I don't usually say a whole lot about the superspeedway races. The strategy of using guys starting near the back to avoid a lot of negative points when the big one(s) happen is pretty well known. In the Trucks and Xfinity series, I prefer guys who have some plate track experience and I'm willing to inch up a little further in the field to get it if necessary.

Trucks
I don't think you need to go past 28th for Trucks and I think it's best to avoid Willie Allen, Jennifer Jo Cobb and Norm Benning. So that leaves ten options listed roughly in my preferred order based on plate track experience, starting position and overall truck and driver reliability.

• Parker Klingerman
• Jordan Anderson
• Jason White
• Clay Greenfield
• Codie Rohrbaugh
• Spencer Boyd
• Lawless Alan -- first plate track start
• Keith McGee -- first plate track start
• Cory Roper
• Bryan Dauzat

Xfinity
Plenty of options starting 30th on back. Ferrucci, Bacarella and Graf would worry me the most. Rough order--

• J.J. Yeley
• Garrett Smithley
• Matt Mills
• Jeffrey Earnhardt
• Joe Graf
• C.J. McLaughlin
• Alex Labbe
• Jason White
• Joey Gase
• Santino Ferrucci
• Cesar Bacarella

Betting
Lastly, a quick bet to mention for the Cup Series race on Sunday. A Ford has won 10 of the last 12 Talladega races and Ford has generally been the manufacturer that has its drivers work together the best at the plate tracks. Ford is +145 to be the winning manufacturer Sunday and I think that's a pretty good play.

Since I'm in the playoffs and trying to win a couple of fantasy NASCAR leagues, I can't give away all the strategy here. If you have something specific you'd like my thoughts on, you can DM me on Twitter @dfsnascarguy and I'll do my best to respond privately.

These are the cash game plays I'd build around --

• Kyle Larson - Real hard to pass on him at a fair price with the potential to lead 100 laps or more starting from the pole. The earlier Vegas race, Kansas and Charlotte are the best comps for this week and Larson led 100+ laps and scored 98+ DK points in all three of those races.
• Chase Elliott/Kyle Busch - Both good options to possibly pair with Larson. Elliott has been really fast the last three times out at Las Vegas but had crazy problems that crushed him. Busch has been his best in the 550 HP package this year with four straight Top 5 finishes.
• There are a number of guys in the $8k-$10k range that have a lot of potential, but could be too risky for cash games. Martin Truex, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman all could win or lead a bunch of laps and blow open this slate. 
• Chris Buescher - Simply put, this is his best type of track. At our three top comps this season, he's finished 14th (Vegas 1), 8th (Kansas) and 8th (Charlotte). As safe and solid as they come with a fair price and 25th starting spot.
• Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman and Cole Custer are also guys in that price range that could work.
• None of the true punts is any good. Alfredo is usable because of his cheaper salary and the number of really slow cars behind him. His worst finish in the six 1.5 mile track races this year is 27th. Not exciting, but if the salary savings gets you something you like, you can go for it.

Bets

• Austin Dillon +115 Kurt Busch
• Chris Beuscher +115 Aric Almirola

I'm taking the Xfinity race off to give myself extra time on the Cup race. In a few playoff tournaments and need to make sure I'm ready.

Getting back close to normal on the COVID front. Thanks for all the well wishes. Still going to be a bit shorter today.

It seems to me there are a few badly mispriced trucks here --

• J.H. Nemechek $10,400 -- He beat Kyle Busch here earlier this year. He starts on the pole and has the best pit box. He's won three out of five races at 1.5 mile tracks this season and finished 3rd and 5th in the other two. A win and he's in the championship race. I think we'll see his best effort here and $10.4k is too cheap for the safety of a Top 5 finish and the upside of leading 100 laps and crushing the field.
• Christian Eckes $7,300 -- WTF? This is the the #98 ThorSport truck. The worst finish for this truck at the 1.5 mile tracks this season is 11th. Eckes has been in it three times at 1.5 mile tracks and finished 9th (at Las Vegas!), 4th and 11th. He starts 15th, so has pretty easy +4/5 position difference. Just crazy that he's cheaper then guys like Derek Kraus and Drew Dollar who consistently wreck themselves and others.
• Tanner Gray $7,700 -- I get that Gray can be erratic and scary to have in cash games. But he starts 29th in a truck that can easily get into the Top 10-12 on speed. His worst finish at the 1.5 mile tracks this season is 22nd and he has two Top 12 finishes -- including a 12th earlier this season at Las Vegas. And he finished 8th and 3rd with the same team last year at Las Vegas. Starting 29th, there is +20 position difference upside here with reliable equipment. Again, this seems crazy to me. If there were ever going to be a time to buy in on Gray in cash games, this is it.
• Sheldon Creed $10,900 -- He's actually pretty fairly priced considering how sketchy he's been at the 1.5 mile tracks this season. But he's brought his "A Game" for the playoffs just like last year. I do think he'll run well and he gives you some + position difference upside as well from the 9th starting spot. If JHN doesn't win on Friday, Creed is the next most likely guy to advance on to the championship race.

