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AustYn

The NASCAR Cup Series produced another winner for the 2022 season as Ross Chastain earned his first Cup win of his career and gave Trackhouse Racing their first victory as a team. I know that I have touched on this, but Trackhouse is a team to watch out for this year. With the season at race #7, we have had 6 different winners and the short track at Richmond will more than likely keep that trend going. Many of the top-drivers have not won a race this season, including one of the best here Kyle Busch. Chase Elliott remains the points leader with a decent 13-point lead over Ryan Blaney. With the new car, the racing does seem to be a little more competitive, so maybe that explains all the winners, but I truly believe the talent pool in the Cup Series is better than it has ever been. Ross Chastain made headlines with the way he won at COTA, leaving AJ Allmendinger upset. One question for him is, will he continue to drive that aggressively now that he got his first win? We will see, but if you play DFS, you understand that he is a threat now, especially at road courses.

Richmond Raceway is a ¾ mile track and will produce totally different racing than anything we have experienced this season. Many statistics will come into play here, laps led are huge here, therefore you must pick a dominator. Track position will be crucial, as it is difficult to pass at Richmond. Fastest laps matter because of the number of laps completed, which will be 400. Also, a strategy that should be implemented is picking a veteran driver who can conserve their equipment, with the tire wear being heavy, pick a driver who can save that extra tread for long runs, which will inevitably happen. Kyle Larson is the favorite according to CBS Sports…I feel like this is the case every week.

Top Pick: Ryan Blaney ($9,400) Starting 1st

I understand that Ryan Blaney does not have a great history at Richmond in the Cup Series…but I am pulling the trigger on the #12 Penske driver this weekend. With track position being a premium (Blaney qualified on the Pole) and the fact that Blaney was the fastest in 5,10,15,20 and 25 lap runs, it seems like too good of a selection at $9,400. The weird thing about Blaney is that he only has 1 top-10 in 11 starts, and that was earned in his last start. Team Penske has been performing very well this season and I look for Blaney to carry his momentum into leading 200+ laps this weekend at Richmond.

Supporting Cast: Kurt Busch ($7,900) Starting 27th & Brad Keselowski ($7,400) Starting 19th

My secondary options this week are going to be veterans. Kurt Busch is in JGR equipment nowadays and even though his qualifying position is not ideal, if I can get a driver who has 2 victories here and is known for conservation of equipment, I must jump at it. Many times, when making lineups at short tracks, you can be more creative with cheaper options, and I fully believe Kurt could even win this weekend. Brad Keselowski is my next choice, I know that he is in a different quality car than at Team Penske, but it isn’t a large enough difference to warrant this bad of a price point. You get a driver who has won twice here and a driver who has quietly rattled off two consecutive top-15’s this season. Brad was dominant at short tracks at Penske, and the engines are made in the same place. The points execution that NASCAR handed down to RFK will undoubtedly give them extra motivation in a race that could be won by the #6 team.

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Yacs

We’re going short-track racing this week at Richmond and we should be in for another good race. Ross Chastain picked up his first Cup Series win last week, and he picked it up in exciting fashion. A little bit of bump ‘n run did the job, but what was done was done. Richmond is always an interesting race and it usually yields a lot of green flag laps and not so many cautions. They’ve averaged about 4 cautions per race in the last 3 years and that tells me about every 100 laps, you should expect a yellow flag. That’s not often.

With that being said, you want guy that you know can either hold their position or pass a few cars without any worries. Looking at salaries this week, there will be a lot of chalky drivers, but they’re easily avoidable and don’t be afraid to leave a little bit of extra salary in the end. I think that can be a reminder for every track from here on out considering how the season has went thus far. Well, let’s not delay.

Totally Kyle, again: Kyle Larson ($13,000) Starting 21st; Kyle Busch ($12,500) Starting 3rd

Yes, we’re going totally Kyle again this week at Richmond. Why? Well, you really can’t afford not to go with Kyle Larson. Larson is a former winner here, he’s only the 3rd most expensive driver, he’s starting 21st, and he’s Kyle Larson. I think that it more than enough of a reason to go with him. He wasn’t awesome in practice, but does he really need to be? He’s the best driver on the planet and it’s almost a fact. For Kyle Busch, well, he’s the best driver at Richmond by a pretty good margin. In 32 races, he has an average of 6.9. Yes, you read that right. He’s won here 6 times and he was the fastest car in practice. Looks like it’s gonna be one of those days for ol’ Rowdy.

TrackHouse Tag Team: Ross Chastain ($11,000), Starting 8th; Daniel Suarez ($7,300), Starting 14th

In honor of WrestleMania weekend, I’m calling the team of Suarez and Chastain the TrackHouse Tag Team. These two have ran very well all season long and it looks like Pitbull’s team isn’t backing down. I have been very impressed with the strides they have made this season and it’s good to see more teams getting win opportunities. Chastain is running on adrenaline after his first Cup Series win last week and Suarez is just solid at most tracks. Suarez practiced 11th and Chastain was 9th. Things are looking pretty good for these two Chevy cars this week and hopefully they can both be competing for the win in the end.

Final Pick: Bubba Wallace ($4,000); Starting 29th

Bubba has had some fast cars this year, but in a lot of races either something goes wrong in the end or he gets collected in an accident. At $4,000, he’s a steal and don’t let that track record here fool you, he’s a decent driver at Richmond. I think he can definitely get you a Top 15 and that’s all you need really. The biggest concern I have for him is getting off of the lead lap early and never recovering, but if he can stay out of trouble and keep ahead of the leader coming back around, he’ll be a great pick this week. Also, another note of caution, Wallace will be without some crew member this week including his crew chief.

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