DraftKings NASCAR DFS Picks for Gateway: Fantasy NASCAR Strategy and Picks for the Enjoy Illinois 300

World Wide Techonolgy Raceway, better known as Gateway, plays host to the 15th NASCAR Cup Series race of the year.

Gateway is a 1.25-mile flat track, and while it does use the intermediate package, practice times have so far indicated that it is favoring the drivers who are traditionally solid at shorter flat tracks rather than drivers who have done well with the intermediate package this year.

That allows us to take advantage if others are looking too hard into the intermediate package. As a result, I’ve built my model on shorter flat tracks with practice times heavily baked in.

Before we jump into my picks, don’t forget all my NASCAR projections can be found in the NASCAR Models on FantasyLabs, complete with floor, ceiling, median, and ownership projections.

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.

Here are my NASCAR DFS picks for Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway.

 

Gateway DraftKings DFS Cash Game Picks

Denny Hamlin ($10,500): In the first practice group, Hamlin seemingly had the best car, posting the fastest long-run speed on every length from 10 to 25 laps. He backed that up by qualifying in the third position.

Hamlin is typically strong at the shorter flat tracks, so that should play into his favor as well. He does make an interesting underweight play in tournament formats given this year’s struggles finishing well at this track type, but those came after strong runs initially in those races.

Aric Almirola ($7200): Almirola’s best track type is shorter flat tracks, and while he did qualify 24th, he practiced a lot better than that. Almirola was tops in his group in five-lap average, which won’t be easily spotted if you lump both of the groups together.

That’s an edge for DFS players, and I also like playing Almirola in tournament formats in case he’s under-rostered.

Gateway DraftKings DFS Tournament Picks

Ross Chastain ($9600): Chastain was extremely good in the second practice group, which came when the track slowed down. Of that group of cars, the Watermelon Man was fastest over 10 and 15 consecutive laps, which is particularly telling given that he doesn’t always make long runs in practice.

Chastain had a great car here last year, but he ran into issues with Hamlin and Chase Elliott, who hounded him into an unflattering eighth-place finish. Look for a better finish from Chastain should he keep it friendly on track.

Alex Bowman ($8600): The call on Bowman here is heavily based off my model projections. My model is giving him over a 27% chance of ending up in the optimal lineup. Meanwhile, it also thinks he’ll be rostered in under 20% of lineups, giving one of the largest leverage scores on the slate.

Bowman has had some very strong shorter flat-track finishes in his career, grabbing wins at Richmond and Martinsville since 2021. His worst finish at the three shorter flat tracks this year is an 11th-place finish, so expect him to move forward.

You can take advantage of Bowman’s likelihood to move forward on PrizePicks, where his net cars passed line is set at 4.5. Be sure to check out all the pick’ems PrizePicks has to offer with PrizePicks promo code LABS for a $100 deposit match.