NASCAR closed out the regular season portion of its schedule at Daytona last weekend, and racing fans were not disappointed. The race played out like your typical superspeedway race should. It was lighter on cautions, but we saw movement and aggressive driving to get to the front. And when it was all said and done, Ryan Preece laid claim to his first NASCAR Cup Series win and earned his way into the Chase.

NASCAR kicks off the Chase portion of the schedule at Darlington Raceway. Darlington appears on the schedule twice each year and it’s certainly one of the most historic tracks in the country. Can the Fords and Team Penske maintain the run they’ve been on of late? Or can the Toyota’s rekindle the magic we saw so often on the intermediates from earlier this year?

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 NASCAR DFS picks and lineup building strategies on DraftKings and FanDuel as we get ready for the Cook Out Southern 500!

 

 

 

Darlington Raceway

The Southern 500 has been a mainstay on the NASCAR schedule dating all the way back to 1950. Darlington Raceway is an historic track that NASCAR visits twice each year. The spring race is only 400 miles while the playoff race gets an extra 100 miles to work with. So there are more dominator points available to us for our NASCAR DFS picks.

But Darlington is such a unique track all its own. It measures in at 1.366 miles in length so it qualifies as an intermediate track. But its unique “egg” shape presents a challenge. You’ll hear the drivers and the booth acknowledge that you aren’t just racing the field, but you’re racing the track.

Because of this track’s shape, turns 1 and 2 feature a wider turn radius than turns 3 and 4. This is also a track with many racing lanes and some drivers will take the risk running along the wall. Doing so will allow them to carry more momentum and speed coming out of the turns. But the risk is that you could collect your “Darlington stripe” if you tag or scrape the wall.

Another big topic of conversation this weekend will be tire management. Darlington features one of the oldest track surfaces on the schedule. Tire fall off will happen and those who manage their tires better than others have a great chance to make moves on the longer runs. The most comparable track to Darlington is probably going to be Homestead, which is where this year’s Championship race will be in about two months. But we can also pull data from tracks like Las Vegas, Kansas, and Charlotte to an extent.

The biggest take away from the Trends table above is the emphasis on playing drivers that qualify well. Each of the last five winners at Darlington have started P3 or better. And look at the “Laps Led from Top-10” row. Over 95% of the laps led over the last five races have come from drivers starting inside the top 10. And if we slightly adjust the goalposts a little bit and only look at laps led from the first three rows, then we’re seeing 91.5% of the laps led come from drivers starting P1 – P6.

 

 

 

NASCAR DraftKings and FanDuel Scoring Trends with DFS Strategy

Based on how we closed out the last section, it comes as no surprise that we’re going to be looking at the first three rows for dominator points. But as you can see from the scoring tables above, the polesitter has a significant edge. Tyler Reddick won this race from the pole in the spring with over 55 dominator points. Denny Hamlin starting on the pole for this race a year ago. He only collected 9.3 dominator points but still finished seventh. But teammate Chase Briscoe won the race from P2 with over 300 laps led. In the spring of 2025, William Byron collected almost 100 dominator points from the pole. And in the spring of 2024, Tyler Reddick didn’t have a great finish, but he led 174 laps from the pole.

So that’s likely a good, safe starting point for our builds. I’m aiming to build about 20 lineups for this race on Sunday. I’ll likely have a driver from the first two rows (largely Reddick and/or Hamlin) in 90% of my lineups.

But we get an extra 100 miles for this race with a total of 367 laps. So we’ll have about 240 dominator points to consider and we’ve seen that the front row has a clear and easy path to racking up dominator points. From there we probably want a secondary or tertiary dominator also starting inside the top 10 in case they can accumulate some dominator points and score a good finish.

From there we can target some mid-range and value options for our NASCAR DFS picks that provide position differential. As we’ve seen in the last five races here, Darlington can have enough variance where half the field finishes off the lead lap. Or perhaps we get a race like the spring of 2025 where 30 cars maintained the lead lap.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks & Strategy: Cook Out Southern 500

Practice and qualifying were canceled on Saturday, so the lineup was set by the metric. There will be no practice-to-qualifying table this week.

 

NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500 Top Tier DFS Picks

Tyler Reddick (Starting P1) – DraftKings: $10,500 | FanDuel: $14,000

The two most expensive drivers in the field are both in play. I don’t want to highlight both but Denny Hamlin on an intermediate is an obvious play. But Reddick might be the safer play even though he’s on a bit of a cold streak coming into the postseason portion of the schedule. Hamlin shouldn’t have any struggles getting past Preece and Suarez to start the race though.

