National Debt Relief 250 DFS Expert Picks & Lineups: NASCAR Xfinity Playbook

We have reached the penultimate race in the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. Martinsville Speedway plays host for the final Round of Eight race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs. Austin Hill got the victory last weekend at Homestead, joining A.J. 

Allmendinger for the championship race in Phoenix. That leaves two spots left for next week’s championship action. Martinsville may be a shorter track, but it still delivers on plenty of drama. Let’s take a look at the drivers and lineup building strategies for this week’s National Debt Relief 250 DFS picks!

National Debt Relief 250 DFS Picks & NASCAR Lineups

NASCAR heads to Martinsville for some playoff action at one of the most historic tracks on the schedule. It is short and flat at just a half-mile in length with 12 degrees of banking in the turns, but most of that banking is closer to the wall. But the straights are about flat as they could possibly be.

This race is set for 250 laps broken into stages of 60-60-130. If you read the NASCAR DFS Truck Series Playbook, you’ll recall that I am mostly taking a two-dominator approach for that race. And I might do something similar for this race. The Truck Series race only has 200 laps but that series has averaged about 70 caution laps per race. So we may only be limited to 100-110 dominator points in that race and so I’m hesitant to go with three dominators.

For this race we only have 50 extra laps. Over the last five Xfinity Series races at Martinsville we’ve seen, on average, 13.2 cautions for 88.4 laps. So let’s assume 88 laps are run under caution. We do not get fastest laps for those 88 laps. So that leaves us with roughly 135 dominator points. And four of the last five races have seen one driver lead over 145 laps…

• 2024 Spring: Aric Almirola led 148 laps (59.5 total dominator points)
• 2023 Fall: Sammy Smith led 147 laps (67.35 total dominator points)
• 2023 Spring: John Hunter Nemechek led 198 laps (77.4 total dominator points)
• 2022 Fall: Ty Gibbs led 102 laps (57.45 total dominator points) but also worth mentioning Brandon Jones was wrecked by Gibbs late. Jones led 98 laps but had 40.25 total dominator points as well.
• 2022 Spring: Ty Gibbs led 197 laps (85.25 total dominator points)

So I’m definitely aiming to get that one dominator that absolutely crushes their price tag by collecting 50+ dominator points and hopefully a top five finish. From there I’ll try to get a secondary dominator and round out the build with mid-range and high upside value options.

We should also discuss the importance of starting on the front row here. This past spring was a bit of an outlier as Aric Almirola dominated it after starting P6. But in this race a year ago, Sammy Smith started on the pole and led 147 laps. In the Spring of 2023, John Hunter Nemechek started P2 and led 198 laps. In this playoff race two years ago, Brandon Jones led 98 laps after winning the pole. And in the Spring of 2022, Ty Gibbs led 197 laps from the pole. So I’m inclined to get at least one driver from the front row in a majority of my lineups.

If you’re looking for an edge regarding the playoff standings, it’s somewhat similar to the Truck Series. Austin Hill and A.J. Allmendinger are locked in for Phoenix so I’m probably not playing either in this race. Justin Allgaier is 35 points above the cut line while Cole Custer is 28 points above. Chander Smith, Jesse Love, Sam Mayer, and Sammy Smith basically need to win to get into the championship as they are very far below the cut line.

The Xfinity Series will have a full practice session late Friday afternoon and then qualifying will be at 4:10pm ET. Check back for updates in RED Friday evening for the finalized driver pool for the National Debt Relief 250 DFS picks.

National Debt Relief 250 DFS Picks: Practice Notes

Top-Price National Debt Relief 250 DFS Picks

Aric Almirola – DraftKings: $11,000

Easy play right here. Sure, we lean into the “chalk” with the most expensive player on the slate. That’s never tons of fun. However, Almirola has shown he thrives on shorter, flat tracks throughout his career. 

He dominated this race in the Spring as we outlined above. It’s also worth mentioning that he finished second at Richmond with 95 laps led and he grabbed another win, albeit at an intermediate track, earlier in the playoffs at Kansas. But in his Cup Series career he also claimed a win at New Hampshire. And in the Cup Series playoff race a year ago, he finished second and led 66 laps at Martinsville.

