The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series is gradually winding down with just FOUR races remaining in the regular season! Last week saw Bubba Wallace score his third career Cup Series victory and hed secure his spot in the playoffs. Winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one hell of an accomplishment and the win puts Bubba Wallace back in the playoff picture, leaving just three spots available based on driver points.

The remaining four races give us a slightly odd schedule through August. This week we’re previewing Iowa Speedway and that’s a little tricky because NASCAR has only raced here once before. Following Iowa, we have Watkins Glen the following Sunday. And we close out the 2025 regular season with back-to-back Saturday night races at Richmond and Daytona. So to recap, we have a pair of short tracks (Iowa and Richmond), a road course (Watkins Glen), and a superspeedway (Daytona). That’s not exactly what you want to be staring down if you’re a driver who prefers the intermediates.

But this weekend is a short track so strategizing and building our lineups for multiple dominators will be vital. Let’s take a look at the top NASCAR DFS picks and strategies for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350!

 

 

 

Iowa Speedway

This Playbook will look slightly different from others only because I’m not going to include the DraftKings/FanDuel scoring chart because we only have one race to look at. But I’m more than happy to at least link the Racing Reference notes from last year’s race. And if you so wish, here’s a YouTube link to the whole race in case you care to re-watch.

Iowa Speedway is a short 0.875-mile D-shaped oval with 12-14 degrees of banking in the turns with 10 degrees in the front stretch and four degrees in the back. The most comparable tracks are likely Richmond and Phoenix. I’m not opposed to throwing a track like New Hampshire or Martinsville into the mix. But both tracks are much flatter than Iowa. Richmond and Phoenix, while different in shape and tire wire, are closer in banking.

As is always the concern when coming to a short track, we will see some drivers lose the lead lap. Last year’s race saw eight cautions for 49 laps and only 14 drivers finished on the lead lap. There were two primary dominators. Kyle Larson led 80 laps from the pole but wrecked while running in the top five to kick off stage three and he finished several laps down.

Ryan Blaney started P2 and would go on to lead 201 laps on his way to a victory with 48 laps led. All in all, the front row in last year’s race collected 110.75 of the 222.95 total dominator points available after we reduce the fastest laps lost while running under caution. The good news for the field is that fastest laps were distributed to other drivers in the field. Yes, the clean air and track position certainly help the outlook for dominators. But in total, five drivers scored over 20 fastest laps and nine recorded double-digit fastest laps.

There were obviously some big movers considering drivers like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Martin Truex Jr., and Austin Dillon all started outside the top 30 and finished in the top 20. Stenhouse and Bowman even finished in the top 10. Short tracks can be tricky to project at times because the NextGen car hasn’t historically performed well at these venues. But at least this isn’t as flat of a track as where the struggles persist. Last year’s Iowa race at least registered a 91.1% “Yes” vote for Jeff Gluck’s weekly “Was it a good race” poll.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks & Strategy: Iowa Corn 350

Practice was certainly eventful and we have chalk Kyle Busch for this race which should be interesting to say the least. Keep in mind, that this track was partially repaved ahead of last year’s race. The broadcast made note that on the front stretches it feels like a bit of a back road with some small bumps on the straights. But as you transition to the repaved areas in the turns, it automatically feels like a smoother highway with less bumps.

This was obvious if you watch the in-car cameras during practice. But this is partially the reason Kyle Busch wrecked in practice because there is a noticeable difference in the newer and older surfaces of the track. Even Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson ran up the track in practice as their cars didn’t have the desired grip entering turn one. Fortunately, they saved their cars and avoided damage, unlike Busch.

 

Iowa Corn 350 DFS Picks

Denny Hamlin – DraftKings: $11,000 | FanDuel: $12,500

It’s not much of a “discount” in the truest sense but I do feel like Hamlin should be $500-$1,000 more over on FanDuel. The general consensus is that, once again, JGR and HMS are the class of the field for this race.

