 So, I just want to start things off here today by saying that I am beyond relieved that the noose concern around Bubba Wallace's garage stall in Talladega wound up not being targeted. It was still a noose and NASCAR was right to investigate it and the fear and the anger that Bubba likely felt after being informed of it was still very real, but I legitimately felt sick when I heard the report of it on Sunday night and I would hope that you did too and to later find out that it wasn't something targeted at Bubba just made you feel relief. You know you have concern for the safety of that driver and it's still not good that the noose was there. It wasn't in any other garage stalls throughout the entirety of NASCAR and there are a whole heck of a lot of other ways to tie a knot for a door pull. Going forward hopefully people who do see anything like this will flag it to NASCAR, flag it to officials and do literally any other knot that does not symbolize death and the terrorization of black people. We can avoid that very easily and that should be avoided, but at least we have the relief of knowing it was not targeted. The people on Twitter making bad faith arguments about Bubba partially nullify that relief. There are a lot of bad actors out there for sure, but I'm glad NASCAR reacted. I am happy with how transparent they have been throughout all this and how much they had Bubba's back and I hope that energy from NASCAR and its drivers continues. This may not have been a targeted attack, but people have still been terrible to Bubba the past few weeks on Twitter and everywhere. They've been attacking this guy just standing up for what he believes in and hopefully every driver does that exact same thing, standing up for what they believe in. So Bubba still needs support. I hope that NASCAR and its drivers continue to support him against those who try to bring him down, but overall just relief. This is not a terribly heinous, racist attack. I am relieved that was not the case, but still hoping that NASCAR and its drivers continue to support Bubba going forward. Now, let's turn the page and move to Pocono. Welcome on into the Heat Check Fantasy podcast powered by Number Fire. That's right here on the FanDuel Podcast Network and NumberFire.com. My name is Jim Sonis. I am a senior writer and analyst for NumberFire here to break down a double header in Pocono this weekend with the Pocono Organics 325 and the Pocono 350. We will be going through both races, at least in a sense here, on the podcast for today. First race is Saturday at 3.30pm Eastern time. The second one is it's Sunday at 4pm Eastern time. So you will have until the afternoon for each day because there are races beforehand on both those days, the Truck Series and the Accinity Series. So a little bit later lock. We're going to go through strategies for both those races within the podcast today. The tier by tier breakdowns will mostly focus on the Saturday race because we know where drivers are starting there, but the Sunday one will at least touch on some drivers I like who depending on where they start for Sunday. As a reminder, we do have a lot of stuff going down here on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed right now. We've got PGA podcasts every Tuesday, myself and Brandon Cadulla. We have our NASCAR podcast, of course, probably going to be Friday going forward just because of the way the scheduling has worked for NASCAR, when they release starting orders, stuff like that. Just makes more sense to record those on Fridays. We know where each driver is starting and when applicable, we'll have USC podcast as well. USC podcast this weekend is already posted with Austin Swain and on that same line, the USC continues to roll on and there is no better place to get in on the action than on FanDuel. For just $8 and 88 cents, enter FanDuel's 150k USC Octagon for this Saturday's event and compete for your share of the $150,000 prize pool, including a $30,000 first place prize. Take your pick of Justin Poirier, Mike Perry, Jordan Griffin and so many more and follow along using FanDuel's live scoring as the fights unfold. Someone is going to win $30,000 or at least a tie of it and it might just be you. For more details, visit fanDuel.com or download the FanDuel app today. Eligibility restrictions apply. Let's take a look at the track breakdown here for Pocono and the big thing to know for both Saturday's race and Sunday's race is that they are going to be short races. It's 130 laps on Saturday, 140 on Sunday and for shorter races in NASCAR DFS, our emphasis is always going to be on finding drivers who can get place differential points. It's the same line of thinking as Talladega. Talladega and Pocono could not be more different from a track composition perspective and from a racing style perspective, but in this sense, they are the same. There is less upside for drivers who start at the front via laps led when the is shorter race, but drivers starting further back have the same upside as usual because there are the same number of drivers in the