Watkins Glen Slingshot NASCAR Fantasy Picks

And we’re back! After two weeks off for the Olympics, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to action this week for the Go Bowling at The Glen. This kicks off 14 straight weeks of racing action before we crown a series Champion in Phoenix in November, so buckle up! Watkins Glen is a “traditional” road course and one of the original road course tracks that NASCAR visited. We’ll be focusing mainly on road course data and statistics when making picks this weekend, and it should be a pretty cut and dry race as far as making picks.

Be sure you check out the Algorithm Predicted Finishing Order for this race (click here), and also this week’s episode of Stacking Dennys, the podcast RotoDoc and I started. You can listen to that by clicking here.

Brad Keselowski is on the pole for Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen, and his teammate, Joey Logano will be starting 2nd. The third Penske car of Ryan Blaney will start 3rd, and you can click here to see the full starting lineup for this weekend’s race. Now let’s get to the picks!

*Please note: the picks and suggestions below are my opinions and strategy for the Slingshot Fantasy Auto Contest. These are not meant to sway your thinking in any way, but rather give you insight into the drivers I am most likely to pick on race day.*

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Slingshot Fantasy Auto Contest Picks for the Go Bowling at The Glen

The Safe

Chase Elliott ($12,500) – There is a 100% chance that Chase Elliott is on my Slingshot Fantasy Auto Contest roster this weekend. He’s starting from 11th, which gives him a decent amount of place differential potential, and he’s probably going to win this race. To put it bluntly, Chase Elliott is the road course king. Over the last eight races on this track type, Chase. has the following finishes: 1st, 2nd, 1st, 21st, 1st, 1st, 1st, and 1st. That “stick out like a sore thumb” 21st-place finish was at the Daytona Road Course earlier this year, where he was dominating before everyone started wrecking. Elliott is the best road course racer in the series, and Watkins Glen might be his best track of them all; he’s won the last two races here at The Glen in dominating fashion.

Kyle Busch ($12,000) – Starting back in 20th this weekend is Kyle Busch, which makes him an automatic play (in my opinion) when it comes to the Slingshot Fantasy Auto Contest this weekend. Rowdy went through a bit of a rough stretch at road courses when NASCAR started racing at the rovals, but at these “traditional” road course tracks, Kyle Busch is always one of the best. This year, Busch finished 5th at Sonoma and 3rd at Road America, and in 12 of the last 14 races here at Watkins Glen, he’s ended up 9th or better. Half of those were 12 were top 4 finishes, too. Ten or more sports of differential plus a solid top 10 (or even top 5) equals a very good points day in this Slingshot game. Roll with Kyle Busch on Sunday.

Chase Briscoe ($7,500) – Rounding out the list of “safe” Slingshot NASCAR Fantasy picks this weekend is Chase Briscoe. He comes in at a modest salary of $7,500, and with his 27th-place starting spot for the Go Bowling at The Glen, he has major upside. Looking at the four road course races this season, Briscoe had a rough race at the Daytona Road Course, but he came home 6th at COTA, 17th at Sonoma, and 6th at Road America. He has top 15 potential with top 10 upside here on Watkins Glen, and he’s a safe pick because of how far back he starts. Chase started and finished 6th in his only Xfinity Series start here at The Glen (back in 2019).

The Risky

Kyle Larson ($12,200) – There are a couple of reasons why picking Kyle Larson in the Slingshot game is a bit risky this weekend. First, he’s got the #JordanJinx on him, and reason number two, he starts up in 4th. You should know by now how important place differential is in this Fantasy NASCAR game, so that adds to the risk factor for Larson this weekend. However, he has a legitimate chance at winning and possibly even dominating the race on Sunday–just like he did at Sonoma. In that race, Larson started and won from the pole, won both Stages, and led the most laps. Coming into this season, Watkins Glen was the best road course for Larson while he was with Ganassi.

Christopher Bell ($9,200) – Christopher Bell has been a hero or zero at the road course races during his young Cup Series career, with the win at the Daytona Road course this season and his 2nd-place finish at Road America being the two standout performances. His four other starts, though? All results outside of the top 20. Still, this #20 Toyota was always great here at Watkins Glen with Erik Jones behind the wheel, and like I said, the upside is here with Bell. He starts up in 7th, though, so that combined with his less-than-stable Cup resumé makes him quite risky in this game.

Ross Chastain ($8,000) – Okay, it’s hard to continue calling this a fluke. Chastain’s 4th-place finish at COTA this year was his first top 20 ever at a road course in the Cup Series, and it was easy to point to the rain as the reason for that happening. But then he finished 7th at Sonoma, and then 7th again at Road America… can’t call those flukes. Here at Watkins Glen this weekend, Chastain is slated to start 12th, so there’s a little bit of risk there in case he runs into issues during the race, but it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see the Melon Man pull off another top 10 finish this weekend.

The Winner

“Race Winner” Pick = Chase Elliott – No explanation needed…