2 days ago
Although 10th-place Nashville starter Chris Buescher got a bit of a reprieve as his penalty from the Kansas race was reduced from 60 points to 30, he's still having a somewhat baffling season. The once-poor qualifier is having a career year in qualifying with the second-best average start, but is simultaneously running a lot worse in the actual races than he did in 2023 and 2024. Given owner-teammate Brad Keselowski's downturn in speed, it does seem the RFK Racing cars are likely slower, but the really odd part is that the previously-mediocre Ryan Preece has been consistently faster than Buescher. Because Buescher remains one of the cleanest and least mistake-prone drivers, he's still good at finishing better than he runs, but he seems to be running worse despite qualifying much better. Given his recent race backslides and another strong qualifying run, expect him to fade again and consider starting his teammates instead.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days ago
After delivering his teammate Joey Logano the ultimate gift last year in Nashville when his spinout with two laps remaining allowed Logano to climb from 14th to back into the playoffs after five overtimes, that will likely forever define his career here. Although Cindric finished 7th as a rookie, he has never had an average running position better than 22nd here. While he has run better on intermediates this year than any other, he often isn't getting finishes commensurate with how he ran. Both his stage wins came before Roger Penske's firing of Austin's dad Tim Cindric, which seems like it will likely cause instability and affect the remainder of Cindric's season. Austin must likely be worrying about his future now that Tim is gone especially since he'll probably never be as good as Logano or Ryan Blaney. Combining all that with Penske's typical complacency after their drivers qualify for the playoffs, Cindric will probably fail to meet expectations tonight.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days ago
Ryan Preece has been this year's biggest positive surprise as after years of mediocrity, he has been seemingly consistently faster than his more highly-regarded teammates Chris Buescher and his boss Brad Keselowski and is even beating them in points despite being disqualified from his apparent second-place finish at Talladega. Although Preece finished fourth in last year's Nashville debacle, he didn't actually run any better than previous years as his average running position of 24th was only barely better than the previous two years, but he's been a lot faster this year than he ever has been before. His 19th-place qualifying position is his best here and he's been pretty consistently finishing better than he starts with five top tens after starts of worse than 20th in four of them. He's probably starting too well to be one of the top DFS choices, but he would definitely be a strong underdog pick who other players looking at his past performances might ignore.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days ago
Although Noah Gragson has had a pretty invisible season, he shockingly ran in the top 10 for most of last week's Coca-Cola 600, and this week at Nashville, he's coming to a track where he did finish in the top 10 last year. However, that deserves a giant-size asterisk in that race, as he was only running 21st before the endless string of five overtime restarts. On Saturday, Gragson qualified 30th, and the Front Row Motorsports cars seem to be nowhere near as fast, as Zane Smith qualified 27th and Todd Gilliland qualified 35th. For this race, he will likely be let down by his qualifying position as passing will likely be at a premium, so he will likely have to rely on strategy or a fluky race like last year to be a top DFS option. However, he qualified poorly enough that he should definitely be considered.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
2 days ago
Although Michael McDowell starts eighth on Sunday at Nashville, this has not been one of his better tracks in general as he has never finished better than 13th nor posted a better average finish than 14th, so he will likely lose positions in the race. The Spire Motorsports cars have seemed to have a significant improvement in speed this year with all three drivers winning poles with Carson Hocevar battling for the lead last week in the Coca-Cola 600 before his engine failure, and McDowell himself improbably fighting for the win at Texas after never scoring a top-10 finish there before. McDowell might have some speed, but past history suggests he will likely finish worse than he starts, and there's no reason to consider him when Hocevar is a vastly better driver and is starting significantly worse.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June
1,
2025
Erik
Jones
and
his
Legacy
Motor
Club
teammate
John
Hunter
Nemechek
have
definitely
seemed
to
pick
up
speed
on
intermediate
tracks
in
recent
weeks
and
although
Jones
has
still
been
rather
anonymous,
he
has
seemed
to
regain
his
strong
passing
abilities
read more...
