Shane van Gisbergen Qualifies Too Well for DFS Consideration

Since there is no road course in this round of the NASCAR playoffs, Shane van Gisbergen's playoff run will likely end right here. His 20th-place qualifying run made him one of the only three playoff drivers who failed to qualify in the top 14, so he'll likely lose points to all of them unless another […]

Austin Dillon Earns Best Qualifying Result at Darlington

Despite never leading a lap at Darlington, Austin Dillon wasn't actually bad here in his earlier years as he posted five top-10 finishes in his first 12 starts, including a second-place finish in the 2020 Southern 500. But almost all of that came with the Gen 6 car, while he has been significantly slower everywhere […]

Kyle Busch's Downturn in Speed This Year Makes Him a Worse DFS Option

Kyle Busch won only a single race at Darlington in 2008, but he has had some speed in the Next Gen era, leading 155 laps in the 2022 Southern 500 before an engine failure. He then finished 11th or better in four of the last five races, including a second-place showing in last year's Southern […]

Carson Hocevar Should Run Better at Darlington Than the Numbers Predict

Although Carson Hocevar hasn't posted a good finish at Darlington yet, Sunday's Southern 500 could provide him such an opportunity. Hocevar had speed when he qualified second for last year's Southern 500, although he quickly faded and earned no stage points before crashing out. Despite his general increase in speed, he had his worst qualifying […]

Ryan Preece a Low-key Strong DFS Option at Darlington After His Speed in the Spring

Ryan Preece starts 27th for Sunday's Southern 500. Preece has neither led a lap nor earned a top-10 finish at Darlington, but he did start on the front row twice. One of those came when he started on the pole in the second race in 2020 after a field inversion, but he qualified second on […]

Don't Expect Much From Michael McDowell

Michael McDowell's Darlington record has been pretty paltry to date, as he has only posted three top-10 finishes in his career here. While all three of those races came with the Next Gen car, which indicates that he's obviously improved of late, he has still run worse than his record implies because he has never […]

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has Struggled at Darlington

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. has never been particularly strong at Darlington. Not only has he never led here, he's also only posted a single top-10 finish at the track -- an eighth-place finish in the 2022 spring race -- and even that was more a result of attrition than speed, as he had an average running […]

Despite 23XI Racing's Darlington Speed, Riley Herbst Will Likely Run Terribly

Although 23XI Racing has consistently had speed at Darlington with Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace each earning several top-10 finishes and battling for the lead in races at least once, the same has not held true for their rookie teammate Riley Herbst, who starts 33rd on Sunday in a race where Reddick starts fourth and […]

Attrition Too Unlikely for Cody Ware to Score Place-Differential Points at Darlington

Cody Ware starts 36th for Sunday evening's Southern 500. He actually had one of his career-best finishes on an unrestricted superspeedway in the spring Darlington race three years ago in 2022 when he finished 19th, but that was an atypical result for him on any track type. In his other Darlington starts, he crashed three […]

Kyle Larson Enters Playoffs As Co-Points Leader

Kyle Larson had yet another sloppy drive at Daytona. Although he finished sixth and didn't crash out himself, he arguably triggered the Big One on lap 28 as a bump-draft of Bubba Wallace went awry and sent him into Kyle Busch. Larson came out unscathed and used pit strategy in Stage 3 to break into […]

Alex Bowman Advances to Playoffs Despite Crashing at Daytona

Ryan Blaney's win allowed Alex Bowman to secure a spot in the playoffs by the skin of his teeth even though Bowman had already been eliminated from Saturday's race at Daytona. After Tyler Reddick (who Bowman was battling for what could've ended up being the final transfer spot) crashed early in the race, Bowman stood […]

Cole Custer Finally Shows Signs of Life at Daytona

After months of mediocrity, Cole Custer had arguably the best run since his return to the NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona, where he emerged in the top five late in the race just as he did in the Daytona 500, only this time the finish was clean and Custer finished fourth after leading the penultimate […]

Lame-Duck Daniel Suarez Delivers Clutch Second-Place Finish

Daniel Suárez had what was probably one of his last realistic shots for victory in Saturday's race at Daytona, where he finished second in one of his last starts for Trackhouse Racing, missing out on a playoff bid by a mere .031 seconds. The Trackhouse cars were fast throughout the entire race, with all three […]

Despite Being Winless at Daytona, Chase Elliott is Probably the Best DFS Option

Although Chase Elliott has not yet won at Daytona, it seems inevitable he likely will at some point, and even though he's starting 30th, it could happen on Saturday. Elliott earned his only win this season in the previous drafting-track race at Atlanta, and his 174 laps led here suggest he might be overdue for […]

Ryan Blaney Will Likely Lead a Lot at Daytona

Ryan Blaney is probably most frequently cited as the best drafter in the NASCAR Cup Series, and his third-place finish allowed him to take the pole for Saturday's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway after a lightning strike canceled the scheduled qualifying session. Given the two-by-two gridlock that typically occurs in Next Gen-era […]