The track fit is outstanding and the equipment is elite. It’s not entirely out of the question that he repeats what he did in the Spring. He’s not a playoff eligible driver so he doesn’t need points. He can once again focus solely on a win, unless he gets orders from JGR to help get Chandler Smith to victory lane.

Cole Custer – DraftKings: $10,800

Custer has just three Xfinity Series races under his belt at Martinsville and doesn’t have a win. However, he did lead 27 laps in the spring with a 114.4 driver rating. He’s also qualified P3 or better in all three races so he does well enough to put himself in position to win.

He’s done very well on the comparable tracks in 2024. At Phoenix he led 61 laps and finished top five. At New Hampshire he finished third and led 114 laps. He is sitting comfortably above the cut line, but he’d prefer to win his way into next week’s finale. And he should at least be made aware that Chandler Smith needs a win this weekend to qualify for the championship race in Phoenix so Custer shouldn’t just assume he’s a lock to run for the top prize once again.

Chandler Smith – DraftKings: $10,500

We’ve mentioned it already. But he needs to win this weekend or he needs one of Allgaier/Custer to finish poorly to he can pass them in points. Luckily for Smith, he loves short, flat tracks and he’s with an organization that historically runs very well at this type.

Last year with Kaulig Racing, Smith won at Richmond with 83 laps led and he finished as the runner-up at New Hampshire. So far this year with Joe Gibbs Racing, he won at Phoenix (88 laps led) and won at Richmond again with 76 laps led. He also finished third at Martinsville earlier this year.

It’s a bit odd that he doesn’t have plans for next year. It feels like this could be his final season as a full-time driver and that he may go work for his father’s construction business going forward. He’s still only 22 years old so it’s wild to think he could be done after this year. With that said, he did tell Bob Pockrass that because of that situation, “all craps will not be given at Martinsville.”

Update: The three original drivers we previewed in this section are all live of course. Almirola and Custer offer a little PD from where they start and still have win juice. Chandler Smith is in an interesting position and he'll be the driver I want to be overweight. For starters he qualified much better than Custer and Almirola. He starts P3 behind Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo. Smith should be able to get around them and lead a good portion of the first stage based purely on the equipment. But Smith also has the best pit stall with the cleanest exit off pit road so that works to his advantage.

Given how fast Custer was in practice, most lineups likely start with Custer and Smith.

Mid-Price National Debt Relief 250 DFS Picks

Sammy Smith – DraftKings: $9,500

Similar to Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith needs a win to qualify for Phoenix. Sammy Smith is 95 points below the cut line. So basically a win is the only way he qualifies for Phoenix. So it’s an all-or-nothing kind of day for him.

This past Spring, Smith did lead 42 laps which is impressive because he started P17. In his two races with Joe Gibbs Racing last year he finished third (147 laps led) and second (six laps led). He finished fourth at Iowa earlier this year after starting P17 and he does have a win at Phoenix on his resume already. 

If he’s going to go swing big and lay it all on the line for a race this season, it might as well be at a track type that he excels at.

Update: Smith starts P7 which may scare some folks away but it's worth remembering how good he's been on these types of tracks. He has that kind of “dark horse” potential to be in contention late in this race similar to Taylor Gray last night.

William Sawalich – DraftKings: $8,200

Normally I would have just gone with Brandon Jones for $200 more. But we know the narrative with Jones at this point. Sure, there’s upside but so much downside as well. Play at your own risk. I’ll go with Sawalich for this race because he’s a mid-range priced driver but he’ll be in a JGR car. And he doesn’t need to go racing for points. He can focus on a win and making a strong impression on his employer next year.

It was announced about a week-and-a-half ago that Sawalich would be driving for JGR full-time in 2025. And he does have some experience at Martinsville in the Truck Series. He also has a ton of ARCA wins from the last two years on flat tracks so I won’t be scared away from rostering him in some tournaments.

