Not into giving out full lineups, so this has to be incredibly short. Use guys starting 27th or worse and stay away from the Rick Ware and MBM cars due to unreliability and risk of losing the draft. Other than that, you're fine.

As always, don't over do it at the super speedways.

There's not much to say about this. For cash games, there's absolutely no reason to use anyone starting higher than 30th. All of the guys starting in the 30s are fine. The only guy I probably wouldn't use is Tim Viens starting 40th. Other than that, a few notes:

• 30th Mason Massey - I kind of like him because the McLeod cars reliably run in the back to avoid wrecks. So there's a decent chance he finishes the race and gives you some decent + position difference.
• 31st Brandon Brown - Higher risk and variance here. Has the car to finish in the Top 5, but is also more likely to race hard and wreck.
• 32nd David Starr - Some reliability concern with an MBM car and is in the middle of the road on the risk/variance scale.
• 33rd Colby Howard - I like this. Normally reliable car and the whole JD Motorsports team tends to hang near the back to avoid wrecks until late in the race.
• 34th J.J. Yeley - The best driver (other than Chase Briscoe) back here. Not sure how aggressive he will be.
• 35th Jason White - Had a great run here in the Spring (10th place finish). Questionable reliability since it's an MBM car. Expensive.
• 36th Caesar Bacarella - Tends to run in the back for most of the race and in a pretty reliable car. 12th here in the Spring.
• 37th Chase Briscoe - Figure everyone will use him. For cash games, it's fine. Smart fade in tournaments.
• 38th Spencer Boyd - Questionable reliability from the car. Spencer is very likely to ride in the back and keep the car clean.
• 39th Joe Graf - Ugh. Might have to use him despite him not being very reliable. Probably just too good a car in too juicy a starting spot to pass up.
• 40th Tim Viens - No thanks. Unreliable driver and car.

It has been an awfully crazy and unpredictable weekend of racing so far. And we look up and see Daytona starring us in the face for next weekend. Wow. Let's look at this Cup race on Sunday. Here are my cash game and single entry targets:

• The range from $7,000-$8,100 has a number of strong plays and should be the core of your lineup:
  • Christopher Bell (28th) - Gibbs typically brings really competitive cars to Michigan. It's difficult to pass on track here, but there are some strategy and pit call options available to gain track position. I could easily see Bell going +15 position difference here and that's not even his ceiling.
  • Austin Dillon (26th) - I wouldn't be surprised to see a two tire call from this team to gain track position. Battling his teammate Reddick for the final playoff spot, so you know you'll be getting their best effort here.
  • Daniel Suarez (30th) - Suarez has had a number of very strong runs in the 550 HP package this year. A Top 20 is certainly within reach here.
  • Tyler Reddick (14th) - A little more aggressive starting 14th, but he's been very consistent and strong in the 500 HP package. Holds the final playoff spot on points heading into Sunday's race.
  • Cole Custer (27th) - SHR has been a little better lately. Should have a good start on the setup from Harvick. Really affordable at only $7k.
  • Ross Chastain (22nd) - He and his teammate Kurt Busch have had really good speed ever since their double engine failures at Charlotte. +10 position difference is on the table here.
• Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. Love them both.
  • Larson has, of course, been awesome from start to finish this year. And the two mile tracks at Auto Club and Michigan were arguably his best tracks back from his days at Ganassi. It's hard to pass the leader here, so this could be a race where Larson sets sail and never looks back. But we have a Lap 20 competition caution where everyone should pit (because it allows them to make it to the end of Stage 1), so we already know there will be an early restart. And we can sometimes see no tire or two tire stops here to gain track position. All those variables could throw Larson off a dominating performance.
  • Busch has finished inside the Top 6 at the last six Michigan races. And he's been probably second best to Larson in the 550 HP package this season. Starting 7th, he offers some + position difference upside and is cheaper than Larson.
• Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski - They are in an odd middle ground this week. Not as much position difference upside as the first group and not as much dominator potential as the Kyles. These guys also swapped spotters this week with T.J. Majors (one of the best) shifting from Logano to BK.
  
  • Reading some tea leaves here, I think this is the point where BK is going to start getting shut off from full Penske support. He's leaving at year end and, from this week's moves, seems likely to take Majors with him. It's common for teams to start to freeze out a driver who is moving to a new team the following year because they don't want all the in house secrets going too. So I'm not 100% sure that BK will be getting all Penske has to offer from this point on.
    
