Qualifying Crash Makes William Byron a Likely DFS Must-Have

Despite his 38th-place starting position and stout $10,000 salary (the fourth-highest in the field), William Byron seems like one of the best options for DFS play at the Chicago Street Course. It's rare for any NASCAR Cup Series points leader to crash out of any qualifying session, which virtually guarantees a large number of Place […]

Alex Bowman Should Finish Well, but Probably Costs Too Much for Serious DFS Consideration

In an otherwise mediocre 2024, Alex Bowman's one real bright spot came when he won last year's Chicago Street Course race to lock himself into the playoffs. The win was more the result of a brilliant strategy call by Bowman's crew chief Blake Harris than his own doing, as Bowman was running 9th late in […]

Joey Logano Has Been Relatively Mediocre on Road Courses Lately

Joey Logano is one of the hardest drivers to predict in the NASCAR Cup Series since it's hard to really get a sense of when he will run well or when he won't, and even harder to determine which of his good races will lead to a good finishing result since he blows potentially strong […]

Ryan Blaney Doesn't Really Fit Neatly into Optimal DFS Lineups

Ryan Blaney curiously qualified 17th for the third consecutive year at the Chicago Street Course. Blaney is not particularly noted as a road racer, but he finished 10th in last year's race here, matching his best road course finish since Sonoma last year. Because Blaney is not one of the best road racers, he is […]

Austin Cindric Remains an Overrated Road Racer

Despite Austin Cindric's traditional reputation as a road racer, he's really become more of a specialist on drafting tracks and intermediates lately. Cindric qualified 27th for today's race at the Chicago Street Course, worse than both his teammates Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. Although he did finish 6th in the inaugural Chicago race in 2023 […]

Brad Keselowski Likely to Brush Past Chicago Street Course to Focus on Daytona

After Brad Keselowski's near miss at Atlanta, his season effectively seems to hinge on whether or not he can win the regular season finale at Daytona, since he's unlikely to win anywhere else. As a result, he likely isn't going to be focusing too heavily on today's race at the Chicago Street Course when considering […]

John H. Nemechek One of the Best Underdog Options After Strong Runs at Mexico City and Last Year

Much like his teammate Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek has had a significant improvement in recent weeks, although in both cases they've only really improved from backmarkers last year to mid-packers this year. Nemechek outqualified Jones for today's race as he starts 25th to Jones's 34th. He is probably a better road racer than Jones. […]

Cole Custer's Strong Mexico City Run and Xfinity Series Chicago Win Make Him a Solid DFS Option

After having arguably the most anonymous start to the 2025 season of any driver, Cole Custer finally had his first honest-to-goodness strong run in the last NASCAR Cup Series road course at Mexico City where he finished eighth and delivered one of his best-ever driver ratings. Custer has never started a race on the Chicago […]

Erik Jones Likely Not Good Enough on Road Courses for DFS Consideration Despite Poor Qualifying Result

Erik Jones's chances of making the playoffs will likely grind to a complete halt during the stretch of three road courses in the next six races as he has been a pretty terrible road racer lately. Case in point, he qualified 34th for today's race on the Chicago Street Course between Katherine Legge and Cody […]

Noah Gragson May Be Better Than Other Cheap DFS Options

Noah Gragson starts 24th at Chicago today. Although he's never been much of a factor on the Chicago street course or any kind of road course in general, he did improve from 28th to 14th in last year's Chicago Street Race, where he significantly outfinished all three of his Stewart-Haas Racing teammates. Although he has […]

Despite Decent Mexico City Run, Don't Expect Riley Herbst to Contend at Chicago

Even though Riley Herbst scored one of his best-ever finishes outside a drafting track at Austin earlier this year, it seems unlikely he'll contend when he makes his street course debut in the Cup Series this afternoon in Chicago. He didn't run well in either of his Xfinity races there and although he surprisingly did […]

Cody Ware Is a Road Course Veteran, but It's Rarely Helped Him in NASCAR

Cody Ware starts his first race on the Chicago street course this afternoon from the 35th position. Despite Ware's experience as a former Asian Le Mans Series champion, he has been unable to translate that to any modicum of road course success in the NASCAR Cup Series. His best finish on a road course was […]

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 […]