NASCAR returns to the road course at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the third race of the 2025 season. DraftKings is hosting a $100K grand prize fantasy NASCAR contest. Check out the DFS NASCAR rankings below and make your fantasy racing picks for the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.
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Set your DraftKings fantasy NASCAR lineups here: NAS $444K Engineer [$100K to 1st] (Cup)
1. Connor Zilisch ($8,700) — “Go, Go Con-Zilla!” The kid is it. Zilly may be a racing god. The racing god. Zeus, the teenage racing phenom, has won everything — IMSA 24 hour races, Mazda MX-5, ARCA and Xfinity. Zilisch got hit with a devastating penalty in Saturday’s Xfinity COTA race. He still won.
2. Austin Cindric ($8,000) — Stack in the back survives. This isn’t a superspeedway race but chasing place differential is still in place. Cindric grew up road racing. His dad is the president of Team Penske. The kid knows the road and was fast in practice but qualifying did not work out.
3. Justin Haley ($6,300) — This is an unsubstantiated rumor but NASCAR DFS is all about the contextual edge. Beat the sims by diving in the deep end. Dig deep. Haley was fast in practice but qualified poorly. It may have been — this is a speculative rumor — a gear glitch.
4. Ryan Blaney ($7,800) — Team Penske missed it in qualifying. They weren’t great in practice but Blaney knows road courses. He finished 12th or better in four of the five 2024 road races.
5. Joey Logano ($7,200) — This is the same play as Blaney. Logano is cheap, provides place differential and has a solid road course history.
6. Brad Keselowski ($6,900) — Practice matters but COTA is volatile. Whether it’s Turn 1 or course cutting, slow cars can move forward. Keselowski is cheap and a pivot from Penske.
7. Chris Buescher ($8,100) — Practice and qualifying didn’t work out. Qualifying at road courses rarely goes well for Buescher. The race is different. Buescher is the delivery driver. He’s a blue-collar road racer that never gets credit. He runs his route and delivers the goods on time.
8. Alex Bowman ($8,300) — The showman did not show up for qualifying. He does show up for races. Similar to Buescher, he is an underrated road course driver. Bowman finished fourth at The Circuit of Americas last season and won the Chicago Street Circuit race.
9. Tyler Reddick ($9,900) — Is he back? Was he gone? Reddick didn’t win a road course race in 2024 but he finished 11th or better in four of the five races. He finished fifth at COTA in 2024 and won in 2023.
10. Chase Elliott ($9,000) — Is he back? Elliott was on pace to become the best road course driver in the history of NASCAR. That run came to an end with the low-HP Gen 7 car. The old Elliott showed up this weekend in practice and qualifying.
11. Shane Van Gisbergen ($9,800) — The Kiwi burst onto the scene with a Chicago Street Circuit win in 2023. The Australian Supercars Champ tore up the Xfinity Series road course races in 2024 with wins at Chicago, Sonoma and Portland.
12. Kyle Larson ($9,500) — COTA has been rough for Yung Money. He was the runner-up in 2021 but has not recorded a top-10 finish at the Austin, Texas, road course since. Larson is the greatest racer on the planet and it has shown this weekend — second-fastest in practice two.
13. William Byron ($10,000) — If it’s cold Byron’s hot. The No. 24 is firing out of the gates again. Byron piled up wins to begin the 2024 season. He’s doing it again. Byron won at COTA in 2024. The repeat is possible. He was the second-fastest on single-lap runs in the second practice session.
14. Christopher Bell ($9,200) — A terrible pit stop killed Bell’s 2024 COTA race. He rebounded and finished second. He also finished second at The Roval to close out the 2024 road course schedule. Bell is a road course winner in the Cup and Xfinity Series.
15. Ty Gibbs ($8,400) — The new generation of NASCAR drivers grew up on the road. They weren’t limited to ovals at home tracks. They know the road and they enter a friendly environment. The veterans don’t know COTA like they did The Glen and Sonoma. The Gen-7 car limits competitive advantages.
