NASCAR DFS RAPTOR King of Tough 250 Playbook & Top Picks

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads North for a second consecutive “drafting” race at Atlanta Motor Speedway! For the third straight year in the Xfinity Series, Austin Hill claimed victory at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the season. He truly is the class of the field on these larger superspeedway-style tracks. And while Atlanta isn’t as big as Daytona, the racing will be somewhat similar and Hill has won here twice in the last four races here. But we can’t just assume Hill gets another win. AJ Allmendinger is a very strong driver on this type of track as well. We also can’t write off drivers like Cole Custer, Jeb Burton, John Hunter Nemechek, and more! So let’s take a look at the top NASCAR DFS lineup picks for the RAPTOR King of Tough 250!

I won’t go too in depth on the track layout since I did that already for the Craftsman Truck Series Playbook for Saturday’s race. At its core, we have an intermediate/superspeedway hybrid track. We get the drafting of Daytona and Talladega on a 1.5-mile track. The banking is higher and the track is more narrow than before the re-pave. But we have more laps so while we still can’t rely on fastest laps being hogged by the leader, we’ve seen long single file runs benefit whoever runs up front.

Qualifying was Friday afternoon and as we’ll get to shortly, there are no heavy positional differential options up top. The more expensive drivers in the field all qualified in the top 15. Moreover, we get teammates Jesse Love and Austin Hill on the front row, similar to last week. Hill will garner a lot of exposure especially after another superspeedway win last week. It’s insane how strong and consistent he’s been in these races. But the logic remains the same: even if he leads a ton of laps, his day could easily end with a wreck. The mid-range is where we will find our position differential and there are some in the value tier as well. You can once again leave salary on the table, but I wouldn’t leave nearly as much as we normally do for Daytona and Talladega. As of Saturday morning, the one lineup I have that leaves the most on the table is currently with $3,000 left over.

In three of the four Xfinity Series races we’ve seen since 2022 there have been at least eight cautions for at least 50 laps. It’s not ideal if one-third of the race is run under caution but it’s a reality that’s staring us down. Do not try and force the same “stack the back” strategy as we saw a week ago. We very likely could see a couple drivers nail the dominator points while certain drivers gained plenty of position differential. So it’s not as easy as playing guys at the rear of the field and hoping for chaos. We still tend to see the drivers in the best equipment contending for the win. With the way qualifying shook out we’ll like want at least one driver in the top 15, possibly two or three. From there we can navigate the starting order and find some leverage plays for the rest of our lineups. And if we leave salary on the table to make our lineups unique, then that’s fantastic. I’ve broken down my favorite plays below with a larger player pool in the table at the bottom. Best of luck with this week’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250 on DraftKings for the NASCAR Xfinity Series!

RAPTOR King of Tough 250 Core Driver Picks

Top Tire Core Plays

Austin Hill ($11,000; Starting P2)

To say that Hill is a “core” play is a bit of a stretch because this is likely the week to fade him. Granted, that is a risk in itself because we know how good he is in this type of race. Specifically, in his four career Xfinity Series races at Atlanta, he has two wins, a runner-up finish, and he finished 12^th last July after starting P10. In all four races he had a driver rating of at least 104. And in the two races that he won, he started in the top five for both contests and led a combined 176 laps between both races. He’s also won the last three season openers at Daytona and he even started P2 last week. Now this week he gets a $1,000 price bump but he can still pay the price off with a win and if he once again leads an abundance of laps. But if he wrecks or if anything happens to him, then we’re sitting pretty if we’re underweight. But it could be a moment where we ask ourselves “What were we thinking,” if he goes out and dominates as he’s done before.

AJ Allmendinger ($10,200; Starting P7)

This is purely a leverage play. I gave great consideration to Cole Custer, Chandler Smith, and Sammy Smith. Some of those guys will make the table at the bottom. However, I feel like Allmendinger will go overlooked. He may not like this style of racing, but he has shown he can win these races. Last week he started P3 and finished 10^th for 28 fantasy points. Not a great effort by any means. However, back in 2022 he grabbed a pair of top 10 finishes here leading 66 laps combined between both races. He had four top five finishes at Daytona in 2021 and 2022, and he won Talladega in October 2022. Sure, he’s known more for his road course prowess, but this guy can run incredibly well in the draft and among the top tier he may not see a ton of exposure. You’ll likely have leverage with just 15-20% exposure. 

Sheldon Creed ($9,500; Starting P10)

As mentioned at the top, Xfinity qualifying played out with the top of the field qualifying up front. The 14 most expensive drivers for this race occupy all but one starting spot in the top 15. So we aren’t getting much position differential up top. But there are still some interesting GPP options to potentially pair with Hill if you think he leads all the laps. Creed started P14 last week and finished second to his former teammate. It’s been a frustrating tenure for Creed in the Xfinity Series but perhaps the upgrade to Joe Gibbs Racing can lead to more success. Creed typically has contended in these Atlanta races. If you look at where he’s finished most stages, he’s right up there in the top 10 frequently. Even last July he won stage two but wrecked in stage three. All the while, he still led 24 laps which is important because we do want dominator points in this race. It’s hard to commit to anybody in Cash games in the top tier, but Creed comes with variance in the top tier and shapes up as a solid GPP play.

