Tim Watts's Articles

The series moves on to Talladega for the second (official) superspeedway race of the season, after the opening race in Daytona. Last year, Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace won the two races at Talladega in a style of racing where almost every driver had a chance to win.    As always at the superspeedway tracks, […]

NASCAR’s Xfinity series heads to Talladega Saturday for the Ag-Pro 300. It’s the second superspeedway race of the season after the opening race in Daytona. Last year, Jeb Burton and Brandon Brown won the two races at Talladega in a style of racing where almost every driver has a chance of winning. As is always […]

TAKE 2! The Cup series makes its second trip in as many years to Bristol to race on dirt. Last year, we saw there was only one true racing lane, as drivers largely followed the leader around the bottom.    After listening to driver feedback, NASCAR figured out a way to get some better racing […]

UFC Fight Night is set for Saturday evening with UFC Vegas 51. I’m here to break down the top DFS options for the slate. This main card features a rematch of Belal Muhammad and Vicente Luque from a match six years ago in 2016. Since then, the evolution of both fighters has made this rematch […]

The NASCAR Cup Series head to Ridgeway, Va., Saturday for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. The series is making its third trip to a flat track this season. However, the race at the paperclip this week has very few similarities to the other two. The Chevrolets looked very strong in practice while the Toyotas […]

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its first stop at three straight short-track races this week. While it’s not the first short-track race for this new generation of car, it’s the first points-paying race of the year. While we saw Joey Logano conquer the quarter-mile track at Memorial Coliseum, that short track has very minimal correlation […]

The NASCAR Cup Series marks its second ever visit to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) this weekend. A handful of drivers got some extra track exposure by racing in the lower series on Saturday, and only three of those drivers managed to come away with a top-10 finish.    There is minimal historical data to […]

The NASCAR top three series make their second ever visit to Circuit of the Americas this weekend, including the Xfinity Series’ Pit Boss 250, which starts at 4:47 p.m. ET Saturday. Saturday’s races will feature some cup drivers racing in the lower series to get more track experience prior to Sunday’s cup race. Any time […]

Based on what we saw in the truck and xfinity race, this race should be approached with a lineup construction similar to that of Daytona and Talladega. The much lower HP has eliminated the gap between the teams, and we will see a lot of drivers we do not usually see up front finish in […]

The Xfinity Series lands at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., this week for the Nalley Cars 250. This race is the biggest question mark of the entire season. The track underwent a repave project upon completion of last year’s race and the banking was changed drastically. The reason this is important is because the […]

NASCAR is in Arizona Sunday for the Ruoff Mortgage 500 race on the Cup Series at Phoenix International Raceway. Phoenix is far different from the last two races at Fontana and Las Vegas. Phoenix is a one-mile flat track. We last saw Cup cars here in November at the championship race where Kyle Larson wrapped […]

The Xfinity Series heads to Avondale, Ariz., this week for Saturday’s United Rentals 200 race at Phoenix International Raceway. This is the final race of the west coast swing of the schedule. Phoenix is far different from the last two races at Fontana and Las Vegas. It’s a one-mile flat track. We last saw Xfinity […]

This is the second leg of the west coast swing for the NASCAR series. Kyle Busch wrecked in practice and will start last, making him heavy chalk at his hometown track. This race will largely feature the same cars that we saw on the track in Fontana last week. Some key takeaways from that race […]

The Xfinity Series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday for the Alsco Uniforms 300. This is the second leg of the West Coast swing for the series. The drivers will largely use the same cars they ran at Fontana last week. In that race, we saw the JR Motorsports drivers of Noah Gragson, Justin […]

This is the type of race that Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Cole Custer love. This surface rewards the drivers who are not afraid to run right next to the wall on the track. Auto Club Speedway is a very rough, intermediate-length track causing high tire wear. Qualifying has really shuffled the construction of lineups, […]

The NASCAR Xfinity Series heads to Fontana, Calif., Saturday for the Production Alliance Group 300 at 5 p.m. ET. Outside of Cole Custer’s and Harrison Burton’s visits to victory lane in 2019 and 2020, respectively, this track has been a personal playground for Cup drivers racing in the feeder series for myriad reasons.   With […]