field. So in general, our process is going to be to target drivers starting a bit further back who can finish well and get place differential points. Our routes for getting there will just be different on Sunday from where they are on Saturday. Saturday starting order will be set the exact same way it has been for recent races. The top 12 cars and owner points are starting in the top 12 spots in the race. They drew last night for the order of those 12. The same procedure was taken for the drivers ranked 13th through 24th and 25th to 36th. So in general, the best cars in this race are starting up at the front. That does complicate things. In order to get place differential points, you've got to move up through the field. When the cars ahead of you are better, that makes it tough to make those passes. But we should still be actively trying to find drivers who can finish better than where they're starting. And to me this leads to a pretty clear strategy for DFS. I want a driver up front who can win the race. I am not targeting them because they're up front. I'm just targeting them because the winner is likely going to be in that front group and they are going to be good for DFS regardless of where they start because winning bonuses matter a lot. After that, I want to go with a balanced lineup that allows me to target drivers who are starting near the middle of the pack. These are the drivers who aren't in the top 12, but they've also clearly at least been competitive this year from an overall standpoint. They might be outside the top 12 due to inconsistency, due to bad luck, but they have the ability to get a top 10 finish. And I want as much exposure to that group as possible. A balanced lineup also keeps me from using drivers whose equipment won't be competitive in Pocono. So it actually does serve two purposes. So for Saturday, I want a driver I think can win. I will go with two drivers sometimes starting towards the front if things break the right way, but I don't think you necessarily even need to. Scoring will be flat, so it's not as important to pay up for the studs, meaning you can go with a single stud approach, which is not something I do all that often in general. Then I want to go balanced from there on out and load up on the drivers starting between starting around 20th or so. And there will be competitive drivers there. And there will also be competitive drivers starting outside the top 24. And we'll talk about them later on in the podcast. So that's the strategy for Saturday, going balanced, getting a winner, and then going balanced from there. For Sunday, it'll be a lot easier to find place differential. The top 20 finishers from Saturday's race will be inverted for Sunday. So the driver who wins will start 20th. That is obviously going to make it super easy to find good place differential options. Then the driver who finishes, the drivers who finish outside the top 20 will basically start where they finish, unless there are driver changes, car changes, etc. That's where they're going to start on Sunday. So if a driver is fast, but has issues, they could be another outlet for place differential. That's going to do two things for us. The first thing is it's going to make it really easy to find place differential drivers for DFS. In the two races this year that have used NINVERT, there has been only one driver in a perfect lineup who started inside the top 15. That is out of nine drivers, only one of them started inside the top 15. And those races were both 68 laps longer than the one we have on Sunday, meaning the drivers starting at the front have even less upside this Sunday than they had in those races. So that's why we want to skew towards the back. Second, the other implication of the way the starting order is said is that scoring will be higher, will have better place differential options, which is going to make the ceiling for scores go up. When that happens, when there is a gap between the highest scores and the rest of the field, that's going to make us or allow us to be a bit more top-heavy with our rosters than we otherwise would be. I'm not saying I am going to punt necessarily, but I will likely be getting two place differential studs in most of my lineups, even if it does lower the salary floor of my lineup a bit. You will want to watch Saturday's race if you can. That way you can pinpoint the drivers who were fastest in that race and target them on Sunday, even if they didn't get a good finish to show for that speed. All drivers who do not wreck will have the same car for both races. So things should be pretty even from one race to another, and we can learn a lot from what we see on Saturday. So the two races are pretty similar between Saturday and Sunday, but in both we're going to want to emphasize place differential when we can find it. That's the big similarity between both these races. Because they're short, you want to try to identify drivers who will finish better than where they're starting. The differences between the two races are noteworthy. On Saturday we will want to go