Bubba Pollard – DraftKings: $8,000

I’ll feel better about this play once we get cars on track and we can look at practice speeds. My biggest concern might just be the downgrade in equipment. Now I should clarify that he’s only run one race this year and that was with Jr. Motorsports in the 88-car at Richmond. He started P37 and finished sixth for a huge score of 69.45 points on DraftKings.

He is the same price tag as he was for that race way back at the end of March. So it’s worth mentioning that he’s in the 26-car for Sam Hunt Racing this weekend. Corey Heim did a good enough job to drive this car to a pair of top five finishes at Richmond and Iowa so there is upside and Pollard does have a background that translates well to Martinsville.

Ryan Sieg - DraftKings: $7,800

Sieg had a brake issue that he knew the team would need to fix so he opted to not post a qualifying lap and instead starts dead last. He can easily pay off this price tag with a top 20 finish and is a lock for cash games.

Value National Debt Relief 250 DFS Picks

Parker Kligerman - DraftKings: $7,600

Similar to Sieg, Kligerman also had some braking issues so we should be on the lookout for news regarding him going to the rear for an unapproved adjustment. However, he still posted a qualifying effort of P18 and he still possesses top 10 upside.

Parker Retzlaff – DraftKings: $6,900

Retzlaff is the ‘nice’ play of the week and it comes on a track type that caters to his strengths. And that’s odd because he comes from a short, flat track background. But he’s surprisingly good on superspeedways and drafting tracks as well. Unfortunately, he sometimes tends to push the wrong driver to victory.

But I digress. Retzlaff has raced at Martinsville four times in his young career. In three of those races he’s finished 12^th or better but he did wreck this past spring after grabbing a top 10 finish in stage one. Richmond has also been a good track for him given his background. He even won the pole there in the spring and led 27 laps but finished 16^th. 

Update: He is strictly just a tournament-only play as he won the pole. The hope is that you get some dominator points at a very cheap price tag and he can hang around in the top 10-12 and possibly the dominator points negate any points lost from position differential.

Jeremy Clements - DraftKings: $6,300

Clements starts P29 which is better for DFS purposes than where we've seen him qualify of late. Clements has raced at Martinsville eight times in his career. His worst finish is 32nd in the spring of 2023 when he wrecked. His second-worst finish is 22nd from this past spring. In the other six races he finished 17th or better. So even if he can just match the result from this past spring we're looking at 27 fantasy points, so the floor isn't too terrible for this race.

Brennan Poole – DraftKings: $6,100

I know I write up Brennan Poole on almost a weekly basis, but he is a good driver. He’s just in sub-par equipment where he’s required to get the most out of his ride. That was pretty evident earlier this year at Martinsville when he started P24 and finished 14^th.

On the season, Poole has an average starting position of 26.1 and a 20.1 average finishing position. So he’s affordable and moving up about six spots per race. And he also finished 16^th at New Hampshire after starting P21.

Alpha Prime Racing also announced this week that Poole would be back with the organization next year so it must be nice for him to have that security blanket of knowing he has a job next year and if he qualifies inside the top 25, that might just help him maintain the lead lap where he can possibly score another top 15 finish.

Update: Small downgrade for Poole simply because he qualified P19. But even though we took the same approach with Timmy Hill for the truck series race (who also qualified P19), I do have more faith that Poole can hold his position and possibly gain a few spots.

Myatt Snider – DraftKings: $5,700

We rolled with Snider a couple weeks ago at Vegas and he paid off once again. It wasn’t an earth-shattering performance by any means, but he started P33 and gained 10 spots of PD and finished 23^rd. 

His two races this year have been with SS Green Light Racing in the 07-car. Even earlier this year at Martinsville he started P34 and finished 19^th in that equipment. At least for this race he’s with DGM Racing. That might be a lateral move in terms of equipment, but he’s another one of these good drivers in poor equipment for our National Debt Relief 250 DFS picks.

Last year with JGR, Snider finished 15^th but also finished 14^th in 2022 with Jordan Anderson Racing. DGM isn’t on that level, but they do occasionally surprise us with their setups sometimes and Snider is no spring chicken. He knows how to race and maintain track position here.

National Debt Relief 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series DFS Driver Pool