DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Watkins Glen: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the Go Bowling at The Glen

Back-to-back races on road courses give DFS players a great opportunity for this weekend’s Go Bowling at The Glen.

Last weekend’s race at Indianapolis was a tame affair, with no cars suffering a race-ending incident and all cars finishing within three laps of the lead. And with similar speeds to Watkins Glen, Indianapolis provides a great opportunity for continuity in analysis.

Cars should have similar setups, and thus similar speeds to last week. Add in a healthy practice session, and we have a great idea of driver speed heading into the weekend.

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 Go Bowling at The Glen.

Watkins Glen DraftKings DFS Cash Game Picks

William Byron ($8800): Byron starts second for today’s race, but he put down practice times that led all drivers no matter how you slice it.

Using my practice FLAGS metric, Byron had the best overall car, which is backed up by his best 10-lap average. He also had the third-best car late in a run, showing his overall consistency.

Byron sliced through the field en route to a 14th-place finish at Indy despite restarting from the rear after the race’s only restart after a caution on Lap 2. That shows he’s also been performing extremely well at this track type.

Add in a super price discount for a top-tier driver at just $8800, and he’s the guy we need to start in cash games among the top tier.

Alex Bowman ($8000): Like last week, I’m on the Alex Bowman train once again. Bowman was one of my tournament plays last week, and he ended up in the optimal lineup.

We’re going back to the well thanks to his still-too-cheap salary and a comfortable enough starting position.

Bowman rolls off 18th, and he’ll be on the optimal strategy to win the race knowing he can’t points race his way into the playoffs. Instead, he must win, so he’ll take any strategy possible that puts him in contention to finish up front.

There’s a ton of place-differential potential here for the driver who came in 14th in my average practice FLAGS metric.

Ryan Blaney ($7500): Speaking of practice FLAGS, Ryan Blaney was both 14th in overall and 14th in long-run FLAGS, which actually puts him 13th in the average of the two metrics (thanks to other drivers not being consistent in those metrics).

By rolling off 23rd, he should have around 10 spots of place-differential available to him just on speed. At a discounted $7500 for a driver in top-level equipment, we’re getting a guy who should more than pay off his price tag.

Watkins Glen DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Kyle Busch ($9400): Now we get to the fun stuff. I’m super high on Kyle Busch this weekend.

Rowdy started off relatively slow in practice, but he picked it up at the end after an adjustment.

Busch came in sixth place if we just look at his five-lap average, but that doesn’t tell the full story. You see, the top five drivers all set their best five consecutive laps within their first seven laps, before their tires started to wear.

Busch, on the other hand, started his best five-lap run on lap seven on his tires, ending that five-lap run on lap 11. That means, had he had the same setup on his car on the earlier laps, he would have gone even faster and likely been among the top two or three drivers in five-lap speed.

By firing off ninth, there are eight spots that Rowdy can move forward. At a palatable $9400, I’m in on a driver whose speed doesn’t appear to the casual DFS player like a top two or three car and who has plenty of place differential available to him.

Chase Briscoe ($7300): Like Bowman, I’m going back to the Briscoe well this week. You see, while Briscoe looked bad in his practice group, he was in by far the tougher group when we look at car quality.

Looking over the long run, Briscoe improved from 24th in overall FLAGS to 20th on long-run FLAGS.

By starting 26th, that means there’s enough place differential here for his price. In addition, he just pulled off a top-10 finish last week, so we know that team is firing on all cylinders at this track type.

Justin Haley ($6100): The fact that Justin Haley ended up with a group FLAGS metric above 0.5 in the tougher group shows how strong of a car he has. That means he was better than the average car in that group, which as mentioned was quite easily the tougher of the two practice groups.

Haley did struggle a bit later in the session, but should be able to rely on teammate AJ Allmendinger, who was one of the best cars in practice.

Besides, if this comes down to a couple late restarts, Haley stands a good chance to be able to make some progress on the short run.

By starting 20th, his usage won’t be through the roof as people look for bigger value by picking drivers starting farther back in the field in this price range.