more balanced and live in the middle tier, load up on drivers starting between 13th and 24th who can finish well. On Sunday it'll be okay to be a bit more top-heavy as we'll have more studs in position to get a ton of place differential points. So just always be looking for drivers who can rack up place differential points, but keep the roster construction differences between the two days at the front of your mind as you're building lineups and make sure that you are doing that and differentiating things because the public may not do so with their lineups. We want to make sure we are reactive and fitting our lineups to the unique circumstances for these two races. With that said, let's dive into our tier by tier breakdown of Pocono. Again, focusing mostly on Saturday, but we'll give some thoughts on Sunday as well. The elite tier on Fandle is Kevin Harvick at $14,000 through Joey Logano at $12,000. In this tier we have all three of the big Joe Gibbs racing cars and Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. I am confused about how to handle them. I will have a lot better of an idea on Sunday, but for Saturday we're kind of going in here with a lot of without a lot of good info. The Toyotas have been awesome at Pocono in the past. They have won five straight races here. That's a good. The bad is that these cars haven't always had the same speed this year. When I look at just the current form segment of my model, Hamlin is the highest ranked guy in this group. He is seventh and that is ahead of both Busch and Truex. So it is a legitimate question for me about how to handle it. If I want to dive into the JGR cars this week, my favorite route for doing so is with Truex, at least for the Saturday edition. Truex is starting 11th, so there are there's some more place differential juice there and he's been pretty fast so far this year. So I would likely rank Truex second in this tier despite my concerns about JGR. They're going to be a team to think long and hard about. Do you want to buy into the track history or do you want to fade them based on the current form? My inclination for Saturday is to likely be a bit underweight on guys like Hamlin and Kyle Busch relative to the field. The guy I think ahead is ahead of Truex in this tier is Kevin Harvick. Harvick is starting ninth, so again a tiny bit deeper in the field and he's been the one guy who can hang with Jogins racing at this track and that's worth it's that's something saying something because Harvick has never won in his entire career at Pocono. He's won like basically everywhere else but not in Pocono. He does have five top fives in the past seven races here. He has led 30 or more laps in three of the past four races so Harvick leads my model straight up by just a bit. He is number one in my model. So with him starting ninth, he will be my favorite driver for Saturday in this tier and I feel okay saying that. Ranking them from a Sunday perspective without accounting for starting position because then we don't know where people are going to start Sunday. Denny Hamlin will be ranked higher. He will be in the same tier for me as Harvick and Truex then. He is awesome at this track. This is his age 39 season which is a driver's statistical peak according to David Smith of motorsportsanalytics.com and Denny has had better form than the other JGR cars so far this year. So Hamlin is high on my list for Sunday depending on where he starts but a bit lower on Saturday because he is starting closer to the front so Hamlin a Sunday guy for me whereas Truex and Harvick are definitely drivers I want for Saturday. The second tier on Fandall is Ryan Blaney at $11,800 through Eric Jones at $10,000 and this tier has two drivers starting outside the top 15 and I like both of them. Those guys are William Byron and Eric Jones. Byron is starting 16th and in four career cup series Pocono races Byron has three top 10s. He has a top five finish and that top five came while Hendrik Motorsports wasn't performing as well as it is right now and what's interesting is that Byron actually led 25 laps from the pole in this first race last year. He also won here in the truck series during his age 18 season which weirdly was not that long ago because he is still super young. Byron does not have a top five finish yet this year but he's had the speed to get one and he doesn't necessarily need to get a top five to pay off when he's starting 16. So Byron is one of the better plays for Saturday's race. The same is true for Eric Jones who is starting in 19th. He actually checks a lot of the same boxes as Byron does. Like Byron, Jones has been awesome at Pocono in his career. He has 10 total races here between NASCAR's top three series, the truck series, Xenity series, the cup series and Jones has three runner-up finishes in those 10 races. In the cup series specifically Jones has four top fives in six races. So the form for Jones has not been good and we discussed the struggles of J.G. earlier. Those have applied to Jones for sure but he's cheaper than the other guys. He is starting