Carson Hocevar Recovers From Big One to Finish 10th at Atlanta

After driving from 26th to second in the February Atlanta race, Carson Hocevar had another stellar run there on Saturday night as he drove from 30th to 10th despite getting caught up in the Lap 70 Big One. In the first stage, Hocevar arguably demonstrated winning speed as he drove from his subpar starting spot […]

William Byron Caught up in Atlanta Big One but Retains Points Lead

William Byron retained a 37-point lead in the regular season NASCAR Cup Series championship despite being eliminated in the lap 70 Big One because most of the other top points contenders also crashed. Byron was very fast like his Hendrick teammates except Kyle Larson, driving from his 18th place starting to position to finish 4th […]

Top In-Season Challenge Seed Denny Hamlin Eliminated in Lap 70 Crash

Although Denny Hamlin entered NASCAR's In-Season Challenge as the No. 1 seed at Atlanta, Hamlin was mostly a nonfactor, only driving from 33rd to 28th in Stage 1 before staying out of the pits on the stage break caution, which elevated him to seventh. On the ensuing restart, Chris Buescher let off the gas to […]

Bottom Seed Ty Dillon Upsets Denny Hamlin to Advance in In-Season Challenge

Despite entering NASCAR's in-season challenge as the 32nd and last seed, Ty Dillon utilized a fast Kaulig Racing car and a nifty move to swerve around the Big One in Saturday's Atlanta race to finish eighth, giving him his first top-10 finish at Atlanta and first of the season. It allowed him to upset top […]

Don't Expect Kyle Larson to Win First Drafting Track Race on Saturday

Kyle Larson has never won a drafting track race in his NASCAR Cup Series career, nor did he win at Atlanta in the years it was a regular intermediate track. It seems likely that he will win a drafting race at some point, but tonight will probably not be that race. Although he starts 11th […]

Christopher Bell Unlikely to Complete Atlanta Sweep

Although Christopher Bell qualified 28th at Atlanta on Friday, he started even worse in the February race here before winning it via a last-lap pass, so don't discount the idea that he might be able to duplicate that feat. What makes that less likely this time is that his hot streak of three wins in […]

Brad Keselowski Seeks Another Clutch Win for Hail-Mary Playoff Bid

Since Brad Keselowski knows he must win to advance to the playoffs and he probably won't have winning speed anywhere but Atlanta or Daytona, he is likely to go all in on both those tracks in a hail-mary attempt to make the playoffs. Starting him is a big risk since he qualified sixth and therefore […]

Chris Buescher Unlikely to Lead Enough to Have Much DFS Value

Although Chris Buescher has unexpectedly been the fastest qualifier this year, he surprisingly only qualified 13th at Atlanta where his Ford stablemates swept the top eight positions in qualifying. This gives him a bit of upside since he is more consistent than most of the Fords who outqualified him so he is far more likely […]

Alex Bowman Qualifies Best Among Non-Fords but Unlikely to Contend at Atlanta

Chase Briscoe's win at Pocono last weekend put Alex Bowman on the playoff bubble, which means Bowman might be desperate to make something happen at Atlanta on Saturday to lock himself into the playoffs. The problem is that despite all his Daytona 500 front-row starts, as well as the fact that he was the fastest […]

Ryan Preece Will Probably Run Better Than Usual at Atlanta

Fifth-place Atlanta starter Ryan Preece does not have a good record here, but that doesn't really matter too much when evaluating him since he typically has run better almost everywhere this year than he ever has before. Although Preece has only led three laps and has never finished better than 16th here, he does have […]

Austin Dillon Consistently Mediocre at Atlanta

The good thing about Austin Dillon's record at Atlanta is that he has been consistent as he has only crashed out of two races (both in 2022) and has finished between 16th and 22nd in all five races since. The bad thing is that he's never remotely been competitive either in the Gen 6 era […]

Ty Gibbs Slightly Faster Lately but Unlikely to be a Factor at Atlanta

Although Ty Gibbs has had a slight uptick in performance recently, he is still one of the year's biggest disappointments considering what the other three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have been doing. Don't expect that to change much at Atlanta. Although he did lead 37 laps late in last year's summer race, he absolutely tanked […]

Erik Jones a Low-Key Strong DFS Option

With Legacy Motor Club's recent uptick in speed and Erik Jones' historic record on drafting tracks, Jones is strongly worth considering for DFS play, particularly because he qualified 26th, has a lot of place-differential potential and only costs $6,300. Although Jones' record at Atlanta isn't as strong as his record at Daytona or Talladega, he […]

Noah Gragson Could Have DFS Value as One of the Lowest-Qualifying Fords

Although Noah Gragson has had a pretty miserable season to date, he's definitely worth considering for DFS play at Atlanta on Saturday. People are likely to stay away from Gragson because he has crashed in four of his seven Atlanta starts, including the last three in a row, but the Fords in general and Front […]

Riley Herbst Unlikely to Replicate February Atlanta Finish

Riley Herbst finished 17th in his first Atlanta race in the NASCAR Cup Series last February, the second in a run of three consecutive 17th-place finishes he had to start the season. However, not surprisingly, the rest of the season proved that was an uncharacteristic run for him as he has only finished better than […]