  • I'm also worried about Logano working with a new spotter at a track like Michigan where restarts and momentum are such a big factor.

Well that was a wild Truck Series race Friday night. It turned into a Daytona plate track race in a hurry. Don't think the Michigan races will be anywhere near as eventful. It's a very fast, but also very wide track that offers plenty of room. We have not seen more than a handful of incident cautions here over the last several races. And you really need power here, so the gap between the have and have nots in the Xfinity Series get pretty big at this track. Here are my main cash game options at this time:

• Ty Gibbs - Starts 10th with race winning upside. This #54 car has been incredible whenever it has a good driver and I'd expect nothing different this weekend.
• Tyler Reddick - Starts 22nd in the second Our Motorsports car. This is a solid car and Reddick certainly has the ability to get it around the Top 10, but this isn't a race leading or race winning car. So you're looking at how much position difference you can get here.
• Brandon Jones - I am very reluctant to use Jones in cash games because he makes to many mistakes and "bad luck" always seems to find him. That said, he's still in a Gibbs car and he's still starting 24th.
  • Josh Berry officially starts 17th in the #1 car replacing Michael Annett. But he'll have to drop to the rear for a driver change off the initial entry list. I do think Josh can finish in the Top 10, but starting in the rear adds some risk.
• Sam Mayer - Starts 16th in the #8 Jr. Motorsports car. While Sam has somewhat limited experience on these big tracks, this is definitely a Top 10 car. So all he needs to do is stay out of trouble. He's $700 cheaper than Berry, so I'd lean Mayer since he doesn't have to start in the back.
• Jeb Burton - Starts 12th and could move up a few spots from there. He seems like a pretty safe bet here and has a good $8,300 price tag.
• Brandon Brown - Starts 25th and has +10 position difference upside from there. He's fighting for the last playoff spot, so I'd expect maximum effort here from Brown's team.
• Colby Howard - Starts 38th and has as much as +15 position difference upside. I'd like him even better if he was a little cheaper.
• Ryan Vargas - Starts 35th and has +10 position difference upside. Not quite as good a situation as Howard, but almost $2k cheaper. Vargas should be locked and loaded as an extreme salary saver play.

Just wanted to mention a few other guys:

• Bubba Wallace - He'll be in the #61 Hattori car. I think he's just to expensive for what he's likely to accomplish in that car. Barring mayhem like the Truck Series race, this is about a 12th-15th place car at best.
• Austin Cindric - Hasn't had the best of success at the big two mile tracks. And we have a lot of really strong cars starting up front, so I don't have full confidence he'll lead many laps or run a lot of fastest laps.
• Ryan Sieg - Similar profile to Brandon Brown, but I feel like this team has too many reliability issues. I just prefer Brown by a wide margin as between these two.

A lot to cover this weekend, so I'm going to keep the Trucks analysis short.

• I'll be real surprised if anyone other than J.H. Nemechek or Todd Gilliland wins this race. Austin Hill is the only other guy that wouldn't shock me.
  • Nemechek has been The Man in this series all year long. He crushed the field at Richmond earlier this year -- which is probably the closest comp to WWT as far as being a very flat track. He also has experience here from several very good runs with his dad's equipment from a few years ago. Most likely dominator and race winner.
  • Gilliland has always run well here and was dominating this race last year until Sheldon Creed overdrove a corner and took him out. He also ran very well here in KBM trucks in years past. Lastly, he's been on an impressive run of late leading laps and running fastest laps in a lot of races. He comes with downside risk, though, starting 3rd.
• Matt Crafton, Chandler Smith and Tyler Ankrum are all in play if you want to play it a little safer than Gilliland. All have the potential to be 5th-8th place trucks and get you some positive place differential.
• Grant Enfinger and Ty Majeski are other place differential plays. But they are on the expensive side for what they offer.
  • Majeski has Top 10 or so upside. He will be in a ThorSport truck and he's had three solid runs in this truck this season. He ran 9th here in a Niece truck so has a real good finish last year to fall back on.
  • Enfinger's upside is likely more in the 15th-18th range. He will be in the #9 truck owned by Codie Rohrbaugh. This is NOT the ThorSport truck/team he's been here with in the past. That said, he's had some decent results even in this #9 truck this year. And he's usually been very good at the shorter, flatter tracks.
• Tyler Hill, Dawson Cram and Spencer Boyd are all potential salary saver options.
  • Hill ran 21st here last year. This team hasn't been as strong this year, though, so I'm not sure he can quite repeat that performance without some chaos in front of him.
  • Cram was 23rd here last year. He's definitely faster than at least 7-8 trucks starting in front of him, so should pretty easily get +10 position difference or more unless he has major problems.
  • Boyd is just a guy who will be slow but hopefully run the whole race. He'll be faster than the J.J. Cobb's and Norm Benning's of the world and finish in front of anyone else who wrecks or drops out. Nothing fancy. Just cheap with hopefully a couple of  + position difference points.

