NASCAR DFS Enjoy Illinois 300 Playbook: Is Corey Lajoie A Cash Game Lock?

Larson has been fast but not as consistent as his teammates. He’s been a threat to win just as often as he’s been to DNF of late and now doesn’t look quite that comfortable at Gateway. He got one run in at practice and went in for adjustments and then qualified P22. Ordinarily that would be a big boost but given how iffy he’s looked from time to time this is looking more like a GPP play than he should in this starting spot.

Byron just keeps chugging along with good speed and solid finishes. While he struggled here a year ago, he clearly figured out his struggles in practice on Saturday and laid down some quick laps. He then backed it up with a P7 starting spot in qualifying. That’s the same starting spot that Logano won from a year ago. Keep in mind how fast Byron was at Phoenix and Richmond and that he brings that speed with him to Gateway.

Bell just keeps being consistent. That’s the highest form of compliment we can bestow on a driver. Now he’s starting P17 after running a tad slower than expected in practice. Perhaps the PD upside overtakes the slower practice speeds and doesn’t change his ownership expectations. The price is steep so if he doesn’t pull off a top-five it’s hard to see value being hit without some laps led and/or fastest laps.

Hamlin thrives off of others' hate. That’s the case this week with him having gotten Chase Elliott suspended for this race. He also thrives on fast cars and his car got faster the longer it was on the track on Saturday. Hamlin along with his crew chief Chris Gabehart have been great at making late-race adjustments to get them to the lead and I’d expect that to happen again this week. Couple that ability with his history on shorter flatter tracks recently and he’s threatening for the win on Sunday.

Busch is on the pole for Sunday. That falls in line with his history here last year of leading laps and getting fastest laps in his JGR Toyota. Starting on the pole should give him a shot to lead early laps. The question though is how long does he hold the lead and will the hotter temps and slicker track negatively effect his car that landed on the pole in cooler temps? If he drops back too fast though, the value proposition for him drastically changes.

Logano won this race a year ago and has been usually a guy that runs well at this type of track. I say usually because he’s been perhaps the hardest driver to predict or forecast over the last two years. This week the 22-car has shown great speed at practice and is starting inside the top-10. That should help him have another strong run here but we’ve seen this speed before from him which Hans’t translated to the race. That makes him a better GPP play with solid cash upside.

This really comes down to faith in him rather than the team. He’s posted seven top-six finishes in the last eight similar races to Gateway. He was having a good race a year ago before a tire issue ended his day early. He’ll start P4 on Sunday but struggled a bit in practice prior to that so it’s a bit of trusting his consistency over current speed, or lack thereof as it were.

Bowman has finished P11 or better at the three similar races this year and his back is perfectly fine after the 600 miles at Charlotte. The car got faster the longer it was on the track and that bodes well for his PD upside. There’s no reason to doubt Bowman’s upside to be a top-10 finisher by race’s end and there’s a chance that he’s the lowest played Hendrick driver due to Lajoie’s pricing.

Wallace has been on a hot streak of late with four-straight top-five finishes if we include the All-Star Race. While this race wasn’t good for him last year but the Toyotas have been very good at this style of track lately and the 23XI team has had speed too. The 45-car did finish P3 here last year so they do know what setup works to a degree.

The RFK cars have been finding speed of late. In fact, they have five top-fives and twice the number of laps led at this point this year as they did last year. Both Keselowski and Chris Buescher are playable this week with both showing very solid speed in practice and then qualifying farther back than they likely should’ve. That gives both the PD upside we like to see from guys in this price range. Kes has been the more consistent driver at the similar tracks with a 13.6 average finish over the last eight similar races but both RFK drivers are solid options.

Her’s the chalky play of the week. He’s in the 9-car replacing the suspended Chase Elliott and now he’s starting P30 after a bad qualifying session. The speed was so-so as he was feeling out the car but there’s tons of PD upside here. We’re in a spot where he have to play him in cash games because if you don’t and he goes off, there’s likely no way to cash. If he has a bad day, he’ll hurt everyone the same.

This is the first time in a while that Almirola has been in the playbook but it is a race that he finished P8 at a year ago. He did also show the best in Group B of practice on Saturday morning. Almirola has five top-15 finishes in the last eight similar races with an average finish of 15.5. He was one of the best cars on track at practice and could be in a sweet spot if that speed holds under different racing conditions.

His short track pedigree will come to his benefit this weekend at Gateway. That proved to be the case as he got faster at practice the longer he was on the track. The better news? His P-Q of moving up 10 spots matches his PD in the three similar races to Gateway to he’s pulled off at 10.4. If he can put that short track skill to use, there’s a nice amount of PD available here.

Jones ran well here last year. That’s really the only reason he’s made a return to the playbook after a terrible year for LMC. That and he’s shown speed this weekend. Granted he only ran 5-consecutive laps in practice but he was inside the top-13 in single-lap and 5-lap average before qualifying P31. Perhaps people will stay away, even with the PD upside, given how bad he and his team has been in 2023.

Allmendinger showed up without practice and with a damaged car to attack he’d never raced at before after a redeye flight and took the car from P35 to P10. He won’t have to do that this year. Not only has Allmendinger practiced this weekend, he qualified the car which wasn’t wrecked. He’ll start P11 on Sunday which takes a bit of shine off of the PD upside but he does have the ability to finish near where he starts and that’s all we really need out of him.

Has anyone noticed that Haley has three-straight top-18 finishes coming into this weekend? While the speed wasn’t great in practice, there’s hope that he gets the benefit of a hotter, slicker track during the race and Kaulig can properly adjust. He also did have a Truck win here.

McDowell has shown in the past that he can be quite the dogged competitor on the shorter flatter tracks and that his driving style fits it well. That showed in practice when he was consistently inside the top-five of short and long-run speeds. Qualifying didn’t go so well but that theoretically gives him PD upside though he’s in the middle of a rough stretch which also might rear its head one more race.

He’s back in the 38-car which we discovered is fast no matter who’s in it last week. Gilliland ran pretty well in practice over the longer runs despite having a rough qualifying session that placed him P28. That gives him PD and a reasonably consistently fast car at a still-cheap price.