Mid-Price Core Plays

Brandon Jones ($8,100; Starting P18)

Brandon Jones gets featured simply because of the starting spot. Truthfully, the price point isn’t bad either at $8,100. He started P22 last week and finished ninth to hit 6X value with 48 fantasy points. We don’t normally think of Jones as an above average drafter. But last week’s result was a good finish for him and with most of the PD options falling in this tier, we can look to Jones to maybe grab another top 10 finish. Now he didn’t have a great year last year with JRM but he’s off to a great start in 2024, especially after Sam Mayer broke out last season and the team brought in Sammy Smith. Jones’ ride is likely safe because of his sponsorships, but he wants to perform better this year.

Jeb Burton ($7,800; Starting P25)

Burton likely ends up being more popular than he was for last week’s race simply because of the starting spot. We know the risk in playing Burton, as we do with anyone in a drafting race, but he was a bust last week. And yet we’re back this week and he’s looking like a solid play early on. He qualified P25 so he offers position differential and he has two previous wins on his resume at Talladega. He’s finished between 13^th and 16^th in the four Xfinity Series races at Atlanta. If he duplicated that he’d likely end up with 36-42 fantasy points on DraftKings. But we know the ceiling is actually higher for him so let’s not rule out a top 10 finish. I also think you should consider his teammate, Parker Retzlaff ($6,900), who won’t have nearly the rostership of Burton. Retzlaff finished third last week at Daytona, and despite the small sample size and short track background, has actually raced pretty damn well in drafting races.

Ryan Sieg ($7,400; Starting P20)

Sieg was one of everybody’s favorite plays last week. And he was looking outstanding heading into the final lap and he got up to as high as third before the wreck on the final lap where NASCAR didn’t throw the caution and instead let Austin Hill cruise to another victory. Sieg ended up finishing 22^nd with 12 laps led for 32 fantasy points. Last July, he led 15 laps in this race before wrecking out. But he finished in the top 15 in the previous three Atlanta races and we alluded to his upside in this type of race last week. He doesn’t offer as much upside as he did for Daytona, given the starting spot, but perhaps that suppresses rostership.

Jordan Anderson ($7,200; Starting P38)

I really wanted to lay off Anderson this week. I really did. I won’t argue with the drafting upside because this track does cater to some of his strengths. If playing him, I would only do so in Cash games. He gets the “dead last” treatment which means he won’t kill you with negative PD. But he’s not as safe nor is he as cheap as Spencer Boyd for the Truck Series race, who similarly starts last. Boyd’s floor is eight fantasy points. Anderson’s is three and he costs more. Another thing to note is that Anderson isn’t in the same car as last week…

Now there were reports in qualifying that he had an engine issue, which would make sense based off that tweet. However, it turned out to be a battery issue which is more manageable. But the equipment still has its concerns and if people approach this slate with the “stack the back” theory then I will go elsewhere for PD in this range. I’m fine playing him in cash games for the safety net but even in that format it could be wise to find different sources for position differential.

Value Price Core Plays

Jeremy Clements ($7,100; Starting P23)

I’ll be brief on Clements. I don’t think he’s a good Cash game play, but he’s certainly live for Tournaments. He does have a win on his resume from Daytona a few years back and he’s performed well on this track with the new layout. Clements finished 15^th in both Atlanta races last year. He also started P23 in this race a year ago and landed a solid finish. With that said, he does still carry risk. The equipment isn’t good, but he does have potential for a top 10 finish and rostership is likely suppressed with the Jordan Anderson Racing drivers priced around him.

JJ Yeley ($6,500; Starting P36)

Yeley will draw some attention because of the starting spot and price. And overall, he’s a good driver to have in the car for what we might see on Saturday. For the Cup Series last July, he started P24 at this track and finished seventh. And a year ago he started P34 and finished 26^th, good for 24 fantasy points in the Spring Cup Series race at Atlanta. Two years ago in the Xfinity Series’ first race at the new Atlanta layout, he started P21 and finished 11^th. And sure, we know he has plenty of top 10 and top 20 upside at Daytona and Talladega. But he’s easily a Cash game lock given the starting spot.

Ryan Ellis ($5,100; Starting P34)

Ellis had a great showing last week at Daytona. He started P36 and finished 11^th with 11 laps led. He likely benefitted from the wreck on the final lap, but that’s something we do take into consideration when building lineups. Ellis wasn’t spectacular last year at this track, but he grabbed a pair of top 25 finishes here while also being a reliable source of position differential at tracks like Daytona and Talladega.

RAPTOR King of Tough 250 NASCAR DFS Lineup Picks