Kyle Larson, for all his struggles on superspeedways, picked the perfect time to get his first win on such a track after he made an incredible rally in last week’s race to win at Talladega. With last week’s clutch win, Kyle Larson has a chance to clinch the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Martinsville Speedway this Sunday. Larson enters the final two races with a 73-point lead so it would take a truly disastrous result for him not to repeat as the Cup Series champion.

But Martinsville Speedway always delivers a little drama to some extent. This is the shortest track on the schedule, and certainly one of the flattest. And for DFS, we have 500 laps to work with which gives us over 300 dominator points to account for on DraftKings.

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 Xfinity 500!

 

 

 

Martinsville Speedway

Martinsville Speedway is the host for this weekend’s penultimate race of the 2026 season. The championship finale will be run next weekend at Homestead, but as we mentioned at the top of the article, it’s possible that Kyle Larson clinches the title this weekend.

But that’s assuming things go according to plan. Martinsville Speedway, while not as chaotic and violent as last week’s action at Talladega, can still hurt a driver’s position in the standings. This is a short, flat track measuring in at just 0.526 miles with no banking in the straights and progressive banking that reaches up to 12 degrees along the outside wall. But most cars will run the bottom flat groove to shorten the track.

Martinsville is a very tough track. There isn’t much room to maneuver so if you’re trying to pass someone, you may have to move them out of the way on your own. We also have to navigate the reality that this NextGen car has produced some poor racing with the short track package. The leader will get clean air and a good opportunity to lead laps and collect fastest laps. But the rest of the field will have frustrations gaining track position.

But as you can see from the table above, there are usually enough drivers gaining at least six spots of position differential, with a few additional drivers gaining 10+ spots. And the beauty of Martinsville is that win equity can be found among drivers starting outside the first four rows.

But this race can be very frustrating from a driver’s perspective. It’s a short track and to be aggressive and gain track position, you’ll see drivers take risks on pit road with two-tire stops. Moreover, some drivers will try to minimize the number of pit stops they make. Maintaining the lead lap is easier said than done. A penalty, wreck, or slow pit stop can prove to be costly in terms of track position. So let’s take a look at how to attack the Xfinity 500 with a little DFS strategy and some lineup building advice!

 

 

 

NASCAR DraftKings and FanDuel Scoring Trends with DFS Strategy

Anytime we come to a track with 400+ laps (Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond) we are targeting the dominator points. Sure, it is entirely possible we see a solo dominator occasionally put up a gaudy score of 200+ fantasy points on DraftKings. But for the most part I’m leaning towards targeting two or three dominators and hoping to have nailed the right plays for the optimal NASCAR DFS lineup.

All we can truly take away from the tables above is that it is largely beneficial to play whoever wins the pole. Now to that point, the dynamic of each race changes depending on who is on the front row. For Friday night’s Truck Series race, Tanner McKee was the youngest driver ever (16 years old) to win the pole in a national series race. But he had Layne Riggs starting right next to him. Riggs was the primary dominator for most of the race, but McKee kept his position and collected dominator points in stage three. I mention this because just because the pole sitter looks like an absolute lock, we have to consider the other driver on the front row as well. And yes, you can consider playing those two together as well.

Everything after the front row is up for grabs. I will refer to the trends table from the previous section, however. Over the last four races there have been six drivers to lead 100+ laps at Martinsville. And in most cases, there are at least two drivers to lead 50+ laps. With so many dominator points available, ask yourselves before locking your lineups in if your builds have enough potential to collect a majority of those points.

From there, it’s a crapshoot. Half the field is bound to finish off the lead lap. So while we do need to find some value plays that can move up and score well, we do run into the risk with playing too many back markers that cannot maintain the lead lap. This track is just over a half-mile in length so cars will be lapped quickly even in stage one.

The DFS aspect of this race can be very frustrating, especially when you have a leverage plays that sits a lap down for most of the race and you’re hoping for a caution or something to put them back on the lead lap to gain some position. But we’ll touch on the top dominators and value plays below with this week’s NASCAR DFS picks to help you dominate the second-to-last race of the season!

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks & Strategy: Xfinity 500

 

 

NASCAR Xfinity 500 Top Tier DFS Picks

Denny Hamlin (Starting P1) – DraftKings: $12,000 | FanDuel: $14,000

Hamlin basically has everything we want in a potential dominator for this race. He starts on the pole and we just hit on how good the polesitter is at Martinsville. He’ll have the best track position and the clean air can help him maintain the lead as he controls the pace to start this race. Hamlin’s car was great in practice and he has incredible track history. In 41 career races at this track, he has six wins and 22 finishes in the top five. That’s right. In over half his races at Martinsville he’s finished inside the top five.

