September 7, 2025

No Cup Series driver has been more consistent than Joey Logano at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) in the three Cup Series races at the track. In those events, Logano has finished inside the top five each time, including a win in the first race back in 2022. Can he keep those good times rolling in this weekend's Enjoy Illinois 300, though? Logano qualified 13th for this weekend's Cup Series race, so he will have some work to do to get track position. However, the No. 22 Ford was one of the strongest cars on the long run in practice on Saturday, so that's a good sign for the Team Penske team. Priced at just $9,000 on DraftKings, Logano has good Place Differential and finishing position upside in DFS this weekend, and makes for a strong fantasy pick at one of his best tracks. --Jordan McAbee
Source: Driver Averages

September 7, 2025

Don't overlook Austin Cindric in this weekend's Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. The Team Penske driver is the defending winner of this race and also has 13th- and 11th-place finishes to his credit in the three Cup Series races at this track. Additionally, Cindric has showed good speed on the shorter, flat tracks this season, tied for third-best when it comes to Total Speed Ranking. In practice for this weekend's Enjoy Illinois 300, the No. 2 Ford struggled to find a ton of speed, especially early in the run, but Cindric's Penske teammates were just fine--especially when it came to the long run. It's reasonable to expect that the No. 2 Ford will be fine once race day rolls around and adjustments are made. In DFS, Cindric comes in at $8,500 and will likely go pretty low-owned due to his starting position (ninth) and salary. The defending race winner is worth a roll of the dice in some tournament lineups on Sunday.--Jordan McAbee
Source: ifantasyrace

September 7, 2025

Fresh off of their top-five finish at Darlington last weekend, AJ Allmendinger and the No. 16 Kaulig Racing team will look to keep the good times rolling at World Wide Technology Raceway on Sunday--and there's a decent chance that it'll happen. Allmendinger has had better-than-expected speed at many intermediate tracks this season, and his track record at WWT is pretty solid. AJ finished 10th in the first Cup Series race at this track and then came home 14th in the 2023 event. He didn't participate in last year's race. This weekend, Allmendinger will roll off the starting grid from 17th-place, and he's only $6,000 on DraftKings. With his history here and speed this season, Allmendinger is definitely worth rolling the dice on in DFS once again on race day. --Jordan McAbee
Source: Driver Averages

September 7, 2025

After a summer where Tyler Reddick looked sloppy and slower than his cars, he resurfaced last week in his near-miss at the Southern 500, which is likely a good sign for Sunday's race at Gateway, the other egg-shaped oval. After the Toyotas overwhelmingly dominated last week, one can expect that they might again at this track, particularly given their speed at Darlington and Christopher Bell's speed in this race last year. Reddick has always qualified well here and finished fourth last year. This year, he starts seventh, and he certainly starts close enough to the front that some gallant restarts and fast pit service could be enough to put him in the lead. Given the expected Toyota speed, he could theoretically dominate, but his lack of laps led this season relative to his teammate Bubba Wallace may make him not the best option to start, especially considering how well he qualified.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

After his string of crashes earlier this season, Bubba Wallace has recovered as he has shown consistency in terms of both his finishing results and his speed in recent weeks, and he could really do something at Gateway on Sunday. Although his past record is mediocre -- his best Gateway finish was 21st last year -- he has been significantly faster than ever before since Charles Denike became his crew chief this year. Denike started and finished second with Christian Eckes in the Craftsman Truck Series last year, so he will likely bring Wallace more speed than he had last year, and the fact that Wallace has been fast at nearly every similar track lately, including Iowa, Richmond, and Darlington, suggests he'll likely be fast on Sunday as well. Couple that with Toyota's speed from Darlington likely carrying over, and he should be a strong option for DFS play.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Hendrick Motorsports has typically lacked speed at Gateway in general, and Alex Bowman has been the most obvious example of that as he has never finished better than 13th here and he finished 26th and 28th the last two years. His 25th-place qualifying run matches his worst from 2022, although that was admittedly the year that he had his best finish. Bowman has definitely been faster this year in general than he was in 2023 and 2024, so he might have a performance closer to 2022, although the fact that he qualified worst of any playoff driver is not very inspiring. The fact that he's the lowest-qualifying playoff driver definitely gives him some Place Differential upside makes him a quite solid DFS option, but you can probably count him out in terms of advancing to the Round of 12.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Even though Austin Dillon generally ran terribly throughout 2024 aside from his win at Richmond, Gateway was a rare exception as he finished sixth, had an average running position of 14th, and earned his second-highest driver rating that year. Maybe that shouldn't have come as a huge surprise since Richard Childress Racing's cars were fast enough for Kyle Busch to win for the team in 2023, but both of them have looked slower at most tracks this year than they have in the past. Despite qualifying 15th, Dillon only outqualified Shane van Gisbergen, Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman amongst playoff contenders and he only rarely even finishes as well as he is starting today. Although it's conceivable his speed from Iowa and especially Richmond might carry over, it feels like a longshot.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Because the NASCAR Xfinity Series did not return to Gateway until this year, Shane van Gisbergen has never competed here because his Xfinity Series season came last year before the track was re-added to the schedule, so he is a big question mark for Sunday. While he's had an uptick in oval speed as the season has progressed, particularly in qualifying, he still doesn't have much in the race itself. Starting 18th, he did outqualify Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman, but the other 13 playoff drivers outqualified him, including his teammate Ross Chastain, who starts fourth. Chastain's speed indicates SVG might possibly have a little, but don't count on it. He rarely finishes as well as 18th on an oval that he's almost guaranteed to lose positions, and he likely isn't worth betting on for DFS playoffs or even to advance to the next round of the playoffs.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Although Ty Gibbs won the last two ARCA races at Gateway in 2019 and 2020, his races in the NASCAR Cup Series have been fairly mediocre, as he finished 20th in 2023 and 11th in 2024. This year, he had his worst-ever qualifying result at the track, as he starts 21st for Sunday's race. But after the Toyotas dominated at Darlington, somewhat dominated in Gateway qualifying, and Gibbs's teammate Christopher Bell dominated last year's Gateway race, it seems likely that all four Joe Gibbs Racing cars will be somewhat fast in the race. Gibbs' slow speed at the other egg-shaped oval at Darlington should give one pause, but he has somewhat improved as the season progressed, and it is likely that he will benefit from Toyota's speed, at least to some extent.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

