Shane Van Gisbergen bounced back after wrecking at Naval Base Coronado two weeks ago and he got back to victory lane last week at Sonoma Raceway for his second win this season (both on a road course). He’s still in a decent spot to make the chase but the challenge for SVG will lie in the fact there are no more road courses on the schedule this season.

But NASCAR makes its triumphant return to Chicagoland Speedway for 4th of July weekend. This marks NASCAR’s first visit to this track in seven years after running the Chicago Street Course the last few Independence Day weekends. The weather has had a slight impact on the weekend’s on-track activities, but we were still able to see practice on Friday and they got qualifying in on Saturday.

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 eero 400!

 

 

 

Chicagoland Speedway

Chicagoland Speedway is back on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule for the 2026 season. In the past it became a struggle to sell tickets for the event, but NASCAR is expecting a sellout for Sunday night’s race. In fact, the next three races for the NASCAR Cup Series will be under the lights at Chicagoland, Atlanta, and North Wilkesboro.

It’s been seven years since NASCAR raced here so this does mark the first time in the NextGen era we’ve raced at this track. Because of the long break between races at this track, I’m not including the usual trends table and the DraftKings/FanDuel starting spot charts. The track’s surface is very old and has endured some brutal Midwest winters. To go with that this is a new car for this track and the field isn’t the same as it was so many years ago.

Chicagoland Speedway is certainly an older track and tire wear is going to play a huge role in this race Sunday night. This is your standard 1.5-mile oval that may be closer in comparison to Kansas and Vegas than it is to Texas and Charlotte. But as tire wear comes into play, we’ll want drivers who have historically performed well at Darlington and Homestead for our NASCAR DFS picks.

On Sunday night they’ll run the same tire combination that we saw last month at Nashville and these are also the same left side tires that they used at Michigan and Pocono. So while those tracks aren’t direct comparisons to Chicagoland it’s helpful to identify the plays that performed well at those tracks.

 

 

 

NASCAR DraftKings and FanDuel Scoring Trends with DFS Strategy

As I mentioned above, there are no starting spot charts for this race for the reasons I’ve already mentioned. We should be leaning into a little chaos for this race as we finalize our NASCAR DFS picks for the eero 400.

But similarly, we kind of know what to expect with this race. Chicagoland is a 1.5-mile intermediate track and we’ll have 267 laps as these drivers race for 400 miles. So the strategy isn’t too different from what we’ve already seen at tracks like Vegas, Kansas, Texas, and Charlotte. But the same “lineup building” strategy won’t differ from what we saw at Darlington, Michigan, Nashville, and Pocono.

With 267 laps we’ll likely finish with 165-175 dominator points after we lose some fastest laps to cautions. So two-to-three dominators will be the way to go. There are some obvious dominator candidates in the top tier, especially on the front row. But I do believe there are some intriguing dominator candidates in the mid-range that could score well with a good finish and maybe 15-20 dominator points of their own. From there we round out our lineups with drivers that can maybe gain at least eight spots of positive position differential, or possibly with low-owned drivers that can finish well.

Now this track is going to burn through tires. It’s an old surface that has worn over the years due to Chicago’s weather and vastly different climates between winter and summer. Tire management will be key especially at a track we haven’t seen in seven years. If that gives you some pause then maybe scale back your level of play and target the three-or-five-max contests to still get some skin in the game.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks & Strategy: eero 400

 

NASCAR eero 400 Top Tier DFS Picks

Denny Hamlin (Starting P1) – DraftKings: $11,000 | FanDuel: $14,000

While there are some unknown factors for this race, we can at least hang our hat on the fact that Denny Hamlin has been absolutely stellar on the comparable tracks this year. He won at Vegas (134 laps led), finished fourth at Kansas (131 laps led), was the runner-up at Texas (21 laps led), and he was third at Charlotte (75 laps led). And let’s not overlook the fact he also won at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono on the same tire combination they’ll be running Sunday.

After a couple finishes outside the top 10 at back-to-back road courses, we’re returning to a track type that plays to Hamlin’s strengths. But the playing field is a bit more level as Tyler Reddick has been exceptional on the higher tire wear tracks. We won’t downgrade Hamlin by any means but he’s not as much of a lock to win especially since it’s been seven years since NASCAR raced at this track.

Tyler Reddick (Starting P13) – DraftKings: $10,700 | FanDuel: $13,500

He was easily the best in practice as he laid down some great laps towards the end of his second run during Friday’s practice session. Overall, he was fastest in 10-lap, 15-lap, 20-lap, and 25-lap averages while he was second in 5-lap averages. We also saw him win at Darlington and Kansas earlier this year and both tracks can draw their own comparisons to Chicagoland.

