The NASCAR Cup Series stays in the South for another weekend, heading from Fort Worth, Texas to Talladega, Alabama. The 2.5-mile superspeedway, made famous by its namesake movie, promises thrilling action on the high-speed drafting track. However, its massive size means fewer laps, which also means fewer dominator points. Let’s get started with our top NASCAR DFS picks for the 2024 GEICO 500 at Talladega, including Todd Gilliland.
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NASCAR DFS Picks: Top Drivers for the GEICO 500 at Talladega
Todd Gilliland | GEICO 500 NASCAR DFS Picks | Talladega
This article was written before our NASCAR DFS projections run. Check back on Sunday morning for Stokastic’s industry-leading NASCAR DFS projections, including our top drivers tool!
Last week’s article highlighted Ty Gibbs, who led five laps from second and finished P13, and Brad Keselowski, who led no laps but ran some fast ones at the end of the race before finishing P2. Both of them would’ve cost you $8,500 or less. Let’s target a few more contrarian value picks for Sunday’s GEICO 500, starting with Todd Gilliland ($6,100 at DraftKings).
Because this is a superspeedway race, drivers crash out more often, which increases risk when picking a driver with a starting position close to the front. Gilliland qualified third, so he won’t have much chance to improve from his starting spot, but he makes up for that with a cheap salary and a fast car.
Gilliland led the most laps in Atlanta earlier this season. He also led the third-most laps at Daytona. But he couldn’t finish either race inside the T25 due to late-race trouble, which proved extra costly in Atlanta after he started P4.
So can Gilliland finish this time around? I’m optimistic, and even if he doesn’t, he could generate enough dominator points to still pay off his bargain-bin salary. But again, rostering drivers who start close to the front is a big risk at superspeedways, so we’ll look further back in the field for our next NASCAR DFS pick at Talladega.
I also recommended getting some action on him on the sports betting market earlier this week — check out my NASCAR GEICO 500 betting predictions for more!
Noah Gragson
Noah Gragson ($6,800 at DraftKings) will start all the way back in 36th. But because this is a superspeedway event, he’s unlikely to get stuck a lap down early, and he should be able to gain position through the draft. Gragson is an experienced superspeedway race, having driven in most of the Cup Series events at these tracks since 2021.
This season, Gragson led five laps in the Daytona 500 after starting in 38th, eventually finishing P9. On the flip side, he finished P36 in Atlanta after starting in 15th and failing to lead a lap.
Although Gragson has yet to finish better than P19 at Talladega in the Cup Series, but in the Xfinity Series, he tallied one win, three top-5s and six top-10s across eight starts. He led at least one lap in seven of eight.
Even if Gragson gets into an accident at some point, he can’t lose that many positions, minimizing your risk. Gragson can do less than other drivers and pay off his salary, and he has enough talent as a superspeedway race to deliver.
