The rankings below are based on a mixture of expected output and DraftKings’ NASCAR salaries for that day. The ordering is not based on the highest projected fantasy totals, but rather by the value of each driver.
The DraftKings Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR slate locks at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday.
1. Justin Allgaier ($10,500) — JR Motorsports finished 1-2-3 in a race for the first time ever in the history of the team at Las Vegas. Unfortunately, Allgaier was the runner-up to Josh Berry in that race. Berry isn’t racing this weekend, and Las Vegas is comparable to Kansas.
2. Ty Gibbs ($11,200) — The No. 54 JGR Toyota won last week at Texas in dominant fashion with John Hunter Nemehek driving. The team will undoubtedly set up a fast race car this weekend, but can Ty Gibbs deliver? His only oval Xfinity win was at Charlotte in May.
3. Noah Gragson ($9,700) — The third place JR Motorsports car at Las Vegas was driven by Noah Gragson. Kansas has a high groove and this track should suit his driving style. Last fall, Gragson expected to have a good run at Kansas, but he wrecked during a stage 1 restart.
4. Brandon Jones ($9,300) — Kansas is Brandon Jones’ track. Brandon Jones has a track? It’s more believable that the rich kid literally owns the track rather than figuratively owns it by winning at this 1.5 mile oval twice. However, the latter is true and a third win is a strong possibility this weekend.
5. Daniel Hemric ($9,500) — That was a close one last week. Hemric nearly put an end to the Daniel Hemric Career Winless Clock, but he blew another race and the clock sits at 206 races and counting. Unsurprisingly, Hemric has finished second in two of his last three Kansas races.
6. Austin Cindric ($10,800) — At Las Vegas, he lost the lead because a caution was called at an inopportune time during a restart and the scoring loop gave the lead to AJ Allmendinger. Good drivers in good cars should easily overcome mild adversity, but Cindric was never able to regain the lead and finished fourth.
7. Harrison Burton ($9,900) — The No. 20 JGR car might be the worst of the lot. Hemric has a great car, but he cannot seal the deal. At times, Brandon Jones looks like a contender. Harrison Burton on the other hand, hasn’t shown anything lately.
8. AJ Allmendinger ($10,200) — In clean air, Allmendinger had a race-winning car at Las Vegas. At the beginning of Stage 2, underdog teams gambled and stayed out during the caution. On the subsequent restart, Allmendinger dropped outside of the top 10 because of the slower underdog cars in front of him and was never able to race his way back to the front.
9. Michael Annett ($7,600) — The JR Motorsports No. 1 Chevy won at Las Vegas with Josh Berry driving and it was not a fluke. Berry passed the leader, Justin Allgaier, twice during the final stage. Annett ran the second-most laps inside the top 10 last week at Texas.
10. Brandon Brown ($7,800) — It’s risky even mentioning this driver’s name. If the Fantasy Rankings article gets cancelled or trolled to death, then it was a nice seven-year run. Brown had a top-10 car until he wrecked last week leaving the crowd without a name to chant. This week at Kansas, he could easily finish inside the top 10, and the fan favorite could once again fire up the crowd.
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11. Brett Moffitt ($8,700) — It’s hard to peg this car. Several times this season, Moffitt has earned a stellar Real Rating (my own statistical creation that weighs a driver’s average position along with the amount of laps led and laps driven inside the top 5, top 10, top 20, top 25 and top 30) at intermediate tracks — 85/100 at Homestead, 87/100 at Atlanta and 82/100 at Michigan.
12. Ryan Sieg ($7,100) — Last fall at Kansas, Sieg ran long, caught a caution and finished third. In the first Kansas race, there were two cautions in the final 10 laps and pit road strategy elevated Sieg from an 11th place finish to a fourth place finish.
13. Sam Mayer ($8,300) — JR Motorsports has found something with their intermediate track program. Mayer didn’t show it at Las Vegas because he wrecked, but last week at Texas, Mayer ran the fifth-most laps inside the top 5.
14. Justin Haley ($9,100) — The Kaulig Racing cars are good, but they’re not better than Penske, JR Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. It also appears that most of the team’s resources are going toward AJ Allmendinger’s championship run.
15. Gray Gaulding ($6,400) — The driver is talented enough to earn a top-20 finish, but can the equipment get there? Mike Harmon cars can finish in 20th place, but they can also break down. Run this race 10 times, and the majority of the time the car fails and maybe twice it earns a top-20 finish.
16. Jordan Anderson ($7,500) — His fifth place finish at Talladega doesn’t really mean much this week, but at least the Jordan Anderson No. 31 car did not break down. This car finished 15th last week with Kaz Grala driving and eighth at Las Vegas with Ty Dillon behind the wheel.
17. Patrick Emerling ($6,600) — This is a quasi-quasi-RCR car. The Our Motorsports car might be questionable, but it is unquestionably better than the rest of the slugs starting in the back. Patrick Emerling’s Xfinity results have been disappointing, but his struggles at challenging short tracks are understandable.
18. Jade Buford ($7,300) — Big Machine Records music label decided to start an Xfinity team – Big Machine Racing – this season. The racing team has failed to match the success of their other spin-offs, Big Machine Vodka and Big Machine Spiked Seltzer, but let’s be honest, who can’t be successful selling hard seltzer? That’s like winning an ARCA race.
19. Jeffrey Earnhardt ($6,000) — There are not many value plays on the board this week, and that’s a good thing. Most of the time Xfinity value plays are terrible punts that only score points in theory, but in reality they wreck or their cars break down on the warm-up laps. Earnhardt isn’t very appealing, but his car is just good enough and he’s just cheap enough to be optimal.
20. Loris Hezemans ($5,900) — The Hattori No. 61 Toyota was prepared for Chad Finchum, but in the middle of the week, Finchum landed a Cup ride. At Bristol, a radio issue resulted in a green flag pit stop and Finchum lost multiple laps, but at Charlotte, Finchum earned a top-15 finish. Hezemans has not been very impressive in his limited number of Xfinity Series runs.
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