Call 811 Before You Dig 200 (Xfinity Series) Predictions & Picks

• Reigning champ Austin Cindric returns to the track where he won his title.
• Based on his record at Phoenix alone, Justin Allgaier should be a contender.
• A fifth straight different winner? That’s about a 50-50 proposition this week.

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The NASCAR Xfinity race with one of the series’ wildest names wraps up an abbreviated West Coast Swing for the Triple-A drivers at Phoenix Raceway this weekend. The event takes on added significance as a learning experience for Xfinity competitors who will return to the one-mile track in November for the Championship 4 event.

Saturday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200 will be contested at 200 laps (200 miles) with stage breaks scheduled after 45 and 90 laps. Brandon Jones won last year’s first race at the track in the Sonoran Desert. Austin Cindric triumphed in the Championship 4 race at Phoenix last November.

How to Watch Call 811 Before You Dig 200

Austin Cindric Returns as Favorite to the Track that Made Him a Champion

Team Penske driver Austin Cindric finished off the 2020 season with a .162-second victory over Noah Gragson at Phoenix Raceway. With the win in the Championship 4 finale, Cindric wrapped up his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship.

When the series returns to Phoenix for Saturday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200, Cindric will do so as the favorite at +275, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford will have two objectives in addition to the obvious one of winning the race: to improve the performance of his car from last year and to learn what he can in preparation for another possible title run in the fall.

Cindric said:

We had a really great package, a really great race, and we were able to just execute and put ourselves in a position to win the championship. All in all, that was a perfect day, and we’ll try to push this weekend on little things and try to improve on that package. I don’t think we need to do anything crazy and reinvent the wheel, because we brought an incredibly good race car, and we plan on bringing the same equipment this weekend. I’m excited about that.

Based on Phoenix Record Alone, Justin Allgaier Should Be a Contender

A two-time winner at Phoenix Raceway, JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier is the only current full-time competitor in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with multiple wins at the one-mile track. His record goes deeper than that. Allgaier has posted eight top-five finishes in 21 starts at Phoenix, six of which have come after he joined JRM in 2016.

The driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet has 13 top 10s, and his average finish at the track is 8.7. Small wonder Allgaier (+325) is right behind Cindric as the second favorite to win Saturday’s Call 811 Before You Dig 200.

Allgaier finished 13th in the first event at Phoenix last year and improved to fifth in the season finale, earning the runner-up spot behind Cindric in the year-end standings. In his 10 full seasons in the Xfinity Series, Allgaier has finished no worse than seventh in the final rankings. He’ll start 12th on Saturday and likely will move forward quickly at one of his best tracks.

A Fifth-Straight Different Winner? That’s Roughly a 50-50 Proposition

Austin Cindric began his title defense with a victory in the 2021 season opener at Daytona. Ty Gibbs followed with a victory in his first Xfinity start, at the Daytona Road Course. Myatt Snider took the checkered flag at Homestead for his first Xfinity win, and AJ Allmendinger triumphed at Las Vegas last Saturday, giving the series four different winners in the first four races.

Is that trend likely to continue at Phoenix Raceway? Only if Cindric has problems, and if Gibbs (+1000) doesn’t score an unprecedented second win in his first start in the series since his Daytona victory. In that case, Allgaier is a decent choice, if he can find a bit more speed in his Camaro. And don’t ignore JRM teammate Noah Gragson (+800), who had the Homestead race in hand before a late-race wreck, not of his making took him out. Gragson was runner-up to Cindric at Phoenix last November.

The best bet for a fifth straight different winner might be Bandon Jones, an excellent choice at +1100. Jones is the defending winner of this race, and he ran third behind Cindric and Gragson in last year’s season finale. Since moving to Joe Gibbs Racing in 2018, Jones has finished no worse than 11th in six Xfinity starts in the desert, and his career average result at the track is 9.9.

The price is right for a bet that the rest of the field won’t be able to keep up with Jones.