NASCAR DFS: Jack Link’s 500 @ Talladega Superspeedway

This week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway for the Jack Link’s 500. It is the third drafting style race of the 2026 season after races at Atlanta and Daytona earlier this year. There are a few big differences this week, starting with track time, as with all superspeedways (outside of the Daytona 500), there is no practice this week.

NASCAR DFS: Jack Link’s 500

Track Preview & Fantasy Angle

Talladega is a 2.66-mile tri-oval superspeedway with 33 degrees of banking in the turns. It is one of three drafting-style tracks in NASCAR, and with that comes a completely different fantasy strategy. Throw out starting position, dominators, and expensive stacks, and get ready for chaos, which is everything here at Talladega.

With pack racing and drafting, it becomes a lot easier to make your way forward during the race if a part of the right pack. This makes superspeedway racing a very heavy place differential race. We are usually targeting multiple drivers starting outside the Top 30, and the majority of our drivers start outside the Top 15. Very rarely do we see drivers starting inside the Top 10 make optimal lineups on DraftKings. The other fun part about superspeedway racing is the expansion of the player pool due to the previously mentioned chaos and pack racing. Salary is also something we can somewhat ignore this week, as there have been multiple races here at Talladega where the winning lineups were leaving $5,000 to $12,000 on the table, with those lineups generally in the 350 DK point range.

Let’s jump in and look at some drivers who stand out in terms of track history, superspeedway racing, and form. It is always critical to finalize your lineups after qualifying, but especially so this week.

Top Pre-Qualifying Targets for DraftKings

Tyler Reddick ($10,500)

Hard not to start with the #45 23XI car this week. He has won both superspeedway races to start the season, won the spring race here in 2024, has five Top 10’s in his last eight superspeedway races, and has been the best car/driver in the sport this season. It always comes down to qualifying, and the good news there is that Reddick has qualified 13th or worse in six straight Dega races.

William Byron ($9,800)

The other driver at the top that stands out at this point of the week is William Byron. He is tied with Blaney and Keselowski with three Top 5’s in the last eight Dega races and leads all drivers with a whopping five Top 10’s during that stretch. He struggled at Atlanta (28th) but was an optimal play at Daytona, finishing 12th after starting 39th. From a qualifying standpoint, Byron has started 13th or worse in four straight and five of his last six Dega races.

Bubba Wallace ($8,800)

Bubba started the year finishing 11th or better in five straight before back-to-back setbacks at Darlington and Martinsville. The good news is that he rebounded from that, finishing 11th at Bristol and 5th at Kansas last week. He now returns to Talladega, where he has been red-hot recently and is the only driver to finish each of the last three races here inside the Top 10. He has also been good on superspeedways, overall tied with Reddick and Hocevar with five Top 10’s over the last eight races.

Zane Smith ($6,200)

Most likely the chalk value play going into qualifying as he is one of just three drivers to finish Top 10 at both Daytona and Atlanta to start the season. He is coming off a career-high 9th at Talladega last fall and has started 23rd or deeper in four of his five races here.

Todd Gilliland ($6,400)

If Zane Smith isn’t the favourite value going into qualifying, it is Gilliland based solely on his track history. Despite the very high volatility here, Gilliland has been excellent, sitting 2nd behind Byron in average finish (13.5) over the eight NextGen era races here, thanks to four Top 10 finishes, including a runner-up last fall. It has been an up-and-down start in 2026, but he is coming in with some momentum, coming off a 17th at Kansas and 6th at Bristol.