DFS managers were burnt repeatedly by Brad Keselowski in the first half of the season where he seemed to have neither the expected speed nor the consistency one would have expected from him, probably in part because he replaced his crew chief Matt McCall with Jeremy Bullins, but the five crash DNFs in the first 12 races certainly didn't help. Keselowski had an uptick in speed and looked faster in the closing weeks leading up to the playoffs than his teammates Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece did all season, although they've been more consistent. Although Keselowski wasn't fast at Darlington, it's possible the speed Keselowski had at Iowa may carry over to Gateway, which would give him a great opportunity for place-differential points, considering he's starting 23rd. Although none of the place-differential plays are great this week, Keselowski might be the best one.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Despite missing the playoffs, Chris Buescher remains a veritable top-10 machine, as his 14 top-10 finishes rank tied for second in the Cup Series, and he has the fifth-best average finish. Gateway has not been one of his better tracks, though, perhaps because he missed the inaugural race in 2022 due to testing positive for COVID-19, which meant he had to play catchup in future seasons when his contemporaries had an extra year of experience. Buescher's finishes of 12th and 14th were decent, but hardly earth-shattering, although he did gain many positions from his qualifying positions. This year, as usual, Buescher qualified better, as he starts 11th. But despite the improved qualifying, he seems much slower in races, so he is probably unlikely to either dominate enough or gain enough positions for DFS consideration since he'll probably finish right around where he starts.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Despite finishing second in the inaugural Gateway race in 2022 and then winning the 2023 race from the pole, Kyle Busch has fallen on hard times since then as he hasn't won in over two years since. It's starting to look like he might never win again as he's never been as slow as he has been this season. Busch didn't have amazing speed last week at Darlington after contending to win the Southern 500 the year before, so it is likely he will also be slower at Gateway than he has been in the past. Since Busch has arguably showed more speed here than any other track in the Next Gen era, it wouldn't be shocking if he was fast here today, but the probability of that isn't great based on the rest of this year, and his 22nd-place starting position probably isn't low enough to seriously consider him for Place Differential when he won't likely factor for the win.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

John Hunter Nemechek only started one race at Gateway last year in the NASCAR Cup Series where he started 33rd and finished 27th, but he and Legacy Motor Club have both been a lot faster this year and he qualified 20th this time. Nemechek has won here at the Craftsman Truck Series level way back in 2017, but that probably isn't useful in forecasting him for today's race. However, the speed Nemechek showed at Darlington last week where he finished fourth may carry over since both Darlington and Gateway are egg-shaped ovals and he and his teammate were both very fast at Darlington. Furthermore, since Toyotas dominated at Darlington and somewhat dominated yesterday's qualifying session, Nemechek may be likely to be fast, especially since he has tended to be faster in the race than qualifying. He might be worth a flyer for DFS, but his 20th-place starting position may be a bit too strong for that.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 7, 2025

Although Michael McDowell unexpectedly won the pole for last year's Gateway race and has 74 laps here (more than at any other track since Talladega), don't expect him to significantly contend in Sunday's race. Despite leading 34 laps in the inaugural race here in 2022 and 40 laps last year, he took the lead in the pits in the former race and never led after Christopher Bell passed him for the Stage 1 win last year. This time, McDowell qualified 28th, worse than he did in any of his Front Row Motorsports years, and he is now driving for a Spire Motorsports team that is a Hendrick Motorsports satellite at a track that might be Hendrick's worst. Although his poor starting position and low salary indicate there might be a lot of place-differential potential, he's a riskier pick than he looks on paper.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 1, 2025

Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing had to go through some attrition during Sunday night's Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Hamlin started the race right from first, but lost the lead immediately to Chase Briscoe. Although Hamlin never regained the lead back, he ran in the top five for the rest of the stage outside of pit stops and ended up in third at the end, scoring eight stage points. During the second stage, Hamlin briefly held the lead until Briscoe passed him again for the lead, but continued to run competitively in the top five until a mid-race caution forced him to pit road. From here, Hamlin had a bad pit stop where his crew had issues changing tires, which sent him further back. Hamlin tried to use the rest of stage two to recover ground, but only made it back up to 15th, which is not good enough to earn further stage points. In the final stage, Hamlin finally returned to the top 10 and even held the lead for a bit once again during a round of pit stops. Ultimately, Hamlin and his team avoided further trouble on pit road, and as a result, he climbed back up to seventh, which is where he finished at the end of the race. This was Hamlin's 20th top-10 finish of his Cup career at Darlington, and he now sits 43 points above the playoff cut line with two races left in the Round of 16, which gives him a solid chance to advance to the next round on points.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com