This past spring he started on the pole and led 292 laps but finished as the runner-up. In three-of-nine NextGen era races at Martinsville, he’s led over 200 laps. So he will be wildly popular for our NASCAR DFS picks. I would easily anticipate over 40% ownership in tournaments and likely 60-70% ownership in cash games. But the ceiling is huge if he leads 100+ laps and scores another top five result. That would definitely be enough to put him in the optimal lineup. 

Ryan Blaney (Starting P13) – DraftKings: $11,700 | FanDuel: $13,500

Ryan Blaney has checked all the boxes since the start of the 2023 on the comparable short, flat tracks. He’s won twice at Martinsville, Phoenix, and New Hampshire. He even has a win at Iowa. So the track history is certainly there and the starting spot lends himself to a little position differential and he has a chance to get to the front and lead laps later on.

This starting spot is very interesting because as Ryan with iFantasyRace pointed out on Twitter, this is right around where Blaney started when he won his two previous Martinsville races. Two years ago in this race, he led 32 laps after starting P14 on his way to a win. The year before that, he started P11 and led 145 laps while collecting the win. And don’t forget, he started P31 in this race a year ago and finished as the runner-up with 177 laps led. So even though he doesn’t have the greatest track position to start, he’s going to be popular because we’ve seen him win after starting outside the top 10 and there’s certainly dominator potential.

Kyle Larson (Starting P3) – DraftKings: $10,500 | FanDuel: $12,500

Larson just needs a good finish and if that happens, it’s very likely that he wins the NASCAR Cup Series Championship for the third time in his career. He won’t collect the trophy until next week, but he certainly can lock it up on Sunday and he starts with incredible track position.

His practice speeds were awful but based on the qualifying results, it seems as if he may have not wanted to show his hand and tip the field off to how good the setup might be. He also has the best average finish at Martinsville (4.4) since the start of the 2023 season. In his last eight races at this track he has not finished worse than ninth and he has six top five finishes.

I like to believe that the field will race him clean. Sure, somebody could take him out early just to screw him over and give the rest of the field a shot at the championship next weekend in Homestead (another track he excels at). Larson obviously has upside but in 23 races at Martinsville, it’s a little surprising he’s never led 100+ laps at this track.

Christopher Bell (Starting P14) – DraftKings: $10,000 | FanDuel: $11,500

Bell doesn’t have the elite track history the previous three drivers have, but he did win this race four years ago with 150 laps led after he started P20. But it’s probably worth mentioning that in the last seven races at Martinsville, he’s led a total of 25 laps with just one top five finish.

The good news is that we know Bell is still very strong on the short, flat tracks and he’s been in contention for plenty of races this year with eight runner-up results. He led 176 laps in the first Phoenix race this year and he led 85 laps in the second Phoenix race just a couple weeks ago.

The practice-to-qualifying table above indicates that the car might be top five in the long run so he has a shot to move up and be a secondary/tertiary dominator later on. But he’s also another driver still in contention for the championship so he needs as many points as he can get.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Mid-Tier Drivers

Ty Gibbs (Starting P2) – DraftKings: $9,500 | FanDuel: $10,000

I don’t have a ton of confidence in this one, but I can’t rule out the possibility that Gibbs leads laps early on. Now I do need to say that Gibbs has never led a lap at Martinsville in eight career Cup Series races. Moreover, it took him until this year’s spring race to even grab a top 10 finish at this track. But at least in that race he started and finished fourth with 22 fastest laps to put up almost 50 fantasy points on DraftKings.

But Gibbs does have the luxury of starting on the front row so he has a shot to get the lead early on. We saw Layne Riggs start P2 and dominate most of the Truck Series race Friday night. But during Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, Rajah Caruth couldn’t get around Carson Kvapil and he spent the first stage running P3 after losing his spot to Justin Allgaier.

So it certainly can happen for Gibbs. But Hamlin will get to control the start of the race and he has the benefit of the inside lane. Gibbs will start on the outside, but he’ll also come in at about half the ownership Hamlin with collect. So we’re largely using Gibbs in GPP’s and staying away in cash games.

Bubba Wallace (Starting P15) – DraftKings: $8,000 | FanDuel: $9,500

Martinsville is normally the kind of track I don’t like rostering Bubba Wallace, but he’s had some good runs here since joining 23XI Racing. Martinsville is a track that requires some composure and a perfect run. You can’t afford to lose track position, you have to be clean on pit road, and there has to be good communication between driver and spotter. One of my biggest concerns with Bubba in the past is that he tends to lose his cool the moment things start going wrong.

