iowa xfinity

 A few notes on the stand alone xfinity race in Iowa on Saturday:

• I'm looking for Christopher Bell or Justin Allgaier to win this race.  Allgaier won the first Iowa race this year in early June.  He led 182 of 250 laps and had 53 fastest laps.  Bell started from the rear in June, but finished second, led 2 laps and had a race best 55 fastest laps.  (I think laps led in June would have been much closer had Bell not started in the rear.)
  
• In the July race last year, Ryan Preece won, leading 141 laps and driving 67 fastest laps.  The wrinkle there is that Bell did not run in that race and that Preece was in the same #20 car that Bell is in this year.  In that July race last year, Allgaier finished second, led 106 laps and had 24 fastest laps.  So, these two cars have really dominated the last two races.
  
• Also, in the June race last year, Bell won in the #20 car, while leading 152 laps and scoring 66 fastest laps.  So the #20 car has had the most fastest laps in the last three races and has won two of those races.  Allgaier ran 9th with 5 laps led last June.
  
• Kyle Benjamin is in great equipment (the #18 of Joe Gibbs Racing, Bell's teammate) and has a good price.  The issue with him is consistency.  He's raced here twice and started 2nd both times.  Once he led a few laps and finished 2nd for a great day.  The other time he finished 31st.  He's probably too risky to use in cash games if he starts up front.  But I would use him in all formats if he doesn't qualify well and he is a decent tournament game play even if he starts up front.
• Matt Tifft was showing consistent/long run speed in practice.  He is an option in all formats.
  
• Ross Chastain has finished in the Top 20 at Iowa six times in a row.  Solid cash game play.
  
• Ryan Sieg has finished in the Top 20 in eight of the last nine Iowa races.  The other time he finished 21st.  Another solid cash game option.
  
• Michael Annett does very little with good cars, but he's Allgaier's teammate and should have a real good set up for this race.  He's done pretty well at Iowa, so he is definitely a strong option as long as he's not starting in the Top 15.
  
• David Starr has outperformed his salary at Iowa.  He's finished between 14th - 26th in the last six Iowa races -- which is a great return for a $5,900 salary.
  
• Elliott Sadler, Blake Jones and Casey Roderick are additional tournament only options.
  
• If any other competent series regulars -- for example, Hemric, Custer, Reddick, Truex, Reed or Cindric -- fail pre-qualifying inspection and have an official starting spot in the rear, they would likely be a must play in cash games and a good target (although highly owned) in tournaments as well.
• There's a very short time between the end of qualifying and the race this week, so I won't be able to update anything with starting spot information.