But Reddick loves this track. Like Kyle Larson, Reddick thrives when running the higher line against the wall. Yes, it’s risky. But the best drivers in the world can navigate that run and keep the car clean. Reddick had the pole at Darlington this past spring. He wasn’t super dominant that day, but he did win with 77 laps led. Overall, in his last six races here he’s led 40+ laps in four of them. In three of those races, he led 75+ laps.

With practice and qualifying being canceled on Saturday, the starting lineup is set by the metric which puts Reddick on the pole at a track he’s had some stellar runs at over the last few seasons. Will he be chalk? Yes. But if he leads 75+ laps and finishes top five, he’s likely hitting the optimal lineup.

Ryan Blaney (Starting P24) – DraftKings: $10,200 | FanDuel: $12,000

These next two drivers obviously should have the ability to move through the field with ease. The metric had to weigh last week’s Daytona results heavily when determining this week’s starting order. So those who wrecked or finished poorly a week ago jump off the page as PD options, especially when we didn’t see practice for the first Chase race of the postseason.

Blaney doesn’t have the track history comparable to the next drivers in our NASCAR DFS picks. But he is having the better season. In 19 races at Darlington, Blaney’s only led 24 laps. But he did finish third here in the spring and was also top five in the spring of 2025.

This is the time of the year where Team Penske can really start to get hot and make a strong playoff run. We’ve seen it plenty of times in the NextGen era. So even though Blaney and Larson are arguably similar plays, Blaney might get the edge based off how the 2026 season has played out.

Kyle Larson (Starting P25) – DraftKings: $10,000 | FanDuel: $12,500

It’s hard to justify the price tag on Larson this week. But this is Kyle Larson and we’re racing at Darlington. Yes, it’s been a down year for the Chevy camp. But this is Kyle Larson at a track he loves.

Larson has wrecked/finished poorly in three of the last five races at this track. Even in the spring, with about 10 laps to go, he missed entry into turn 1 and put the car in the wall to finish outside the top 30 after running inside the top five all day. But this track still caters to his strengths. Like Reddick, Larson loves to take risks and run the higher line along the wall.

But it’s still been over 16 months since he last won a Cup Series races. But if there’s one track he can change his fortune, it’s Darlington. He won this race three years ago, he’s finished top four on seven occasions, and in four races he’s led 100+ laps. Now leading 100+ laps on Sunday will be a challenge because he starts so deep in the field. But we’ve never seen Larson start this far back at Darlington.

Chase Briscoe (Starting P7) – DraftKings: $9,800 | FanDuel: $13,500

Briscoe has won each of the last two playoff races at Darlington with two different teams (Stewart-Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing). Briscoe does have one win this season and it came at Chicagoland about two months ago. You can certainly make an argument Chicagoland carries some similarities to Darlington in terms of tire wear. So it carries a little weight that Briscoe got the win there just a couple months ago.

We also know Briscoe isn’t the kind of driver to be satisfied with just one win. But that’s more than teammate Christopher Bell can say at this point in the season. Briscoe flat out dominated this race a year ago with over 300 laps led so he will catch our interest for this race as the Toyota camp certainly has plenty of drivers capable of winning.

With practice and qualifying canceled, Briscoe still gets a friendly starting spot and he largely just has to contend with Reddick and Hamlin for track position and dominator points early on.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Mid-Tier Drivers

Ty Gibbs (Starting P28) – DraftKings: $8,800 | FanDuel: $10,500

We kick off the mid-tier drivers for our NASCAR DFS picks with two great options in good equipment that offer plenty of position differential. We start with Gibbs who has broken the seal this season with his first two career wins. It took a hot minute, but the kid has finally broken through. Is it likely he wins this race? No. But for DFS purposes he starts deep in the field for Sunday’s race.

Gibbs started P28 for this race in the spring and finished sixth for just over 60 fantasy points on DraftKings. He even finished as the runner-up at Darlington in the spring of 2024 with 34 laps led. He has displayed a little more upside on the shorter tracks but given the equipment he’s in and the starting spot, it’s going to be very difficult to lay off Ty Gibbs.

Chris Buescher (Starting P35) – DraftKings: $8,600 | FanDuel: $9,000

Buescher likely attracts more ownership than Gibbs because he’s cheaper and starts further back. Moreover, he also has the better track history. Since the start of the 2023 season, we’ve seen seven races at Darlington and Buescher is tied with Chase Elliott for the fourth-best average finish (10.6). Buescher has finished top 10 in five of his last six races here and this past spring he led 41 laps before finishing ninth.

He’s got a lot of work to do for our DFS lineups on Sunday. But the equipment is worthy of a top 15 finish most weeks and Buescher’s a winner at this level. If he finishes 15th with no dominator points for this race, he’s returning 48 fantasy points on DraftKings.