Ty Dillon Could Benefit from Kaulig Speed

Ty Dillon earned his best starting position at Atlanta on Friday, qualifying a career-best 14th for Kaulig Racing, a team that has at times shown unexpected speed this year. However, he is almost guaranteed to lose positions since he has never finished better than 15th here, and his best finish in the Next Gen/drafting-track era […]

Rarely Enough Attrition at Atlanta for Cody Ware to Seriously Contend

Two days ago, it was announced that Spire Motorsports co-founder T.J. Puchyr is buying Rick Ware Racing. Rick will continue as a partner while his son Cody will continue to drive the No. 51 car. Although you might think Atlanta offers an opportunity for Ware to potentially have a good run since drafting tracks tend […]

Ryan Blaney Drives Through the Field Twice Despite Failing Cool Suit to Finish Third

Ryan Blaney had arguably the most impressive drive in Sunday's race at Pocono. After being forced to start in the back due to making unapproved adjustments prior to the race, he drove into the top 15 despite his cooling suit failing early in the race. After speeding on pit road early in Stage 2, he […]

Poor Strategy Ruins William Byron's Strong Run

William Byron made one of the rapidest ascents through the field early in Sunday's Pocono race, earning points in Stage 1 after staying out of the pits leading up to the first stage caution because there was a risk he might've been lapped if he'd tried to pit then. Despite falling back to 18th after […]

Kyle Larson's Decent Pocono Run Allows Him to Make Up Some of his Points Deficit

Kyle Larson didn't have his usual speed at Pocono and he didn't drive up through the field as quickly as his teammate William Byron did, but he had a solid racecraft and finished seventh after qualifying 24th. Although he earned no points in Stage 1, he finished ninth in Stage 2 before jumping to sixth […]

John Hunter Nemechek Earns Another Sixth-Place Finish in One of His Best Career Races

John Hunter Nemechek had one of the best runs of his career at Pocono on Sunday, finishing sixth after starting fourth as Legacy Motor Club's cars improve. Although Nemechek quickly fell from fourth to 10th early in Stage 1, he returned to the top five early in Stage 2 after pitting just before the first […]

Christopher Bell Probably Not Dominant Enough Recently for DFS Play

After his hat trick of wins early this season, Christopher Bell has cooled off considerably in recent months in terms of dominating races. After a 2024 when Bell led over 20 laps eleven times and over 100 laps six times, he has only led more than eight laps twice this season. However, he has remained […]

Bubba Wallace's Lack of Pocono Qualifying Time Makes Him a DFS Must-Have

After three straight crashes, Bubba Wallace sat in a precarious playoff position after the Coca-Cola 600, but after three stronger runs subsequently, he has cemented his playoff position and he is going to a track where he has been very consistent. In his five Pocono starts for 23XI Racing, Wallace has never finished worse than […]

Ross Chastain Not As Good a DFS Option As Usual at Pocono

As usual, Ross Chastain qualified poorly but unlike most weeks, he isn't one of the absolute best DFS options like he usually is because he has never posted a top ten finish at Pocono before. He has had speed at times, particularly in 2022 when Denny Hamlin wrecked him out of the lead during their […]

Chase Briscoe Qualified Too Well for DFS Consideration

Chase Briscoe earned his best starting position at Pocono Raceway when he qualified sixth for today's race. He has not had much success at Pocono in the past as although he has finished on the lead lap in all five of his races, he has never finished better than 15th but he did that with […]

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.'s Feud with Carson Hocevar Will Be His Only Pocono Storyline Today

After Carson Hocevar wrecked Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. twice in the last three weeks, that effectively eliminated Stenhouse from the playoff picture. He didn't deserve it anyway since he has been extremely mediocre and had merely been lucky not to have a DNF prior to that, but it was still not cool of Hocevar to do […]

Pocono One of Daniel Suarez's Stronger Tracks

Although Daniel Suárez disappointed last weekend in his home race, he's coming to a track where he has had a fair amount of success. In addition to winning the pole in 2018, Suárez has four top tens at Pocono including a second and a third, but most of that success came in his years when […]

Ryan Preece Looks to Close Playoff Deficit to Teammate Chris Buescher

Shane van Gisbergen's win at Mexico City was a sharp blow to Ryan Preece's chances of making the NASCAR playoffs but he remains alive in the playoff hunt and trails his teammate Chris Buescher by a mere 19 points. When considering Preece seems to be faster than Buescher as often as not, it's definitely still […]

Another Learning Experience for Shane van Gisbergen at Pocono

Everyone knew Shane van Gisbergen's season entirely hinged on whether or not he won a road course race in the regular season. After his win at Mexico City last weekend placed him in the playoffs, he's back to his regular schedule of struggling to learn NASCAR's numerous oval circuits. SVG has driven at Pocono once […]

Michael McDowell's Poor Qualifying Makes Him Worthy of DFS Consideration

Michael McDowell qualified slowest of the three Spire Motorsports cars at Pocono as he qualified 28th while Justin Haley was 22nd and Carson Hocevar was 3rd. This suggests he might have some value for DFS Place Differential points given Hocevar's speed. However, it is more likely given his recent form that Hocevar is fast due […]