Charlotte Roval Xfinity

I think it's a pretty small player pool this week. With the road course, it's essential to find guys who are going to move up from their starting spots. With reduced laps, scores are much lower then a normal week so every single point matters. Here are the guys I'm considering for my cash game lineup:

• Austin Cindric - Best road course racer in the series. He won two of the three road course races this year already. He probably would have won the third road course race if he didn't get a questionable penalty for jumping a restart in the middle of the race. Likely winner and Top 3 lock.
• A.J. Allmendinger - Another virtual lock. He's also had some bad luck in the road course races, but still has finished 4th, 2nd and 4th. Has the upside to win and is a Top 5 lock.
• Kaz Grala - In the very fast and reliable #21 car and he's finished 4th and 5th in his last two road course races. I doubt he can win, but another Top 5 is a reasonable expectation.
• Preston Pardus - Road course specialist in pretty good equipment. I really am leaning to the road course specialists this weekend -- especially if we see a wet track because they're most likely to have real world seat time in wet conditions. Pardus has finished 10th, 8th and 31st in the three road course races this year. He was running about 15th in that last race before he got wrecked during a late race restart where the whole field got bottled up because the two Mike Harmon cars restarted on the front row.
• Jade Buford - In a similar position to Pardus, but without a dud finish so far this year. Buford has run all three road course races and finished 14th, 19th and 16th.
  
• Josh Bilicki - Josh is an accomplished road course racer and actually teaches road course driving. He's a great play if you can afford the salary. He's finished 23rd, 17th and 12th in the three road course races this year. This team is not the most reliable, but the #78 Josh is in this weekend is usually OK. 
  • The one issue with Pardus, Buford and Bilicki is that they're going to race aggressively and fight for positions. The guys below on this list are likely to be more conservative, so probably have less chance of wrecking even though they're not as good drivers on the road courses.
• Jess Little - Salary and position difference play. He doesn't have a lot of road course experience, but finished 18th, 28th and 18th in the three road course races earlier this season. Figure something in the 22nd-25th range.
• Stephen Leicht - Minimum salary and finished 21st, 22nd and 21st in the three road course races this year. The pricing is so low because Leicht normally parks in the #66 car. He's in the #13 car this weekend and I fully expect him to try to complete this race. If he does, he should be able to pick up 4-5 spots.
• Kyle Weatherman - He's finished 15th, 21st and 17th in the three road course races this year. If he comes anywhere near the Top 20, he'll pay off big since he's starting 35th. As always, this is a Mike Harmon car, so the risk of a failure is higher than almost any other team.
• Gray Gaulding - He's in the other Mike Harmon car and will start 33rd. He's a pretty talented driver and should be able to finish around 20th if the car stays in one piece. As with Weatherman, there is a failure risk.
• I like Myatt Snider and Alex Labbe, but they probably start too far forward to use in cash games. Both have Top 10 potential and are solid tournament options.
• I'm not taking the cheese on Austin Hill. I believe this is his first Xfinity Series road course race. And the Truck Series doesn't race at the Roval, so it will be his first race on this road course. His Trucks Series results on the road courses are OK, but he wasn't dominating those races either. This could burn me but I prefer other plays noted above in the same salary range.