Let's talk about a few other guys who seem tempting --

• Grant Enfinger $10,000 -- He's in the #9, which is maybe a 12th-15th place truck at best. He was able to squeeze out a surprising 7th here earlier this year in this truck, but also has 14th and 17th place finishes at 1.5 mile tracks. He might inch across the 5x target return here, but I just don't see the value or upside. Brett Moffitt has a very similar profile for almost $1k less.
• Dylan Lupton $8,300 -- He starts 36th and is running for Reaume Brothers. But this is part of newly formed partnership that is supposed to up the game for this organization. It's their first joint effort. All that is awfully scary. Can they run in the Top 20? Maybe so. But is that really enough? And without practice, we really have no idea what kind of speed or reliability they're going to have. It's not like the Reaume team has good notes on how to set up a fast truck here. That's just not their business model. So we'd just be guessing.

Cheap guys I'd be willing to consider:

• Danny Bohn - could get you +6-8 position difference if all goes well
• Bret Holmes - if he can just finish, he'll give a good return
• Howie Disavino - so cheap, just don't wreck

So we've got an ongoing COVID outbreak in our house. Three of five have it. Luckily, everyone is doing well and seems well on the road to full recovery. But it's chaotic. So I'm skipping the Trucks and Xfinity races at Bristol entirely. I'll be playing some in the Cup race, but I'm not sure if I'll have time to post an article Friday night.

​Hopefully back to normal soon. Stay safe out there.

For cash games, it's a stars and scrubs week for sure. We've got a number of really good high end plays and some palatable cheaper options to go with them. Here are the guys I'm focusing on:

• Denny Hamlin - Virtually a must play at only $10,400. The #54 car has been awesome most of the year and this is a great track for Hamlin. Starting 14th, he offers position difference upside to go with the likelihood of leading laps and running fastest laps. A sky high ceiling.
• Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick, Brandon Jones and Austin Dillon are all really good plays as well.
  • Cindric is the safest of this group because he's the highest quality driver in a top end car. He hasn't been great at Darlington, so I wouldn't expect a lot of dominator points, but a Top 10 is a pretty safe bet.
  • I'd probably put Reddick second in this group. He's well known for running really fast up against the wall at high tire wear tracks (think Darlington and Homestead). He's in the #23 Our Motorsports car, which has shown good speed when a good driver is in it. Not as safe a bet as Cindric for a Top 10, but he should get there as long as he doesn't have any reliability issues with the car.
  • Dillon is third for me because he's in the #31 for Jordan Anderson and we just can't be sure how good the car will be. You've got to figure this is essentially and RCR prepared car because Dillon would probably not be driving it unless that was the case. So it will probably be OK, but it worries me that this car has faded and had some problems the last month or so. For now, I've got Dillon slightly over Jones. 
  • Jones is last in this group for me and I'm very reluctant to use him in cash games because he always seem to have something go wrong. That said, in the last two Darlington races, he's finished 3rd and 1st -- so the upside is there. So is the risk. I do like that Gibbs is always fast here and we know the cars are as reliable as any in this series.
• On the cheap side, here are the guys:
  • B.J. McLeod - He's in the #90 for DGM this week. This is same team that runs Josh Williams and Alex Labbe, so we know these can be Top 20 cars. And I love that B.J. is a very experienced driver who knows how to take car of his car. Starting 39th, you have a super safe floor and quite a bit of position difference upside. He's not real cheap, but he doesn't even need to max out his ceiling to easily hit 5x value here.
  • Ryan Ellis - Ran well here earlier this year with a surprising 16th place finish. The #99 isn't super fast, but it's generally pretty reliable and I feel pretty confident with Ellis. He's not going to repeat a Top 20, but I think something in the 25th-30th range is a reasonable projection.
  • The last spot here is tough.
    
    • I could see a case for Carson Ware or Kyle Weatherman, but the Mike Harmon cars have not run well here and you need tires, which they might not have. Although I doubt Ware would run over there unless he's bringing money to run it full. But Ware also has no experience at Darlington, which is concerning.
    • I could see going super cheap with Mason Massey. He starts up in 26th, but he's in the Rick Ware car, which is generally OK in the Xfinity Series. Massey is decent, but has only one race here. The car should be good enough to move up a couple of spots and he really is too cheap.
    • Lastly, maybe a guy like Jesse Little just to keep the car pointed straight and pass the guys who wreck out. Don't love it, but it's probably safer than everyone else I've mentioned for this last spot.