May 11, 2025
Noah Gragson of Front Row Motorsports obtained a starting position of 24th for this week's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. It will mark the fifth time in his Cup career that Gragson will begin a Kansas race outside of the top 20. In five previous Cup starts at Kansas, Gragson has four top-20 finishes and obtained positive Place Differential four times. Through 11 races completed in the 2025 season, Gragson has four top-20 finishes, with only one of them being at a 1.5-mile Intermediate track like Kansas (Homestead). In practice for this week's Cup race, Gragson ranked 36th in overall lap averages while ranking 33rd in 10 consecutive lap averages. Overall, Gragson is a driver who should be deemed playable in all formats for DFS this week based on history, but not the top racer to recommend in his salary range of $6,900 on DraftKings, especially with his slow practice speeds.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
May 11, 2025
John Hunter Nemechek of Legacy Motor Club will start 17th for the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. This is Nemechek's highest starting position to date for a Cup race at Kansas in his Cup career as well as the first time he will start in the top 20 at the site. In four previous Kansas Cup starts, Nemechek has three top-20 finishes and obtained positive Place Differential every time. In 11 races completed so far this season, Nemechek has five top-20 finishes and an average finish of 18.9. In practice, Nemechek ranked 37th in overall lap averages but displayed top-20 speeds in the 15 and 20 consecutive lap average categories. Despite his decent track history, Nemechek's equipment and overall upside make him tough to recommend outside of tournament lineups for DFS this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
May 11, 2025
Truck Series regular Corey Heim nabbed a starting position of 28th for this week's Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, the AdventHealth 400. This will be Heim's first Cup start of the 2025 season, but his second overall at Kansas. In his only previous Cup start at the site, Heim started 20th, nearly scored a top-10 finish before spinning late, and placed 22nd overall while in a substitute role for Legacy Motor Club. In seven Truck Series races at Kansas, Heim has two wins and five consecutive top-5 finishes, including a fourth-place finish earlier this weekend. In practice, Heim ranked 19th in overall lap averages and 29th in 10 consecutive lap averages. Heim will drive in a fourth 23XI racing car this week, which usually brings fast cars to Kansas. With high potential upside and great Truck history at Kansas, Heim is a solid driver to consider for all lineups as someone to compete for a top-20 finish despite his Cup inexperience.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
May 11, 2025
Jesse Love will start 32nd in this week's AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway. It will be the first time that he will drive at the site in the Cup Series and will do so in a third Richard Childress Racing entry. In his only Xfinity race at Kansas so far in his career during September 2024, Love has a finish of ninth after starting seventh. In two Cup races completed this season, Love has yet to finish better than 31st. In practice, Love ranked eighth in overall lap averages and 21st in 10 consecutive lap averages. The current Xfinity Series regular makes for an adequate option for DFS contests as a cash game play due to his high potential upside from his starting position and low salary of $5,500 on DraftKings.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
May 11, 2025
Although Chase Elliott hasn't been terrible this season, he's never seemed so invisible or ignorable before, as even Alex Bowman seems to be faster than him most weeks before some bad luck invariably strikes. Elliott starts ninth in Sunday's AdventHealth 400 and he's pretty much a lock for a top-10 finish as he has only missed the top 10 in three of his last 13 starts, dating back to his win in 2018. He has also led over 40 laps here five times, most recently with this car in his otherwise mediocre 2023. If this were 2020 and Elliott were still one of the most electrifying passers on the circuit, you could probably count on him to lead enough laps to still be worth considering, even though he's starting ninth. But it's no longer 2020, and he rarely leads anymore, so he probably isn't one of the best options compared to other drivers who could gain more via place differential.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May
11,
2025
Joey
Logano
starts
fifth
at
Kansas
on
Sunday.
The
track
has
historically
been
very
good
for
him,
as
he
won
three
times
there,
most
recently
in
2020.
However,
in
the
Next
Gen
era,
he
has
rarely
been
much
of
a
race
read more...
