Ryan Preece an Underrated DFS Option Given His Impressive Passing This Year

Ryan Preece has been this year's biggest positive surprise as after years of mediocrity, he has been seemingly consistently faster than his more highly-regarded teammates Chris Buescher and his boss Brad Keselowski and is even beating them in points despite being disqualified from his apparent second-place finish at Talladega. Although Preece finished fourth in last […]

Passing Will Likely Prove Too Difficult for Noah Gragson to Have DFS Value

Although Noah Gragson has had a pretty invisible season, he shockingly ran in the top 10 for most of last week's Coca-Cola 600, and this week at Nashville, he's coming to a track where he did finish in the top 10 last year. However, that deserves a giant-size asterisk in that race, as he was […]

Michael McDowell Qualifies Too Well for DFS Consideration

Although Michael McDowell starts eighth on Sunday at Nashville, this has not been one of his better tracks in general as he has never finished better than 13th nor posted a better average finish than 14th, so he will likely lose positions in the race. The Spire Motorsports cars have seemed to have a significant […]

Erik Jones Probably Starting Too Well for Place-Differential Points

Erik Jones and his Legacy Motor Club teammate John Hunter Nemechek have definitely seemed to pick up speed on intermediate tracks in recent weeks and although Jones has still been rather anonymous, he has seemed to regain his strong passing abilities from before his Talladega injury this year to some extent. He starts 14th today […]

Corey Heim Unlikely to Match 23XI Racing Teammates' Speed at Nashville

Although Corey Heim is only making his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Nashville on Sunday, he actually finished last year's race where he started and finished 29th. Last year's race was so chaotic and unrepresentative that it's necessary to look at average running positions to predict this year's speed. While Heim's average running position […]

Cole Custer Likely Needs Strategy Shakeup to Have DFS Value at Nashville

Cole Custer makes his return to Nashville after his two-year return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, starting from the 29th position on Sunday evening. In his two previous starts at Nashville, Custer actually qualified pretty well, starting seventh in 2021 and 17th in 2022 before eventually falling to 31st and 26th, respectively. His average running […]

Ty Dillon Likely Needs Another Chaotic Nashville Race to Contend

Ty Dillon qualified 31st for Sunday's race at Nashville Superspeedway, which is consistent with his 31st- and 32nd-place finishes in his two previous Nashville starts in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Since he got lapped multiple times in both races, it's hard to envision Dillon gaining enough positions to obtain sufficient place-differential points to be worth […]

Christopher Bell Disappoints by his High Standards But Gains on Points Lead

Although Christopher Bell entered Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 as one of the pre-race favorites after winning last year's race, he was mildly disappointing by his admittedly very high standards. Although he looked like a potential winner after driving from 10th to third in the opening stage, he spent most of the rest of the race […]

Chase Elliott has Another Invisible Race but Still Improves Playoff Position

Chase Elliott had another invisible run in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, but he did what he needed to do to remain in playoff contention. Although Elliott was as usual nowhere near as fast as his teammates William Byron or Kyle Larson, he stayed out of trouble and didn't crash like Larson or his other teammate Alex […]

A.J. Allmendinger Earns Highest Oval Driver Rating Since 2011 at Charlotte

A.J. Allmendinger had one of the best oval races of his career on Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600, where he started fifth and finished fourth. His driver rating of 112.1 was second-highest in the race, behind only William Byron, and it was Allmendinger's highest driver rating on an oval since 2011 at Phoenix, where […]

Chase Briscoe Recovers from Pit-Road Penalty to Finish Third

After winning the pole for Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600, Chase Briscoe lost the lead to Kyle Larson on the opening lap and fell to fifth before the caution came out for Larson's first spin. During the round of pit stops on that caution, Briscoe technically led one lap in the pits but had an uncontrolled […]

Chase Elliott Not the Best DFS Choice at Charlotte

Chase Elliott was definitely one of the best drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Gen-6 car, where he led over 100 laps as a rookie, won the second 2020 race, and would have won that year's Coca-Cola 600 if Alan Gustafson hadn't pitted him before an overtime restart. With the Next Gen car, his […]

Tyler Reddick Hard to Predict Going into Charlotte Race

It's hard to know what to make of Tyler Reddick's 2025 season. After showing frequent blinding speed in the early years of the Next Gen car, he seemed to trade that in for consistency in 2024. This year he seems to have neither the speed nor the consistency nor the passing ability of previous seasons, […]

Joey Logano Unlikely to Focus on Charlotte Oval Since It's Not in the Playoffs

Charlotte Motor Speedway has not been one of defending champion Joey Logano's best tracks. He only won here once in the 2015 fall event before the Roval race which replaced it even existed. Even that race (part of Logano's three-in-a-row playoff streak) wasn't that impressive. Although he led 227 laps, he only took the lead […]

After Locking into Playoffs, Austin Cindric Unlikely to Finish as Well as Expected

After being originally and erroneously typecast as a road course expert, Austin Cindric has now found his primary niche as a drafting track driver and his secondary niche as an intermediate driver. Cindric has seemingly been fast in the first stage of every intermediate race this year, even winning Stage 1 at Las Vegas and […]