Bets -- I feel real good about all of these, which makes me really nervous:

• Majeski -115 Purdy
• Tanner Gray -110 Purdy
• A. Hill +105 Creed
• Gilliland +110 Z. Smith
• If you agree on one of the three I mentioned winning, you can play all three of Nemechek +225, Gilliland +900 and A. Hill +900 to win and guaranty a good pay day as long as one of them comes through.

As with Xfinity, it's hard to get too deep without starting positions, but here are some notes and ideas about how I'm leaning heading into qualifying Sunday morning. I wouldn't go too crazy relying on practice times since it was their first exposure to the track and a short practice where most guys ran only about 15 laps. But it is some extra information.

• Chase Elliott -- Consistently awesome at the road courses. He ran well in the Xfinity race Saturday and just having those laps of experience gives him a big leg up on the field. Strong case to play him no matter where he starts. If he's up front, he can lead laps and get fastest laps. If he's back in the pack at all, he has place differential upside.
• Kyle Larson -- A stud anywhere. Slight underdog to me since he has no race experience at this road course. But he was 3rd quick in Saturday's practice.
• Denny Hamlin -- Two consecutive (and three total) Top 5 finishes at road courses this season. 4th fastest in practice.
• Austin Cindric -- Won Saturday's Xfinity race and was probably the best car at last year's Xfinity race as well. He is simply really, really good here. He was 5th fastest in Saturday's Cup Series practice.
• Christopher Bell -- 2nd and 7th place finishes at the last two road course races to go along with his win earlier this year at the Daytona road course. 6th fastest in Saturday's practice.
• A.J. Allmendinger -- Top 4 finishes at both Xfinity races at the Indy road course. Always a threat at any road course. But has been terrible on pit road in his Cup races.
• Kevin Harvick -- Don't really love it, but this is incredible. Kevin Harvick is $8k. He did get to run some extra laps in Xfinity practice on Friday, but it hurt to get knocked out in Lap 1 of Saturday's race. I probably won't go here, but I just had to mention how crazy this is.
• Love the $7k range.
  • Chase Briscoe $7,900 -- Won the Xfinity race here last year. 6th, 6th and 9th place finishes at three of the last four road course races this season.
  • Ross Chastain $7,700 -- 4th, 7th, 7th and 12th in the last four road course races this season. Was 6th in the Xfinity race last year on the Indy road course. It is big that Briscoe and Chastain have a full race of experience here -- albeit in an Xfinity car.
  • Tyler Reddick $7,600 -- Top 10 finishes at three of the last four road course races this season.
  • Matt DiBenedetto $7,400 -- 10th and 11th in the last two road course races. Probably my least favorite in this group, but still an option depending on starting spot.
  • Michael McDowell $7,200 -- He's always been a strong road course racer but has struggled since finishing in the Top 10 at the first two road courses this season. He was 14th fastest in practice on Saturday.
  • Chris Buescher $7,100 -- On a streak of fifteen (15!!!) consecutive Top 20 finishes at road course races. He's not going to get you a Top 10, but something in the 15th-20th is as safe a bet as there is in this field.
• Nothing really sticks out in the cheaper range. That might sort itself out in qualifying. Of the guys down there, here's who I'm most interested in:
  • Cole Custer -- Crashed in the rain at COTA, but has Top 20 finishes in the four other road course races. 12th fastest in Saturday's practice.
  • Austin Dillon -- Got experience in the Xfinity race on Saturday and has four consecutive Top 15 finishes at road courses this season.
  • Corey LaJoie -- Solid finishes at the last four road course races and was 15th fastest in Saturday's practice. He pitted on the last lap last week to tighten lug nuts or he would have had a Top 20 run.