further back so both William Byron and Eric Jones will be core plays for me on Saturday and I haven't felt about a cash game lineup yet but I would not be surprised at all if those two drivers were to wind up within it. Looking forward to Sunday, I desperately want Ryan Blaney in a position to get plays differential points because Blaney rakes second in my model behind only Kevin Harvick. He has six top fives in the past seven races and those have all come on different track types. In Fontana, which is the only other race at a non-drafting big track on the schedule this year, Blaney had a third place average running position, was running second late in that race, cut a tire but had race winning speed. I think that Blaney can win on Saturday so even though he is starting second, if I'm filling out a good number of lineups, I am going to have exposure to Blaney because if he wins from second, leads a lot of laps, he can still pay off for DFS. But the big one for me will be trying to be overweight on Blaney for Saturday or for Sunday assuming he's not directly at the front once again. I would also kind of flag Alex Bowen as someone who interests me for Sunday and maybe Saturday? He's running 10th Saturday and at that spot I'd rather jump down to guys like Byron or Jones but Bowen did finish third at Pocono in 2018 and he wiped the field in Fontana. So I prefer Blaney between the two but both he and Bowen are guys high on my radar for Sunday depending on where they start. Just two guys I want to flag so you have them on your radar for that Sunday race. The mid-range on Fandle is Kurt Busch at $9,800 through Matt DiBenedetto at $8,100. This range is Kurt Busch, Jimmy Johnson, Eric Almerola all starting the top 12 and that's going to lower them for me but they could work for Sunday depending on where they start. Johnson is highest on my list straight up for Sunday followed by Busch and then Almerola. For Saturday my favorite guy here and this will shock you regular listeners out there is Matt DiBenedetto. Once again, DiBenedetto is effectively a Penske car so the speed should be good. He had a 12th place average running position in Fontana but most importantly DiBenedetto is starting 21st. That is perfect for our strategy. He doesn't have past success in Pocono but again that all came in a different car so it doesn't matter honestly. So DiBenedetto is a really good option for Saturday's race. I also really did Clint Boyer in 18th and Tyler Redick in 15th. Redick is starting a little bit high and he grades out but he does grade out super well in my model. I like him as a win bet at 75 to 1 F. Andrews Sportsbook and he will be in a lot of my line-up Saturday still. My Saturday line-ups but I think that if he were to start a bit deeper Sunday I would love him. So I'd rank this tier DiBenedetto, Boyer, Johnson and Redick. All of them would be solid options for Sunday too if they start low enough. I've been tinkering around with making projections. I don't feel super comfortable with it so I'm not going to release them or talk about them very much but I would say in the tinkering I've done Clint Boyer grades out really really well for Saturday's race. I'm not sure how much I buy into it but he's starting 18th, got good equipment, decent history of Pocono so I'm going to definitely go towards him. I'm just not going to talk about the projections yet because I don't know if they're good enough to actually discuss. So just you know worth mentioning that he does grade out well in a hypothetical projection-centered world. The value plays on FanDuel for Saturday are Christopher Bell at $8,000 through Ryan Newman at $7,200. This value tier is all starting between 13th and 24th except for one driver. That guy is starting all the way back in 36th and he is a cash gameplay for Saturday and that guy is Christopher Bell at $8,000. Bell's main appeal is that he's starting 36th but the equipment has also looked a lot better for him recently. Bell has had a top 16 average running position in five of the past seven races and you will definitely take a 16th place finish out of a driver starting 36th. It might now win tournaments but it will definitely help you cash and there is always the upside for Moore too given the talent that he has. As with William Byron Christopher Bell is a former winner here in the truck series so Bell is a cash gameplay for Saturday, he is a core play for tournaments and among the lower salary drivers Christopher Bell may be your top option on FanDuel for Saturday's race. The other guy I like quite a bit for Saturday is Chris Buscher. Buscher, former winner here that was a fluke with rain. It should not impact your process. I would not count that as a positive for Buscher just worth noting. What does help though is that Buscher has been much improved recently. He's had a top 17 average running position in three straight races. He also had a 17th place average running position in Fontana starting 24th. That'll work. He's not as high as Bell for me but he will be second on my list. Austin Dillon is third followed