DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for EchoPark: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the Autotrader 400

EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway, hosts the second race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, the Autotrader 400.

As a drafting track, there is a huge amount of variance, with some races here literally being totally random, while others have up to about 25% of the variance in the finishing order predicted by prerace data, leaving 75% unexplained by any normal factors.

Even 25% predictability is still quite low and would put it below all other ovals and road courses. When variance is the name of the game, we rely on two things:

1. Ownership leverage
2. Place differential

Because even in the 25% predictable races, it still means there are about 30-35 cars that can finish almost anywhere in the 38-car field, all the way from first to 38th.

EchoPark does pose a unique quirk among drafting track races in that a dominator can be viable, given that there are 260 laps instead of at most 200 at all other drafting-track races, and the dominator often finishes near the front.

Finally, EchoPark has been very Jekyll-and-Hyde-like in its eight races under the current configuration. Three races have had in the neighborhood of 25% predictability, three hovered at 0%, and two were in between.

That means if you’re max entering, I’d suggest two sets of builds. One for total chaos and one with a bit (but not a ton) more predictability in mind.

In the chaos set, forget about dominators; treat it like a pure superspeedway lineup build where place differential and finishing position, leveraged against projected ownership, are the centers of the universe.

In the other set, you can target at most one dominator per lineup, drastically reduce your usage of the bottom-tier cars, and focus a bit more on who you think will have solid finishes. That said, place differential will still be king in these lineups, but it won’t necessarily be your only thought.

As always, you can check out my NASCAR projections in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

My projections, along with Stephen Young’s from RotoGrinders, are available in our NASCAR DFS package. You can read more about what the package entails here.

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 250,000 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.

So, without further ado, here’s my strategy guide and NASCAR DFS picks for the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway.

Autotrader 400 DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

There are a few specific drivers I want to be intentionally overweight on.

Ty Gibbs ($6600): Starting 25th after qualifying was rained out, Gibbs is a driver I love in all formats. I bet him to be the top Toyota finisher on the Running Hot Podcast, and I fully expect him to have a good shot at a strong day in DFS.

Gibbs has led 30 or more laps in two of the last four races here and has produced some solid finishes, including two top-10 finishes, in his six Cup Series starts at EchoPark.

Connor Zilisch ($6700): Like Gibbs, Zilisch is a driver in the $6k range starting in the bottom third of the field who I’m projecting to be a bit under-rostered.

Zilisch finished 11th in his lone Cup Series start here, and also picked up a fourth-place finish in one of his two starts in the now-named NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS).

Daytona didn’t go well for him last week, and that could keep his usage down. I’m projecting his Perfect% north of 20%, while his projected usage hovers a few percentage points below that.

Shane van Gisbergen ($5700): SVG starts 28th, meaning there’s quite a bit of room for place differential with a good finish.

It hasn’t quite worked out in the Cup Series for SVG at Atlanta, with three finishes of 23rd or worse, but I’m sure that’ll dampen his usage.

The New Zealand driver looked strong at Daytona, running in the lead pack at several points throughout the race.

He’s been improving in the Cup Series, and it’s only a matter of time before he cracks a top-10 finish at a drafting track. He’s been close, with an 11th-place finish at the last superspeedway race of 2025 at Talladega.

Autotrader 400 DraftKings DFS Tournament Leans

Since nearly every driver is in play, a “lean” for me in this context will be a driver I like being slightly overweight on compared to the field.

For most of these, you can just directly compare Perfect% to projected ownership, and that’ll work so drivers like Ryan Preece and Michael McDowell would fit the bill here.

Autotrader 400 DraftKings DFS Dominators

Remember, thanks to the Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of the races here, in about 50% of your lineups you shouldn’t worry about a dominator, and then in the other 50% of your lineups you should have 0-1 dominators.

Drivers starting outside the top third of the field don’t count as a dominator (even if they dominate) because they are viable as place differential plays anyway. So inside those first five or six rows, the only dominators I’d worry about, in order of preference (with starting position in parentheses), are:

1. Joey Logano (2)
2. Brad Keselowski (5)
3. Chase Elliott (4)
4. Chris Buescher (7)
5. Tyler Reddick (1)
6. Bubba Wallace (9)

These are the six drivers that project for a median over 10 laps led.

You’ll notice that excludes Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, William Byron, and Kyle Busch, because all these drivers start outside the first six rows.

Autotrader 500 DraftKings DFS Paul Menard Pick of the Week!

Josh Berry is this week’s PMPOTW with a projected ownership around 5%. I have Berry at 8.7% optimal.

Berry has been solid at EchoPark, leading 52 laps in this very race last year before ultimately getting caught up in the mess and finishing a lap down.

In both EchoPark starts with his current team, Berry has run 94% or more of his laps inside the top 15. Drivers who run 85% or more of their laps inside the top 15 have finished inside the top five at a 33% rate at EchoPark since its reconfiguration in 2022.

Autotrader 500 DraftKings DFS Cash Game Strategy

Instead of picks, I’ll say the same thing I do for every drafting track. Roster drivers with great equipment who have a lower chance of encountering issues, starting in the back.

That eliminates BJ McLeod and JJ Yeley, but everyone else back there is in chartered equipment.

Pictured: Ty Gibbs
Photo credit: Mike Watters, Imagn