You can also look at a variety of the short tracks this year and look at Hamlin as a driver with plenty of win equity. He won at Martinsville with 274 laps led and he won at Dover two weeks ago with 67 laps led. He was also 2nd at Phoenix, 2nd at Bristol, and 3rd at Nashville with 79 laps led. These tracks are all a bit different from each other, but Hamlin has been consistently good at all the shorter tracks this year.

Hamlin ran in Group B and was top five in most of the speed metrics. So he should move up from the P11 starting spot and is a formidable secondary dominator for your NASCAR DFS lineups on Sunday.

Ryan Blaney – DraftKings: $10,700 | FanDuel: $14,000

I am struggling a little bit with Blaney this weekend. It wouldn’t be wise to completely write him off based on what he did last year in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at Iowa.

Blaney does lack the short track consistency of Denny Hamlin in 2025. Blaney did flat out dominate Nashville with 139 laps led on his way to victory. He even led over 40 laps at Bristol while grabbing a top five. But that top three equity isn’t consistently there.

At the end of the day he does start in the first three rows and he should quickly get around Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric to contend early with William Byron, Kyle Larson, and Chase Briscoe. If the team can nail the setup like they did a year ago, then he’s in good shape for Sunday’s race.

Kyle Larson – DraftKings: $10,500 | FanDuel: $13,000

We round out the top tier of drivers with a pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates. I’m not going to get cute with this section. I’m fine closing this section out with Larson and Byron. Larson was third in 10-and-15-lap metrics in Group B’s practice session and after that he was second to Chase Elliott in the longer metrics.

Larson had a very quiet stretch of eight straight races where he led a total of three laps and all three came at Sonoma. He broke the cold streak last week when he finished 2nd at Indianapolis with 19 laps led and 14 fastest laps. 

Larson had a great run here last year prior to the late wreck but he did significant dominator damage from the front row. He starts P3 for Sunday’s race so we have to once again give him some consideration.

William Byron – DraftKings: $10,000 | FanDuel: $12,000

Based on how many laps combined the front row led in the 2024 race, it’s pretty easy to see why we should be excited about Byron for this race. I was a bit wrong on him last week at Indy. But the car was fast. Unfortunately for him, he ran out of fuel late and lost a ton of track position in overtime. Sadly for Byron, his lone win of the season is still the Daytona 500.

Byron was the runner-up in this race a year ago and we know we’ve seen him lead a ton of laps in races this year even if the wins have been evasive. Similar to his teammate, Kyle Larson, he’s gone through a bit of a “dominator” dry spell, but he does start Sunday’s race with outstanding track position.

Before we dig into the mid-tier let’s at least mention Chase Elliott, because he’s $9,800 and just might be the pivot off Larson and Byron that we should seek out. Elliott’s car was great in practice. He was elite in Group B’s long run as he was better than Larson, Blaney, Hamlin, and Byron in the 15-laps metrics and even the longer runs. He also offers a touch of position differential with likely less ownership than everyone else in this tier. He’s a great GPP option to be slightly overweight on compared to the field.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Mid-Tier Drivers

Chase Briscoe – DraftKings: $9,000 | FanDuel: $9,500

Briscoe won the pole for the sixth time this year. Perhaps this time it’s a little different because he’s gone on record saying this is his favorite track. I’m not sure that can be the case since NASCAR hasn’t raced here much. But he is a Midwest kid and he won a race here way back in 2016 in the ARCA Series.

Briscoe hasn’t always been able to take advantage of pole position this year and that could be true once again on Sunday because he has William Byron and Kyle Larson starting right next to him and right behind him. Briscoe won the pole for the Coca Cola 600 and led just one of the 400 laps. Even at Michigan he only led 11 laps. He did lead 51 laps at Nashville from the pole but finished 17th.

Joe Gibbs Racing does look competitive for this race, as they are most weeks, and Briscoe has been a wizard when it comes to qualifying. The pole position and front row status may bump his ownership a bit based on what we saw last year so I’d probably prefer to just match the field in terms of exposure.

