Wawa 250 Powered by Coca-Cola
Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
Course: Daytona International Speedway
Format: Tri-Oval
Lap Length: 2.5 miles
Laps: 100
Wawa 250 Preview
After a week off, the Xfinity Series returns at the iconic Dayton International Speedway. We're down to crunch time for the playoff picture, as only three races remain before the Round of 12. Eight of those 12 spots are occupied by race winners, with Carson Kvapil, Sheldon Creed, Taylor Gray and Harrison Burton holding onto the final four spots.
That sets us up for a return to a classic superspeedway race at Daytona. It's an interesting race to project, as the plentiful cautions create uncertainty but there are drivers that have clearly risen above the rest at this style of track and racing.
Key Stats at Daytona International Speedway
- Number of Races: 67
- Winners from Pole: 6
- Winners from Top 5: 31
- Winners from Top 10: 48
Previous Winners at Daytona International Speedway
2025- Jesse Love
2024- Ryan Truex
2024 – Austin Hill
2023- Justin Allgaier
2023- Austin Hill
2022- Jeremy Clements
2022- Austin Hill
2021- Justin Haley
2021- Austin Cindric
2020 – Justin Haley
As has become the norm, we should expect a lot of attrition in this race. In the United Rentals 300, the spring edition of the Xfinity Series race at Daytona, there were a total of eight cautions that accounted for 30.9 percent of the total laps. In the 2024 Wawa 250, 34 of the 102 laps were run under caution and nearly one-quarter of the field didn't complete the race.
The field is pretty straightforward this week, with Aric Almirola and Justin Haley being the primary additions to the traditional Xfinity field.
There are a few macro trends worth noting before we move into specific driver picks. Chevrolet has dominated Daytona dating all the way back to 1987. Jesse Love and Austin Hill carry that tradition forward. Finally, winning pole isn't all that important, but the winner has started inside the top 10 in 15 of the last 17 races.
RotoWire NASCAR Xfinity DFS Tools
DraftKings Values for the Wawa 250
Based on a Standard $50K Salary Cap
Tier 1 DraftKings Values
Austin Hill - $11,000
Jesse Love - $10,700
Justin Allgaier - $10,500
Connor Zilisch - $10,000
Tier 2 DraftKings Values
Aric Almirola - $9,800
Sheldon Creed - $9,500
Taylor Gray - $9,000
Carson Kvapil - $8,700
Sam Mayer - $8,500
Christian Eckes - $8,100
Nick Sanchez - $8,000
Tier 3 DraftKings Values
Harrison Burton - $7,700
Jeb Burton - $7,500
William Sawalich - $7,300
Daniel Dye - $7,100
Tier 4 DraftKings Values
Dean Thompson - $6,800
Matt DiBenedetto - $6,600
Brennan Poole - $6,500
NASCAR Xfinity DFS Picks for the Wawa 250
Austin Hill - $11,000
Sheldon Creed - $9,500
Christian Eckes - $8,100
Jeb Burton - $7,500
Daniel Dye - $7,100
Matt DiBenedetto - $6,600
There is never a 100 percent likelihood of an outcome in sports, and chaos can reign at Daytona. Nevertheless, the dominance that Austin Hill has displayed makes him a pretty straightforward building block. He led 56 laps in the spring race and has a driver rating over 100 in four of the last five races. Love, Hill's teammate, would be a good pivot.
Tier 2 is full of excellent options, so it's all about making the salary work. The sample lineup has picks at both extremes of the price range. Creed has finished second or third in three of last four races at Daytona and could be a driver to build through for those that are looking to fade all of the drivers in Tier 1. Eckes has a very good track record at Daytona from the Truck Series and started third before finishing 12th in the spring race. Pairing Gray or Mayer is also viable and is also nearly an identical cost.
Most of the picks in Tier 3 are solid, albeit none of them are likely to capture much upside. Dye and Jeb Burton both pop in our optimizer, projected for points at and above 6x their salary. They are excellent value options.
DiBenedetto makes the cut in the final tier because he's shown an ability to drive through the field in the superspeedway races this season. That's not exactly a skill to continue to bet on, and Brennan Poole also projects very well.
NASCAR Xfinity Series Best Bets for the Wawa 250
Race Winner: Austin Hill (+300), Jesse Love (+650), Sheldon Creed (+1600)
Head-to-Head Matchups:
Justin Allgaier (-120) vs. Brandon Jones (-110)
Taylor Gray (-115) vs. Sheldon Creed (-115)
Hill and Love are easy picks to be the race winners, and their odds are likely to decrease once qualifying occurs. Creed is more interesting. As has been well-documented, he has yet to win an Xfinity race and also drives a Ford. The latter is rarely something I'd consider, but Chevy has such a level of dominance at Daytona that it at least has to be noted. Creed's track record is what balances things out, as only Allgaier and Hill have higher driver ratings among the current Xfinity field – excluding Gray, whose only race at the track came this spring.
The head-to-head selections follow similar logic as there is significant overlap. Allgaier should be a more significant favorite over Jones, so that is among my favorite wagers of the week.
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