March 30, 2025
Spire Motorsports driver Justin Haley will start 30th for this week's race at Martinsville Speedway. Haley was the lowest qualifying driver of the three entries for Spire in this week's race. In eight races at Martinsville, Haley has never placed better than 27th and only gained positive place differential in three different Cup events. Through six races in the 2025 season, Haley has four top-20 finishes and has nabbed positive PD four times. In practice, Haley ranked 33rd in overall lap averages and 36th in 10 consecutive lap averages, while his hood came up, which limited his practice time. Despite a cheap salary below $6,000 on DraftKings and a deep starting position, Martinsville is one of Haley's worst tracks in the Cup Series. Fade the No. 7 Chevrolet driver due to his poor history and slow practice speeds this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
March 30, 2025
Zane Smith of Front Row Motorsports obtained a starting position of 19th for Sunday's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. This will be the first-ever top-20 starting position in the Cup Series at Martinsville for the No. 38 Ford driver. In three previous Cup starts, Smith's best finish was 21st, which he scored with positive place differential in his last appearance at Martinsville in November 2024. Smith is also a former winner in the Truck Series at Martinsville, where he has four top-10 finishes in four starts. Through six races so far this season, Smith has three finishes of 11th or better and has earned positive PD three times. In practice, Smith ranked 22nd in overall lap averages and ranked among the top 20 in 15, 20, 25, and 30 consecutive lap averages. Although he does not offer as much upside for a value pick below $5,500 on DraftKings, Smith is in better equipment than most in this tier that is capable of placing in the top 20.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
March 30, 2025
Kaulig Racing's Ty Dillon will start 28th after qualifying for this week's Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. This will be the highest starting position in a Martinsville Cup race for Dillon since 2020. In 12 starts at the Virginia short track, Dillon has three top-20 finishes while scoring positive place differential 11 times. After six races so far this season, Dillon has two top-20 finishes and three finishes with positive PD earned. In practice, Dillon ranked third in overall lap averages while ranking 17th in 10 consecutive lap averages and 16th in 15 consecutive lap averages. With his starting position deep in the field, his equipment, a history of collecting positive PD, and practice speeds indicative of a top-20 finish, Dillon is a great overall value play for all DFS formats.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
March 24, 2025
23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace placed third at the end of Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Starting the race from the eighth position, Wallace was quiet during the race's first stage. Although he kept out of trouble and crashes, the No. 23 Toyota driver fell back to 12th and missed earning stage points at the end of stage one. In stage two, Wallace would gain positions through pit road and improve his car to the point that it could compete against the top five. Wallace earned stage points at the end of the second stage by placing fifth. In the final stage, Wallace obtained more positions through pit road and soon grabbed the lead for the first time. Wallace went on to lead 56 laps for the day, eventually losing the lead to Alex Bowman and getting passed by Kyle Larson. The third-place finish for Wallace would become the best of his Cup career at the site, and he now sits seventh in the regular season standings.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
March
24,
2025
Alex
Bowman
of
Hendrick
Motorsports
finished
second
as
the
runner-up
for
the
Straight
Talk
Wireless
400
at
Homestead-Miami
Speedway.
Starting
from
the
pole
position,
Bowman
led
the
first
couple
of
laps
until
Ryan
Blaney
passed
him
for
the
lead.
The
No.
read more...
March
24,
2025
William
Byron
of
Hendrick
Motorsports
had
a
performance
of
missed
potential
at
Homestead-Miami
Speedway
for
the
Straight
Talk
Wireless
400
as
he
ended
in
12th.
Beginning
the
race
from
the
fifth
position,
Byron
showcased
that
he
had
one
of
the
better
read more...