Carson Hocevar (Starting P34) – DraftKings: $7,900 | FanDuel: $8,200

The theme among the mid-range is just leaning into the PD this week. Will every play work out? I doubt it. But you diversify your portfolio. You don’t put all your eggs into one basket. Now Carson Hocevar isn’t a driver I’ve targeted often this season when building my NASCAR DFS lineups. However, he’s an aggressive driver who always possesses upside. And because of his poor result at Daytona a week ago, he offers a healthy amount of position differential for Sunday’s race.

Hocevar started P26 in this race a year ago and finished ninth. Then this past spring he started P16 and surprisingly finished fourth. For this race, he has one of the safest starting spots in the field. Will anyone in the mid-tier range come at an ownership discount? Absolutely not. But with a guy like Hocevar he offers the position differential that we like while also taking some risks on strategy that can make or break our NASCAR DFS lineups.

Corey Heim (Starting P22) – DraftKings: $7,700 | FanDuel: $7,800

Heim is not a full-time driver this season. That’ll happen next year. But even as a part-time racer in 2026, he’s won twice in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he’s added three wins in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Heim’s track history in the Truck Series is in a tier all its own. He won the Truck race earlier this year at Darlington with 28 laps led. In the three races from 2023-2025 he collected a win and led 65+ laps in all three races.

Heim is not going to come in with much of an ownership discount. He’s an intriguing option under $8,000 on both sites because, while he’s still young, he’s won twice in nine Cup Series races this year. And his last win was the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The equipment is good, and he does have a chance to finish well and possibly lead laps but that likely wouldn’t happen until the later stages.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Value Drivers

Erik Jones (Starting P36) – DraftKings: $7,500 | FanDuel: $7,500

Erik Jones will be a trendy play for our NASCAR DFS picks. Jones is always in play at Darlington even though he’s not on a prioritized team for Toyota. But Jones has two career wins at this track. One was with Joe Gibbs Racing back in 2019 and then he took this 43-car to victory lane four years ago prior to the team’s switch from Chevrolet to Toyota.

While Jones may not lead any laps, he knows how to navigate the track and that accounts for something at Darlington. He grabbed a top 10 here just a few months ago after he started P24. In this very race a year ago, he started 19 and finished third. In five of the last six races at Darlington, he’s gained 10+ spots of positive PD.

Jones isn’t necessarily coming into this race with the greatest momentum. He’s finished outside the top 20 in six straight races. But a lot of those tracks were shorter, flat tracks and last week we were at Daytona. This is a great opportunity for Jones to get back on track given the overall body of work at Darlington.

Now truth be told, this section was written prior to practice and qualifying being canceled. So Jones will come in with a ton of ownership for our NASCAR DFS picks and for good reason. He has a very safe floor and an incredibly high ceiling if he shows up with a competitive ride once again at Darlington.

Zane Smith (Starting P33) – DraftKings: $6,200 | FanDuel: $5,000

The value portion for our NASCAR DFS picks is certainly ugly this week. Because the lineup metric incorporates last week’s Daytona results into its calculation, a lot of value plays finished really well at Daytona, hence why they start so well for Darlington.

Zane isn’t one of them though. But Zane, from a DFS perspective, obviously has a better floor because of where he rolls off. And because there are so many drivers from top-to-bottom offering PD, Zane won’t garner a ton of ownership. But don’t get that twisted. Among the value plays, he’ll carry ownership. But because there’s PD available across the board, the ownership may be a bit suppressed.

The good news with Zane is that he’s finished 23rd or better in his last four appearances at The Lady in Black. He’s not a home run play by any means. But if you nail the dominator plays alongside some of the mid-range chalk, then Zane can be optimal with potentially just a top 25 finish.

A.J. Allmendinger (Starting P36) – DraftKings: $5,500 | FanDuel: $4,800

Noah Gragson (Starting P29) – DraftKings: $5,400 | FanDuel: $3,200

These two drivers are incredibly similar plays in my opinion. And I couldn’t decide who to highlight so I just decided to briefly talk about both options. We’ll start with Allmendinger who obviously has more experience. Dinger actually finished top five in this race a year ago and was 18th in the spring race in 2025. But overall, Allmendinger is an experienced driver who knows the importance of managing his tires. Now my biggest concern with AJ is just the recent momentum. The season is winding down, his seat is rather safe all in all so he doesn’t have as much to drive for, and the organization is planning long-term to join the Dodge camp.

Now in the case of Noah Gragson, the results haven’t been too bad for a driver in a Front Row Motorsports car. He started P33 and finished 22nd at Indianapolis. Then he was top 20 at Iowa and Richmond. Even at New Hampshire he managed to get a top 10 result. Gragson has managed three top 20 finishes at Darlington in his Cup Series career so he’s capable of surprising us. And it doesn’t seem like either driver will emerge with significant ownership for our NASCAR DFS picks.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Optimizer & Lineups Picks This Week

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