
Articles

Daniel Suarez's Poor Qualifying Makes Him A Strong DFS Option
After Daniel Suárez's unexpected second-place finish last week at Las Vegas where his teammate Ross Chastain seemed to have the most speed for a while, Suárez qualified a miserable 33rd at Homestead, which suggests there's a lot of value there if the Trackhouse Racing cars are able to carry over their speed to other intermediate […]
Sean Wrona
Shane Van Gisbergen Likely Too Inexperienced To Gain Many Positions At Homestead
Shane van Gisbergen is making his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Homestead. He qualified 25th and finished 17th in his one Xfinity Series start, typically behind A.J. Allmendinger and ahead of Josh Williams. However, that isn't enough experience to make him necessarily valuable at Homestead or really any oval. The fact that he qualified […]
Sean Wrona
Austin Cindric's Increased Staying Power In Races May Make Him More Valuable
Although Austin Cindric had a reputation of fading to mid-pack in most of the races where he qualified well, that definitely seems to have stopped in 2025 as he has seemed to have a lot more staying power up front. In last week's race at Las Vegas, he overcame a loose wheel after winning Stage […]
Sean Wrona
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Unlikely To Gain Enough Positions For DFS Value
Despite Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s reputation as a superspeedway driver, Homestead has arguably been his worst superspeedway. At all tracks where Stenhouse has failed to ever earn a top-10 finish in the NASCAR Cup Series, he has made more starts at Homestead than any other despite some solid qualifying runs. He might have some DFS value, […]
Sean Wrona
John Hunter Nemechek Delivers His Second-Best Qualifying Run At Homestead
John Hunter Nemechek qualified seventh for Sunday's Homestead race, which is actually his best-ever as a full-time driver since his fifth-place finish at Charlotte in 2020 came with metric qualifying, and his fourth-place starting position in 2022 also came at Homestead while he was filling in for the injured Kurt Busch. It would be an […]
Sean Wrona
Cole Custer Has Been Hapless At Homestead In Cup Series
Cole Custer was something of a Homestead master in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with a win in 2017, two poles, and three second-place finishes, but his Cup Series performances at the track have left little to be desired as he has finished between 22nd and 24th in all three of his previous starts there for […]
Sean Wrona
J.J. Yeley Needs Attrition To Gain Positions At Homestead
J.J. Yeley makes his second start of the 2025 season for the NY Racing Team on Sunday at Homestead, but don't expect him to be any sort of contender. Not only did Yeley qualify in 37th and last place for the race, he was so slow that pole-sitter Alex Bowman and 35th-place qualifier Shane van […]
Sean Wrona
Bubba Wallace Wrecks At Las Vegas But Shows Promising Speed
23XI Racing has always been fast on flat 1.5-mile ovals, and Sunday's Las Vegas race was no exception, even though neither Bubba Wallace nor his teammate Tyler Reddick ended up with good finishes. Despite starting 20th, Wallace drove up to fourth at the end of Stage 1 and then took the lead twice before being […]
Sean Wrona
Alex Bowman Recovers From Loose Wheel To Finish Seventh
Alex Bowman started sixth and finished seventh at Las Vegas, so you might figure he had his typical run-of-the-mill run where he ran in the back half of the top 10 of the race without really contending, but his run was actually a lot stronger than that. Bowman led two laps early after passing Austin […]
Sean Wrona
Austin Cindric Wins Stage 1, But Loose Wheel Foils Victory Bid
In a race where all the Team Penske drivers and their Wood Brothers satellite entry for Josh Berry seemed quite fast, Austin Cindric outdueled Alex Bowman to win Stage 1 at Sunday's Las Vegas race -- his first stage win on a non-drafting oval since Gateway in 2022. He still continuously ran in the top […]
Sean Wrona
William Byron Loses Las Vegas Race On Strategy But Expands Points Lead
William Byron entered Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas as the points leader and expanded his lead over Christopher Bell to 29 points after a fourth-place finish. Byron entered the race as one of the pre-race favorites and did briefly lead twice for 10 laps after passing Bubba Wallace then Michael McDowell for […]
Sean Wrona
Ryan Preece Earns Best Career Non-Drafting Oval Finish At Las Vegas
One week after leading at Phoenix due to his alternative-tire strategy, Ryan Preece surprisingly delivered the best finish of his career on a non-drafting oval in Sunday's Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas, finishing third in a race where his two RFK Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski did not run very well. Although Preece […]
Sean Wrona
Joey Logano Likely To Lead At Las Vegas, But Will He Lead Enough For DFS Consideration?