March 24, 2025
Chris Buescher of RFK Racing quietly nabbed a finish of sixth during Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In the first stage, Buescher began the race from the 11th position, riding around the top 15 through the duration of the stage. The No. 17 Ford driver ended stage one in 13th, failing to score stage points. In the second stage, Buescher would end up in the 11th position and fall short of earning stage points again. In the final stage, Buescher kept his car clean and, after his team made improvements, drove into the top 10 and fell short of a top-5 finish. This was a new career-best finish at Homestead for Buescher, as well as the fourth top-10 result of the season, tying him with Kyle Larson and William Byron for the second most this year.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
March 24, 2025
RFK Racing's Ryan Preece earned another strong result for the 2025 season as he placed ninth during Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Beginning the race from the 31st position, Preece quietly spent the entire race working his way through the pack. At the end of the first stage, the No. 60 Ford driver made it to the 20th position, failing to score stage points. Preece made it even closer to the front by the end of the second stage, as he placed 14th. Then, in the final stage, Preece kept his car out of trouble, executed on pit stops, and drove his way up to the ninth position, collecting his second consecutive top-10 result of the season. It was the third time in his Cup career that Preece scored back-to-back top-10 finishes, and he now cracked the top 16 in the points standings for the first time this season.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
March 23, 2025
Homestead has always been one of Denny Hamlin's stronger tracks, so it didn't come as much of a surprise that he eventually finished fifth in Sunday's race there, but for a while, it looked like he might finish significantly worse. Hamlin initially started 23rd and fell back as low as 30th in the early laps of Stage 1, but a savvy strategy play to stay out of the pits later during each of the first two stages allowed him to have fresher tires at the end of both stages. It reaped great dividends, as he blasted through the field at the end of both stages, eventually finishing 11th in Stage 1 while making up a massive deficit to Ryan Blaney to win Stage 2. However, he lost the lead to Kyle Larson on the Stage 2 pit stops and would never regain it. His solid run helped erase some doubts as to how Hamlin would run on intermediates without Chris Gabehart as his crew chief.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Although Chase Briscoe qualified fourth for Sunday's Homestead race (higher than any of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates), a lot of people had rather low expectations given his history of struggling on intermediates for Stewart-Haas Racing. However, JGR is a lot faster than SHR on those tracks, and he had a lot more staying power than most people expected since he also finished fourth. He faded from view in Stage 2 after a slow pit stop but gradually worked his way through the field and he made a strong charge from eighth to third in the latter portions of Stage 3 and even came close to passing then-leaders Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman before Kyle Larson ended up passing all three of them. The race really improved his playoff position, as he rose from 20th to 13th in points and is now above the playoff cut line.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano's streak of zero top-10 finishes to start the 2025 season continued with a 14th-place finish at Homestead. Given the speed of the Penske cars (especially Logano's teammate Ryan Blaney) in Sunday's event, Logano must have expected more. After starting 12th, Logano drove up to sixth when the caution for Christopher Bell's spin came out, but he lost several positions in the pits and only finished 10th at the end of Stage 1. During the stage-break caution, Logano and his quasi-teammate Josh Berry made contact in the pits, and both drivers spun and struggled to recover. Logano did drive his way back to finish 14th, stopping the bleeding once again. His many stage points have allowed him to maintain the 11th spot in points, and he now only sits two points behind his teammate Blaney, even though he significantly out-ran Logano on Sunday.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Tyler Reddick had a strangely muted run at Homestead, which is conventionally one of his best tracks in the NASCAR Cup Series. After winning last fall's race at Homestead in gallant fashion, he only finished 8th today after running much worse than that for most of the event. Although he gained five positions from 20th to 15th on the opening lap, he fell to 18th at the end of Stage 1 and wouldn't creep into the top ten for good until the later portions of Stage 2 in a race where his teammate Bubba Wallace was one of the fastest drivers. He remained in the top ten continuously in Stage 3 rising as high as 4th, but he was nearly always behind his teammate at one of his best tracks in a curiously mediocre run. Although he still ranks fourth in points, he has yet to make an on-track pass for the lead but it seems likely that will change pretty soon.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
After a string of futility in his first half-season as a Spire Motorsports driver, Justin Haley earned his first top-10 finish on a non-drafting oval at Homestead on Sunday. In a race that had relatively little attrition, Haley started 21st and steadily worked his way through the pack during the race, finishing 15th at the end of Stage 1 and 20th in Stage 2 before he made a solid charge from 15th to 10th after the restart following Ryan Blaney's engine failure. This marks the second consecutive week that Haley has been the highest-finishing Spire driver in a race, and his finish moved him up four positions in points to 24th. However, it doesn't look like he will be seriously contending for wins anytime soon.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
After a long run of consistent finishes in races where he has otherwise mostly been a non-factor, Alex Bowman earned his first pole on a non-drafting superspeedway for Sunday's Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Although you'd think Homestead would be one of his absolute best tracks since it is similar to Chicagoland, Kansas, and Las Vegas -- where he's either won and/or run well before -- Bowman has never led there or finished better than seventh. Both of those will likely change since Bowman seems faster than he has in years, and in last week's Las Vegas race, he made a pass for the lead and recovered from a flat tire to drive up to seventh. If he has no bad luck with the consistency he's had, a top-five finish almost seems likely, but he's probably not going to win. Bowman has a lot of DFS value if you think he's going to dominate the race, but more likely he won't lead after the end of Stage 1.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
March 23, 2025
Denny Hamlin has been reliably consistent at Homestead over the years, earning 13 top-10 finishes in 20 starts as well as three wins. He has also led all three Homestead races with the Next Gen chassis and battled Ryan Blaney and his driver Tyler Reddick for the win last year, but now his former crew chief Chris Gabehart has been replaced by Chris Gayle, and Hamlin doesn't seem as fast. On paper, Hamlin should be one of the best options for DFS play since he qualified 23rd and is likely to score many place-differential points in addition to the fact that he leads here often, but the crew-chief change and his mediocre run last week at Las Vegas (where he started 15th, finished 25th, and only had an average running position of 22nd) suggest that he is likely overvalued for this race.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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