Denny Hamlin has caught most of the fanfare of late following his elite runs at Dover, Charlotte, Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono. However, Reddick was formidable in his own right for those races as well. He led 119 laps at Charlotte, 42 at Nashville, 33 at Michigan, and 24 at Pocono. He just gets slightly overlooked because Denny Hamlin ripped off wins in three of those races.

Reddick has plenty of win equity and we certainly should bump him up at a higher tire wear track because there are a select few drivers who can manage their tires as well as he can.

Kyle Larson (Starting P2) – DraftKings: $10,500 | FanDuel: $13,000

If there’s one driver who is happy to see Chicagoland back on the schedule it’s very likely that it’s Kyle Larson. Larson had some elite runs at this track during his tenure with Chip Ganassi Racing. He was the runner-up here in 2018 and 2019 while also collecting top five results in 2014 and 2017. Larson’s also historically thrived on the higher tire wear tracks such as Darlington and Homestead.

It’s now been over a year since he collected his last win, but maybe Hendrick and the Chevy camp are figuring out how to properly set this new body up. Larson had a great qualifying effort on Saturday where he fell just 0.001 seconds short of winning the pole. But alas he still starts on the front row with a shot to lead laps early. The challenge is that he’ll have to find a way around Denny Hamlin who has thrived as the polesitter this season.

Larson does enter this weekend with four straight top five finishes and five in his last six races. He’s also been getting up front more and leading laps, so it does feel like he’s trending in the right direction to get his first win of the season and it comes at a track he previously ran very well at before they took it off the schedule.

Ryan Blaney (Starting P14) – DraftKings: $10,200 | FanDuel: $12,000

Blaney was one of the drivers that did the tire test here and while his best single lap in practice was nothing noteworthy, he was actually very strong in the longer run metrics during Friday’s practice. Blaney was sixth in 10-lap averages, fifth in 15-lap, and second in 20-lap. So the car arguably got better on the longer runs.

We do get a little bit of position differential with Blaney and perhaps the night race and cooler temps will help this play prevail and land in the optimal lineup for our NASCAR DFS picks. Blaney’s old results at this track aren’t on Larson’s level but he finished sixth here in 2019 and he was fourth here in 2016 when he drove for Wood Brothers Racing.

He’s finished top 10 in six straight races dating back to Charlotte so there’s momentum on his side and he ran well on this tire combination at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Mid-Tier Drivers

William Byron (Starting P10) – DraftKings: $9,700 | FanDuel: $10,000

We haven’t touched on Byron too much this season, but he looked pretty solid in Friday’s practice and he backed it up with a top 10 qualifying effort. Byron’s certainly regressed from what we’ve seen the last couple years but again, it’s a new Chevy body that has struggled to keep up with the Toyota dominance for the first half of the season.

Byron was overall pretty pleased with his car in practice on Friday, which we haven’t been able to report too much this year. He was sixth in the five-lap averages, fourth in 10-lap, third in 15-lap, and fourth in 20-lap. Overall, it feels like he could potentially have a top five car for Sunday’s race. With a handful of dominator points that could fall into his lap we may be looking at a driver that can score 50-60 fantasy points and potentially land in the optimal lineup.

Now I am being mindful of the fact that he simply hasn’t looked great this year. But the mid-range is a bit void of great position differential plays so I will look to this range to possibly find a secondary or tertiary dominator for this week’s NASCAR DFS picks.

Joey Logano (Starting P31) – DraftKings: $8,200 | FanDuel: $7,500

While I did just say this race is void of great position differential plays in the mid-range, we do have Joey Logano but it comes with a caveat. He was wildly uninspiring during Friday’s practice session and that carried over to Saturday’s qualifying session where he earned the P31 starting spot.

If Logano was $500-$1,000 I probably wouldn’t mention him. He’d still make the driver pool below but you’re banking on name recognition with this play because he looked horrible in practice. But he’s only $8,200 on DraftKings and $7,500 on FanDuel. So I can at least live with mentioning Logano at these prices.

If he finishes 20th with no dominator points, then it’s a ho-hum effort where he scores just 34 fantasy points. But if he can just stay alive and keep the car clean then he has a shot at a top 15 finish which would yield 44 fantasy points. But there’s definitely risk here. He’s had more bad finishes this year than good finishes. But since Memorial Day Weekend he has finished top eight at Charlotte and Michigan, but we can’t feel overly confident about this play based on practice and qualifying.

Brad Keselowski (Starting P4) – DraftKings: $8,000 | FanDuel: $8,000

Kez is $8K on both sites and he’ll start in the second row with his RFK Racing teammate, Chris Buescher. The practice speeds don’t look great, but Brad has always been a guy who has never wanted to show all of his cards in practice. But he did lay down a great qualifying effort on Saturday.

When this track regularly appeared on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, it was one of Brad’s best. From 2011-2019, he never finished outside of the top 10 and even won here twice. And while Kez may only have one win since moving over and joining RFK Racing, that one win was at Darlington (2024) and he almost won Darlington earlier this year when he finished as the runner-up with 142 laps led.

