DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Atlanta: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the Quaker State 400

Atlanta Motor Speedway is the site of the NASCAR Cup Series’ first double-up track on the year.

Yes, teams and drivers last visited Atlanta earlier this year when Joey Logano led Brad Keselowski to a Ford 1-2 finish. The Ford dominance continued in qualifying, as they claimed nine of the top 11 starting spots.

However, since this is a drafting race, we’ll want to favor drivers starting deep in the field in our lineups, but we will want to find a dominator because Atlanta has always produced one each race.

It’s likely the race dominator will come from the Ford camp, given their propensity to work together and the fact that they are claiming most of the front of the field. As such, I’ll give you my list of top dominator picks, then the usual cash and tournament plays.

Before we jump into my picks, don’t forget all my NASCAR projections can be found in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

Let’s not skip the best part — my Perfect% metric — a metric that tells you how often certain racers appear in the optimal lineup when running 10,000 race simulations.

And don’t forget about the tools that FantasyLabs has to offer, like our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 300 lineups, or our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

Here are my NASCAR DFS picks for Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta.

Atlanta DraftKings DFS Top Dominator Picks

Remember, as I mentioned in the introduction, we’re looking to find one dominator from this group of three. Because they all start so far forward, it’s likely you’ll need just one for the optimal lineup. I don’t mind sprinkling two of them in a few lineups in a multi-entry portfolio, but that should be the exception, not the rule.

1. Joey Logano – Logano was the top dominator in the first Atlanta race, and he is one of the premier drafting-track drivers of his generation.
2. Ryan Blaney – Logano’s teammate comes in a close second as the driver most likely to dominate. Blaney has three wins at drafting tracks in his career.
3. Aric Almirola – Almirola led 17 laps earlier this year and is searching for his first win of the season. The three-time Cup Series winner has two of those wins at drafting tracks. He’s a distant third to Logano and Blaney in the pecking order for me, as he’s not typically aggressive enough to remain at the front for extended periods of time. But there’s something to be said for starting on the pole and having the best pit stall with a train of Fords around you.

You can take advantage of both Blaney and Almirola’s Laps Led lines on PrizePicks, with Blaney at 36.5 and Almirola at 22.5. Be sure to check out all the pick’ems PrizePicks has to offer with PrizePicks promo code LABS for a $100 deposit match.

Atlanta DraftKings DFS Cash Game Picks

Good drivers starting in the back: There are plenty of drivers in good equipment starting at the rear of the field. They should be locks for your cash-game lineups.

All of these drivers should draw quite a bit of usage in your tournament portfolio as well. However, I do like being underweight on these guys in large-field tournaments thanks to the inherent randomness in drafting races.

However, in cash games, they are must-starts. It’s a drafting track, and every single one of the good drivers starting in the back (read: not B.J. McLeod) has the capability of winning this race, and all come with the highest floors possible.

At minimum, Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, and Austin Dillon need to be locks in your cash-game lineups before you think about using anyone else to fill out those other two roster spots.

Atlanta DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ($7900): Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, Austin Dillon, and Ross Chastain are all accomplished drafting-track drivers starting 30th or worse. That means they’ll claim a boatload of usage in DFS lineups. However, right ahead of them is Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., starting 29th.

Stenhouse led the first Atlanta race last year when his tire blew, showing he can get to the front at this track as well. He has the aggression needed to go for the win, and he would certainly love to add to his playoff point total as an underdog in the playoffs.

Daniel Suarez ($7200): Like Stenhouse, there are a lot of good drivers starting behind Suarez who will absorb a ton of usage. Additionally, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott both start within three places in front of him.

Jones is $200 cheaper and has been one of the best drafting-track drivers of the Next Gen era, and people know that.

Elliott dominated this race last year and likely needs a win to get into the playoffs thanks to his early-season injury and subsequent one-race suspension.

That leaves Suarez in the underutilized category, especially with his poor reputation at drafting tracks. However, the Trackhouse driver has top-nine finishes in five of his last eight drafting races, which should be good enough to get him into the optimal lineup if he makes it six for nine.

Chris Buescher ($8600): Buescher is the non-Rick Ware Ford driver starting second-deepest in the field, ahead of only Michael McDowell.

That puts Buescher in a prime spot to not have too much usage, as McDowell should absorb plenty of it himself, while Buescher doesn’t start too far forward to eliminate him from place-differential considerations.

Buescher has become a fantastic drafting-track racer, with seven top-six finishes in 17 starts with Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing at these tracks.

 

Atlanta DraftKings DFS Paul Menard Picks of the Week

The Kaulig Drivers: Spring 2022 Atlanta winner William Byron starts 18th. However, he’s the meat in the Kaulig sandwich, as Justin Haley and A.J. Allmendinger start one spot ahead of and one spot behind Byron, respectively.

The Kaulig boys are both great drafting-track racers, and they know this is a prime opportunity to steal a playoff spot with a race win. Expect them to go for it.

I don’t even mind using both as a PMPOTW correlation play — the first one ever in the history of PMPOTW! If one of them is to pull off the win, he may need his teammate to provide the assistance.