June 28, 2025
Since Brad Keselowski knows he must win to advance to the playoffs and he probably won't have winning speed anywhere but Atlanta or Daytona, he is likely to go all in on both those tracks in a hail-mary attempt to make the playoffs. Starting him is a big risk since he qualified sixth and therefore he stands a strong chance of finishing worse than he qualified, particularly this year when he has badly struggled. However, Keselowski has had a recent uptick in speed with three top-10 finishes in his last five starts, not to mention his Kansas run, where he crashed while running second. Keselowski does have a history of winning drafting races in desperate positions before and he has won twice at Atlanta and finished second with the Next Gen car in 2023 after his former teammate Joey Logano passed him on the last lap. Since he qualified so much better than usual, there's a chance Keselowski could dominate.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Although Chris Buescher has unexpectedly been the fastest qualifier this year, he surprisingly only qualified 13th at Atlanta where his Ford stablemates swept the top eight positions in qualifying. This gives him a bit of upside since he is more consistent than most of the Fords who outqualified him so he is far more likely to obtain Place Differential points. The problems are that he has never finished better than seventh here, he's crashed in four of his last six starts at Atlanta, and he was only a serious contender to win in 2023 (a year he had a lot more top-line speed) and even in that race he only finished 15th. Ultimately, while he'll likely get a solid finish, the fact that he is one of the more risk-averse drivers and doesn't lead much will ultimately sink him and make some of the other Ford drivers who are more likely to dominate more valuable.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Chase Briscoe's win at Pocono last weekend put Alex Bowman on the playoff bubble, which means Bowman might be desperate to make something happen at Atlanta on Saturday to lock himself into the playoffs. The problem is that despite all his Daytona 500 front-row starts, as well as the fact that he was the fastest non-Ford qualifier in this race, Bowman doesn't seem to be a great drafter in races. His ninth-place qualifying run is good, but although he has earned three top-five finishes here (including a fifth-place showing in last week's race), he rarely ever contends and has only led 11 laps (but they did come in his last two starts here). Ultimately, he probably has little value on Saturday since the Fords are so much faster and there are plenty of drivers starting behind him that are better drafters.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Fifth-place Atlanta starter Ryan Preece does not have a good record here, but that doesn't really matter too much when evaluating him since he typically has run better almost everywhere this year than he ever has before. Although Preece has only led three laps and has never finished better than 16th here, he does have a knack for finishing and he's likely to be faster in today's race than he ever has been before, as his career-best qualifying run attests. When considering Ford's speed in general and the fact that Preece battled for the win at Talladega before being disqualified, he could be a threat to dominate and at $6,700 he's much cheaper than the other drivers who could do that. The problems are that he qualified better than he usually finishes and also that he tends to be more consistent than dominant. You probably shouldn't start him, but at least there's a case for doing so.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
The good thing about Austin Dillon's record at Atlanta is that he has been consistent as he has only crashed out of two races (both in 2022) and has finished between 16th and 22nd in all five races since. The bad thing is that he's never remotely been competitive either in the Gen 6 era when it was a regular intermediate track or in the Next Gen era when it was a drafting track. Dillon has never led a lap here and only earned a single top ten in 2021. The fact that he qualified 12th for today's race suggests that he is almost guaranteed to lose positions in the race while also not contending. Despite the fact that he costs only $6,000 in DFS, he is absolutely one of the worst options to start for DFS.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Although Ty Gibbs has had a slight uptick in performance recently, he is still one of the year's biggest disappointments considering what the other three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have been doing. Don't expect that to change much at Atlanta. Although he did lead 37 laps late in last year's summer race, he absolutely tanked from the lead to 17th over the last ten laps. Besides that, he has never finished better than ninth or led any other races here and drafting tracks aren't really his best track type. Couple that with the fact that he qualified 16th (better than he usually starts here) and he's both unlikely to be a serious contender or have much value for DFS teams either.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
With Legacy Motor Club's recent uptick in speed and Erik Jones' historic record on drafting tracks, Jones is strongly worth considering for DFS play, particularly because he qualified 26th, has a lot of place-differential potential and only costs $6,300. Although Jones' record at Atlanta isn't as strong as his record at Daytona or Talladega, he has finished every race he has started here and did finish fourth in the Next Gen in 2022 while leading 10 laps. Now that his speed has improved and he is consistently finishing in the top 20, this track type offers him a strong chance for a top-10 finish. Although he probably isn't the absolute best choice for DFS play since he has struggled to lead laps this year and better drivers are qualifying worse, Jones will definitely be undervalued and he'd be an excellent pivot option as a result.