The NASCAR Cup Series is ready to go back to COTA for some road course racing this week. The race at COTA was moved from the end of March to the beginning of the month this year. The track has been changed too. The Cup Series will race on the 2.3-mile National Track at COTA, instead of the 3.4-mile track that was used in the first four races in Austin. The move to the new track should make it less technical and bring more drivers to the front Sunday. It should be fun to see how it all plays out in the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix.
Holding a pair is great if you are playing poker. A pair of 38’s is not very good for the start of your One & Done season. That is what we got out of Martin Truex Jr. and Corey LaJoie in our One & Done contests. I could say it is just bad luck on two Superspeedway tracks, but I worried too much about saving my best drivers for the smaller tracks and I forget that these teams that are not running the full schedule will simply give up once they get into trouble. I have a HUGE hole to dig out of, so I better get the next picks right.
Here are the picks for the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix….
ONE & DONE CONTESTS
This pick is for games where you can only use a driver once throughout the season.
CONNER ZILISCH will be my pick in games where you can use a driver once throughout the season. Zilisch will be making his fist Cup Series start for Trackhouse Racing Sunday. He is young, but Zilisch knows his way around a road course. He took Shane van Gisbergen to school last year in the Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen. I am not sure Zilisch can win, but he has the talent for a top-10 finish. I will play Zilisch this week since Trackhouse Racing hasn’t announced any other races for Zilisch yet.
ONE & DONE (REGULAR SEASON/PLAYOFF GAMES)
The picks for the Regular Season / Playoff Games are rest this week. There are some One & Done Contests that reset when the playoffs start. That means you only need to use 26 Drivers for the regular season and then 10 drivers for the playoffs. We can be more aggressive in these types of One & Done Contests.
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN will be my pick in games that reset at the end of the regular season. There are five road courses on the regular season schedule (COTA, Mexico, Chicago, Sonoma and Watkins Glen). SVG will be good in each of the races, but I plan to use Daniel Suarez in Mexico and AJ Allmendinger at Watkins Glen. That means I need to decide if I want to use SVG Sunday at COTA, on the 4th of July weekend race in Chicago or in wine country at Sonoma. SVG posted the fastest speed in practice and qualified 6TH for the race. The No. 88 team has the car to beat, so I will use SVG this week at COTA.
ONE & DONE (USE A DRIVER MORE THAN ONCE)
There are some One & Done games that are not really “One & Done.” I play in a league where you can use a driver twice and another league where you can use a driver three times during the season. The picks posted below are for these types of contests (I am going to base these picks on being able to use a driver twice during the 2025 season).
SHANE VAN GISBERGER will be my pick in games where you can use a driver more than once during the 2025 season. The No. 88 car is just too fast to ignore this week and SVG has the experience on this track to completely dominate the race Sunday. I am not going to over think this pick Sunday. I will use SVG and find other drivers at the other road course tracks this season.
NASCAR.COM 36 FOR 36 PICK
Good luck Sunday!
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