cota cup

Lots of very good options in play this week, so I'm going to break down each tier and let you know what I'm thinking--

$9k and up

• My favorites here are William Byron and Kyle Larson. They offer so much upside with worse then expected starting spots. Byron was really, really fast at road courses last year but didn't get the end result he probably deserved on several occasions. Larson won three of seven road course races last year and had five Top 3 finishes in those races.
  • Can't go wrong with Chase Elliott either. He's always running near the front at road courses, but he was just not up to speed in practice so I do have some concerns about this first road course race in the new car.
  • I also really like Kyle Busch and might end up flipping the two Kyles here. I love that Busch ran really well in the Trucks race and put up a couple of really fast laps in practice.
  • Martin Truex and Austin Cindric are also in play.

$7k-$9k

• My favorites here are Ross Chastain and AJ Allmendinger. Ross was an absolute rocket ship in practice with three of the fastest laps on the board. He was also very strong in the Xfinity race on Saturday, was strong on road courses last year and comes in with great recent form. AJ won the Xfinity race and is always a threat at a road course. The longer and more technical the laps are, the better it is for his skills. 
  • I've got a lot of interest in Chase Briscoe, but feel Chastain and Allmendinger offer a little better upside for less salary.
  • Eric Jones is also in play from the 30th starting spot. He had six Top 20 finishes in the seven road course races last year.

Under $7k

• Michael McDowell and Joey Hand are my favorites here. McDowell is usually solid at the road courses and ran a few good laps in practice. Hand was quite quick in practice before blowing a RF tire. He's very cheap and starts 38th, so is an all upside play.
  • Todd Gilliland (won the Truck race here last year) and Andy Lally (road course ringer) can also be considered.