Despite Being Charlotte's GOAT, Don't Expect Jimmie Johnson to Contend

Although Charlotte Motor Speedway used to be Jimmie Johnson's playground (particularly when both he and the track were sponsored by Lowe's) his record eight career wins here mean nothing since he is washed up, has never really been a contender with the Next Gen chassis, and is now driving for his own Legacy Motor Club, […]

If You Don't Think Ty Gibbs Will Lead at Charlotte, Don't Start Him

After a very slow start to the season, Ty Gibbs was trending upward for a while, particularly on the stretch from Martinsville to Talladega, none of which were very chaotic races. Gibbs seems to do best when there are long green flag runs and minimal chaos, so the fact that there are three guaranteed cautions […]

Charlotte Isn't One of Daniel Suarez's Best Intermediate Tracks

Like a modern day Jerry Nadeau, Daniel Suárez seems to be almost completely irrelevant except for intermediates and 1.5-mile ovals. He has already earned a 2nd at Las Vegas and a 10th at Texas on intermediates this year, but he tends to be better at both those tracks than he is at Charlotte. He did […]

Austin Dillon's Charlotte Prospects Worse in Reality Than They Look on Paper

In addition to winning the 2017 Coca-Cola 600 on fuel mileage, Austin Dillon has actually been a fairly consistent performer at Charlotte with three top-10 finishes in his last five starts, with one of the exceptions being the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, where he was attempting to clear Kyle Larson for the lead on an overtime […]

Erik Jones' Speed Hasn't Really Improved, Even if Legacy Motor Club's Speed Has

Erik Jones has been hard to figure out lately. Although his Legacy Motor Club team seems to be faster this year than in previous years and he finally got his first top five at a non-drafting oval in a year and a half at Kansas, he doesn't seem much faster than he was last year […]

Noah Gragson Earns Surprise Top-10 Qualifying Spot

Noah Gragson has never finished a Coca-Cola 600 before, so it's hard to really predict how he'd do. Additionally, he is now driving for his fourth different team in four years (Kaulig Racing, Legacy Motor Club, Stewart-Haas Racing, and now Front Row Motorsports), which makes this even more complicated. This wasn't one of Gragson's best […]

Todd Gilliland a Decent DFS Option at Charlotte

Todd Gilliland has never qualified well at Charlotte, and Saturday was no exception, as he qualified 34th. However, in his previous starts with Front Row Motorsports, he finished 16th and 17th with this car after starting 30th or worse. With Gilliland's teammate Noah Gragson qualifying in the top 10, it's possible that Gilliland will have […]

Mediocre Haas Factory Team Speed Makes Cole Custer a Poor DFS Option

Cole Custer is making his first start at Charlotte since his full-time return to the NASCAR Cup Series with the rebranded Haas Factory Team from 29th. Custer has been arguably NASCAR's most invisible man as he has contended in races arguably less than any driver for a chartered team other than Cody Ware and the […]

Project 66 Too Slow for Josh Bilicki to Contend

Josh Bilicki is making his second start of the year for Project 66, the Carl Long-owned team formerly known as MBM Motorsports. As with all part-time non-chartered teams, the No. 66 team is very slow and Bilicki qualified 38th, even slower when Derek Kraus in the very similar No. 44 entry. Much like Kraus, Bilicki […]

Derek Kraus Makes First NASCAR Cup Series Start of 2025

Derek Kraus makes his first NASCAR Cup Series start of the season in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Since he is driving for the underfunded NY Racing Team, it should come as little surprise that he qualified 37th, nearly two seconds slower than Chase Briscoe. As usual, NYRT is so much slower than all the […]

Kyle Larson Skipping All-Star Heat Race Should Be Good for DFS Place Differential Points

Kyle Larson missed yesterday's NASCAR All-Star qualifying race while he was qualifying 21st for the Indy 500. Although Justin Allgaier was announced as Larson's replacement, he did not attempt to start the race since Larson would have to start in the back today anyway. The fact that Larson won the first North Wilkesboro all-star race […]

William Byron's Lack of Winning Speed and Good Starting Position Make Him a Poor DFS Option

Although William Byron seemed like the favorite in his All-Star Heat Race on paper yesterday since he started third and has been a better short track driver than Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain lately, Byron finished third and did not seriously contend for the win in his heat race and got passed by Ross Chastain, […]

Joe Gibbs Racing Speed Should Carry Chase Briscoe in All-Star Race

Typically a good short track racer, Chase Briscoe started fifth and finished fourth in the first All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro in 2023, making him the only driver to both start and finish in the top five in that race. However, he failed to advance in 2024 after finishing seventh in the All-Star Open, so […]

Alex Bowman's Consistent Loss of Positions Makes Him a Poor DFS Choice

Alex Bowman has had improved speed on short tracks lately since he won poles at the last two Bristol races, even though Kyle Larson blew his doors off in both races. Although he qualified second for the first All-Star heat race, he fell to fifth after superior short track drivers William Byron and Ryan Blaney […]

Despite Mediocre Short Track Record, Ross Chastain Surprisingly Finished Second in Heat Race

Despite the fact that Ross Chastain has typically been slow on short tracks in recent years, he surprisingly drove from ninth to finish second in the first heat race for today's NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway; he was even the only non-winner to lead a lap in his heat race yesterday. This resulted […]