DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for COTA: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix

Circuit of the Americas (COTA) plays host to the first non-drafting race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series sesaon.

COTA will throw in a few wrinkles as well this weekend, as the full layout is no longer being used, and instead drivers will use a shortcut from turn 6 to turn 12 in what’s called the National Circuit.

That will increase the total laps from 68 to 95, which will add a handful of extra dominator points, but the bigger factor is still the combination of finishing position and place differential.

To assess that, thankfully we had a practice session and I’ll lean on my practice FLAGS metric to help us evaluate practice.

As always, you can check out my NASCAR projections in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

My projections, along with Stephen Young’s from RotoGrinders, are available in our new NASCAR DFS package. You can read more about what the package entails here.

Let’s not skip the best part — my Perfect% metric — a metric that tells you how often certain racers appear in the optimal lineup when running 10,000 race simulations.

And don’t forget about the tools that FantasyLabs has to offer like our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 300 lineups or our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

So, without further ado, here’s my strategy guide and NASCAR DFS picks for the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix DraftKings DFS Core Picks

Instead of calling them cash-game picks, I’ll call them core picks, as these are picks I like in all formats. However, it’s important to note that very often core picks tend to go over-rostered in tournaments, so while they should still be used plenty, it may be prudent to sometimes go underweight on these drivers if you think they’ll be significantly over-rostered.

Shane van Gisbergen ($9800): SVG was the clear No. 1 driver in practice speed per FLAGS and was extremely happy with his car despite putting down just the sixth-best qualifying lap.

SVG is easily my race favorite, and I love that he comes with a few spots of place differential as well by not starting on the pole. I’d expect him to find his way to the front, lead some laps, and contend for the win, which would certainly put him in the optimal lineup.

Alex Bowman ($8300): Bowman is an especially nice option in all formats, as my model thinks he’ll be under-rostered in tournaments, but he comes in as one of the top three cars in my Perfect% metric.

Bowman hung a top-three ranking in practice FLAGS and has always excelled at COTA, finishing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at COTA in the Next Gen car.

By rolling off 21st, Bowman has plenty of place-differential potential to add to a strong finish.

Austin Cindric ($8000): Cindric is far too low in my projections on FantasyLabs, and that’s just a quirk of my model that’s hedging its bets on practice speed for him; there were two slow laps I could choose to leave in or take out because they were borderline on whether they were representative of his true pace/car or not.

So the model is using a blend of both, but I tend to lean toward the side where they’ll get his car more comfortable and thus think he’s too low.

If Cindric gets comfortable with his car, there is pace there. If I remove the two laps in question, he jumps from midpack to a car that’s capable of running in the back half of the top 10 on speed.

Cindric did interview and say they were struggling in spots, but the raw pace was there when he could keep the car doing what he wanted it to do.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Kyle Larson ($9500): Behind SVG in practice flags comes Larson, who could be ready to fill the void in the event SVG isn’t quite as good as we expect, runs into an issue, or simply gets beat on a restart.

Larson starts one spot behind SVG and is your clear SVG tournament pivot, although there are certainly times you can use both in a tournament lineup and have them be optimal. However, there is some negative correlation between the two.

Michael McDowell ($7500): McDowell is a road-course winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, and despite moving from Front Row Motorsports to Spire Motorsports, I don’t really expect much, if any, downgrade.

The equipment is certainly capable of running toward the front, as Spire teammate Carson Hocevar will start third after an excellent qualifying lap.

McDowell, meanwhile, will start 16th, which opens up quite a bit of place-differential potential.

He should be able to realize that potential, given he ranked ninth in practice FLAGS, and with a bit of good fortune he has a real shot at cracking the top five.

The Punts: There’s a lot of good drivers who are playable, and when we look at the $6000-$7000 range, I don’t see much I want to play outside of Cole Custer ($6500) and Justin Haley ($6300) when we can get drivers with only slightly lower ceiling in the $5000-$5900 range.

That means I’m punting with Ryan Preece ($5700), Riley Herbst ($5400), and Ty Dillon ($5100) as my three favorite options this low on the pricing ladder.

What I like about all three of these drivers is that they start 28th or worse, and each rank 26th or better in overall practice FLAGS.

And just looking at the second set of tires, after adjustments were made, all three rank 23rd or better in FLAGS on the second tire set. Preece was actually the slowest of the three, is the most expensive, and starts the furthest forward, but also has the best equipment of the trio. So I tend to lean toward Herbst and Ty Dillon as the better punts, but all three are usable.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix DraftKings DFS Paul Menard Pick of the Week

I’m personally way too high on Chase Briscoe ($7400) this week, and while I do think he’ll grab a decent chunk of ownership, it should hover around 15% give or take a few percentage points and the talent in this field.

What I especially like about Briscoe is the huge gains his team made after adjustments in the second practice stint. He jumped from 19th in first-stint FLAGS to ninth in the second stint.

Briscoe’s best road course is here at COTA, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pull off a top-five finish.

My model has his Perfect% a touch north of 22%, so I don’t mind playing him in around a quarter of your lineups if you want some extra leverage.