September 13, 2025
Although Bubba Wallace hasn't clinched a spot in the Round of 12, since he is 50 points ahead of Austin Dillon for the final playoff spot, he pretty much doesn't have to worry even if he fails to finish. Wallace is on a run of arguably the greatest consistency of his career as he has posted six top tens in his last eight starts including his Brickyard 400. One of the two races he didn't was the last short track race at Richmond, where he dominated and led 123 laps before losing a wheel. Wallace has become one of the low-key best short track racers in the series recently after also finishing third at Martinsville and sixth at Iowa, but despite finishing third at Bristol last year, he's kind of been snakebitten here. Nonetheless, given his hot streak and his eighth-place starting position, expect his general speed on short tracks to carry over here. He's definitely worthy of DFS consideration.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Although Alex Bowman had never been much of a threat at Bristol before, he did have arguably his best races at the track in his last three starts as he drove from 29th to fourth in the 2024 spring race and led 32 and 39 laps from the pole in the last two races before being overtaken by his teammate, eventual winner Kyle Larson, who dominated the rest of both races. Hendrick Motorsports did not seem to bring the same speed this time as they did in those races, as Bowman qualified only 15th this time while Larson was fifth. Since Bowman got slower as both those races progressed, it's hard to imagine him winning, which he needs to do to advance in the playoffs. However, with the speed he's shown recently at Bristol, his gallant drive to second at Richmond recently, and his history of delivering in clutch playoff situations (albeit usually at the Charlotte roval), don't be shocked if he actually wins on Saturday.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Ross Chastain sits only 19 points ahead of Austin Dillon for the final transfer spot in the Round of 12, which means he's in some danger of failing to advance in the playoffs, particularly if he has an early DNF, but otherwise it's a little hard to imagine any of the drivers behind him overtaking him unless Alex Bowman wins. Although Chastain has never led here or posted a top-five finish, he's been fairly consistent with five top-15s in his six races in competitive equipment, and this time he qualified 13th (far better than he usually does), which means he may have the potential to post one of his best finishes ever here. He qualified too well to make him an automatic DFS choice like he has been so many other weeks, but he still has value since he is still more likely to finish better than he starts.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Austin Dillon has not been particularly good at Bristol as he has never led a lap here and has only posted four top-10 finishes, but one of those came in this year's spring race when he finished 10th and he certainly surprised many people by successfully defending his Richmond win with an even more dominant performance there in a race where his teammate Kyle Busch (who used to dominate there) was pretty lousy. However, Richmond is a very different track from Bristol, and it's hard to argue that one's speed at one of those tracks will automatically transfer to the other, except that drivers who tend to run well in general run well at both tracks. Dillon's Richmond success seems to have more to do with a single genius setup than a particular short-track prowess, so it's hard to imagine him doing something at Bristol on Saturday, especially starting 23rd.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Despite his early win this season at Las Vegas, in retrospect, Josh Berry's season hasn't been very good, and he will almost certainly be eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday since he sits 45 points below his de facto teammate, Austin Cindric, who holds the transfer spot for the Round of 12. Since only 60 points are available in a race, this means Berry almost certainly needs to win to advance, and that's hard to imagine since he hasn't even led a lap in the last 17 races. Berry is pretty solid at Bristol since he did lead 25 laps in his first race in 2024 and has finished 12th in the last two spring races, but not only is it hard to imagine him having winning speed, it's also hard to imagine him being a major points scorer since he qualified 10tth and he does have a bit of a history of finishing worse than he starts. You should probably avoid him for DFS.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Bristol is one of the few tracks where Justin Haley tends to look decent. In this spring's race, Haley finished only 13th but ran in the top five quite a bit in the first stage and had the ninth best driver rating of 97.1. The Spire Motorsports cars tend to be consistently fast here as well. While that has been mostly reflected by their emerging star Carson Hocevar, even Corey LaJoie was running just outside the top ten when he crashed in his last race for Spire before Haley replaced him. Starting 17th, it's not hard to see Haley potentially finishing in the top ten tonight although he never has here before, but even if he does, he won't gain that many points since he qualified in the top half of the grid and he probably won't score much in the way of Place Differential, lap leader, or fastest lap points, so he's a somewhat risky proposition.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Ryan Preece is possibly having the best season he ever will have in the Cup Series. If he has a specialty, it is probably short track racing because of his vast Modified Series experience. Preece has shown bursts of dominance in the past, like when he led 135 laps from the pole at Martinsville in 2023 and led 60 laps from the pole at the last short track race at Richmond before finishing a miserable 35th after atrocious strategy. However, Preece has never led at Bristol and he finished only 20th in his first race here for RFK Racing and considering also his lackluster Dover results, he seems to be weaker on concrete than asphalt short ovals. Preece has randomly shown greater speed than he ever has before on a variety of tracks this year, so it wouldn't be surprising if he did so again at Bristol, but starting 20th, you shouldn't count on it.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
