NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at COTA

 

 

SOURCE: Speedway Motorsports

Well, so much for seeing a Ford in Victory Lane last week at Atlanta. They seem to be having a hard time closing out races this season. That was good news for Toyota driver Christopher Bell, though, who earned his 10th career Cup Series win and his first at Atlanta. Bell got to race door to door with Kyle Larson for the checkered flag, which is nothing new for these two drivers who love to do lots of racing outside of NASCAR. We may just see the Larson and Bell right back at it on Sunday. Stay tuned!

This Week's Pick Strategy:  

Trackhouse Racing and 23IX Racing seemed awfully strong in practice and qualifying. I'm going to go heavy on those drivers and sprinkle in the COTA elites who always seem to finish in the Top 5 at this track. I also like what I heard from Chase Elliott during practice and qualifying. 

 

Active NASCAR Cup Driver with the Most Top 10s at COTA (4-races; 2021 to 2024)

All with 4 - Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Alex Bowman

Kyle Busch - 3

 

Active NASCAR Cup Driver with the Most Top 5s at COTA (4-races; 2021 to 2024) 

All with 3: Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Alex Bowman
All with 2: William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell

Top 10 Average Finishes at COTA in NASCAR Cup Series

  

                                                     SOURCE: NASCAR Media

Last Year's Race Winner: William Byron

 

The Likely Suspects:  These drivers have proven themselves to be COTA masters: Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, and Christopher Bell.

 
My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick is a trio of drivers: Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Alex Bowman. My next choices are William Byron, Kyle Busch, and Chase Elliott. I will complete my team with Shane van Gisbergen and Daniel Suarez.

My Fabulous 5 (Drivers most likely to finish in the Top 5):

Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, Shane van Gisbergen, and William Byron.

NASCAR Fantasy Live Line Up: Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Suarez. My garage pick is AJ Allmendinger.

        Featured Match Ups: Reddick over Bell, Bowman over Gibbs, Elliott over Allmendinger, and van Gisbergen over Chastain.

 

Second-look driver: This week's sleeper is 18-year-old phenom Connor Zilisch, who recently signed on as a Trackhouse Racing Development Driver. Connor is making his NASCAR Cup Series career debut at COTA in the Trackhouse Racing No. 87 Chevrolet with veteran crew chief Darian Grubb. As far as national series debuts go, Connor has a habit of stealing headlines. He earned the pole in his NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series debut at COTA in 2024 and took the checkered flag after starting on pole and leading the most laps in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen last September. 

 

Oh, did I mention he won the Focused Health 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race this weekend? Wouldn't be amazing if it wins in his first Cup Series start for Trackhouse Racing? Connor will be starting 14th on the grid. I can't wait to see what he can do!

 

Points to Ponder:

• Four different starting positions on the grid have resulted in wins in the NASCAR Cup Series at Circuit of The Americas – 2021 (8th), 2022 (16th), 2023 (2nd) and 2024 (1st).
• The deepest in the field a Cup race winner has started at COTA is 16th - Ross Chastain in 2022.
• Three organizations have won in the NASCAR Cup Series at the Circuit of The Americas: Hendrick Motorsports (Chase Elliott, 2021 and William Byron, 2024); Trackhouse Racing (Ross Chastain, 2022); and 23XI Racing (Tyler Reddick, 2023).
• Four different drivers have finished runner-up in the four NASCAR Cup Series races at the Circuit of The Americas: Kyle Larson (2021), Alex Bowman (2022), Kyle Busch (2023) and Christopher Bell (2024). 
• Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, and Tyler Reddick lead the NASCAR Cup Series in Top 5 finishes at COTA with three each and in Top 10s at COTA with four each. 
• William Byron leads the NASCAR Cup Series in laps led at the Circuit of The Americas with 70 (26% of the total laps he's completed) in four races.
•  Ross Chastain leads the NASCAR Cup Series in average finishing position at the Circuit of The Americas with a 4.0 in four starts.

If you are playing NASCAR Fantasy Live, remember to make your picks by 3:25 p.m. EST on race day on Sunday, March 2nd. Don't forget to select your bonus matchups.

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 18 years. She launched  NASCAR Fantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to arm fans with analysis and picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they got so smart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond Raceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International Speedway. She is also part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn’t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you’ll find Carol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or executing downtown revitalization projects for a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.