Welcome back, race fans. The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Charlotte Motor Speedway this weekend with five races in the books and five remaining in the Chase Playoffs. Kyle Larson has been the class of the field, building a 40-point lead over Denny Hamlin as the championship battle heats up. Let’s dive into the track trends, DFS strategy, and drivers I’m targeting heading into the weekend.

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NASCAR DFS: Bank of America 400
Track Preview & Fantasy Angle

Charlotte Motor Speedway is one of seven intermediate tracks on the NASCAR schedule and one of four that drivers and teams see twice a year. For Charlotte, this one is a bit different in terms of strategy for teams at 400 miles after the longest race in NASCAR, the Coca-Cola 600 earlier this season. This also marks the first non-Coca-Cola 600 here at Charlotte since the NextGen era began back in 2022 as the second race in Charlotte has come on the Roval.

Regardless of race length, there is generally a lot of passing opportunity at Charlotte, sitting second in quality passes per lap among intermediate tracks in the NextGen Era. That correlates closely with place differential, as it has the most upside of the seven intermediate tracks and is 8th overall among all tracks. During the longer Coca-Cola 600 races, this has proven to also be a single dominator race, and I expect that trend to continue this week. I will be watching practice closely to identify two or three drivers with that dominator upside and then filling in around them with drivers who carry place differential upside.

Top Pre-Qualifying Targets for DraftKings
Kyle Larson ($11,500)

He only comes in at #6 in my pre-qualifying model but we are riding with the #5 team once again this week. Larson has been dominant in the Chase with two wins and is the only driver with Top 5 finishes in each of the five races and, to top it off, has an elite 2.2 average finish! He won the last race in the previous package in 2021 but has been up and down here at Charlotte in the NextGen era with two Top 10s (5th, 9th) and two DNF’s. I will side with the red-hot form here and load up on Larson in all formats.

Tyler Reddick ($10,000)

Reddick is back down to $10K this week, 5h in pricing, and that feels like a value considering he checks a lot of boxes this week. While he has yet to win here at Charlotte, he leads all drivers in career average finish (9.5) with six Top 10s in eight races. He has also been better here in the NextGen era tied for 1st in Top 5’s (3) and Top 10’s (4) here in the NextGen era and is 2nd in average finish (9.0). The Chase form has been up and down, but his best finishes have come on intermediate tracks (3rd at Vegas, 3rd at Darlington). He is trending up and will be more than motivated sitting 7th in the Chase standings.

William Byron ($9,000)

After a DNF to start the Chase, Byron has been very consistent with four straight Top 10 finishes, making him one of just four drivers with four to this point of the playoffs. Four is the magic number as he returns to Charlotte with four straight Top 10 finishes here, including two runner-ups in the 2025 and 2023 Coca-Cola 600 races. To top it off, he has been incredibly consistent on all intermediate tracks overall, tied for 1st with 12 Top 10 finishes since the start of last season.

Todd Gilliland ($5,300)

Gilliland put up a Chase low 33rd-place finish last week at Las Vegas but had been an excellent value previously, gaining positive place differential in each of the other four races. He has also been consistent here at Charlotte as one of 10 drivers with Top 10 finishes in four of the five races in the NextGen era.

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