The NASCAR Cup Series will travel from one drafting track to another when they take the green flag in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known at Atlanta Motor Speedway). I wrote in the article last week that we would need some luck in the Daytona 500. We did not get it. The picks still outscored 70% of the entries, so most of the fantasy players where in the same situation. I have started out the season with worse picks at Daytona and still dominated my leagues. I am not ready to panic yet. This is a marathon and not a sprint. We just need a little better luck at Atlanta than we did at Daytona.
STRATEGY FOR ATLANTA
There are going to be two strategies for this race. Half of your league is going to save their allocations with their top drivers for more predictable races. They will try to hit the jackpot with drivers like Austin Cindric, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Michael McDowell. These are all fine picks this week. Other people will go all out and use Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Denny Hamlin. These are also fine picks. My strategy will be to play a few of the most popular drivers and pair them with a few of the drivers who I do not plan to use much this season. Remember, we only need 130 allocations to get use through the season. That means we can get through the entire Fantasy Live season by only playing the top-13 drivers. We do not need to go digging to deep this week.
Here are the picks for the Autotrader 400…
CHASE ELLIOTT (10): This is a home race for Elliott. He has two wins in Atlanta since the reconfigured the track. That includes the last race last June. I really like what I saw from Elliott last week. He was top-three in the field in average running position, laps run in the top-10 and green flag passes. He is typically better at Atlanta than he is at Daytona, so there is a good chance that Elliott wins Sunday if the No. 9 team brings the same speed to the track Sunday.
RYAN BLANEY (10): Blaney has been the best driver at Atlanta ever since they reconfigured the track. He finished 7 of the 8 races in the top-9 and he finished in the top-3 in 6 of the last 10 Stages at Atlanta. Blaney always runs up front, scores Stage Points and finishes in the top-10 at Atlanta. I am not worried about burning an allocation with him Sunday. This is one of his best tracks.
JOEY LOGANO (10): Logano has been just as good as his teammate, Ryan Blaney at Atlanta, but he hasn’t been as good at finishing the races. Logano leads the Cup Series with 321 laps led in the Gen-7 car at Atlanta (that is 123 more than any other driver) and he went to Victory Lane at this track in 2023 and in 2024. Logano is going to run up front, score Stage Points and if he wrecks I will put him in the Garage. He is just too good to pass up this week.
BUBBA WALLACE (10): Wallace is really good at EchoPark Speedway in the first race and not so good when the Cup Series returns to Atlanta. Wallace finished 5th and 9th in his last two February races at EchoPark Speedway. Wallace looked good in the Daytona 500 last week. I expect the No. 23 team to carry that momentum over to the race Sunday. This should be a good race to play Wallace in your Fantasy Live lineups.
KYLE BUSCH (9): I used Busch last week and he scored some Stage Points and finished 15th. If you have not seen his decision making in the final three laps of the Daytona 500, you need to check it out. His veteran decision making helped him avoid the wreck and finish in the top-15. Busch is always at his best when he gets a practice race. Rowdy is competing in Truck Series race Saturday, so that should help him get his rhythm down for Sunday. Busch has the best average finishing position at the new EchoPark Speedway, so I will use another allocation with him this week.
(GARAGE PICK) RICKY STENHOUSE JR. (10): If you are going to use Stenhouse at all this year, it has to be here at Atlanta. Stenhouse finished 5th and 6th in his two races at EchoPark Speedway last year. Stenhouse starts 3rd Sunday, so he has the track position to score some Stage Points and finish up front. I will have Stenhouse in the Garage as an insurance policy Sunday.
Good luck and be sure to follow me on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR. I will send out a Tweet during the race to let you know if I plan to swap out one of my drivers for my Garage pick.