Ty Gibbs Qualifies Too Well For DFS Consideration Despite Improved Performance

After a disastrous start to the season, Ty Gibbs has now had four consecutive good runs and he even led the most laps at Talladega after not leading any other race this season, even though all the Toyota teams botched the strategy in the end. That has propelled him from 34th to 22nd in points […]

Kyle Busch Should Run Better Than Recent Texas Record

Kyle Busch has won at Texas four times in the past, but his record here with the Next Gen chassis has not been inspiring as he has led no laps and crashed out of two of his three races here with this car. As a result, he is probably going to be a bit undervalued. […]

Chris Buescher Snakebitten In Home State

Chris Buescher, the methodical driver from Prosper, Texas, has seldom prospered at Texas. In 15 previous Texas starts, he has shockingly never finished better than 14th, making this the only track that has been on the schedule his entire Cup Series career where he has never earned a top ten. The only time he had […]

Shane Van Gisbergen's Oval Speed Has Not Improved

Shane van Gisbergen's learning curve has been more severe than most people expected. Despite driving a full-time chartered entry for Trackhouse Racing, he qualified 37th behind both Cody Ware and Jesse Love in a rare non-drafting track Beard Motorsports entry. It doesn't help that Trackhouse seems to have slower cars especially in qualifying than they […]

Drew Blickensderfer's Mediocrity At Texas Will Likely Hold Noah Gragson Back

Noah Gragson's top five at Talladega last week may have seemed surprising on the surface but it probably shouldn't have been since he finished third in the previous year's spring Talladega race and his crew chief Drew Blickensderfer had given three different drivers (Matt Kenseth, David Ragan, and Michael McDowell) Daytona wins. However, Texas is […]

Despite Winning In 2020, Austin Dillon Isn't Good At Texas

Austin Dillon qualified 19th at Texas on Saturday, outqualifying his teammate Kyle Busch. He did win here on a strategy play in 2020 in a race where his average running position was almost 14th, but that was with crew chief Justin Alexander, and he's always been worse without him than with him. Despite the win, […]

Despite 23XI Racing's Texas Speed, Riley Herbst Probably Isn't Worth Considering

It might initially seem tempting to look at Riley Herbst for DFS play since he costs only $5,300 and is driving for a 23XI Racing team that led the most laps with Bubba Wallace two years ago at Texas, especially since he only starts 21st. However, he is still a rookie and there was no […]

Beard Motorsports Makes Rare Non-Drafting Oval Appearance At Texas With Jesse Love

Jesse Love qualified 35th on Saturday at Texas in a rare non-drafting oval appearance for Beard Motorsports' No. 62 car. The team has a loose affiliation with Richard Childress Racing, and its last appearance outside the drafting ovals came at the Charlotte roval with Love's Xfinity Series teammate Austin Hill. The team is likely going […]

Chad Finchum Making First Cup Series Start of 2025

Chad Finchum makes his first start of the season in Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway. However, unsurprisingly since he is driving for Carl Long's Garage 66 team, Finchum qualified last place in 38th, and the gap in lap time between him and the second-slowest driver Shane van Gisbergen was greater than the gap between […]

Chase Elliott Recovers from Speeding Penalty to Finish Fifth

Chase Elliott had another typically quiet finish at Talladega yesterday, finishing 7th on track but being promoted to 5th after Ryan Preece and Joey Logano's disqualifications. Although his pass differential of 52 was the second-highest in the race behind only his teammate Kyle Larson, Elliott only factored for the lead a couple times and only […]

Joey Logano Finishes Last at Talladega After Disqualification for Missing Spoiler Brace

Arguable pre-race favorite Joey Logano had arguably the best run at Talladega, leading 24 laps, posting the race's best average running position of 7, and finishing fifth on track before being disqualified for a missing spoiler brace. Although Logano ran in the top ten for most of Stage 1, he burned more fuel while running […]

Ryan Preece Loses Talladega Race First in Photo Finish Then in Post-Race Inspection

In a race where Ryan Preece's two RFK Racing teammates Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher both crashed early, it was left to Preece to carry the mantle for the organization, Preece took the lead four times and lost to Austin Cindric by a mere .022 second on track before being disqualified for a rear spoiler […]

Poor Toyota Strategy Arguably Cost Bubba Wallace Winning Chances at Talladega

Although Bubba Wallace only finished eighth at Talladega and led only five laps, he had one of the best drives in a lowkey way. After finishing fourth in Stage 1, Wallace then outdueled Joey Logano's illegal car on the last lap to win Stage 2, but he was let down by bad Toyota strategy rather […]

Christopher Bell Unhurt After Hard Contact with Inside Retaining Wall

After winning the previous drafting track race at Atlanta, Christopher Bell was unable to repeat the feat at Talladega after a hard crash on lap 52. Bell had driven from his 11th starting position to second behind Chase Briscoe for most of the first stage when the Toyotas worked together to drive from the field. […]

Denny Hamlin Probably Qualified Too Well for DFS Consideration

While Denny Hamlin was arguably the best drafting track driver in the Gen-6 era of NASCAR, he hasn't seemed to have the same speed with the Next Gen chassis on these tracks. Since 2020, he's had an odd streak where he has finished outside the top ten in each of the last four spring races […]

Kyle Larson Increasingly Undervalued Due to His Crashing, but Still a Great DFS Option

