November 2, 2025
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman will start in the eighth position for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. Bowman qualified inside the top 10 for the first time at Phoenix since March 2022 this week. In 20 races in his Cup career at the site, Bowman has three top-10 finishes and an average finish of 21.2. The No. 48 Chevrolet driver also placed in the top 20 in each of his last five Phoenix appearances. After 35 races this season, Bowman has 16 top-10 finishes with an average finishing position of 17.5. In practice, Bowman ranked 15th in overall lap averages and 15 consecutive lap averages, while displaying top-10 speeds in the 20 and 25 consecutive lap average categories. Phoenix has not been Bowman's best track statistically and holds low upside from his starting position. With solid practice speeds, however, the No. 48 Chevrolet driver can be considered a playable tournament play for this week's race.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
November 2, 2025
Noah Gragson of Front Row Motorsports is starting 18th in this week's NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway after qualifying for the event. This will be just the second time in his Cup career that Gragson will start a Phoenix race inside the top 20. In four races at the Arizona track, Gragson has two top-15 finishes, but also collected positive Place Differential three times. In 35 races this year, Gragson has nine top-20 finishes and an average finish of 25.1. In practice for Sunday's race, Gragson ranked 30th in overall lap averages, 20th in 10 and 20 consecutive lap averages, and 16th in 15 consecutive lap averages. With his practice speeds being indicative of a top-20 finish, Gragson is a DFS option to consider for tournaments this week, especially as his starting position does not provide high upside.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
November 2, 2025
Legacy Motor Club's Erik Jones will start in the 15th position after qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. Jones will start inside the top 20 for the sixth consecutive race in a row at Phoenix. In 18 races at the site, Jones has 10 top-20 finishes with four inside the top 10. Through 35 races this season, Jones has 19 top-20 finishes with an average finish of 20.3. In practice for Sunday's race at Phoenix, Jones ranked 17th in overall lap averages, eighth in 10 consecutive lap averages, and seventh in 15 consecutive lap averages. Compared to most other drivers around his salary range of $6,400, Jones does not have as much upside due to his starting position. Based on his recent Phoenix results with only three top-20s in the past six races at the site, Jones is a bit of a risk to consider for DFS. However, he is worth considering for tournament lineups as his practice speeds are greater than most around his salary.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
November 2, 2025
Michael McDowell qualified 37th for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway after a slow qualifying lap where he missed the first two turns. This will mark McDowell's lowest starting position in a Phoenix Cup race in his career since 2013. In 29 starts at the Arizona track, McDowell has five top-20 finishes, including three finishes of 13th or better in the last five Cup events. After 35 races completed this season, McDowell has 22 top-20 finishes with an average finish of 18.5. In practice, McDowell ranked second in overall lap averages and ranked 11th in 10 consecutive lap averages. Considering his equipment and recent results at Phoenix, McDowell is a driver who can be utilized in all DFS formats as a value option this week.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: DriverAverages.com
November 2, 2025
Despite being the dominant qualifier this year, Championship 4 driver Chase Briscoe qualified 12th for Sunday's championship race at Phoenix. Perhaps this shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was, as despite seven poles, 22 top-10 starts this year, and only four starts outside the top 10 in the season's second half, he also qualified poorly at Richmond and Loudon and had his worst start of the season (a 30th-place finish) in the spring race at Phoenix. In that race, he crashed out, but he has been strong at Phoenix in the past, winning the first race in 2022 and earning four top-10 finishes in his starts with Stewart-Haas Racing. However, despite the positive momentum he's shown in the playoffs, it's extremely difficult to pass at Phoenix, so it's hard to see him beating all three of his championship rivals when they swept the top three positions in qualifying.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Although Joey Logano was eliminated from the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs last weekend at Martinsville, he starts 10th and could play a spoiler role in Sunday's race at Phoenix. Once the championship race was moved there in 2020, Team Penske, in particular, and Logano's No. 22 team have gone all-in on Phoenix and gotten great results with three wins, including championship-winning drives in the 2022 and 2024 finales. Seven hundred and seven of Logano's 1,096 laps led here have come since NASCAR moved Phoenix to the finale, and he even led 81 laps in the March race before being shuffled back to 12th. Since the three favorites for the championship -- Denny Hamlin, William Byron, and Kyle Larson -- swept the top three qualifying positions, you can likely expect one of them to win, but the Penske cars all qualified well enough that you shouldn't be surprised if one of them spoils the party.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Tyler Reddick has kind of gone through the motions and had a rather disappointing season, no doubt in part due to the stress of 23XI Racing's lawsuit against NASCAR, rumors that he might leave if the team remains unchartered, and the health issues facing his son, Rookie. However, Rookie has now improved and is home from the hospital, and Reddick will likely be intensely motivated to avoid suffering his first winless season since 2021. The issues are that he starts 24th, Phoenix typically isn't one of his best tracks, and it is hard to see anyone beating all the remaining playoff contenders when three of them qualified in the top three, not to mention the fact that Reddick might not want to interfere in his boss Denny Hamlin's last chance for a championship. Since Reddick has only earned four top-10 finishes here and led two races, he'll probably go winless this year, but expect him to regress to the mean next year.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Bubba Wallace currently sits 10th in points, 12 points ahead of Ross Chastain in seeking his second top-10 points finish at Phoenix on Sunday. Despite his points advantage, Chastain might actually be favored since he qualified 13th at a track where he is great, while Wallace qualified 23rd at a track where he is mediocre. Although Wallace typically runs well at short tracks, Phoenix isn't one of them, and he has only earned two top-10 finishes and led four laps here, although both of his top-10s came in the last two season finales. Chastain, meanwhile, has pretty consistently run well here and dominated in 2023 to become the only non-champion to win the finale under this playoff format. Since Wallace almost certainly won't win, his only priorities will be to support his boss Denny Hamlin's championship bid as much as possible and protect his top-10 points finish. Both of those could essentially come down to coin flips.