Ross Chastain – DraftKings: $8,500 | FanDuel: $8,500

I’m struggling with Chastain a bit. There are things I liked after watching him on Saturday, but there are things I don’t love. So let’s start with the positives, shall we?

Chastain’s practice numbers don’t look great but he went out in Group A and it was Group B with the better/faster track conditions. Chastain was fastest in his group across all the longer run metrics. So when we try to pick apart and dissect the practice results, we like when we see that a guy was consistently the fastest in his session.

But if you also look at who ran in Group A, you’re left wondering if we should take his numbers with a grain of salt. Strangely enough, Group A didn’t have a good blend of “studs” by any means. Tyler Reddick, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch are the most noteworthy drivers from Group A. Busch wrecked the car and Logano looked out to lunch for the whole session. A large majority of the field should pale in comparison to Chastain because this group was significantly weaker than Group B.

Moreover, Chastain didn’t seem thrilled with his car after the practice session. Even the broadcast crew made a note than Chastain will have to “manage” the car all day. So I don’t love that. But we do have a mid-range driver in good equipment offering PD. Even if he’s disappointed with it, he’s an aggressive driver who has historically made some strategic moves to gain track position. Play at your own risk but he does have a reasonable path to 40-50 fantasy points on DraftKings.

Chris Buescher is in a similar spot to Ross Chastain. My concern with Buescher is that RFK Racing as a team didn’t have the greatest speed in practice while Brad may have overqualified the 6-car. I’m fine mixing and matching Chastain and Buescher but their practice results are very concerning.

Kyle Busch – DraftKings: $8,200 | FanDuel: $8,000

No reason to beat around the bush (pun intended). KB8 is going to draw ownership for Sunday’s race. Busch junked his car in practice and will go to a backup car. He came out of turn four with a lot of confidence and on entry into turn one he was transitioning from the old asphalt to the new repaved section at the bottom of turn one and he lost control of the car and put it in the wall.

If you play cash games you can lock him in. Obviously for tournaments we don’t play him in every lineup. But you can still go to about 40% exposure and that may be enough. 40% is solid and if he returns 45+ fantasy points then he’s likely optimal. But if he can’t crack the top 20, or if he wrecks, then 60% of your lineups are still alive and you probably have leverage on the field.

Some folks will also make note of the fact that Busch ran the tire test here. I don’t necessarily upgrade him that much but I’m sure he and the team have some extra notes that they can lean on. But they have a lot of work to do getting the backup ready as they attempt to come through the field.

Ty Gibbs – DraftKings: $7,800 | FanDuel: $7,000

Ty Gibbs had a bad DFS result last week and that’s a shame because I did like him at Indianapolis. But as the race got away from them in stage three, they weren’t really focused on winning the race as much as they were trying to win the In-Season Tournament.

Ty Dillon was multiple laps down so the 54-team was pitting in stage three seemingly after each of the big cautions that shook things up. They wanted fresh tires and wanted to make sure they were good on fuel. They were conservative calls to secure the $1 million top prize.

Prior to that we saw Gibbs finish 2nd at Chicago, 7th at Sonoma, and 5th at Dover. This is a solid Joe Gibbs Racing car with top five upside but a top 10 is also a rather safe expectation as well on a weekly basis. Fortunately, the JGR cars look pretty strong (to no surprise) and at this price tag I’m very interested plugging him in and hoping for another top 10 result.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Value Drivers

Alex Bowman – DraftKings: $7,100 | FanDuel: $7,800

I always take a quick peak at pricing when it becomes available on Wednesdays and couldn’t believe what DraftKings did with Bowman this week. Bowman finished 8th in this race a year ago after starting outside the top 30 so he was clearly optimal for that race.