Kyle Larson has become something of an agent of chaos in NASCAR as he can either dominate a race or crash anywhere and no one is surprised by either. Whenever he crashes (as he did two days ago in Indy 500 practice) there's always a lot of social media hubbub mocking people who call him […]

Kyle Busch Nearly Always Leads at Talladega, but Rarely Leads Much

Although Kyle Busch seems to have faded from regular contention recently, he earned a somewhat surprising second-place qualifying run at Talladega, his best since Dover nearly one year ago. Talladega is the site of his penultimate win two years ago, but that race had more to do with the brilliant pit strategy he called himself […]

Tyler Reddick's Drafting Track Record Worse Than It Looks

Tyler Reddick is last year's defending winner at Talladega, but he kind of backed into it as the crash that eliminated most of his fellow Toyotas after they had pitted but before anyone else had allowed Reddick to take the lead on the restart in a boxed-in 2X2 formation alongside Michael McDowell, who crashed coming […]

Daniel Suarez Likely Motivated at Talladega Since Trackhouse Cars Likely Too Slow for Him to Win On Regular Tracks

In a year when Trackhouse Racing has seemed to have lost a lot of speed, Daniel Suárez probably needs to place more emphasis on drafting tracks this year than in previous years since he is unlikely to have the speed to win anywhere else. He qualified 24th, highest of any of the three Trackhouse drivers. […]

Ryan Preece Qualifies Fourth Due to Ford Dominance, but Don't Expect Him to Finish There

Even though Ryan Preece is surprisingly running as well as his lead RFK Racing teammate Chris Buescher this year and qualified fourth for today's race at Talladega, it's very risky to start him since he is almost certain to lose positions since he averages fewer than one top five of a year. Admittedly, his first […]

Justin Haley Qualifies 37th in First Race After Rodney Childers's Departure

In one of the year's biggest surprises to date, champion crew chief Rodney Childers announced last Wednesday that he had resigned as Justin Haley's crew chief. Perhaps this served as a distraction since Haley ended up qualifying 37th, slowest of all the full-time chartered teams. However, the crew chief doesn't really matter in forecasting races […]

Post-Daytona 500 Penalty Results in Much Worse Talladega Qualifying for Chase Briscoe

In one of the more amusing anecdotes from qualifying, Chase Briscoe qualified 17th (slowest of the four Joe Gibbs Racing cars) after being penalized for a spoiler modification at the Daytona 500, where he had shocked everyone by winning the pole. Even though the penalty was rescinded, his inexplicable pole interrupting the perennial Ford qualifying […]

Alex Bowman Starting Too Well for Place Differential Points, but Not Well Enough for Leader Points

Alex Bowman qualified 18th at Talladega yesterday, which is consistent with his relatively bland performance there as this marks his seventh consecutive starting position outside the top ten after six consecutive top ten starts before that. While qualifying certainly doesn't matter there and he has had laps in every other race at Talladega, he isn't […]

Chris Buescher Qualifies Sixth Thanks to Ford Dominance, but Probably Won't Lead Enough to Be Valuable in DFS

While Chris Buescher has seemed to maintain his consistency of recent seasons, he and RFK Racing in general have seemed to lose a lot of speed as he has not led a lap in the first nine races of 2025. Even though he qualified sixth at Talladega, a track which is traditionally conducive to a […]

Despite Current Momentum, Ty Gibbs Qualified Too Well for DFS Consideration

Ty Gibbs has slightly recovered from a disastrous start to the season with three consecutive good runs elevating him from 34th to 20th in the points standings. He qualified 10th ahead of all other Toyota drivers for today's Talladega race. However, that is not a good thing for DFS lineups because he qualified too well […]

Carson Hocevar's Poor Qualifying and Second at Atlanta Make Him a Viable DFS Option

Although Carson Hocevar only qualified 28th at Talladega yesterday and was genuinely rather slow in most of last year's drafting track races, he earned his best career finish (a second) in the previous drafting race at Atlanta despite starting 26th, which means he seems to be driving less conservatively now and is more willing to […]

Too Few Crashes at Talladega Recently for JJ Yeley to Hold DFS Value

J.J. Yeley starts 39th and last at Talladega for the NY Racing Team. If there is any track type where he might have value for DFS purposes, it is the drafting track as the only chance he might have a decent finish for that team is if he doesn't crash and many of the drivers […]

Denny Hamlin Cuts Into William Byron's Points Lead

When Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin started on the second row in Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol, most people expected one or the other to dominate and overtake front-row starters Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It turned out to be Larson, who led over 400 laps for the second consecutive Bristol race, but […]

William Byron Makes Best Of His Mediocre Qualifying Run With Sixth-Place Finish

Despite blowing his qualifying lap after expecting to win the pole, William Byron recovered from 26th to finish sixth at Bristol, which would've been called a good points day in the Latford points system era. It doesn't matter as much in today's playoff points system where wins and stage wins are vastly more important, but […]

Despite Engine Failure, Alex Bowman's Improved Speed Looks Promising

In a virtual repeat of last year's Bristol Night Race, Alex Bowman won the pole for Sunday's race at Bristol before Kyle Larson passed him early in Stage 1 and led the rest of the race, with the exception of pit-stop exchanges. The difference is Bowman had an engine failure in Sunday's race. However, Bowman's […]