The NASCAR Cup Series took a while to get going, but after a four-hour weather delay, William Byron was able to win his second consecutive Daytona 500. Now the Cup Series will travel to the track where the closest top-three finish in NASCAR history occurred last year. Daniel Suarez beat Ryan Blaney by .003 seconds and Kyle Busch by .007 last year. I doubt the race Sunday will be that good, but we can still expect an exciting finish in the Ambetter Health 400.
ATLANTA SCHEDULE
ATLANTA RACE PREVIEW
Atlanta Motor Speedway (AMS) was reconfigured before the 2022 season (when the Gen-7 car was introduced). The 28 degrees of banking has allowed AMS to race like a Superspeedway. The track is much tighter than Daytona or Talladega and handling is more important than speed at this track. Some of the teams are wondering when the track will age enough that the Superspeedway style of racing goes away and the cars are more spread out. Could it be this year? Most people will select their fantasy teams based on pack-style racing. I am doing the same, because we do not get to see any practice in order to tell how much the track has aged since the last race in September.
There have been six races on the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports has won half of the races (William Byron in 2022 and 2023 and Chase Elliott in 2022). Joey Logano also won two of the races at AMS (2023 and 2024). Ryan Blaney has never won on the reconfigured track in Atlanta, but he does lead the Cup Series with a 7.2 average finishing position at Atlanta. Daniel Suarez won at Atlanta and he has three consecutive top-two finishes at the track. Keep these drivers on your radar this week.
FANTASY STATS FOR ATLANTA
Predicting the winners on the Superspeedway tracks can be difficult, but selecting the top drivers at Atlanta is much easier than it is at Daytona and Talladega. The races at Atlanta over the last two seasons have averaged 5.5 caution flags for accidents or debris, with an average of five drivers wrecking out of the race and 26 drivers finishing on the lead lap. That is a lot more drivers finishing on the lead lap than what we see at Daytona or Talladega. We should see less chaos at Atlanta than we do at the other Superspeedway tracks.
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR ATLANTA
ONE & DONE PICK: COREY LAJOIE
FANTASY LIVE PICKS
FANTRAX PICKS PICKS
* I found the easiest way to select your lineup is to go to TEAM and then ROSTER and drop all of the drivers from last week (Click on the red dot). Then go to DRIVERS and select your drivers for each group. If you need any help, message me in the Member’s Forum, or on X (Twitter) @MrFantasyNASCAR or on my Facebook Page: Fantasy Racing Tips
SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE
* Our lineups did not score bonus points for Daytona, but they will for the rest of the races on the schedule. I selected Chase Briscoe for qualifying points based on his speed at Daytona in qualifying and he has the third-best average starting position at Atlanta.
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR ATLANTA
CHASE ELLIOTT 12-1
WILLIAM BYRON 13-1
DANIEL SUAREZ 18-1
** I will update these picks this weekend.
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