May 11, 2025
After his awful start, Ty Gibbs has been running pretty well every week lately and now sits only 20 points below the playoff cutline, which is really a sign of how weak the bubble is this year. Gibbs missed out on a good finish at Texas despite running well after he got trapped a lap down on a set of green flag pit stops. Now that he and his new crew chief Tyler Allen are beginning to jell, he seems to suddenly have top ten speed most weeks now and Kansas is a very good track for his grandfather's team and Gibbs himself earned a top five here in his last start. The problem is he is starting sixth, so he is still more likely to lose positions than gain positions and will likely take a hit on Place Differential. If he goes out and leads a bunch of laps today, which seems very possible, he could be a great DFS option. But he's definitely more likely not to do that.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Carson Hocevar won Saturday's Craftsman Truck Series race for Spire Motorsports with relative ease after his similarly-initialed one-time Truck Series rival Corey Heim had a botched pit stop, got trapped a lap down, and then had a penalty for changing lanes on a restart. Although it's not as pronounced as in the past, there still seems to be some correlation between extra track time and good setups on Sunday, so Hocevar will likely run very well, even though he qualified 22nd. It helps that Spire's Cup Series cars have been very fast on intermediates with several poles, including Hocevar's pole at Texas last week and McDowell's shocking near-win. Hocevar will probably have top-10 speed based on recent history and he's worthy of consideration for DFS if you think he won't crash. Admittedly, there's almost no way to predict something like that.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Daniel Suárez earned a rare top-10 qualifying run for Trackhouse Racing this season, and his eighth-place start is only his second top-20 start of the season. Intermediates are one of his best track types, but he tends to do better on the high-banked intermediates than the flat ones. Although he does occasionally lead here, most of his finishes are usually just outside the top 10. This is his best start here since 2019, so he stands a better chance of earning some stage points than usual, but it seems likely he will lose positions since he has never finished in the top 10 here after starting in the top 10. He tends to lose positions here in general. The exception of course is if he gets lucky on strategy, and Trackhouse seems to have better strategies than any other teams. But since Kansas seems to favor speed over strategy, starting Suárez seems like a bad idea.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Chase Briscoe continues to be one of the hardest drivers to predict in the Cup Series. He remains a force of chaos and one of the few drivers who could win, have an extremely mediocre run, or crash and few would be surprised by any of these outcomes. Meanwhile, James Small continues to be one of the worst strategists on a top-tier team. That shouldn't matter as much at Kansas as on other tracks since it tends to be easier to pass so speed is more paramount than track position, but Briscoe has not had much speed here in the past as he has never led or finished better than 13th. Intermediates tended to be where he struggled most, but the same could also be said for late-period Stewart-Haas Racing. Obviously Joe Gibbs Racing is faster and their cars are expected to get top tens on intermediates, so he could earn Place Differential points, but he should primarily be avoided because he seems overpriced at $8,200.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen's season continues to meander in an aimless way as he continues to struggle to learn oval racing. Week after week, he is one of the slowest drivers on every oval and it's hard to imagine that changing until it actually happens. 1.5-mile ovals are arguably his worst track type as he finished 34th at Las Vegas and 32nd at Homestead. Although he did finish 22nd last week at Texas, that was almost entirely because pit strategy and attrition elevated him to a better finish than he deserved, and Kansas doesn't tend to have as much attrition as Texas. Clearly SVG and his team seem to be treating oval races as gap weeks between road courses, but this could easily backfire since with Trackhouse Racing's lack of speed he seems more likely not to win a road course before the playoffs than to win on one. He should likely be avoided on all non-drafting ovals for DFS play, even at $5,000.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
After coming agonizingly close to winning at Texas -- a track where he'd never even placed in the top 10 before -- Michael McDowell comes to Texas with momentum and a Spire Motorsports team that seems to have speed on every intermediate track. His Kansas record isn't much better than his Texas record, as his only top-10 finish here came in last year's race, and he's only ever led three laps at Kansas. He does qualify well here somewhat frequently, and his 11th-place run in Saturday's qualifying is consistent with that. In all probability, McDowell will finish worse than he starts and be very costly for DFS play. However, on paper, he should've been a worse choice at Texas than he turned out to be as well, so if you think he can bring similar speed here, he might be worth considering, especially because not many people will want to pick him based on his past record and where he's starting.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
The good news is that Todd Gilliland has been consistent at Kansas. The bad news is that he's been consistent at an extremely low level as he started between 31st and 33rd and finished between 23rd and 27th in all but one of his previous starts. The exception came at last year's race when he started 25th and finished 14th. Even in that outlier race, his average running position was still only 20th and he still only spent 25% of laps in the top 15. Gilliland has his best starting position ever here at 23rd and the Front Row Motorsports cars possibly look a little faster here. That and the fact that he has gained at least six positions in every race is promising, but considering how he usually runs, it's unlikely to imagine him continuing that trend in this race. He could be a better option than his teammate Zane Smith for DFS because he is starting worse, but he probably isn't good enough to start.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Zane Smith earned a 10th-place finish in his last start at Kansas, so he has higher expectations entering Sunday's race than you might expect. He did have his most dominant win in the Craftsman Truck Series at the track, when he led 108 out of 134 laps in the 2022 race. Smith starts 18th on Sunday and has been finishing reliably in the top 20 most weeks, but although he is beating both his Front Row Motorsports teammates in points, he still only sits 26th in the standings. Smith should likely be expected to get another finish towards the back of the top 20 like he usually does, but that won't be enough to either score many points for finishing or place differential, so he is probably not very valuable for DFS lineups.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 11, 2025
Cole Custer qualified 31st at Kansas. Although the track is similar to the defunct Kentucky Speedway where he won in 2020 and he earned his best career finish there 11 days later when he finished 7th, all of Custer's remaining runs have been mediocre since as he usually starts and finishes in mid-pack and lately in the back half of the pack. Although his Haas car is probably somewhat faster than the Rick Ware car he drove in his last start here, the team does not seem to be as fast as it was when it was Stewart-Haas Racing and the fact that this is his worst-ever start here isn't inspiring either. It's certainly possible that he could back into a good finish here if a caution comes out during a green flag cycle (which have been frequent this year) but Kansas races tend to be fairer than those at most other tracks, so it's not likely enough to happen to consider him.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
RADIO
