NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway

 

 

There is a reason why the Daytona 500 is the most prestigious race of the year. There were celebrities, pre-race pagentry, a sell-out crowd, oh, and the racing wasn't too shabby either. The 68th running of the Great American Race did not disappoint. For the fourth time in Daytona history, the only lap the race winner led was the last one. 

 

Literally, when the dust cleared it was the No. 45 car of 23Xl Racing who crossed the finish line just 0.308-seconds ahead of the 2023 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. With the victory, Tyler Reddick becomes the 44th driver to win the Daytona 500. The win broke Reddick's 38-race winless streak, and is his ninth in the NASCAR Cup Series. His first Daytona 500 victory is also his first in a crown jewel race.
 

As the series pulls into Hampton, Ga., this weekend to EchoPark Speedway, formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway, we can expect the superspeedway drafting elites to dominate, but will we see a veteran driver or a newcomer in Victory Lane? Stay tuned.

 

This Week's Pick Strategy:   
You can't go wrong going heavy on Chevys and Fords. I am also placing more emphasis on veteran drivers, but will sprinkle in a couple of young bloods that tend to race aggressively. The first and fifth positions have yielded the most winners of any position on the grid, so I will be watching qualifying carefully.

 

Drivers with Most Top 10s:

By Race and Track (From 2022 to 2025; includes 8 races)

Ryan Blaney - 6

Both with 5- Kyle Busch and Daniel Suarez 

All with 4- Chase Elliott, Ross Chastain, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

All with 4 - Joey Logano, Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Chris Buescher

 

Top 10 Active Drivers with Best Average Finish Since the Repave (2022)

Chase Elliott                  9.1
Ryan Blaney                10.9  

Connor Zillisch          11.0
AJ Allmendinger       11.3

Carson Hoecevar      11.8
Kyle Busch                  13.3

Daniel Suarez            13.9

Ross Chastain            14.1
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 15.0
Erik Jones                   15.5 
SOURCE: frcs.pro
 

Last Year's Pole Winner: Ryan Blaney

 

Last Year's Race Winner: Christopher Bell

The Likely Suspects: My Atlanta elite drivers include Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

My 2 Cents: My no-brainer pick this week is a tie between Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch. My next picks are Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, and Ross Chastain. I will complete my roster with Carson Hocevar, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr..

My Final Four: Ryan Blaney, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, and Carson Hocevar.

 

Second-Look Driver: This week's sleeper pick is Connor Zillisch. Connor made his third NASCAR Cup Series start at the EchoPark Speedway last June and finished in 11th. If he has some speed in his Tootsie's No. 88 Chevy this weekend we could see him contending for a top spot toward the end. Maybe even a win. The runs come pretty quickly at this track, which suits Connor's driving style.

 

Points to Ponder:

• Joey Logano (2015, 2023, 2025) leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in poles at EchoPark Speedway with three.
• Team Penske leads the series in poles at EchoPark Speedway with 12, followed by the Wood Brothers win 9.
• A total of nine different manufacturers have won a NASCAR Cup Series pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway, led by Ford with 36 poles followed by Chevrolet with 25.
• The most prolific starting positions in the field are first and fifth – both have produced more wins (16) than any other starting position.
• Joey Logano (2023, 2024), William Byron (2022, 2023), Brad Keselowski (2017, 2019), Kyle Busch (2008, 2013) and Chase Elliott (2022, 2025) lead all active NASCAR Cup Series winners at EchoPark with two victories each.
• Brad Keselowski (2018, 2023, 2025) leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers with three runner-up finishes each at EchoPark Speedway, followed Daniel Suarez (2023, 2024),  Kyle Busch (2020, 2021) Kyle Larson (2017, 2021) and Ross Chastain (2022, 2022) with two each.
• Kyle Busch leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in Top 5 finishes with 10 and in Top 10 finishes with 15. He also leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in laps led at EchoPark with 623 in 32 starts. 
  
• The Hendrick Motorsports organization has the most wins here in the NASCAR Cup Series with 18 victories, followed by Wood Brothers Racing with 12, and Joe Gibbs Racing with 12.
  
• Nine different manufacturers have won in the Cup Series at EchoPark led by Chevrolet with 46 victories; followed by Ford (36).
• Chase Elliott leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in average finishing position at EchoPark Speedway with a 11.4 in 14 starts.

If you're playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your initial picks by Saturday, February 21 at 11 a.m. ET and your final picks by 3 p.m. ET on race day Sunday, February 22nd.  

Enjoy the race!

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Carol D'Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 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.