cup Series. But a win is still a win.

And it’s not like it was a fluky road course win for Mayer either. During his brief Xfinity Series career, he has wins at Road America and Watkins Glen from last year. 

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that he doesn’t have a ton of momentum on his side. He has a pair of wins this year, but at the same time, he’s slated to leave Jr. Motorsports at the end of this year and he hasn’t finished in the top five since his win at Iowa nearly four months ago. But he does sit 13 points below the cut line so he certainly needs a big performance to stay alive in the playoffs.

Mid-Price Drive for the Cure 250 DFS Picks

Parker Kligerman - DraftKings: $9,200

Kligerman had arguably a top 12 car in practice, but he laid an egg in qualifying and starts P22. That's a problem because he's on the outside looking in for the Round of Eight. However, he's a good road course driver and can move up which makes him a good DFS play. But he does need to be aggressive and needs help if he's going to get into the next round on points. I'm just hoping he can run a clean race and possibly grab a top 10.

Sheldon Creed – DraftKings: $9,000

Sheldon “Silver” Creed once again makes our NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS picks for Saturday’s race. There’s definitely more runner-up equity than there is win equity. He’s still without a win in the Xfinity Series, but he has 13 runner-up finishes. Next year he’ll join his third Xfinity Series team in as many years.

But there’s still upside for a great finish. We can knock him for the lack of wins, but he’s still a decent DFS play at the end of the day. He comes into this race with four straight top five finishes and yes, that includes his runner-up result at Watkins Glen. Hilariously enough, he also finished second at Sonoma during the summer.

Creed likely qualifies inside the top 10 and while the ROVAL results aren’t noteworthy, he’s still a strong DFS play any given week and he can easily put up at least 40 fantasy points on DraftKings for this race.

Aric Almirola - DraftKings: $8,700

Almirola has two wins on the year and he even won at Sonoma in the Xfinity Series last year with RSS Racing. This time around he's with JGR (again, who he has two wins with this year) and starts outside the top 10. It's not out of the realm of possibilities he can finish in the top five and he's likely in the optimal build if that's the case.

Chandler Smith – DraftKings: $8,200

I haven’t previewed Chandler Smith too much lately, but this is a fantastic price tag either way. Smith comes into Charlotte with a ton of momentum including seven straight finishes in the top eight, with six of those being top five results including Watkins Glen.

He’s definitely a much better play on the ovals where he has more dominator potential. But even if he doesn’t lead many laps, at this price he’s crushing value if he grabs another top five finish. Smith is actually in the best position (aside from Sammy Smith) for the Round of Eight. So I’m hoping that doesn’t deter him from having a solid run at this track because he can essentially just coast into the next round. There are definitely far more desperate drivers in this field.

Alex Labbe – DraftKings: $7,700

Labbe’s pricing is a bit aggressive, but we know DGM Racing nails the setup for road courses. Their cars do tend to qualify well at these tracks and Labbe is better on the road courses despite running a part-time schedule nowadays.

He’s run all six Xfinity Series races at the Charlotte ROVAL and he’s finished in the top 15 in all six including three finishes of sixth or better. And he’s done them all with DGM Racing.

For those looking at his results at COTA, Sonoma, and Chicago it is worth mentioning that he ran those races with lesser organizations. But last year with DGM, he was top 15 at COTA and Portland so he’s definitely a worthy GPP play for our NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS picks.

Value Drive for the Cure 250 DFS Picks

Austin Green – DraftKings: $7,500

Green was a bust for us at Bristol a few weeks ago, but we can definitely consider him once again for this race. Green has run the five previous road course races this year and performed well at each one:

• COTA – Started P25, Finished 7^th
• Portland – Started P26, Finished 15^th
• Sonoma – Started P22, Finished 4^th
• Chicago – Started P19, Finished 10^th
• Watkins Glen – Started P27, Finished 11^th

Green grabbed all five of those top 15 finishes in the 32-car for Jordan Anderson Racing and that’s what he’ll be driving in again for Saturday’s race.

Ed Jones – DraftKings: $7,300

Ed Jones is back in the 26-car for Sam Hunt Racing. This team has shown upside at times, even with Jones behind the wheel. Jones did wreck out at COTA but did manage to qualify P16 so the car had speed in it.

But he did bounce back at Portland with a top five finish and then he was 15^th at Sonoma the following week and in September he was 24^th at Watkins Glen. That may not sound like much, but he started P37 so he was a good floor play.

This play likely does boil down to where he qualifies and this is the most expensive he’s been for all five of his races this year. But he still has upside and has posted 30+ fantasy points in three races this season.

Sage Karam – DraftKings: $6,400

This is much more of a gut call than anything else. Karam has run five races this year and he’s only finished two. He wrecked at Daytona and Chicago then had a transmission issue at Vegas. But we haven’t seen him race in over three months so hopefully the layoff has helped him regain some confidence.

But Karam does come from a road course background as he has some IndyCar experience. But the downside is that he is racing for SS Greenlight Racing, which explains why he’s $6,400. However, if the equipment can hold up, he does have potential to finish well.

Last year we saw him finish top 15 at Indy Road Course and Watkins Glen, and he even grabbed a top five finish at Road America. The ROVAL specifically has not been a great track for him, but I’m rolling the dice on the discount that he can buck the previous trends and grab a good finish this weekend.

Josh Williams - DraftKings: $6,300

Williams isn't a great driver by any means but the equipment is good enough. I'm mostly listing him because SVG noted that he and Allmendinger have fast cars. For that reason, I'm hoping Williams has a little juice under the hood as well as he's the black sheep of Kaulig Racing. To his crediit, he grabbed top 12 finishes at Portland and Chicago this year and previously grabbed three top 20 finishes in five races at the ROVAL with DGM Racing.

Kyle Sieg - DraftKings: $6,000

He's a risky play obviously and a driver that I'm usually wrong about. But he starts P35 and that gives him a good floor. However, if you wanted to fade this play for his brother Ryan, that's fine. Kyle Sieg is historically awful on road courses. Ryan Sieg will cost you more and offer less PD, but he has more experience and a better resume.

Drive for the Cure 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS Driver Pool