The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are officially under way! Joey Logano went to victory lane last weekend at Atlanta and he is locked into the Round of 12. Truthfully, it was a great weekend for Team Penske. Logano got the win, Ryan Blaney finished third, and even Austin Cindric finished top 10. Even Blaney and Cindric, with heavy points-paying performances, put themselves in good position to move on to the next round. This week we shift gears. The NASCAR Cup Series heads to New York for some road course action from Watkins Glen. Obviously, we know who the preferred road course drivers are. But there are some good drivers that face an uphill battle over the next two races if they want to move on. Here is this week’s NASCAR DFS Go Bowling at The Glen preview!
To provide some context, here are the current playoff standings. It was a great weekend for drivers like Cindric, Daniel Suarez, and also Alex Bowman. We can’t really say the same for Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., or Denny Hamlin. All four of those drivers finished 24th or worse. But Watkins Glen provides an edge for the road course specialists to either get back into a good spot to move on after a race at a high variance track like Atlanta Motor Speedway. Let’s start digging into the drivers to monitor for the Go Bowling at The Glen preview…
Go Bowling at The Glen Preview: The Top Plays
Tyler Reddick (#45 Toyota)
Reddick finished sixth at Atlanta so he’s currently 33 points above the cut line for the next round. He should be a safe bet to make the round of 12. But that won’t stop him from going out and trying to win this race. A year ago for this race, we previewed Reddick and touched on his road course prowess in the NextGen car. Since 2022 he has three wins on road courses. As of 2024, NASCAR trimmed some road courses off the schedule. But this year he was fifth at COTA, eighth at Sonoma (where he led 35 laps), and was the runner-up at Chicago. He isn’t as desperate for a win as other drivers, but Reddick is still a competitor with talent on these tracks. There is some win juice but he’s also a driver that can score well with some laps led and a good finish.
Kyle Larson (#5 Chevrolet)
Larson did not have a great performance at Atlanta last week. That basically encapsulates why I never play him in a drafting race. But he is playable in any other kind of race. As of right now he’s 15 points above the cut line. That’s not terrible, but mind you, he has drivers like Denny Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Brad Keselowski, and Martin Truex Jr. also fighting to advance to the Round of 12 and they’re right behind him. Larson has been very good at Watkins Glen. He won here in 2021 and 2022 and more recently he won at Sonoma earlier this year. He doesn’t need a win, but at the same time, if he did go to victory lane, he is making things a bit more difficult on drivers fighting for points.
Christopher Bell (#20 Toyota)
Bell has churned out some solid performances this year on road courses. The running position has been great as well. He finished second at COTA with nine laps led earlier this season and then he was also top 10 at Sonoma. He led 14 laps at Chicago but was caught up in a wreck. So he ended up finishing 37th, but even with the poor finish his average running position was sixth. In three races at Watkins Glen at the Cup level, he’s never finished worse than eighth. In fact, he finished third in last year’s race. Even dating back to his time in the Xfinity Series, he finished second back in 2019. We don’t typically hold him in high regard as a road ringer. But there is some win potential with this play.
Go Bowling at The Glen Preview: Wouldn’t Bet Against Them
Ty Gibbs (#54 Toyota)
Surprisingly, Gibbs still doesn’t have a win this year. I thought he would’ve had one by now but alas, it just hasn’t come to fruition. Gibbs leads Brad Keselowski by just one point in the playoff standings. He really cannot afford to have a bad day. Gibbs did grab a top-five in this race a year ago with a 114.4 driver rating. So far in 2024, he was third at COTA and third at Chicago (17 laps led). In the Xfinity Series at Watkins Glen, he’s been outstanding. He’s only won once in three tries, but he won the first two stages in last year’s race with 70 laps led, but he finished 17th. I do think he’s a bit of an underrated road course driver. Obviously with a pair of top-three finishes this year, he’s showing he certainly belongs.
Alex Bowman (#48 Chevrolet)
This one is a bit surprising, but Bowman’s lone win of the season did happen to come at Chicago back in July. But this tweet from Joseph Srigley on Twitter makes a very compelling case for Bowman ahead of this weekend’s action. Bowman grabbed a top-five last week at Atlanta and is currently sixth in the playoff standings and 27 points above the cut line. Another good points day from him puts him in a great position to even crack the round of eight. It’s been an odd couple of weeks for Bowman. There have been rumors that he’s on the outs at Hendrick Motorsports (although I don’t quite buy that). Bowman’s results at Watkins Glen aren’t very inspiring as he’s never finished better than 14th here. But at the end of the day, he’s done well on road courses this year and subtly has some momentum.
A.J. Allmendinger (#13 Chevrolet)
Road Ringer Dinger gets some Cup Series action this weekend! I wouldn’t be doing this article justice if I left him out of the Go Bowling at The Glen preview. Allmendinger has started P6 each of the last two years at Watkins Glen. He was the runner-up in 2022 and finished fourth a year ago. Dinger even has a win on his resume from 10 years ago when he drove for JTG Daugherty Racing. He’s one of the best road course drivers in the Xfinity Series and he’s getting ready to go racing in the Cup Series once again in 2025. I’m not sure how much win equity he has in this equipment. But Dinger can get the most out of this car on this track and should be popular regardless of the qualifying spot.
Values and Sleepers
Todd Gilliland (#38 Ford)
Gilliland has been solid on road courses in 2024. He grabbed top 10 finishes at Sonoma and Chicago. If you refer to that previous tweet from Joseph Srigley regarding Alex Bowman’s point total on road courses, you’ll see Gilliland is also on that list. The Toddfather is always affordable on both sites and has actually finished top 20 in over half the races this year. Additionally, he has 10 finishes in the top 15 which is a pretty good ceiling for a driver who is routinely priced down on DraftKings and FanDuel. Last year in this race he started P25 and finished 11th. That’s the kind of ceiling we love for the Go Bowling at The Glen preview among our value recommendations.
Daniel Suarez (#99 Chevrolet)
Suarez was a trendy play last week for Atlanta. Obviously, he won there earlier in the year and qualified P30 last week. So the PD made him a popular play and he finished second. For Watkins Glen, we can once again give him some consideration. In six races here, he’s finished top five on three occasions including two years ago, which was also the year he won at Sonoma. He finished 14th at Sonoma and 11th at Chicago. Given the additional road course specialists in the field, I doubt he wins but he’ll definitely be affordable and he built himself a nice cushion in the playoff standings last week. Do not be surprised if he has another great day to add more playoff points.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (#47 Chevrolet)
I can’t quite explain it but Stenhouse is surprisingly good here. We normally target Stenhouse at superspeedways or high-speed intermediates. But we know he’ll be affordable so that’s a plus. He’s finished in the top 20 in six straight races here. In the NextGen era he’s grabbed a pair of top 15 finishes. The results on the three road courses this year haven’t been as good as other drivers. However, he did finish sixth at Chicago. He’s a non-playoff driver without much to race for this weekend. But you have to imagine he comes in with minimal ownership compared to the other drivers appearing in the Go Bowling at The Glen preview.