Even though Joey Logano is very expensive at $9,500, last fall's Las Vegas winner seems potentially poised to lead early and often since he qualified second directly outside Michael McDowell. Considering he is a vastly better intermediate driver and one of Las Vegas' foremost masters, he stands a good chance of earning a lot of […]
Sean Wrona
Michael McDowell Wins Spire Motorsports' First Pole At Las Vegas
Michael McDowell pulled a big surprise by delivering Spire Motorsports' first pole position for Sunday's Pennzoil 400, while his teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley only qualified 25th and 33rd, respectively. Although McDowell won the most poles last year, that came for a Front Row Motorsports team that was dominating on drafting tracks, and one […]
Sean Wrona
Austin Cindric Qualifies Third But Is Almost Guaranteed To Lose Spots
Austin Cindric tends to qualify well on flat intermediates, and Las Vegas is no exception, as he has now qualified third here for the third time, including three of the last four winter Las Vegas races. However, he also has a history of sliding back through the pack when he qualifies well on an intermediate […]
Sean Wrona
Chase Briscoe's Las Vegas Performance Hard To Predict
Chase Briscoe was typically very slow in his previous races at Las Vegas, with a fourth place in the 2022 fall event serving as his sole highlight, but even in that race he only had an average running position of 17th. Admittedly, a large part of that was the fact that the Stewart-Haas Racing cars […]
Sean Wrona
Ty Gibbs A Solid DFS Option In Theory
After looking like he would inevitably win his first NASCAR Cup Series race soon in the first half of last year, Ty Gibbs has had an inexplicable falloff. He has only posted a single top ten in the last 15 races despite having theoretically championship-caliber Joe Gibbs Racing equipment and it's not like he's even […]
Sean Wrona
Shane Van Gisbergen Too Inexperienced At Las Vegas For DFS Consideration
Even though Shane van Gisbergen's teammate Ross Chastain was the fastest driver in Saturday's practice at Las Vegas, don't expect SVG to utilize his Trackhouse Racing cars to the same extent. Although it might be tempting to draft him because he is starting 28th and because of Chastain's speed, he is still a rookie who […]
Sean Wrona
Noah Gragson Finished Well At Las Vegas Last Year
Although Noah Gragson crashed out last week at Phoenix when he seemed to be the best underdog DFS choice, the hometown native seems to have a little value at Las Vegas since last year he drove from 30th to sixth on a track type where the Stewart-Haas Racing cars usually struggle. However, even though he […]
Sean Wrona
Austin Dillon Decent At Las Vegas, But Not Worthy Of DFS Play
Austin Dillon has a decent record at Las Vegas, even though he hardly ever leads there. In 19 starts, he has finished in the top twenty 14 times and has been reliably consistent on a very low level, which suggests he will probably improve somewhat from his 22nd place starting position. However, he has only […]
Sean Wrona
Josh Berry's Poor Intermediate Record Likely To Override Strong Qualifying Result
Josh Berry qualifying well is starting to become rather routine, and his seventh-place starting position for Sunday's race at Las Vegas is consistent with that. However, he tends to be very slow on unrestricted intermediate tracks, and he only finished 20th and 24th in last year's Las Vegas races. Admittedly, he was a rookie, but […]
Sean Wrona
Spire Speed Suggests Justin Haley Is A Strong DFS Option
In a puzzling qualifying session, Michael McDowell won the pole while his Spire Motorsports teammates Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley only qualified 25th and 33rd, respectively. Nonetheless, based on qualifying, Spire has seemed to have an uptick in speed this year and Spire at least is a Hendrick Motorsports satellite at a track where HMS […]
Sean Wrona
Cole Custer Could Be Valuable If Haas Has Intermediate Speed
Although Cole Custer's career-defining moment in the Cup Series came when he made a four-wide pass for the win as a rookie at Kentucky Speedway in 2020 and Las Vegas is likewise a flat 1.5-mile track, he hasn't been too strong at Las Vegas, as his best finish is 16th and he has never led […]
Sean Wrona
Despite Decent Run Last Fall, Cody Ware Still Isn't Worth Considering
Cody Ware qualified 35th for Sunday's race at Las Vegas. After missing the fall 2023 and winter 2024 races at Las Vegas after his arrest and suspension by NASCAR, he earned a career-best finish at the track when he finished 21st, and it wasn't that unrepresentative of a result as his average running position of […]
Sean Wrona
Power-Steering Failure Foils Tyler Reddick's Bid For Potential Victory
Tyler Reddick never led at Phoenix on Sunday but he had strong speed as he moved into the top five on the 10th lap and remained there for most of the race, spending long portions of it running second to either William Byron or eventual winner Christopher Bell. However, in the third stage, his power […]
Sean Wrona
William Byron Recovers From Being Trapped A Lap Down To Finish Sixth
After winning the pole for Sunday's race at Phoenix, William Byron led 83 of the race's 94 laps. Although it looked like Joey Logano was faster in the early stages of the race and they exchanged the lead four times, Byron began to dominate after Logano was penalized for jumping the second restart. However, Byron […]
Sean Wrona
Josh Berry Gives Wood Brothers Team Best Run Since 2021
Josh Berry had one of the best runs for a Wood Brothers driver in years in Sunday's Phoenix race. After starting fourth, Berry ran in the top five for almost the entire first stage but fell to 29th after a loose lug nut during the race's fourth caution. Luckily, he managed to evade the multi-car […]
Sean Wrona
Tyler Reddick's DFS Value Likely Hinges On How Much He Leads
Tyler Reddick has lately seemed to exchange some of his blinding speed from previous years for a nearly robotic consistency. Phoenix hasn't been one of his best tracks as short tracks and one mile ovals tend not to suit him, but he's still earned four top tens in his last six starts including two third-place […]
Sean Wrona
Despite Strong Phoenix Record, Chase Briscoe Qualifies Inexplicably Poorly
Chase Briscoe got the reprieve of a lifetime when his 100 point penalty at the Daytona 500 was rescinded last Wednesday. On paper, Briscoe should be extremely valuable for DFS lineups since he is starting 30th (worse than he has ever qualified here) but he has also earned top tens in four of his ten […]
Sean Wrona
Bubba Wallace's Phoenix Record Is Not Great
Although short tracks have become arguably Bubba Wallace's best track type in terms of finishes, Phoenix isn't a short track and Wallace usually qualifies poorly and runs in the upper midfield here. However, his 19th-place qualifying run yesterday was actually tied for the second-best of his career and he has finished between 7th and 16th […]
Sean Wrona