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This week NASCAR makes their yearly trip the Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, NY. This will be the second road course run this season and, to add a little extra drama, post qualifying inspection will be conducted Sunday morning before the race, so we won't have a confirmed starting lineup until hours before the race.

Last week’s winning lineups:

Perfect Lineup: Harvick, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Byron 396.6 DK pts

$85K Chrome Horn: Bowman, Kyle Busch, Byron, Harvick, McDowell, Suarez 390.25 DK pts. Min cash: 300.50 DK pts.

$20K Happy Hour: Bowman, Kyle Busch, Byron, Austin Dillon, Harvick, McDowell 391.50 DK pts. Min cash: 299.00 DK pts.

$225K Piston: Bowman, Kyle Busch, Byron, Austin Dillon, Harvick, Kahne 390.5 DK pts. Min cash: 302.50 DK pts.

On to The Glen!

Scoring Breakdown

At this point, we know how the DK scoring system works, so let's see how many points are available this week:

Laps Led Points = 0.25 points per lap led. This week, 90 laps will be run and 22.5 points will be awarded (unless overtime).

Place Differential Points = 1 point per position gained or -1 point per position lost.

Fastest Lap Points = 0.5 points per lap not run under caution (roughly 74 laps are run under the green flag for a total of 37 possible points).

Finishing Position Points: The 40th place driver receives 4 points, and for each position gained, another point is awarded (39th=5, 38th=6…) and the winner gets 46 points.

Lineup Construction 🏗️

This slate can potentially be turned on its head on Sunday morning due to post qualifying inspections. For any late breaking news, make sure to check out the chat.

Watkins Glen is a tricky track for the drivers as well as for DFS purposes. There are relatively few dominator points available, but the drivers who dominate usually find themselves in the perfect lineup. The real key statistic this week is finishing position, which sounds pretty basic, but the best way to think about it is to look at last year's perfect lineup: Truex Jr., Hamlin, Blaney, Kenseth, Suarez and Buescher. Every driver in that lineup started in the top 17 and finished inside the top 11. Truex Jr. led 24 laps and won but the other 2 drivers that led 20+ laps finished too far back and weren't in the perfect lineup. No driver in that lineup picked up more than 13 positions and Suarez only picked up 2. All in all, we want drivers who will finish well. Domination points are helpful but not absolutely necessary, and we need to avoid any driver who will lose any places.

The stage breakdown is as follows: Stage 1: 20 laps, Stage 2: 20 laps, Stage 3: 50 laps.

Lineup Foundation Targets

Pocono Review:

• Kevin Harvick (88.5DK pts): Second highest scoring driver and in every winning lineup. He led 30 laps. had 32 fastest laps and fought his way to the front twice. If it wasn't for a fender bender on pit row, he would have been the highest scoring driver of the day.

• Aric Almirola (28.5 DK pts): Did someone say fender bender? This race was incredibly frustrating because, for the first 120 laps, Almirola and Harvick were doing exactly what I expected them to do....and then they decided to collide on pit row. Harvick was able to recover and have himself a nice day while Almirola floundered towards the back of the pack (like my hopes for $50k).

Watkins Glen Picks:

Kurt Busch ($9,300 DK, $10,500 FD)

Kurt Busch is seen as a road course specialist and he is one of the few drivers that is good at both Watkins Glen and Sonoma. He usually carries hefty ownership and is priced up this weekend, but Busch has had positive places differential in each of the last 5 races and hasn't had a finish worse than 11th in that time period. His practice times were absolutely terrible, so hopefully he will not be as highly owned as he should be.

Daniel Suarez ($7,500 DK, $9,200 FD)

It seems like my fade one week becomes a recommendation the next, but Suarez is on a hot streak and runs sneaky well at road courses. He finished 3rd last year and led 14 laps, while I don't expect him to duplicate those results, his worst finish at a road course is 16th and I see that as his floor.

Tournament Targets

Pocono Review:

• William Byron (73.00 DK pts): Started 38th, finished 6th with 10 laps led (an unexpected bonus). Byron had one of his best races of the season and was in every winning lineup.

• Brad Keselowski (-25.25 DK pts): Turns out we didn't need a dominator up front, and having Kes in your lineups was an absolute killer. Car troubles about halfway through the race ended his day early.

• Ryan Blaney (53.00 DK pts): Even though he was not in any of the winning lineups, Blaney had himself a nice race, finishing 12th and enduring some adversity due to late race car troubles.

Watkins Glen Picks:

Matt Kenseth ($6,900 DK , $7,900 FD)

I am going to get a little crazy with the this section this week but anyone who has been reading these newsletters throughout the weeks should know when I look to target Kenseth. Watkins Glen is a track that the skill of the drivers matters much more than the strength of their cars. Kenseth has the same skill he had when he was a full time driver, but his equipment is just not what he is used to, and this weekend I am banking on him

Brad Keselowski ($9,400 DK , $11,000 FD)

We could pick only drivers in the back, but I think we need a dominator if we want to take down a GPP, and I see Keselowski being the most likely dominator. He has not finished worst than 5th in the last 6 races here and has led at least 1 lap in each of the last 4. His first practice times are worrisome but I still believe he has the best car in the top 5.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ($5,700 DK , $6,400 FD)

This play is almost crazy because he has a terrible history here, but due to his salary and starting position he can provide salary relief as well as a safe enough floor. His practice times are great but I can't stress enough he is risky. If he becomes kind of chalky (more than 25% owned) I would recommend a full fade but if we can get him at low ownership he is worth a stab.

Bargain Bin

Pocono Review:

• The full fade of this price range was the right call because the highest scoring driver had 11 points. McDowell scored 25 points but cost $5,600 so did not qualify for this section.

Watkins Glen Picks

Sub $5,500 - Matt DiBenedetto ($5,100 DK, $5,500 FD)

Another article favorite here, I don't love this range and prefer David Ragan if you have the salary but I believe DiBenedetto has the best ceiling of this range.

Sub $5000- Landon Cassill ($4,800 DK, $5,000 FD)

Cassill can't lose you points, so thats a plus but I can't hammer home the importance of finishing position this week and wholeheartenedly reccommend drivers in this range.

Other Drivers To Consider

Pocono Review

• Martin Truex Jr. (23.5 DK pts): He was never able to get up front and disappointed all around.

• Joey Logano (22.00 DK pts): I expected more from Logano but he ran into car troubles late and was lucky to salvage 22 points

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr (17.00 DK pts): My low owned sleeper pick of the week didn't work out as I planned.

Here are 3 more drivers I like at Watkins Glen that have a chance to make some noise, in no particular order:

Martin Truex Jr. ($11,500 DK, $12,700 FD)

Denny Hamlin ($10,300 DK, $10,300 FD)

Michael McDowell ($6,100 DK, $6,800 FD)

Top Driver to Avoid

Pocono Review:

• Daniel Suarez (54.25 DK pts): Started first, finished second, led 29 laps and added 12 fastest laps. He was only in one winning lineup but he continued his hot streak and had a great race.

Watkins Glen Pick

Kyle Larson ($9,500 DK, $9,400 FD)

Larson has had negative place differential in 3 of the last 4 races at the Glen and only has 1 top 10 finish. He practiced terribly on Saturday and I am rolling out a full fade on him on Sunday.

Thanks for reading and good luck this weekend! Be sure to join me in the LineStar NASCAR chat!

Be sure to download the  GoBowling at the Glen Cheatsheet!  It does not have comments section this week so if you want my thoughts on individual drivers reach out to me in the chat or on Twitter

Follow me on Twitter @joejets19 and Good Luck!