The NASCAR Xfinity Series will join the Cup Series at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) for the Focused Health 250, or should we call it the “Richard Childress Racing Invitational.” The RCR cars have dominated almost every race on the Superspeedway for the past two seasons. Will any of the drivers be able to keep Austin Hill or Jesse Love from going to Victory Lane in Atlanta? It should be fun to see how it all plays out. The Focused Health 250 can be seen Friday at 7 p.m. ET on CW Channel.
FANTASY STATS FOR ATLANTA
Most people make the mistake of grouping the race at Atlanta with the races at Daytona and Talladega. Atlanta is a tighter track and the runs in the draft happen a lot quicker. There are some similarities between the three Superspeedway tracks, but there are some drivers who have had success at Atlanta and stink at Daytona and Talladega.
I am focusing my picks on the drivers who have run well on the reconfigured Superspeedway track in Atlanta. I will give a bump in the rankings to the drivers who have had some recent success at the track (the two races last year and the race this year). I will sprinkle in some of the stats from the races at Daytona and Talladega this year just to show which drivers are good at making it to the end of the Superspeedway races.
Here are the stats from the last five races at Atlanta and the races at Daytona and Talladega this year, sorted by DraftKings Points….
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
NASCAR no longer gives the O’Reilly Series teams any track time to shack down their cars before the races on the Superspeedways. The teams show up at the track, lineup for qualifying and then race a few hours later. It is a condensed schedule that the team owners seem to like. So, there are no practice speeds to use on for the picks today.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR ATLANTA
STRATEGY FOR ATLANTA
The race this week is scheduled for 163 laps (244.5 miles). That means there are 40.75 points available for leading laps and 73.35 points available for fastest laps (114.1 dominator points). The popular strategy on the Superspeedway tracks is to fade the front and start the drivers in the back with the best chance to score place differential points. That is not the best strategy at Atlanta. Austin Hill led 143 laps and scored seven fastest laps at Atlanta in February last year (84.9 DraftKings Points). Jesse Love led 157 laps and scored three fastest laps last in 2024 (77.7 DraftKings Points). We will likely need one of the Richard Childress Racing cars in our lineup if they score that many DraftKings Points again Saturday. Austin Hill has won five of the last seven races at EchoPark Speedway.
My strategy for the race Saturday will be to pick at least one of the Richard Childress Racing drivers (It may not be a bad idea to stack Austin Hill and Jesse Love in your lineup) and pair them with four or five drivers who have a good chance of finishing in the top-12. My goal will be to score a few place differential points with these drivers and a lot of dominator points with Hill.
WINNING LINEUPS AT ATLANTA (2025-2026)
Austin Hill and Jesse Love were both in the winning lineup in February. That race was a place differential race since all of the drivers in the winning lineup started 10th or worse. Nick Sanchez is the only driver who was in both winning lineups. We will likely need to speed most of the $50K salary cap since the average price for the last two winning lineups was $49,950.
DRAFTKINGS CASH LINEUP
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT LINEUP
Good Luck Saturday Night!
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