Welcome back, race fans. With just two races remaining before naming the 2026 champion, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Xfinity 500 this Sunday. Looking at the standings, Kyle Larson went from seeing a ton of traffic in his rearview to extending his Chase lead to 73 points. He not only picked up his third win of the playoffs but also saw other contenders have terrible days at the superspeedway last week.
Let’s jump in and break down the track, fantasy angle, and look at some of the top drivers heading into the weekend.
NASCAR DFS: Xfinity 500
Track Preview & Fantasy Angle
Martinsville is a .526 mile short track with a flat layout at just 12 degrees of banking in the turns. It is commonly known as the paperclip due to its shape, and the tight corners and narrow straightaways create a very tough environment for passing. In fact, Martinsville has the lowest quality pass rate of any track on the schedule. For fantasy, this immediately lowers the focus on place differential and places dominator upside right at the top of the model. Multiple drivers have led 100+ laps in six of nine races here in the NextGen era, and in the two races there was only one; they led 250 or more laps. My model will look very closely at qualifying and lap averages in practice, then mix in some track history, short track history, and playoff form.
Top Pre-Qualifying Targets for DraftKings
Ryan Blaney ($11,700)
Blaney’s top 5 streak came to an end last week with a DNF at Talladega but no better place to bounce back than here at Martinsville. He has won twice and has finished no worse than 3rd in four playoff races at Martinsville and owns the top average finish (4.4) overall in the nine NextGen races here.
Kyle Larson ($10,500)
Leading the Chase in points after his third win and is now fourth in pricing seems like a heck of a value this week. He hasn’t won here at Martinsville since the 2023 spring race but returns with eight straight Top 10 finishes with six Top 5s and an elite 5.8 average finish.
Chase Elliott ($9,000)
No driver has been on a more dominant streak here at Martinsville than Chase Elliott, who is coming off a win here in the spring and has five straight Top 4 finishes at the track. During the NextGen era, he is 3rd in average finish (6.8), laps led (641), and DraftKings scoring. At ninth in pricing at just $9,000, the #9 car will be a popular play this week.
Ryan Preece ($7,500)
Preece hasn’t been qualifying well lately, starting outside of 19th in three straight, which has helped him to a +25 place differential over that stretch. If that trend continues this week, he will be a popular value play as he returns to Martinsville with plus track history. In seven races here at Martinsville in the Cup series, Preece has finished no worse than 20th and has three Top 10 finishes along the way.
Ross Chastain ($7,100)
Another driver who has been very consistent here at Martinsville has seen his price slowly drop and is now a top PTS/$ value heading into the weekend. Chastain has finished no worse than 16th in nine NextGen races here with three Top 5s, five Top 10s, and the 6th best average finish (9.4) over that stretch.
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