NASCAR Cup Series Atlanta DFS Picks

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta this weekend for the next unpredictable race on a drafting track this season. This will be another week that dominator points are likely to be spread throughout the field and place differential will be the most important factor in scoring DFS points in the race. Cars starting up front have an uphill battle to end up optimal compared to drivers starting closer to the back.

Fades

Ryan Blaney

Joey Logano

Austin Cindric

Josh Berry

Brad Keselowski

Ryan Preece

Zane Smith

Cole Custer

Alex Bowman

Ty Dillon

The Fords were super fast once again in qualifying for a drafting track which is no surprise with their recent performances on these tracks. So all of the top 8 are Fords which means they are all going to be on my Fade list for this weekend. Their upside is too limited starting this high up in the field and are not likely to get the dominator points to make up for it. I don't like using any of the top 9 in this race as there are a lot better options starting farther back in the field and have much better place differential potential.

Place Differential Plays

William Byron

Denny Hamlin

Christopher Bell

Kyle Busch

Tyler Reddick

Ross Chastain

Carson Hocevar

Ricky Stenhouse Jr

All of these drivers have huge place differential potential for the race and should be popular plays for the race this weekend. Hamlin, Bell, Busch, Chastain, and Stenhouse will especially be top plays this weekend as they all have won on drafting tracks before and start outside the top 25 giving them a ton of place differential. If any of these drivers can stay out of trouble they are likely to end up with a huge points day and in the optimal DFS lineup.

Cheap Options

Michael McDowell

Connor Zilisch

Erik Jones

Noah Gragson

Justin Haley

Corey Lajoie

Shane Van Gisbergen

These are all the cheap drivers under the 7k salary mark that have the most place differential potential and are likely to have the ability to get a good finish at the end of the race. McDowell especially will be a popular play as a former Daytona winner and starting back in 32nd. Haley and Lajoie could be lower owned of this group as they start in the top 25 and have less place differential potential, but still have enough to be a great option for DFS and could help differentiate your lineup from others. I would not be surprised to see Zilisch, SVG, along with Cody Ware and BJ McLeod be a little more conservative and ride in the back for a while to try to miss all the wrecks until the end.