Alright it’s COTA week and I truly apologize for not having this up last night as promised. I celebrated a little too much over the Bruins win last night which was a poor decision in hindsight because it’s not like they won the Stanley Cup or even the series against the Caps. Either way, I’ve probably shared too much.

COTA is a road course with just 41 laps on the table on Saturday. That means we have less than 30 dominator points on the table Saturday afternoon. So I’m focusing less on dom points and mostly just on PD and finishing position. Will the dominator points come into play in a GPP? Probably, and you can easily make GPP builds with a one dominator mindset, but we aren’t really looking at this race in terms of “value” like we normally do. Scores will be lower this weekend so keep that in mind.

I highly encourage everyone to be in the chat from 12:00pm ET up until lineup lock because I may not update the Playbook at all once we get the qualifying order. From there I’ll be scrambling to throw lineups together like you so if you have any questions about the starting order, by all means come throw them in the chat. I may also not have Core Plays for this race, but if I have time I might throw them in at the bottom of the Playbook once we know the running order.

Here is the starting order for Saturday's race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the practice results from yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driver Pool

John Hunter Nemechek ($10,400) – This is probably the most obvious call of the week, but based on what we’ve seen this year and his track record on road courses in this series, JHN is firmly in play regardless of where he starts in the field. He won at Mosport Park (it’s the abbreviation of Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) just North of the border back in 2016 and was runner-up the last time he raced there in 2018. He flashed a top ten ride in practice, which should come as absolutely no surprise. He’ll be a popular play, but for good reason.

Sheldon Creed ($10,300) – He’s coming off his first win of the season two weeks ago so we have momentum. He’s also finished first and second at the two DRC races, and he has a top five finish at Mosport Park. He also had the second-fastest practice speed yesterday so you don’t need me to rabble on about Creed. I don’t think I’d play him and JHN together, but I may dabble in one or two builds with that combination. I likely won’t feel great about it though.

Ben Rhodes ($10,100) – Rhodes kicked off the 2021 season by winning both races at Daytona, including DRC. Additionally, in his last race at Mosport Park he grabbed a top three finish and he showed good speed on Friday. He finished second at Darlington two weeks ago, so he’s also coming in with some solid momentum.

Matt Crafton ($9,900) – I don’t really care about the price tag today. We’re throwing the term “value” out the window at a road course with just 41 laps on the table. Crafton has plenty of experience and he’s in some of the best equipment in the field. He had the seventh-fastest lap during practice, and he has an average finish of fifth at DRC, and ninth at Mosport Park.

Paul Menard ($9,600) – To the surprise of everyone, we have ourselves a Paul Menard sighting. Menard retired from full-time racing at the Cup level back in 2019, vacating the 21-car of the Wood Brothers and recommending Matty D take over for him. Menard isn’t particularly the greatest road course driver. However, he has experience at the Cup level and he’s racing in a Thorsport truck on Saturday. He only ran six practice laps yesterday but had a top 15 lap.

Kaz Grala ($9,500) – Grala’s a noted road course specialist. At the Xfinity level he has an average finish of 6.67 at Road America, and he started 24th and finished eighth at DRC earlier this season at the Truck level. In last year’s race at DRC at the Cup level he grabbed a top ten so given his comfort on this style of track he’s worth a look. The truck carried top ten speed in yesterday’s practice as well.

Zane Smith ($9,300) – Might as well mention Zane since he went out and posted the fastest lap at practice. Tread carefully if opting to play him because he always seems to present himself as a good GPP option and then he just doesn’t finish as well as we normally like. But depending on qualifying if he provides obvious PD then he’ll make for an easier play.

Parker Chase ($9,100) – Chase is somewhat of a hometown kid this week. He grew up about 30-40 miles outside Austin and he has plenty of experience on road courses. He finished outside the top 20 at DRC earlier this year. But on Friday he showed a little more comfort by flashing some top 12 speed. Remember, he’s in Kyle Busch’s 51-truck so the equipment isn’t a concern.