But in four of his last eight races at Martinsville, Bubba has finished top 10 in half those races including a pair of top five results. But to his credit, Bubba has shown a lot of improvements on the short, flat tracks. In the first Phoenix race this year he started P28 and finished sixth. In the second race a couple weeks ago, he started P23 and only finished 17th but he did lead 52 laps. And he was the runner-up at New Hampshire two months ago. He does offer some position differential and he has a shot at a top five finish so I will be getting some exposure in my GPP contests on DraftKings and FanDuel.

Carson Hocevar (Starting P25) – DraftKings: $7,700 | FanDuel: $7,500

I don’t normally roster too many shares of Carson Hocevar. But the mid-range is short on good position differential plays and Hocevar sticks out like a sore thumb. But I’ll be transparent and say that I did an early DraftKings Pick6 ticket for this race and took Hocevar to finish 14th or worse. In six career Cup Series races he’s never finished inside the top 15. Even during his time in the Truck Series, he wasn’t able to grab a single top 10 finish in four races.

Fortunately, he does have momentum and the car had great practice speed. In six of the last seven playoff races, Hocevar has finished in the top 15 including three top 10 finishes. And you can also hang your hat on the fact that Hocevar’s car looked great in practice ranking top three in several long-run metrics. So he will be popular because he’s affordable and offers position differential with great practice speed. I’m not projecting a huge ceiling performance just based on the track history. But I do hope I’m wrong.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Picks: Value Drivers

Ross Chastain (Starting P16) – DraftKings: $7,100 | FanDuel: $8,000

I don’t love putting a lot of stock in Trackhouse Racing because it’s been such a down year for the organization aside from a couple wins on the road courses from SVG (and Suarez’s win at Charlotte). But Chastain’s track history in the NextGen era is rather noteworthy and should not be ignored. In his last nine races at Martinsville, Chastain’s worst finish is 16th (this past spring) but he also has five finishes of eighth or better. And how can you forget his phenomenal last-lap move in this race four years ago to catapult himself into the championship race?

Chastain also had some great practice speed on Saturday so you’re just hoping that carries over to Sunday’s race. He is a value play that can move up and finish in the top 10. But the stink of Trackhouse’s oval performances this year lingers so I’m not trying to invest too much into the practice speed but the track history gives me some confidence.

Shane Van Gisbergen (Starting P29) – DraftKings: $6,600 | FanDuel: $6,500

This might surprise plenty of you, but I really don’t hate SVG for our NASCAR DFS picks for the Xfinity 500. The sample size is very small for SVG at Martinsville, but he’s finished 15th or better in three-of-four career races at this level. And in only one of those starts did he start inside the top 20. So it’s a bit surprising but he’s shown the ability to move up here.

SVG is known as the best road course driver in the series. While Martinsville is just a short, flat oval the short straightaways and tight turns might just cater to his background as a road course specialist.

The practice-to-qualifying table above does indicate that SVG might have a top 20 car in the long run. So while he starts further back, there’s a chance he can move up and maintain the lead lap. A top 20, or another top 15, would greatly pay off his price tag so I think we can take some shots on SVG even if this isn’t a road course.

Zane Smith (Starting P33) – DraftKings: $6,000 | FanDuel: $4,500

I do think that Michael McDowell is a good pivot that might have a higher ceiling based on practice speeds. But McDowell, despite all his experience with over 40 races at Martinsville, doesn’t have a single top 10 finish and only a small bundle of top 15 results. But I think he can finish in the top 20 and still score well at less ownership.

But Zane is just a safe play even if I don’t think he maintains the lead lap. He starts outside the top 30 but finished top 15 a couple weeks ago at Phoenix. He’s finished top 25 in each of the last two fall races at Martinsville. So yes, he probably loses the lead lap because he starts deep in the field and isn’t in the best equipment. But even if that’s the case, there could be enough variance for him to gain 10 spots in PD and still score well as a value play for our NASCAR DFS picks.

Todd Gilliland (Starting P22) – DraftKings: $5,700 | FanDuel: $5,800

We wrap up the latest NASCAR DFS Playbook with a pair of Front Row Motorsports drivers in Zane Smith and Todd Gilliland. Zane’s better suited for cash games while Gilly is a nice GPP value option. I will list some cheaper drivers in the pool below in case this play is too risky for your liking.

But among active drivers, Gilliland actually has the 12th-best average finish (16.6) at Martinsville. This past spring he started P29 and finished 23rd but in both Martinsville races in 2025 he managed to grab top 10 results in each race. In nine career Cup Series races at this track, he’s managed top 15 results in five of them.

He also had really nice practice speed during Saturday’s session ranking inside the top 15 in every metric up to the 25-lap averages. But even for the 25-and-30-lap metrics he still ranked inside the top 20. He has upside and the track position is good enough to keep him on the lead lap early on so I love this value pick to possibly be under 20% owned with top 15 upside.

 

 

 

NASCAR DFS Optimizer & Lineups Picks This Week

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