John Hunter Nemechek had one strong run at Bristol, where he started 26th and finished sixth in the chaotic 2024 spring event, but that race was unlike any other Bristol race in history and can't reasonably be used to predict anything on Saturday. In the two significantly more boring Bristol races that followed (which are more likely to resemble Saturday's race), Nemechek was a total non-factor, earning his worst two finishes here of 33rd and 21st. Nemechek has been a little faster this year than in any year previous, and his 19th-place qualifying run is his best here on speed, but he probably isn't going to run well enough to lead many laps or earn many fastest-lap points, nor did he qualify poorly enough to make him a great place-differential option. His expected middling performance makes him a pretty poor DFS option.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Erik Jones used to be known for his Bristol prowess in his early years driving for Furniture Row Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, where he scored four top fives in his first eight races before Gibbs fired him. However, in his years in the No. 43 car particularly with the Next Gen car, he has never seemed to have much speed as all his finishes were between 20th and 30th and he looked equally disappointing at most other short tracks. Even in the epic 2024 spring race which had 16 different leaders, Jones wasn't one of them and he hasn't led here since his JGR years. He has had an increase in speed recently, but despite his slight resurgence, he still hasn't been very fast on short tracks. He's maybe worthy of a little consideration since he starts 27th and only costs $6,300, but it's hard to be convinced he'll suddenly have short track speed tonight.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Lame-duck Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suárez starts a miserable 35th at Bristol on Saturday, and since he costs only $6,000 on DraftKings DFS, he theoretically could be a cheap option to score a lot of place-differential points, but his consistent lack of speed in qualifying here has also typically been reflected in the race. Although Suárez often had speed in the Bristol dirt race, on pavement, he has never finished fewer than two laps down since the 2020 spring event, where he surprisingly finished 18th on the lead lap for Gaunt Brothers Racing. Trackhouse has typically been slow on short tracks, so since then, its best driver rating has been 54.8 in 2022, which only ranked 21st overall. Despite how poorly he qualified, starting him may be too big a risk, even for place-differential points.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Noah Gragson had his only decent run at Bristol in last year's night race when he finished 12th and had an average running position of 14th, but that was when he drove for Stewart Haas Racing, a team which tended to have a lot more short track speed than his new team Front Row Motorsports. Although Michael McDowell had a string of decent runs here, the only other driver who really showed anything for FRM was Chris Buescher in the 2016 night race and the team has only scored a grand total of three top tens here. With Gragson starting 30th and seemingly having regressed significantly from last year, it's hard to imagine him having enough speed to seriously contend, but given his poor starting position and cheap $5,800 salary on DFS, he may be worth considering anyway.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
September 13, 2025
Over the last two races at Bristol Motor Speedway, it has been the Kyle Larson show. Over those two races, Larson has led an insane 873 laps, won both events, and also took the green and checkered flag for all four Stage wins. In a nut shell, he has been absolutely dominant at this race track. Extending further than that, Larson is currently on a seven-race streak of top-six finishes at Bristol, and has won three of the last six races at this track. This weekend, Larson will roll off the starting grid from fifth-place for Saturday night's race, and should be a factor all night long. The No. 5 Chevrolet wasn't crazy fast on the stop watch in practice, but it's not wise to go against the driver that he put up the numbers that Larson has at this race track as of late. Even though he's the most expensive driver on DraftKings this weekend (at $11,500), Kyle Larson is an excellent DFS play at Bristol on Saturday night.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
September 13, 2025
Denny Hamlin won last weekend at Gateway, and it wouldn't be surprising if he did the same thing here at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. Bristol has always been a strong track for Hamlin, and he's almost gotten even better in the Next Gen era. Over the last four races at this track, Denny hasn't finished worse than fourth, and he's went to victory lane in two of those four races. He has also led 305 laps over that span of events. This weekend, Hamlin will roll off the starting grid from sixth-place when Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race goes green. When it comes to DFS, Denny is priced at $11,000 on DraftKings, and he has a bit of Place Differential upside to go along with his dominator and race-winning potential. All around, Denny Hamlin is a very strong fantasy pick at Bristol this weekend. Don't be afraid to pick him, no matter what the format is.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
September 13, 2025
After practice and qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday evening, it's hard not to point toward Ryan Blaney as one of the favorites to win this weekend's race. The Cup Series Champion qualified on the outside pole for Saturday night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race, and had the best car on the long run in practice, ranking fastest in 15-, 20-, 25-, and 30-lap average. Bristol has always been a strong track for Ryan Blaney throughout his Cup Series career, but he often doesn't get the finishes he deserves in Thunder Valley. However, this No. 12 team came home with a fifth-place finish here this spring, and Blaney ended up sixth in last year's fall race. Look for Blaney to be a strong contender here on Saturday night and a potential dominator (and race winner) for the third leg of this year's Playoffs.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
September 13, 2025
After practice on Friday afternoon, Chase Briscoe noted that he was quite happy with his race car--something that isn't very common for him in the No. 19 Toyota camp. With those comments, many thought he could be a contender for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race win this weekend, but qualifying didn't quite go as planned, so Briscoe and his team will have some work to do on Saturday night. Briscoe ended up 31st-fastest in the qualifying session, meaning he will start from the 16th row in this weekend's race. At a track where it is very difficult to pass, this could end up being a long night for Chase before it's all said and done. It's a good thing he has already advanced in the Playoffs with his win at Darlington a couple of weeks ago. In DFS, Briscoe is a high-priced option (at $10,000 on DraftKings) but he has sky-high Place Differential upside, so you can't stay away from him--especially in cash game formats.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Jayski
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