June 1, 2025
Although Corey Heim is only making his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Nashville on Sunday, he actually finished last year's race where he started and finished 29th. Last year's race was so chaotic and unrepresentative that it's necessary to look at average running positions to predict this year's speed. While Heim's average running position of 22nd wasn't awful considering his inexperience, he was significantly slower than his veteran teammates Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, who had average running positions of sixth and 14th, respectively. Both of them also qualified much better in Sunday's event, and it seems like they will be likely faster, which is not surprising since few drivers learn the Next Gen car quickly. Having said that, Heim was the highest finishing 23XI car in his last start at Kansas, but Reddick certainly ran significantly better despite his late collapse. The car is fast enough that he might be worth starting for DFS, but at $6,700, he's probably a little too overpriced.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 1, 2025
Cole Custer makes his return to Nashville after his two-year return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, starting from the 29th position on Sunday evening. In his two previous starts at Nashville, Custer actually qualified pretty well, starting seventh in 2021 and 17th in 2022 before eventually falling to 31st and 26th, respectively. His average running position was 21st in both races. Since he has been rather slow all season, he has tended to steadily lose positions here and is driving for a Haas Factory Team that does not seem to be as fast as Stewart-Haas Racing. He also qualified significantly worse, and it's hard to see a good reason to start him unless you think the race will be chaotic like it was last year. The only good things are that his DFS salary is only $5,300, and that not many of the top drivers qualified poorly.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
June 1, 2025
Ty Dillon qualified 31st for Sunday's race at Nashville Superspeedway, which is consistent with his 31st- and 32nd-place finishes in his two previous Nashville starts in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Since he got lapped multiple times in both races, it's hard to envision Dillon gaining enough positions to obtain sufficient place-differential points to be worth starting for DFS play on speed. However, last year's Nashville race was the most chaotic race of last season, as the actual finishing order was entirely unrepresentative of how drivers ran in the race. If you believe the race will be wacky like last year's, there might be a case to consider Dillon, especially since his DFS salary is only $5,000. However, if you think it will be a more humdrum affair like 2022 or 2023, you should likely look elsewhere.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
May 27, 2025
Brad Keselowski has had a good finish in 2025, a full 13 races into the season. The No. 6 Ford crossed the finish line in fifth-place in Sunday evening's Coca-Cola 600, the first top-five finish (and top-10) for Keselowski this year. It has been a disastrous season thus far for the team owner, as Brad's average finish for the season now sits at 25.5 even after his top-five result at Charlotte. He currently sits 32nd in the points standings and will likely need a win if he wants to make the Playoffs. "We had a really good car," Keselowski said after the race. "We got mixed up in some of the different stuff in the midpoint of the race and just clawed our way out. I feel like if we could have got to the lead, we could have won the race. I wish it was a 700 mile race."
--Jordan McAbeeSource: The Racing Experts
May
27,
2025
Hendrick
Motorsports
driver
William
Byron
had
the
most
dominant
car
of
the
week
for
this
week's
Coca-Cola
600
at
Charlotte
Motor
Speedway.
Beginning
the
race
from
the
third
position,
Byron
quickly
jumped
to
the
lead
after
the
first
lap,
ahead
of
read more...
May
27,
2025
23XI
Racing's
Tyler
Reddick
displayed
plenty
of
speed
during
the
Coca-Cola
600
at
Charlotte
Motor
Speedway
on
Sunday,
but
could
not
capitalize
on
it
with
another
underwhelming
finish.
Reddick
started
the
race
from
the
12th
position,
but
quickly
climbed
to
the
read more...
May
27,
2025
Joe
Gibbs
Racing
driver
Denny
Hamlin
was
highly
competitive
during
Sunday's
Coca-Cola
600
before
he
had
issues
and
was
relegated
to
a
finish
of
16th
at
Charlotte
Motor
Speedway.
Hamlin
began
Sunday's
race
from
the
20th
position
and
slowly
progressed
through
read more...
May
27,
2025
Kyle
Larson
of
Hendrick
Motorsports
ended
the
Coca-Cola
600
in
disappointment
as
he
finished
in
the
37th
position.
This
week,
Larson
participated
in
the
Memorial
Day
Double,
which
is
where
a
driver
tries
to
compete
in
the
Indianapolis
500
and
read more...
May 26, 2025
Although Christopher Bell entered Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 as one of the pre-race favorites after winning last year's race, he was mildly disappointing by his admittedly very high standards. Although he looked like a potential winner after driving from 10th to third in the opening stage, he spent most of the rest of the race struggling to maintain position in the top 10, while his teammate Denny Hamlin was one of the leading contenders for the win, and his other teammate Chase Briscoe recovered from a pit-road penalty to finish third. Nonetheless, Bell's eighth-place finish allowed him to gain 10 points on the regular-season points lead because the previous points leader, Kyle Larson, crashed twice. He now sits 73 points behind new points leader William Byron.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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