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Although Brad Keselowski had been going on a bit of a run throughout the playoff races with four top-10 finishes in the six races entering last week's race at Martinsville, he was unexpectedly mediocre there, and it's hard to expect much better at Phoenix. Surprisingly, Keselowski never won here, even in his glory days, but since he left Team Penske and moved to the No. 6 car in the Next Gen era, he has only finished better than 15th once and led a single lap. He qualified 19th for Sunday's race, which is pretty commensurate with all his recent runs here, so it's hard to see him significantly contending. It seems that the speed the Penske cars consistently have here has not carried over to the other Fords, so DFS players should probably stay away from Keselowski since he won't likely finish much better than he starts.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Daniel Suárez qualified on the outside of Row 7 for Sunday's season finale at Phoenix alongside his teammate Ross Chastain. Since he is a lame-duck driver at Trackhouse Racing before he moves to the No. 7 car at Spire Motorsports, expect Suárez to play a support role for Chastain as much as possible since he currently sits 12 points behind Bubba Wallace for the final spot in the top 10 in season points. Phoenix has never been a particularly good track for Suárez, as he has never led here or finished better than ninth in his post-Joe Gibbs years. Since he has a Cup Series ride locked up next year, he really has nothing at stake and no real incentive to fight. As a result, it's pretty safe to expect him to deliver a generic, non-descript middle-of-the-pack run, making him a weak option for DFS play.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
In his peak period, Kyle Busch was pretty remarkable at Phoenix with 10 straight finishes of seventh or better from 2015-2020 and 680 laps led in that time span, but as we enter his decline, it's worth noting he's never led a lap or finished better than seventh since. He has matched his car number twice with eighth-place finishes in the 2023 and 2025 March races at Phoenix, but he hasn't had a good finish in this race since he left Joe Gibbs Racing. Although his 11th-place qualifying run was a little better than usual, he has lost positions every time he has qualified that well or better this season, except for road courses. Admittedly, this season's first race at Phoenix was something of an exception, as he drove from 15th to eighth, and he has arguably been a little faster since Andy Street replaced Randall Burnett as Busch's crew chief. Still, until proven otherwise, expect Busch to finish worse than he starts.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Expectations were low for Ryan Preece entering this season but now he stands a chance of overtaking his teammate Chris Buescher as both the highest points finisher for RFK Racing as well as the highest-finishing non-playoff driver in points. He probably won't do it since he's 29 points behind, but Buescher was inexplicably slow at Martinsville and Richmond, so it's possible he can do it albeit very unlikely since Buescher has finished in the top ten the last four races here. Preece meanwhile has never had a top ten here but he did lead 34 laps in his RFK debut, although that was more due to a wild optional tire strategy that won't be a factor today. Preece has already clinched at least 18th in the championship and has been on a bit of a run, but that is where he'll likely remain since Buescher will likely maintain his position. Given his recent form, he might be worth a look for DFS though.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
Although Austin Dillon has mostly been a complete nonfactor at Phoenix, he's also been weirdly consistent in so doing. While he's only earned two top ten finishes here in his career, he's also finished between 12th and 18th in all but three of his last ten starts here and one of the exceptions was the March 2022 race when he crashed on the last lap. Since Dillon starts 26th today and has been so consistent for so long despite not actually running very well, he might be worth a play for DFS. He probably can't catch anyone ahead of him in the playoffs since the other Austin (Cindric) is directly in front of him and will likely outrun him, but Dillon has a chance of beating Josh Berry to not finish last in the playoffs. Given the associated speed of the Penske cars and Berry's top ten qualifying run, he might be able to overcome his 15-point deficit, but Dillon could still maintain the not-so-coveted 15th-place points position.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
November 2, 2025
A.J. Allmendinger has kind of faded into the background in recent years, as he is nowhere near as good at his main strength (road racing) as Shane van Gisbergen is, but he's still performing somewhat decently in his questionable Kaulig Racing cars. Allmendinger used to be very fast at Phoenix in Richard Petty Motorsports' years, when he had two top-10 finishes and three front-row starts, but he's never had a top-10 showing since then. Nonetheless, he failed to post a qualifying time and only costs $5,500 on DraftKings DFS, so he might be worth starting anyway since he usually runs in the middle of the pack and will likely finish a little better than where he started after finishing 22nd in the March race. Allmendinger doesn't really have anything significant at stake, so he will probably be more concerned with getting a finish than running well, but that may mean he might be less likely to crash and therefore be a safer fantasy option.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
October 27, 2025
Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron was the most dominant driver of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Byron's dominance began right from the beginning of the race as he started from the pole position and left the field behind immediately on the first lap. The No. 24 Chevrolet driver went on to lead all but 11 of the first 271 laps and win the first two stages without much competition. In the final stage, Byron restarted further back in the field after pitting for tires and fuel, while others stayed out. It took him most of the stage, but Byron returned to the lead by chasing down Ryan Blaney, who led most of the final stage, until lap 457 when Byron nudged Blaney out of the way for the lead. By leading the last 44 laps, Byron earned a clutch victory after leading 304 total laps that advanced him into the championship round of the playoffs at Phoenix, where he will compete for his first Cup Series title.
--Sean Engel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
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