As far as comparable short tracks this year we saw him finish 7th at Phoenix, 3rd at Dover, and he was top five in the All-Star Race in North Wilkesboro. All in all, this is a great car and the driver is too good to be priced this low. There are seven drivers with at least 13 top 10 finishes this year. On DraftKings, five of those drivers are priced at $9,800+ while Chris Buescher is at $8,700. Bowman is the outlier of the group with 13 top 10 finishes and yet he’s in the low $7K range.

Practice went fine for Bowman as well. Did he get as long of a run as the rest of the field? No but he was 7th in single-lap speed and top five in 10-lap averages. He rolls off P16 for this race on Sunday and if he finishes top 10 we’re looking at 40 fantasy points even if he doesn’t register a single dominator point.

Ryan Preece – DraftKings: $7,000 | FanDuel: $6,800

Preece is like a cheaper version of Ross Chastain and Chris Buescher, who were mentioned above. Do we love the PD? Absolutely. Preece has a good amount of top 10 finishes on a variety of tracks this year. But like his RFK teammates, the practice speeds left a lot to be desired. Preece was among the slowest in Group B and he didn’t even register a 15-lap run. He backed that up with a bad qualifying lap.

I’m actually hoping we get news that the team made unapproved adjustments and he’ll drop to the rear. In that case, who really cares about the practice speed then? It’ll at least show that the team knows they whiffed on the setup and worked to fix the car. Preece and his team also tend to get better as the race goes on and this is a driver who still has playoff hopes and expectations. There’s a relatively good floor for this driver offering PD and we hope the car is better on Sunday.

John Hunter Nemechek – DraftKings: $6,200 | FanDuel: $5,000

It feels like most weeks I get him wrong and sure he had some great runs during the NASCAR In-Season Tournament. Over his last seven races he has an average finish of 16.3 and he once again offers position differential starting P29. Legacy cars may have some sneaky speed this weekend.

JHN ran in Group B which had the better track conditions and the driver quality was better compared to Group A. So JHN’s speed pales in comparison to the group but even Erik Jones was arguably the second-fastest in Group A despite the weaker group and track conditions.

JHN does seem to be racing for something. He has been getting solid performances out of the 42-car and once again had a great showing last week at Indianapolis.

Zane Smith – DraftKings: $5,600 | FanDuel: $4,200

His teammate, Todd Gilliland, is probably better suited for cash games given that he’s $100 less and offers more position differential. For tournaments I prefer going with Zane because he may not carry much ownership and he has the track position advantage early on that may keep him on the lead lap.

Zane is a solid driver, but Front Row Motorsports has taken a step back this year and the recent lawsuit fallout hasn’t helped the team. But Zane is good enough on his own to produce good results if he can stay clean. That was his problem last week after he wrecked in stage three, but he was a top 15 car prior to that.

Zane’s had some solid results on the shorter tracks in 2025 with FRM. He finished 9th at Phoenix, 16th at Martinsville, and 13th at Nashville. Obviously those tracks all vary in terms of size and banking but I do believe Zane has upside on Sunday and he’ll likely come in with less than 15% ownership so you don’t need much exposure to even has some leverage.

Ty Dillon – DraftKings: $5,000 | FanDuel: $3,200

Ty Dillon fell multiple laps short of winning the $1 million top prize last week. The Cinderella story came to an end as he couldn’t contend with Ty Gibbs. It was really Dillon’s first bad DFS performance in quite some time. Let’s not forget that he was a driver that rattled off four straight top 20 finishes prior to Indy.

The value tier is also a bit tough to navigate this week. Drivers like Austin Cindric, A.J. Allmendinger, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell, Justin Haley, and Cole Custer are all under $7,000 on DraftKings but they qualified inside the top 20. Cindric, Dinger, McDowell, and Haley even qualified in the first seven rows. The track position is nice but they’re very risky for DFS.

Ty Dillon starts P32 and offers a better floor than those of the value drivers do. Dillon didn’t get a long run going in Saturday’s practice session but that is my lone concern. He’s a veteran that can get a top 20 out of this car but a top 25 is reasonable even if he loses the lead lap.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Optimizer & Lineups Picks This Week

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