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Although Noah Gragson has had a pretty miserable season to date, he's definitely worth considering for DFS play at Atlanta on Saturday. People are likely to stay away from Gragson because he has crashed in four of his seven Atlanta starts, including the last three in a row, but the Fords in general and Front Row Motorsports cars in particular continue to be fast on drafting tracks, albeit not quite as fast as they once were. Nonetheless, Gragson starts 27th behind all the chartered Ford drivers except for Cody Ware, so there's a lot of upside here given Ford's dominant speed on these tracks. Gragson also started 27th at Talladega earlier this year and got his best finish of the season, finishing fourth there. Although there's a big risk that Gragson might crash again, you should strongly consider starting him for DFS, especially because he only costs $6,200.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Riley Herbst finished 17th in his first Atlanta race in the NASCAR Cup Series last February, the second in a run of three consecutive 17th-place finishes he had to start the season. However, not surprisingly, the rest of the season proved that was an uncharacteristic run for him as he has only finished better than 22nd twice since then. He does have some speed in drafting track races as he earned top tens at Daytona and Talladega in 2023 and his 23XI Racing teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace both won at Talladega for the team. However, the team is slumping somewhat perhaps due to 23XI's lawsuit against NASCAR. Despite the fact that he could have speed, even if he does, he's almost certain to run worse than 15th and Atlanta doesn't tend to be as chaotic as Daytona or Talladega, so you should probably avoid starting him.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Ty Dillon earned his best starting position at Atlanta on Friday, qualifying a career-best 14th for Kaulig Racing, a team that has at times shown unexpected speed this year. However, he is almost guaranteed to lose positions since he has never finished better than 15th here, and his best finish in the Next Gen/drafting-track era is a mere 19th. Kaulig has admittedly shown bursts of speed here at times, with A.J. Allmendinger finishing third in 2023 and leading six laps, and Daniel Hemric finishing 11th last year. Dillon himself did win a stage at Talladega in 2019, albeit with an entirely different generation of car. It's possible he could be a dark horse for a top-10 finish, but the odds are far more likely that he won't, and even though he only costs $5,000, he likely qualified too well to consider him for DFS.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Two days ago, it was announced that Spire Motorsports co-founder T.J. Puchyr is buying Rick Ware Racing. Rick will continue as a partner while his son Cody will continue to drive the No. 51 car. Although you might think Atlanta offers an opportunity for Ware to potentially have a good run since drafting tracks tend to be more chaotic with a lot of crashes, Atlanta is nowhere near as chaotic as Talladega or especially Daytona and tends to reward the fastest drivers and cars on this track type. As a result, Ware has never finished better than 23rd in the Next Gen races here. Since he starts 39th, it is likely he'll gain at least a few positions in the race over other drivers who crash out, but not nearly enough for his Place Differential to overcome his likely poor finish and make him valuable for DFS play.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 28, 2025
Look for Ryan Blaney to be a contender in Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta). The Team Penske driver has the best average finish at this track in the Next Gen era and has wound up ninth or better in each oft he last six races here. Over the last three at this track, Blaney hasn't finished worse than fourth. Not surprisingly, the No. 12 Ford has had the best average speed ranking as well in the Next Gen era. When it comes to DFS this weekend, Blaney is a tournament option due to his high starting position (third). He's likely going to need to lead a bunch of laps and earn a podium finish in order to be in the optimal lineup, and while the finish possibility is definitely there, it's worth noting that Blaney has led five or fewer laps in three of the six Atlanta races. The ones where he did lead a decent portion of the race, he ended up with 33, 31, and 20 laps led.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
June
28,
2025
Joey
Logano
will
lead
the
field
to
the
green
for
Saturday
night's
Quaker
State
400
at
EchoPark
Speedway
(Atlanta),
as
the
No.
22
Ford
put
down
a
lap
of
30.979
seconds
(178.960
mph)
during
qualifying
on
Friday.
This
is
Logano's
second
read more...
June 28, 2025
Denny Hamlin is sure to be one of the most popular DFS picks for Saturday night's Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta), as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver qualified in 33rd place for this weekend's race. That means that Hamlin has massive place-differential upside in a race where those fantasy points should reign supreme with the final scoring. And while Hamlin does have upside to grab plenty of place-differential points, this weekend's race could be an opportunity to go underweight on him from a strategy perspective. Hamlin has zero top-five finishes in the seven races on the "new" Atlanta tracks and only two top-10s. Additionally, he has finished outside of the top 20 entirely in four of the last seven races here. The upside is definitely there, but if you're feeling like rolling the dice and going against one of the most popular DFS plays on this slate, you could go underweight on Hamlin in tournaments.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Driver Averages
June 28, 2025
Although he has yet to make it into victory lane since the repave and reconfiguration of Atlanta Motor Speedway (now known as EchoPark Speedway), Kyle Busch has been one of the best on the new surface. Over the last five races at this track, Busch has the second-best average finish (6.4), the fifth-best driver rating (89.6), and he hasn't finished worse than 10th in any race. That should be music to the ears of DFS players considering Kyle Busch qualified 29th for Saturday night's Quaker State 400 race and has very high Place Differential upside if he can perform at his normal level in this weekend's race. At $8,800 on DraftKings and with his strong track history, expect Kyle Busch to be one of the higher-owned drivers on the slate, but he's also likely to be one of the highest-scoring DFS plays this weekend.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: ifantasyrace
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