Kyle Larson a Poor DFS Option at Daytona

Kyle Larson has never had much prowess on drafting tracks. Although he's gotten a little better on them lately, he's still never won at one and he's only led 36 laps in his career at Daytona (although he might have won the 2017 Daytona 500 if his fuel strategy had played out better). Although he […]

Christopher Bell Consistent Enough to Consider for DFS

Christopher Bell hasn't done much since his three-in-a-row streak early this season, other than get some consistent finishes. One can expect he'll likely be complacent at Daytona, too, since he will be probably more focused on avoiding wrecks than winning. Although he does make unforced errors a lot, he does seem to have a skill […]

Chris Buescher Now Must Win His Way Into Playoffs

After sitting just above the playoff cutl ine for most of this year, Chris Buescher arguably had the most embarrassing race of his entire Cup Series career at Richmond, where he finished 30th while Austin Dillon won his way into the playoffs and Alex Bowman's second-place finish eliminated Buescher -- unless Buescher wins on Saturday […]

Being One of the Slowest-Starting Fords Makes Ryan Preece a Strong DFS Option

Austin Dillon's win last week at Richmond and Alex Bowman's second-place finish eliminated Ryan Preece from playoff consideration unless he wins on Saturday at Daytona. For a driver who has never and may never win in the Cup Series, that's a tall order, but Preece is certainly intensely motivated and he's overachieved this season. Since […]

Ross Chastain Leads a Lot on Drafting Tracks

This year's little underdog who could, Ross Chastain, locked himself into the playoffs a long time ago with his epic Coca-Cola 600 win, even though he only ranks 18th in speed this season and only ranked eighth at Charlotte. However, drafting tracks are typically a great equalizer, which allows him to contend for wins when […]

Daniel Suarez Now in Desperation Mode With his Career on the Line

Lame-duck Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suárez starts 12th at Daytona, but because he has tended to run mid-pack throughout his career, that his put him in awful positions as he has crashed out of a mind-boggling 10 of sixteen races here. He has been fast enough to remain in the pack but seldom fast enough […]

Chase Briscoe's Tendency to Finish Better Than He Runs May Reap Dividends at Daytona

Chase Briscoe has had a weird season where he has qualified great, run substantially worse than his qualifying positions, but still backed into solid finishes at the end. The Daytona 500 was a great example as he won the pole with a car initially ruled illegal before that penalty was overturned, but he hardly contended […]

Carson Hocevar Hard to Forecast Since He's Rarely Given 100 Percent at Daytona

Despite how fast Carson Hocevar is elsewhere, he's never really shown a lot of speed at Daytona because after crashing out of the 2024 Daytona 500, he seemed to be more preoccupied with staying out of trouble than fighting for the lead. That worked out for him last year when he started 37th and finished […]

Michael McDowell has a Solid Drafting Record

Although Michael McDowell is primarily viewed as a road racer, drafting tracks are now one of his best track types in general, although that was probably more true when he drove for Front Row Motorsports at a time the Fords had dominant speed than for Spire Motorsports, which tends to have much slower cars on […]

A.J. Allmendinger Arguably Starting Too Well for Place-Differential Points

Although A.J. Allmendinger survived the crashes to earn back-to-back sixth-place finishes in the 2023 and 2024 Daytona 500s, he isn't one of the best options for DFS play on Saturday. Kaulig Racing tends to have speed at these tracks, but weirdly, Ty Dillon has looked faster all season on them, particularly when he contended for […]

Austin Dillon Will Likely Be Too Conservative for DFS Consideration

After winning his way into the playoffs last week at Richmond, Austin Dillon will no longer feel any desperation to advance himself into the playoffs at any cost, so he is unlikely to score his third career win at Dayton after wrecking his opposition in both previous wins at the track. Most likely he will […]

Noah Gragson Has Place-Differential Potential as One of the Lowest-Starting Fords

Noah Gragson actually gave Beard Motorsports its only top five finish here at Daytona in the 2022 regular season finale, but that was mainly because his car was so slow that he was able to dodge the numerous wrecks. This time he starts 32nd as a result of his mediocre Richmond run for a Front […]

Poor Starting Position and Ford's Drafting Speed Make Todd Gilliland a Viable Option

Todd Gilliland has shown some speed on drafting tracks in the past, particularly in last year's first Atlanta race when he led a race-high 58 laps, but he mostly hasn't been a contender for the lead and Daytona is his worst drafting track. Although he started on the outside pole last year, he's never finished […]

Zane Smith Probably Starting Too Well for DFS Play

Even though Zane Smith might be the most improved driver of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, you probably don't want to start him at Daytona despite the fact that he did fight for the win in the last drafting track race at Atlanta. The problem is that the cancellation of qualifying resulted in a […]

Justin Haley has Strong Pass-Differential Potential

Although Justin Haley has had a pretty terrible season, he did win his one NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona in 2019, but that was entirely based on pit strategy and crash avoidance and that had almost nothing to do with him. He did also show strength on drafting tracks in the Xfinity Series for […]