Bets

• C. Bell +1800 to win
• C. Bell -150 W. Byron
• Maybe more to come

Xfinity is really goofy this week.

First, pricing is crazy. There are way too many good cars/drivers priced under $6,500 to where it's pretty easy to stack the three studs -- Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs -- with three cheaper guys and still make a really good lineup top to bottom. Whether we want to do that, or take a more balanced approach, will be determined by qualifying.

Second, we've got 40+ entries for 36 spots with race day qualifying. So we'll have a lot of cars that don't make the race and likely some decent cars that get a bad lap in qualifying and start towards the back. How qualifying shakes out will, in large part, determine how we want to build our lineups.

It's hard to know what will be most useful come Saturday afternoon, but here are some notes to help you sort things out after qualifying --

• Austin Cindric is the man here. He was dominant last year and would have been even more dominant if he didn't get a bogus restart penalty that sent him to the rear. He was fastest by a lot in Friday's practice. Likely lap leader and favorite to win.
• Ty Gibbs and AJ Allmendinger are the only two guys in the same area code as Cindric. Gibbs as been so impressive this year at the road courses and AJ is always good at the road courses. If something goes wrong for Cindric, these guys become the favorites. Depending on pit cycling, etc., they could lead at times. They'd be the favorites to finish 2nd and 3rd. They will probably start close to the front, so it might be tough to use them in cash games if you agree that Cindric will lead the bulk of the laps.
• Kevin Harvick is eye candy. He's not going to lead laps and only comes into play if he is starting way back in the field.
• Justin Haley has Top 5 potential and could come into play if he qualifies outside the Top 10. He finished 2nd here last year, but that was probably inflated a couple of spots. He's finished inside the Top 10 at all five road courses this season.
• Andy Lally and Preston Pardus might be too expensive, but I feel like they're both pretty reliable road course racers that can pay off if their qualifying spot isn't too high. Lally did not run here last year. Pardus finished 10th here last year.
• Sage Karam has a ton of road course experience, including several Indy Car races at this Indy road course. He may qualify too well to be a viable play, but he is on the radar. I also don't fully trust the #31 car. Eric Jones had a brake failure in this car last week.
• I love the Jade Buford, Jeremy Clements and Brett Moffitt clump. All have Top 15ish potential and are pretty reliable options. Clements was 13th and Buford was 14th here last year.
• Brandon Brown and Josh Williams are ridiculously under priced. Brown has Top 12 finishes at four of the five road course races this year and finished 11th here last year. Williams has Top 17 finishes in his four road course races this year and finished 22nd here last year.
  • Ryan Sieg is another super cheap option, but I feel like he's always a more risky play because of the crazy strategies they try sometimes. He's essentially in a must win scenario to make the playoffs, so there's even more incentive to take a swing at a wild strategy.

Bets

• Gragson +115 Hemric
• That's all I've got in play right now. There might be more Saturday afternoon.

My cash game group is pretty small for The Glen on Sunday. Here it is:

• Chase Elliott - Won the last two races at The Glen and has been a Top 2-3 car at all the road courses this season. Starts 11th so offers some position difference points to go along with race dominating potential.
• Kyle Busch - Starts 20th and has strong Top 5 potential. 5th at Sonoma and 3rd at Road America. Historically runs very well at The Glen. If you believe in narratives, he deserves something good here after getting screwed by the rain at New Hampshire.
• Kurt Busch - Very similar profile to his brother Kyle. Maybe a little less upside, but also a little cheaper. 4th, 6th and 4th at three of the road courses this year -- slide off track in the monsoon at COTA for his only bad finish on a road course this year. Has finished 11th or better in the last seven races at The Glen.
• Chase Briscoe - Not cheap, but he's a really, really good road course racer. He'd have to have something go wrong to not get to +10 position difference territory and he's got upside to +20.
• Ross Chastain - A bit risky, but 4th, 7th and 7th with excellent speed at the last three road course races.
• Chris Buescher - Four Top 18 finishes at the road courses this year. 11th, 20th and 13th in his last three races at The Glen. He has now established himself as one of the most reliable road course racers in the Series.
• Michael McDowell - Top 18 finishes in the last four races at The Glen and two Top 10 finishes on road courses so far this season.
• Cole Custer - Cheap. Three Top 20s at the road courses so far this year. He wrecked in the rain storm at COTA for his only bad finish. Did well at The Glen in the Xfinity Series as well.
• Corey LaJoie - 20th, 18th and 21st at the last three road course races this year. Has a better car then everyone starting behind him, so should only move up. Cheapest guy I can play with a decent confidence level.

