Circuit of the Americas
Race Recap
5 races, 5 winners. The parity of the NextGen equipment and the talent pool of the drivers this year is showing. Denny Hamlin takes down an amazing Bristol Race. Hand up, I only caught parts of the race on Sunday, I had priors. Everything points to Bristol being all the way back, sans dirt means we get back to some serious racing at a track that historically has provided just that. Tire wear became a huge issue on Sunday, paralleling that of Darlington. So much so that NASCAR had to issue all drivers an extra set of tires mid-race as most, if not all drivers, were looking like they would not have enough to finish the race even after burning through scuffs. Wild wild stuff. Another big factor was the marbling of the tires and guys picking up that extra rubber moving around the track. All in all, a gritty, difficult race that provided the excitement we had hoped. With the exception of the two desert races in Phoenix and Las Vegas, we have had some exciting races to start the year.
Quick recap of my awful plays from last week. Bowman keeps the top 5 streak alive coming in 4th. Gragson and Byron soiled themselves and finished 34th and 35th, respectively. Just brutal.
This Week’s Race Preview
Keeping Austin Weird one road course at a time. We’re in Austin, TX at CotA. A purpose built F1 track. Only 68 laps, and this year they are reintroducing stage breaks.
Track
3.43 mile, Paved, Road Course
Betting Intro & Stats
Keeping this short and sweet this week. Between actually having to work at my day job and prepping for March Madness, CotA has admittedly fallen by the wayside. Also, given the exposure in MM, keeping the playbook short this week. Missed some opening lines for some absolute ringers, so please forgive me. Keep an eye on AJ Allmendinger (Dinger the Ringer at Roadies), Shane van Ginsbergen (former open wheel driver, currently on Xfinity series, winner of Chicago last summer), and Kamui Kobayashi. Tyler Reddick is your defending champ from last spring.
Quickly, comps are obviously going to be all your road courses; Indy road, Road America, Sonoma, Watkins Glenn, and recently, Chicago Street (sorta). Pooling them all together, the top performers at road courses since 2021 are Larson, Reddick, Elliott, Bell, Allmendinger, all with 2 or more wins at road courses. Dropping the stats for CotA below.
Let’s take a look at some recent stats from www.driveraverages.com.
Picks
Last Week’s Recap: – 3.3U
Season Results: – 16.45U
Well this week we are being forced to change tactics. Too much actual work this week, and on top of MM prep, I completely missed the pre-qual window. Lets see if we maybe get a little closer to that all important win this week.
Changing course entirely this week. Instead of 3 specific tier plays, we’re going to bunch up a few and spread the love. Units are on you this week, not making logical plays myself.
Shane van Ginsbergen 10-1
Kyle Larson 11-1
Christopher Bell 12-1
AJ Allmendinger 13-1
Kamui Kobayashi 55-1
DFS Strategy
Road courses are a whole other animal when it comes to DFS. Dominator points are non-existent. They matter so little it doesn’t matter if the winner only leads the last lap, that’s all you need. You need the winner, and you need the other 5 drivers in the top 10. Anything less and you’ll be recouping half your entries and licking your wounds until next week.
Raise Hell Praise Dale
The Weekend Heater 
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