Welcome back, NASCAR DFS players. The season is underway, and the NASCAR writers at FTN are very excited to mark the third season of our service to helping you win at NASCAR. NASCAR championship qualifiers Javier Prellezo and Jeremy Green and I will have you covered with articles and up to the minute updates via […]

The Xfinity season is back underway Saturday with the Beef: It’s What’s For Dinner 300. The track is well known for its ability to produce surprising winners and heaps of carnage. Let’s take a look at the DFS plays for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.    The restrictor-plate races (Daytona/Talladega) routinely result in […]

After a long 2.5 months, NASCAR is back with a new opening exhibition event and a new car style for the drivers. This quarter-mile track was built inside the LA Coliseum, the hallowed football home of the USC Trojans, for this event. This marks the first time ever that the series has held its annual […]

We have reached the final race of the NASCAR season. This Sunday will showcase four drivers running for the NASCAR championship. Every year since the inception of this playoff format, a qualifying championship driver has won this race. I expect that to continue and am banking on it being this weekend’s polesitter, Kyle Larson. I’m […]

We have reached the final race of the NASCAR season. This Sunday will showcase four drivers running for the NASCAR championship. Every year since the inception of this playoff format, a qualifying championship driver has won this race. I expect that to continue and am banking on it being this weekend’s polesitter, Kyle Larson. I’m […]

There are just two races left in the NASCAR season. This weekend it’s back to a short track with the 750 hp package. There are 500 laps of racing, which means there will be a lot of laps led dominator points available. Generally, I prefer to build lineups with a two- or three-dominator core. I’m […]

There are just two races left in the NASCAR season. This weekend it’s back to a short track with the 750 hp package. There are 500 laps of racing, which means there will be a lot of laps led dominator points available. Generally, I prefer to build lineups with a two- or three-dominator core. I’m […]

For the second week in a row the series is racing at an intermediate low-wear oval track. The series is running the 550 HP package, so these rankings will be created looking back on the similar track types with the same racing package such as Texas, Charlotte and Las Vegas. I’m banking on six drivers […]

For the second week in a row the series is racing at an intermediate low-wear oval track. The series is running the 550 HP package, so these rankings will be created looking back on the similar track types with the same racing package such as Texas, Charlotte and Las Vegas. I’m banking on six drivers […]

This weekend marks the return to the intermediate tracks that make up the majority of the NASCAR schedule. Texas Motor Speedway is a low-wear track with similarities to Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Kansas. The series is running the 550 HP package so these rankings will be created looking back on the similar track types with […]

This weekend marks the return to the intermediate tracks that make up the majority of the NASCAR schedule. Texas Motor Speedway is a low-wear track with similarities to Charlotte, Las Vegas, and Kansas. The series is running the 550 HP package so these rankings will be created looking back on the similar track types with […]

This weekend marks the seventh and final road course race of the season. FanDuel’s salaries are baffling this week. To see AJ Allmendinger and Martin Truex Jr. both $2,000 cheaper than the Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson salaries makes no sense. Elliott and Larson may score the most points, but not to the extent of […]

This weekend marks the seventh and final road course race of the season. There are not as many dominator points to be had, so the focus will be on place differential and finishing position. There are quite a few drivers who have put themselves in position for strong place differential showings. For this week’s race, […]

This is a restrictor plate race where finding the luck of avoiding the wrecks weighs more than the past performance of the drivers. Having said that, there are a few drivers worth mentioning based on their upside. For this week’s race, I have five drivers in the top tier who I’m banking on. I also […]

The series is running the 550 hp package this week, so I included similar tracks with that package in my research. In addition to this year’s previous Las Vegas race, one track I find highly comparable is Charlotte, where Kyle Larson emerged victorious in both. I think a 3-car Hendrick stack (Larson, Elliott, Bowman, Byron) […]

NASCAR heads to Bristol Saturday for the Bass Prop Shops Night Race in Thunder Valley. This is the third race of the playoffs. The series is running the 750 hp package again this week, so I included similar tracks with that package in my research. One track I find highly comparable is Dover where Hendrick […]