by Ricky Steadhouse Jr. Moving down to the punting tier on FanDuel this is Bubba Wallace at $7,000 on down and there are some drivers here with equipment I would deem lively enough to consider though I'd rather live in the tier above this with guys like Buscher and Christopher Bell. The two guys I like most here are Bubba Wallace and Cole Custer. Bubba is starting 23rd. Custer is starting 25th and Wallace had a really scary crash here two years ago and it was pretty frightening to watch. He's never finished better than 21st at this track but it seems like the equipment is less of a hindrance this year than it has been in the past. Wallace finished 13th in Homestead. That is an equipment heavy track. He has a top 18 average running position in three of the past or five of the past six races so I think that Bubba and the equipment are getting better from where they were. With Wallace starting 23rd that will definitely work though again I'd rather get up to the bell and the Buscher range but Bubba's definitely a value play at $7,000. With Custer the equipment is not a question. He drives for Stewart Haas Racing that's definitely a plus. The results for Custer this year have not been good despite that. Custer did win here in the Xfinity series last year though. He's led 14 or more laps in all three Xfinity series races. He ran at this track so between the two I would go with Custer by a bit over Wallace. Custer has a better track record in the lower ranks. He has a better equipment but both those drivers are at least options especially with how well Wallace has run recently. Even at tracks that do require good equipment. Outside of Custer and Wallace I would be okay with John Hunter Nemechek or Ryan Priest but again I'm mostly looking for balance on Saturday and I think that if you can if you could set like a salary floor and try to get to guys like Christopher Bell and Chris Buscher as their cheapest drivers that could be pretty enticing for Saturday's race. Balance is balance tends to be key and I think that I'm trying to get there but if you need to come down here Bubba works Custer works Nemechek and Priest at least in consideration as well. Let's close up shop here with picks to win and because there are two races I'm going to do two picks to win one above $10,000 one below for both Saturday and Sunday. The ordering of the two is kind of random I don't honestly know but for Saturday's race my pick to win above $10,000 will be Ryan Blaney starting second tremendous current form. He has won here in the past I think that Blaney is going to win on Saturday. He's 12th one on Fando Sportsbook. I love that number go bet Ryan Blaney right now. For Sunday I'm going to go Denny Hamlin. I think that I have faith in the Joe Gibbs racing cars to get better as the weekend progresses and that to me says I should buy into them more on Sunday than I do on Saturday and Denny Hamlin again at his statistical peak good at this track one here last year was good in the other race as well so my picks to win in the upper range are Blaney Saturday Hamlin Sunday in the lower range below $10,000. I'm going to go with Jimmy Johnson on Saturday he's starting 12th that is a little bit high from a DFS perspective but from a race winning perspective he grades out pretty well in my model and again that is even including track history when Hendrick Motorsports has not been as good as they are right now so I'll go Johnson for Saturday and I am going to pick Tyler Redick on Sunday once again 75 to 1 to win over a Fando Sportsbook. I think that is longer than it should be so I'm going to go Johnson and Redick for the value plays Blaney and Hamlin for the stud tier my win picks for this weekend that is all that we have for today I will not be doing an extra podcast between the Saturday and the Sunday races but hopefully the information discussed will be enough for you to fill good lineups look at the data from Saturday or watch the race try to find drivers who had a lot of speed even if it was not reflecting their finishing position and target those drivers aggressively for Sunday's race that is all that we have for today once again though we are back into pretty much a full swing here on the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed PGA podcast on Tuesday NASCAR podcasts on Wednesday UFC podcast when the card is good enough so make sure you are subscribed to the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts and if you like what you hear please leave a rating and review as well the PGA and the NASCAR podcasts are going up on the FanDuel YouTube page as well so make sure you are subscribed to that big thank you to Calvin Theobald our video producer for recording the video side of things chopping up some clips and putting those up on YouTube thank you cow as always and finally thank you to everyone for tuning in forward today hopefully things go well for you both on Saturday and on Sunday we can come back next week a little bit richer and talk some more DFS this has been the heat check fantasy podcast powered by Number Fire