Bets
Not a lot I'm seeing right now.

• Stenhouse -115 Bubba Wallace
  
• Stenhouse -115 Ryan Newman

This is the first time the Trucks Series has come to Watkins Glen in over 20 years, so none of the drivers have any experience in the trucks at this track. A lot of them are running the ARCA race Friday night, so that will be something to look at and factor into our thinking for Saturday. It seems to me the pool of cash game drivers is pretty small for this race.

• Paul Menard, Parker Klingerman and Sam Mayer - You can't really go wrong with any of these guys. They are starting 38th-40th and each have Top 10-15 upside.
  • Menard raced here 16 times during his years in the Cup Series and was a fringe Top 20 guy. He was never known as a great road racer, but was pretty solid. He raced in this #66 truck earlier this year at COTA -- finishing 11th after starting 26th. It's a ThorSport truck, so should be plenty reliable and fast.
  • Klingerman is another solid choice. He started and finished 13th at COTA in this same #75 truck earlier this year. He also has 8th place finishes at the Daytona Road Course in 2020 and the Canadian road course in 2017. The biggest issue here is he can be pretty aggressive at times.
  • Mayer is in the #32 Holmes truck, which has had an up and down season. He did run this truck at COTA earlier this year and finished 6th after starting 21st. He's running the ARCA race Friday night.
• A.J. Allmendinger - Had to add AJ before posting since he was a late add to the field replacing Chase Purdy. He'll be in a very good GMS truck and AJ is obviously one of the top road course racers in anything he gets into. He will have to start in the back for a driver change, but will still be scored from the 25th starting spot. There is race winning upside here, but it's been over 12 years since he's been in one of these trucks, so that's a concern. I'm not too worried about that, though, because he can easily stay on the lead lap and take it easy while learning the truck during Stage 1. And, at the end of the day, I'm just not too worried taking a chance on AJ at a road course.
• Sheldon Creed - Top 5 finishes in each of his four road course races in the Trucks Series. There's no reason to think he can't do that again here. 2nd at Daytona and 5th at COTA earlier this season.
• Grant Enfinger - Never known as a premier road course guy, but definitely opened some eyes with a 4th place finish in the #9 truck earlier this year at COTA. Enfinger starts 30th and offers +20 position difference upside with a very solid floor. A slightly cheaper option then the Menard-Klingerman-Mayer group above but with a very similar profile.
• Timmy Hill - Timmy finished 9th at Daytona and 24th at COTA. Something around 22nd-24th is a reasonable expectation here. Starting 36th, there's a super solid floor. The $7,100 salary is not cheap, though, and he'd need to finish 21st or better to hit a 5x return.
• Will Rodgers - He's had some decent success at road courses in the lower NASCAR series and has a few Xfinity Series starts at road courses. This will be his first experience in the Truck Series, though, so that's a concern. He'll be in the #41 Cram truck on Saturday -- which isn't the fastest or most reliable piece out there. But it should be good enough to gain at least a few spots from the 29th starting spot.
• Jack Wood - Really just a salary play here in a good GMS truck. He should be able to move up a few spots, but there's not a whole lot of history or anything else to back this up. He finished 28th earlier this season at COTA. He's running the ARCA race Friday night, which I believe will be his first experience at Watkins Glen. I'm not aware of much road course history in his background.
• Austin Wayne Self - Quietly a pretty dependable guy at road courses. 15th and 16th place finishes at the two road courses this year and Top 16 finishes at six of the last seven road course races in the Trucks Series. Kind of risky starting 20th, but the $5,700 salary is nice if he can finish around 15th or 16th again.
• Spencer Boyd - Don't like much in the low end, but wanted to list at least one more cheap option because we may need a couple with the great high end plays. Of the drivers down in the salary range, I see Boyd as the safest bet to actually complete the race and not go backwards. That said, he won't be fast and won't gain too many spots unless we see an awful lot of chaos.