NASCAR DFS: Brickyard 400 @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Welcome back, race fans. This week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 this Sunday. This will be the third of four Crown Jewel races this season. Indy has been considered a Crown Jewel going back to the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 and has run annually at the track outside of 2021-2023, when it was run on the Grand Prix course.

In this article, we will preview the track, look at some fantasy angles, and highlight some drivers who are on the short list in my player pool heading into practice and qualifying. Let’s get started.

NASCAR DFS: Brickyard 400

Track Preview & Fantasy Angle

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a 2.5-mile oval speedway that has just nine degrees of banking in the turns. The race is 400 miles, and with just 160 laps, we rarely see one big dominator. Only twice in the last 10 races here has there been a driver to lead 100 or more laps. Over the last two years since the return to IMS, we have seen the top dominator lead 40 laps, with multiple drivers in the 20-40 range. I do feel this trend continues this year.

The biggest factor from a fantasy perspective is place differential. The correlation between starting and finishing position has been sub .200 in four straight and five of the last six, and in those races there has been a minimum of 11 drivers to pick up double-digit place differential points. While we see no drafting as we do at superspeedways, the style of fantasy racing is similar.

Top Pre-Qualifying Targets for DraftKings

Ryan Blaney ($10,700)

Blaney comes in at #1 in my pre-qualifying model as he checks every box for me at this point. He is one of four drivers to finish top 10 in each of the last two races here during the NextGen era (7th, 3rd), including picking up 17 place differential points last season. He is also coming in with some of his best form of the season with a win at Atlanta two weeks ago and has been extremely consistent with 11 straight finishes of 11th or better with nine top 10s. Whether he starts up front with speed or gives us place differential upside, I am riding with Blaney this week.

Christopher Bell ($10,000)

Bell has taken a step back in 2026 as he is still searching for win #1 after tallying four in 2025. The good news is that things seem to be turning around as he comes in with three top 5 finishes in his last four races, including runner-up finishes at Chicagoland and Atlanta. Bell has also had success here at Indy with top 10s in each of the last two years (8th, 4th).

Bubba Wallace ($9,000)

For two months, Bubba has gone good finish, bad finish, but will be looking to break that trend at a track he knows very well. He returns to Indianapolis with four straight top 10s, including three top 5s and a huge Brickyard 400 win last year. We know Toyota has the speed in 2026 as Reddick and Hamlin have almost half the wins in the series thus far. Combine that with Bubba’s excellent track history, and you have a nice PTS/$ value this week.

Shane Van Gisbergen ($7,500)

When he first jumped on the Cup Series scene, he was widely considered a road course ringer and proved why as he has already racked up eight career wins, all on road or street courses. That narrative is starting to change in 2026 as he already has seven finishes of 11th or better on non road/street course tracks, including two straight coming into this week (North Wilkesboro, Atlanta). He finished 19th here last year after qualifying 11th, and I feel he tops that this time around, making him a great value.

Todd Gilliland ($5,900)

Going down the board even further, we find another potential PTS/$ value in Gilliland, who checks a lot of boxes. While the sample size is small, he has finished 6th here in each of the last two years, capturing elite place differential value. The form has also been ticking up with three straight top 20 finishes, including his second top 10 of the season last week at North Wilkesboro.