Sam Mayer ($8,500) – I will pretty much play Mayer whenever he’s on a slate for us. I will be pulling for this kid because he’s still very young and he’s actually won a race at this level and came very close to winning Gateway last year as well. Now the win and those impressive performances came in better equipment, but I’m still not shying away from him after he grabbed a top ten at Richmond in this ride a month ago. I’m hoping this is a second coming out party for him because he’ll start running more Xfinity races for JR Motorsports in the coming months because he isn’t 18 yet. You read that correctly, he’s only 17 and he’s won a race at the Truck series.

Todd Gilliland ($8,400) – Toddfather’s in play as always. He looked great during practice with top five speed, he’s had decent results at Mosport Park, and he got a top five at DRC back in February. Nobody ever really plays him, but he just churns out solid results. I’m not worried about the price tag because we don’t weigh value too much on road courses. If it were any other track and he was at this price tag I probably wouldn’t be on board.

Stewart Friesen ($8,100) – I’m a little surprised with the pricing on Friesen today, but I kind of understand it given the recent results. Friesen could make for a nice PD play on Saturday if he qualifies poorly. He didn’t flash the greatest practice speeds, but he was probably just focusing on getting comfortable with the track. In both DRC races over the past year he’s started outside the top 20 and finished inside the top 12. And at Mosport Park he has a pair of seventh-place finishes. So he has top ten upside today and can garner PD if he qualifies outside the top 10-15 which is what we’re looking for.

Johnny Sauter ($7,700) – What have we been saying about Sauter for almost a year now? He hasn’t looked the same without practice and qualifying. Three years ago Sauter was a guy who won six races and he was the truck series champion (he also won it in 2016). The good news is we get practice and qualifying for Sauter this week. The bad news is he isn’t very good at road courses. However, DRC and Mosport Park are two completely different kinds of “road courses” and from 2014-2019 he logged six straight finishes in the top eight up in Canada. He didn’t have the greatest practice time but the fact he’s getting practice helps him greatly for Saturday’s race and he could come with some PD upside.

Michele Abbate ($6,500) – Abbate isn’t in great equipment, but she knows this course better than most in this field. She’s raced here previously in the Trans-Am TA2 class so knowing the corners and layout has to be of some value. Her practice time wasn’t great as you can see from the graphic above, but she did get plenty of laps in during practice and if she qualifies toward the rear then she becomes a cheap PD play that maybe moves up through the field during some late-race chaos.

Camden Murphy ($5,700) – Murphy flashed some nice speed on Friday with the 11th-best practice speed. Additionally, Spencer Davis has gotten some top 20’s out of this ride already on the year and Murphy has typically performed better on road courses in the past.

Austin Wayne Self ($5,000) – DraftKings just loves serving AWS to us on a platter. This is his hometown (that’s probably why his parents named him Austin) and he showcased top 20 speed on Friday. He has a pair of top 15 finishes at DRC, and he has three top 15 finishes at Mosport Park. Assuming he starts around P18-P20 he’s going to make for another fine play this week.

Updates: So we just finished up with qualifying and Tyler Ankrum will be on the pole. Kaz Grala will start right next to him, which is great for a road course specialist. Here's a link to the starting order for the Truck series. It's going to be wet all day. I'm less inclined to focus on the practice times from yesterday because the trucks naturally were slower today on a wet surface. Zane Smith was fastest in practice yesterday, but starts P15 on Saturday. He's still a solid enough driver where he can be viable in Cash contests.

Tanner Gray will likely be popular starting P36 and I'll be mixing in exposure for cheap PD as well. Paul Menard is starting P26 in a Thorsport truck so I'm okay mixing him into Cash games because the floor is there, but I may be lighter on him in GPP's because the field will throw heavy ownership at him. 

Hailie Deegan is starting P28, but I'm probably not looking to play her today. She didn't have the greatest practice and didn't look comfortable on the wet track. Camden Murphy is going to be a solid cheap PD target.

Johnny Sauter is a good PD target today so I may use him in my Cash lineup. 

I don't think I'm going to submit Core plays today. I can't withdraw my Cash reservations because the contests are full but this is more of a GPP race and given the weather conditions, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN.