It’s been an incredibly heavy week for the NASCAR community with the sudden passing of Kyle Busch on Thursday. This is always one of the greatest weekends of the year for motorsports and with this tragic news it certainly feels different from previous Coca-Cola 600’s. There have been some fantastic tributes so far this weekend on social media, through the CW and Amazon Prime, and live at the track. Even our own Andrew Cooper penned a great tribute, which you can read right here. The scenes this weekend have been surreal as you realize the impact Kyle Busch had on the racing community. 

It feels hard to dive into DFS advice given the state of NASCAR this weekend. But the races continue to be run and the tributes will continue all weekend. We have all your coverage with the NASCAR DFS Playbook for DraftKings and FanDuel in addition to the NASCAR DFS Projections and the NASCAR DFS Ownership outlook. Let’s dive in and take a look at the top plays and lineup building strategies on DraftKings and FanDuel as we get ready for the Coca-Cola 600!

 

 

 

Charlotte Motor Speedway

As the entire NASCAR community mourns and pays tribute to Kyle Busch, a lot of rain has swept across the Southeast over the last few days. The weather cancelled practice and qualifying for the Truck and O’Reilly Series, and the Truck Series race had to be postponed to Saturday morning and then again to Saturday night, and then again to Sunday morning.

For our NASCAR DFS picks on DraftKings and FanDuel, we were fortunate to see a practice session for the NASCAR Cup Series, but it did have some interruptions which I’ll detail shortly. But this track is your standard “cookie cutter” 1.5-mile quad-oval. We’ve already been to a few intermediate tracks this year that compare to Charlotte and we have a decent read on the aero package.

Part of what makes this race a “crown jewel” is the overall length. The Daytona 500 is the biggest race of the year, but this is the biggest in terms of overall length. This is a 400-lap race which means we’re looking at 600 total miles. It is a long race and it’s the only race on the annual NASCAR schedule that features four stages.

In addition to all three series in action this weekend, we get F1 racing in Montreal and IndyCar is running the Indianapolis 500. Hopefully getting to see and experience some great racing this weekend will help things start to feel a bit normal, but it still doesn’t quite feel real that Kyle Busch won’t be on track for one of the biggest races of the year.

 

 

 

DraftKings and FanDuel Scoring Trends

The tables above are naturally complimentary to the polesitter and make a strong case to lock in Tyler Reddick for this race. The one thing that is really pumping up the averages for the polesitter is Kyle Larson’s dominant win in this race back in 2021 when he collected 112 dominator points after starting and finishing first. If we were to take Larson’s performance out of the sample size above, the polesitter would go from averaging roughly 75 fantasy points per race on DraftKings to just under 55 fantasy points per race.

Now that’s not to say we fade the polesitter. Reddick’s on the pole and we’ve seen how good his car has been this year. In his write-up below we’ll even touch on just how good he’s been from the pole.

It’s really hard to gauge the proper lineup to build for our Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR DFS picks. Last year the polesitter wasn’t optimal. It had two drivers start inside the top 15 and then four PD options outside the top 20. The year prior, the three drivers starting P1, P2, and P3 all landed in the optimal lineup and that build only required two drivers starting outside the top 15.

But this is still a 400-lap race and in terms of DFS strategy, I want exposure to as many of those dominator points as I can get. Sunday’s lineup was set by the metric so unfortunately the results from Watkins Glen a few weeks ago played a role in setting the lineup for this race. Fortunately, we get some great dominator candidates starting rather high (Reddick, Gibbs, Briscoe, and Blaney).

There are also drivers starting outside the top 10 that are capable of leading laps later on. This group includes drivers like Hamlin, Larson, Bell, and Elliott. And from there we have an abundance of drivers starting outside the top 20 that possess legitimate top 10 upside. Even some value plays starting very deep in the field will pay big dividends if they simply finish the race without wrecking.

I want to be targeting at least two dominators for my lineups on DraftKings. And even then, I’ll be pushing for three in a lot of my lineups. The position differential plays kind of present themselves to us with ease this week because there are so many. We typically tend to see a primary dominator and a secondary dominator in these races. It’s possible we get one driver that really leads a majority of the laps (like we did last year with William Byron) but there’s also the possibility we see the kind of race where a couple other drivers lead 40+ laps. There are so many ways this race can play out across 600 miles and there are a variety of ways to build winning lineups. 

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks & Strategy: Coca-Cola 600

Keep in mind that while we absolutely love the fact that all cars ran the same practice session, this track was about as clean as it gets. There was no on-track activity from the Truck or O’Reilly Series up to that point so there wasn’t any rubber after it rained plenty the last couple days.

I do want to examine who was good in the longer runs, but we had some issues getting a good look at nearly half the field. 12 minutes into practice they threw the red flag for excess mist in the area. They went green again and then threw the red flag again because Austin Dillon got into the wall and took on some damage. So we’ll take what we can from the table above. But with qualifying cancelled, we are able to navigate the field and identify strong DFS plays for our NASCAR DFS lineups.

 

 

 

NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 Top Tier DFS Picks

Denny Hamlin (Starting P11) – DraftKings: $11,500 | FanDuel: $14,000

We kick off our NASCAR DFS picks for the Coca-Cola 600 with Denny Hamlin, a driver who has won this very race in the NextGen era. Hamlin’s also looked outstanding on the comparable tracks so far in 2026. He dominated and won Vegas with well over 100 laps led. He finished fourth at Kansas, but again, he led over 100 laps in that race too. At Texas he finished second with 21 laps led and he’s coming off the win at Dover last weekend so he enters this race with some momentum.

Across 400 laps you have to feel pretty good about Hamlin moving up and getting to the lead at some point to collect dominator points. Hamlin won’t come with an ownership discount, which is par for the course, but he’s been so good at the comparable tracks this year it would be surprising if he didn’t have another strong run at Charlotte.

Tyler Reddick (Starting P1) – DraftKings: $11,500 | FanDuel: $13,000

Based on the starting spot charts from above, we know how good the polesitter can be here. Chase Briscoe had the pole a year ago but finished third with 4.75 total dominator points. But two years ago, Ty Gibbs had the pole and finished sixth with 22.1 dominator points. In 2023, William Byron finished second with just over 29 dominator points. In 2021 and 2022, the polesitter (Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin respectively) won each race. So there’s plenty of upside playing the guy that’ll control the start of the race with clean air.

And at the end of the day, we’re well aware that Reddick is having a phenomenal season. He has five wins with eight total top five finishes, and four of those wins have come when he was on the pole. So when this 45-car gets great track position, the driver is taking advantage and scores big. 

Christopher Bell (Starting P17) – DraftKings: $10,000 | FanDuel: $12,000

The next four drivers in the driver pool are all incredibly interchangeable in my opinion. The likes of Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, and Chase Elliott are all fine plays and they’ll make the tables  at the bottom of the article. Bell won this race two years ago when he qualified P3 and collected 36 dominator points to land in the optimal lineup that year. In three of the last four Coca-Cola 600’s, Bell has finished eighth or better.

Bell is coming into this race lacking momentum. He hasn’t finished in the top 15 since Martinsville at the end of March. But he did lead 20+ laps at Vegas, Kansas, and Texas so despite the fact he starts outside the top 15, I still love that we have a little dominator potential and PD with this play. He’s led 143 total laps in the last three Coca-Cola 600’s.

William Byron (Starting P31) – DraftKings: $9,500 | FanDuel: $12,500

I was going to include William Byron in this week’s NASCAR DFS picks no matter what. The track history is too good to ignore, but with qualifying cancelled he starts pretty deep in the field based on the metric. But we’ll use that to our advantage for our Cash and GPP lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Byron has been wonderfully consistent at Charlotte, but he just doesn’t have any wins to show how great he’s been here. He’s won stage won in each of the last three Coca-Cola 600’s and in all three of those races he registered a driver rating of at least 120 while finishing top three in each of the last three races. He even led a stellar 283 laps in this very race a year ago.

Now it’s well documented the struggles he’s had this year. He hasn’t led a lap since Martinsville and he’s only led 34 laps on the year. But at this price tag, we’re getting a driver with great equipment offering a healthy amount of position differential. We can certainly lock him into our cash and GPP lineups for our NASCAR DFS picks because he’s likely in the optimal lineup with a top 10 finish and some fastest laps to boot.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Mid-Tier Drivers

Ty Gibbs (Starting P2) – DraftKings: $9,000 | FanDuel: $9,500

Ty Gibbs is a driver who works well as a GPP recommendation for our NASCAR DFS picks for the Coca-Cola 600. He starts on the front row next to his Toyota ally, Tyler Reddick. Most expect Reddick to get the jump early on and lead laps in stage one. But Gibbs is a strong pivot in the event he simply has the faster car. The last time Gibbs started on the front row for this race he finished sixth and led over 70 laps.

He was top five at Vegas and top 10 at Kansas before breaking through for his first Cup Series win at Bristol shortly after. Of late he’s had some struggles after he wrecked at Talladega and Texas but this is a nicer, easy-going intermediate where the Toyota’s have looked fast all season. And even if Gibbs doesn’t get the lead early, it’s a 400-lap race and if he just maintains track position all night, he’ll be in good shape to lead later on.

Carson Hocevar (Starting P23) – DraftKings: $8,700 | FanDuel: $10,000

There will always be risk when playing Hocevar in DFS. For this race in particular, he at least emerges as a good play because of the starting spot. Hocevar’s aggressive nature can play at any track and that correlates to being a high-ceiling DFS option.

In Saturday’s haphazard practice session, Hocevar had the second-best single-lap and five-lap average. However, he had a tire go down early on that the team had to address. And when you mix in the pair of cautions that broke up the session, we didn’t see him get a long run in. So we’re flying a bit blind on that front.

Hocevar’s team manages to make the car better as races play out. And with 400 laps to work with, he works well as a GPP target with top 10 upside that could potentially lead some laps. At Texas he led 40 laps and finished seventh and he was top five at Kansas. I wish we got a better look at his car in practice but at least he had speed in the brief moments we did witness.

Brad Keselowski (Starting P26) – DraftKings: $8,000 | FanDuel: $8,000

There are so many fun plays in the mid-range this week that it leads me to believe no one will emerge with too much ownership so it would be nice if that balanced things out and there wasn’t too much chalk. But Keselowski is another strong option offering position differential at a good price.

Keselowski is the type of guy who has said in the past that he doesn’t like going incredibly hard in practice because he doesn’t want everyone to know how good the car may be. He’s also mentioned that people tend to overdrive their cars in practice and that’s just not his style. And yet, he still managed to run in the top 10 in the 10-lap metric during Saturday’s session.

Kez has great track history at Charlotte. He won here in 2021 and in each of the last two Coca-Cola 600’s, he finished in the top five after starting outside the top 25. He’s a great DFS play in all formats and he’s likely optimal with a top 10 finish.

Alex Bowman (Starting P29) – DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $7,500

Bowman needed a bit of a grace period as he missed a few races earlier this year. But prior to All-Star weekend at Dover, he managed to finish third at both Talladega and Texas so he has momentum at least. Moreover, he grabbed a top 10 at Dover last weekend. With qualifying waved off for this weekend, the metric sets Bowman up for significant position differential for our NASCAR DFS picks.

In four of the last five races at Charlotte he’s finished in the top 12. Three years ago he started P31 and finished exactly 12th. He’s returning over 40 fantasy points on DraftKings if he finishes in the top 15 and that’s assuming he registers zero fastest laps across a 400-lap race. 

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Value Drivers

Corey Heim (Starting P39) – DraftKings: $6,900 | FanDuel: $6,200

Heim becomes one of the more obvious plays on the board. Because qualifying was cancelled, the lineup is set by the metric from the Watkins Glen results. So with Heim being a part-time driver, who didn’t race at Watkins Glen, he starts dead last.

Heim is a great driver. He’s the 2025 Truck Series champion but doesn’t have a full-time ride this year, which is almost by design actually. He still runs a handful of races for the Truck and O’Reilly Series while getting more experience at the Cup level.

He’ll once again be in the 67-car for 23XI Racing so the equipment should be much better than where he’ll start. Heim was able to grab a top 15 finish at Kansas earlier this year and if he finishes 23rd in this race, he’ll return 5X value. And if he wrecks or maybe comes just shy of the top 25, he’s not killing your lineup because he offers such a great floor. He did scrub the wall in practice, but the damage was cosmetic if anything. 

Josh Berry (Starting P34) – DraftKings: $6,300 | FanDuel: $4,500

Berry’s sample size at Charlotte is quite small. He’s raced here twice in the Cup Series for the Coca-Cola 600 and three times in the old NASCAR Xfinity Series. Two years ago with Stewart-Haas Racing he started P13 and finished 10th. Then last year, in his first season with Wood Brothers Racing, he started P18 and finished 12th. He even has a win here from the Xfinity Series during his tenure with Jr. Motorsports.

But we do need to tread with caution with this particular value play. Per Driver Averages, Berry has an average finish of 26.3 this season and he finished outside the top 25 at Vegas, Kansas, and Texas but he did finish 17th at Darlington. 

The practice speeds were fine but again, the track conditions were very clean and there were two instances that disrupted the long runs for a few drivers. But we have good value options for this race starting outside the top 30. So we can diversify our ownership in this range with ease.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Starting P32) – DraftKings: $5,900 | FanDuel: $5,000

Stenhouse obviously stands out as a position differential option while also saving some salary. But it’s wild that he actually has some great track history at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Stenhouse started and finished 11th in this race a year ago. In 2023, he started P10 and finished seventh. In 2022, he also finished seventh after starting P29. In 2021, he finished P12. In 2020 he finished fourth(!) after starting P24. Throughout his career at Charlotte, he’s collected a lot of great finishes along the way.

For Saturday’s race, he may not draw a lot of ownership, but I do anticipate the number being close to about 20-25% so I’m actually okay with being slightly overweight to the field. Stenhouse is a veteran and knows what it takes to survive a race this long. He hasn’t logged too many noteworthy finishes this season, but he offers a good floor/ceiling combination that he should absolutely be mentioned as part of our NASCAR DFS picks for the Coca-Cola 600.

Ty Dillon (Starting P35) – DraftKings: $5,100 | FanDuel: $2,500

I’m not sure we’ll need to get exposure to Ty Dillon on FanDuel but he’s about as cheap as I’d want to go on DraftKings. Kaulig Racing has certainly taken a step backwards. However, the car is still good enough to finish the entirety of this 400-lap race. Dillon started P19 in this race a year ago and largely held that position for most of the race and that’s exactly where he finished. 

The big concern with Ty Dillon is that just hasn’t looked strong on the intermediates this year. He finished outside the top 30 at Vegas, Darlington, and Kansas while he scraped together a top 25 finish at Kansas. But that shouldn’t deter you from playing him. If you find yourself in a position where you’re required to play someone this cheap, Dillon might be the best option considering Gilliland and Custer start a handful of rows higher, Cody Ware struggles to finish top 30, and Katherine Legge may not even run this race if she can’t get in from Indianapolis on time.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Optimizer & Lineups Picks This Week

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