Kez is an affordable GPP recommendation because there’s real upside with this play to possibly lead laps in stages two and three. We likely won’t consider this play for cash games but for 20-max or 150-max GPP contests, Brad is worth about 15% exposure.

Daniel Suarez (Starting P26) – DraftKings: $7,700 | FanDuel: $8,200

Suarez was an absolutely abysmal play last week at Sonoma. He’s a strong road course driver and he’s a previous winner up in wine country. But even before the issues played out over the course of the race, he was slow and dropped like a rock early.

But we run it back this week because he offers a little more position differential and he’s not priced high. When we talk about this tire combination, we just saw him finish sixth and 13th at Michigan and Pocono. Plus, he finished seventh at Darlington earlier this year as well. He’ll likely be on everyone’s radar next week for Atlanta, but it can’t hurt to be a bit early on an affordable position differential play as NASCAR returns to Chicagoland.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Value Drivers

Corey Heim (Starting P28) – DraftKings: $7,500 | FanDuel: $6,800

The last time we saw Corey Heim he went to victory lane at Naval Base Coronado after he scored his first career NASCAR Cup Series win as a part-time driver with 23XI Racing. He’ll be full-time next year but it was an impressive run for the young, talented driver.

He’s back with a tough test this weekend and we’ll see just how well he can manage his tires Sunday night. But if Friday’s practice session was any indicator, the 67-car once again has speed. Heim ranked top three in all the longer run metrics during practice and he wasn’t too far behind Tyler Reddick in the longer run. But can we trust a young driver not to beat up his tires? Well based on this tweet from Ryan with iFantasyRace, it seems like he does rather well on high tire wear tracks. 

Erik Jones (Staring P22) – DraftKings: $7,200 | FanDuel: $7,000

It’s going to always be a challenge to pass up on Erik Jones at a tire wear track. Darlington is notoriously one of his best tracks and even in weaker equipment, he still manages to get some great finishes there. And even of late, he’s had some great results on the other ovals.

We’ve already touched on the tire combination for this weekend’s action. It’s no coincidence that Jones just so happened to rank third in green flag speed at Nashville, Michigan, and Pocono behind only Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson. At those three tracks, Jones finished 11th (Nashville), 2nd (Michigan), and 6th (Pocono). 

Obviously, it’s been a while since we’ve seen Jones run Chicagoland, but he had a pair of top 10 finishes here during his time with Joe Gibbs Racing. Given how good he’s been on this tire compound in 2026, I don’t want to miss out on a potentially big performance as he starts just outside the top 20.

Austin Cindric (Starting P23) – DraftKings: $7,000 | FanDuel: $7,200

Cindric is a bit risky but we also aren’t finding ourselves rolling our eyes or mocking him at this point. Over the last few seasons, he’s quietly gotten better as a driver and this is still Team Penske equipment at the end of the day. On this tire compound we saw him recently finish 11th at Michigan and 14th at Pocono.

I do think that we can maybe find a little confidence in this play based on his recent performances at high tire wear intermediate tracks. Per Ryan from iFantasyRace, Cindric ranked inside the top 12 at least year’s Homestead race (finished 19th) and in each of the last three Darlington races (finished top 12 in all three races).

Cindric managed to post the best 5-lap average and second-best 10-lap average in practice but we didn’t see him run longer but I’m still feeling good about this play based on practice speed and recent performances at Darlington.

Michael McDowell (Starting P38) – DraftKings: $6,100 | FanDuel: $5,200

There are some drivers that I’ll include in the $5,000 range in the driver pool. But so far in the value tier I’ve previewed some drivers that offer some nice position differential but they’re still a risk to get you negative points in the event they wreck or just finish poorly.

McDowell certainly won’t be the case. He offers a very safe floor because he’ll roll off dead last. McDowell’s car failed tech inspection three times, so he wasn’t permitted to make a qualifying lap. Moreover, he’ll have to serve a pass thru penalty early on in Sunday night’s race. Does that mean he’s at risk of falling a lap down? Yes, but it’s not a guarantee. And even if he does lose the lead lap early on, he can regain it at the stage break or if there’s an early caution.

McDowell will likely return 40+ points if he can sneak away with a top 20 finish but even if he just finished 25th he’s giving you 30+ fantasy points at this price tag and you’ll take that. His momentum coming into this race is decent. He was top 15 at Charlotte and top 20 at Nashville and Pocono. So if you’re looking for a play with a good floor that you can still help you min cash if he doesn’t pan out, then McDowell offers some good salary relief in this range. And at the end of the day, he’s in alive in the NASCAR In-Season Challenge and he’s going head-to-head against Chase Elliott this week, so he really needs a good performance to move on to the next round.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Optimizer & Lineups Picks This Week

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