Cup Series COTA DFS Picks
- RoundersKyle
- Mar 1
- 4 min read
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to their first road course of the season at Circuit of the Americas. We are likely to see some strategy to get track position throughout the race and final strategy for a good finishing position in the last stage will be crucial for DFS purposes. We have a lot of good road racers in the Cup Series and we add a few more this season with SVG and AJ Allmendinger moving up from the Xfinity Series and Connor Zilisch running his first career Cup race. Place differential is going to be important as road courses have less laps so there are less dominator points to gain.
Potential Dominators
Tyler Reddick
Shane Van Gisbergen
Chase Elliott
There are a lot of different directions to go for potential dominators in this race. The easiest is the pole sitter of Tyler Reddick. He should get the lead early and he has been one of the better road racers in the Cup Series in recent years. He will need to keep the track position and get a good amount of dominator points to end up optimal with so many drivers having a lot of place differential potential. SVG is likely to be one of the top picks this weekend as he is a road course ace and will likely be the favorite at all the road courses this season. He starts in 6th and was one of the fastest cars in practice so he has a good chance to be one of the best cars this weekend. Elliott is another good road racer that had speed in practice and has a lot of good road course results. He is another that starts at the front and will need some dominator points to end up as one of the top drivers this week.
Place Differential Plays
Alex Bowman
Christopher Bell
Ryan Blaney
Chris Buescher
Austin Cindric
AJ Allmendinger
Bowman had really good speed in practice and has been one of the better drivers at COTA the last few seasons. He starts back in 21st and should be able to move forward and be a good pick this week. Bell, Buescher, and Blaney are solid road racers and start mid pack giving them good place differential potential for the race. An important factor of the race is not getting caught up in any wrecks or getting spun by someone so that will likely be the key for Blaney, Buescher, and Bell as I expect them to move forward and have top 10 potential if they stay out of trouble. Cindric will likely be one of the highest owned drivers this week as he starts in the back in 36th so he has huge place differential potential. He is a good road racer and has major upside to be one of the best point scorers this week at COTA. Allmendinger is another one of the top road racers in NASCAR and he should be a top contender for the win this week. He starts 12th so he doesn't have a ton of place differential potential but he is still a solid pick as he should be able to run around the top 5 with upside to battle for the win.
Cheap Options
Joey Logano
Cole Custer
Justin Haley
John Hunter Nemechek
Logano is priced really low this week at $7200 on Draftkings but he has some solid runs on road courses in his career. He starts back in 23rd so if he can work his way into a top 10 finish he could be a good value play this week. Custer and Nemechek start in the 30s so they have major place differential upside for the race. Both are solid road racers but aren't part of the top road racers in the series. They should have a solid race and be able to move forward and be good cheap plays if they stay out of trouble in the race. Haley is one of my favorite cheap options this week as he is a pretty good road racer and Spire Motorsports have shown speed on the road courses in the last year. He starts in 29th so he has a lot of place differential points to gain and could be a good option this week.
Tournament Plays
Connor Zilisch
Chase Briscoe
This is a week that some fliers could come into play and be the difference at the end of the day for large tournament contest. Zilisch is one of the biggest wildcards in the field as he is an incredible road racer but this is his first career Cup Series start. The youngster starts 14th so he has some spots to gain for place differential points but it is unknown if he will be able to battle at the front against the other stars in NASCAR. Briscoe is a good road racer but I think he could go overlooked this week with a lot of drivers starting farther back. I think he is a good value play and could easily run in the top 10 this week.
Make sure to follow us on X and Instagram:
Also go to our homepage or the SIGN UP page on the top menu to get signed up for all our free exclusive plays we will have throughout the season!