Stock car racingโs premiere series makes its way to the mountains ofย Pocono, Pennsylvania. Make the most of The Great American Getaway 400 with our NASCAR DFS picks and tiers.
We reveal our “Tire Tiers” and betting cards live every Thursday at 8:30 p.m. EST on our YouTube series, “The Backroad.” Be sure to tune in, enjoy the race, and reach out if you have any questions.
(DFS prices are courtesy of DraftKings and Fantrax)
NASCAR DFS Picks, Tiers & Rankings: 2024 The Great American Getaway 400
Driver As | The Elites
The A-Tier has four of the most expensive drivers on the slate and from the Toyota camp. Denny Hamlin ($11,000 on DraftKings and $25.96 Fantrax) could be the king of Pocono, as he proclaimed last year, “They can boo my rock out here in a few years.” Hamlin should have back-to-back wins in the next-gen era if they had not been disqualified in 2022. Hamlin ranks No. 1 in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings,ย courtesy of ifantasyrace.com, and was top five in both races late in the run. Hamlin has been no slouch this year with the intermediate package, as he ranked in the top 10 at every intermediate track regarding speed.
Christopher Bell ($10,500 DraftKings/$23.56 Fantrax) and Martin Truex Jr. ($10,200 DraftKings/$24.85 Fantrax) are behind Hamlin at intermediate tracks but are no slouches. Bell and Truex Jr. also rank in the top 10 for speed at intermediate tracks this year, and their Pocono history is top five in the field. Truex Jr. is the fourth-fastest car, and Bell is sixth in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings. In last year’s race, they both ranked in the top eight for laps ran inside the top 15.
Tyler Reddick ($9,800 DraftKings/$25.96 Fantrax) is my favorite among the most expensive drivers. “Red Dog” has done well at Pocono, with the field’s best average finish of 2.0. Reddick also ranks fourth on the Pocono Next-Gen total rankings. He has spent well over 80% of both Next-Gen races in the top 15 with two different teams, Richard Childres Racingย (RCR) and 23XI. Reddick has shown top-10 speed in every intermediate package track except for Kansas and is looking to continue a streak of top-eight finishes within six of the seven past races.
Driver Bs | Point-Getters
Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) highlights Tier-B, as they seem to be a step behind 23XI Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) regarding Pocono. Kyle “Yung Money” Larson ($10,800 via DraftKings/$27.04) is the second-most expensive driver on the slate and the second-fastest driver in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings. I am playing Larson with caution due to his price tag and the fear he could run into an issue. Last year, he returned to a top-three running position after spinning out in stage one but would get run into the fence by Hamlin on a restart, and the damage slowed him down, where he finished 20th. William Byron ($10,000 DraftKings/$24.17 Fantrax ) and Chase Elliott ($9,500 DraftKings/$26.39 Fantrax) have a decent history and speed at Pocono. Byron is ranked third, and Elliott is 10th in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings. Elliott would inherit the win from Hamlin’s 2022 disqualification. My concern with both is that they have not shown the most competitive speed on the intermediate speed package, but I would take Elliott at his price tag and with how consistent he is this year.
Ty Gibbs ($9,000 DraftKings/$22.99 Fantrax) and Bubba Wallace ($7,600 DraftKings/ $20.19 Fantrax) are the two drivers who can be competitive and affordable. Both drivers come from the Toyota camp and are the cheapest from JGR and 23XI. Joe Gibbs’s grandson has shown leaps and bounds from last year’s rookie year, especially with the intermediate package and road courses. Even in his rookie season, Gibbs found success at Pocono, finishing fifth with the fifth-fastest car in the total speed rankings. Wallace’s price tag at $7,600 feels like a steal. While the Alabama native has not seen much success with the intermediate package this year, compared to last year, his results rival others around his price range with a 10.5 average finish and the 10th \-fastest car in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings.
Driver Cs | In the Mix
What a race win for Alex Bowman, “The Showman,” at the Chicago street course last week! Bowman ($7,800 DraftKings/$22.38 Fantrax) leads this tier, as his price tag did rise from last week, but if we compare it with the previous oval race in Nashville, his price is a bit cheaper. His price tag is always around the $7-8K range and is affordable, especially for an HMS car. His Pocono stats are pretty respectful, as he has the eighth=fastest car based in the Pocono Next-Gen total speed rankings. In 2024, He had an average running position of 14.4 and spent 64% of the race in the top 15.
The rest of the C-Tier has the Trackhouse Racing boys and some of Stewart Hass Racing (SHR). Daniel Suarez ($7,500 DraftKings/$17.54 Fantrax) and Ross Chastain ($8,400 DraftKings/$22.02 Fantrax) are threats on the intermediates, especially “The Melon Man,” who has the 10th-best average finish in intermediate and has shown top-10 speed and finishes with the intermediate package in 2024. Suarez had a third-place finish in 2022 but wrecked out in 2023; his price tag is a bit high, but $7,500 is an OK price and could fit in your lineup. Josh Berry ($7,100 DraftKings/$16.28 Fantrax) is probably the one I would pick out of him and Noah Gragson ($7,300 DraftKings/$16.78 Fantrax). Gragson showed more speed at intermediates, but Berry and his crew chief of Rodney’s Childress have shown more speed recently. With Kevin Harvick last year, they finished fourth with the 11th-fastest car but the seventh-fastest car in the final laps. Berry is also cheaper, and I think Childress can guide his driver to a top 10-15 finish.
Driver Ds | Could Do Worse
The Blue Ovals and Kyle Busch ($8,200 DraftKings/$18.26 Fantrax) headline this tier, as neither has the speed this year nor has outstanding stats. If I had to choose two drivers from the Ford camp, it would be Ryan Blaney ($9,300/$24.31 Fantrax) and Chris Buescher ($8,000 DraftKings/$21.77 Fantrax). Besides Harvick, Blaney was probably the best Ford last year until a voltage issue caused him to fade to 30th place. He spent 67.5 % of the race in the top 15, only behind Harvick’s 73.1% for the Fords. Blaney’s price tag is a bit steep, but Johnathan Hasler and the No. 12 team seem to have the most speed of the Fords on intermediates in 2024. Buescher’s first win came here at Pocono in 2016. In the Next-Gen era, his speed is the 12th-fastest at Pocono, and his price tag of $8,000 can be affordable for a Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Ford.
Of the $7K-and-lower drivers, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ($6,500 DraftKings/$15.10 Fantrax) and Todd Gilliland ($6,800 DraftKings/$17.50 Fantrax) are my favorites, given some of their track history and speed this year. While both speeds aren’t incredible, the average DraftKings points total between the two drivers ranges around 33-37 points. This average is skewed by their marvelous 2023 performance, with a seventh for Stenhouse Jr. and a 15th-place finish for Gilliland. Their average DraftKings points for the year are between 26-29, so at their price tag, they could be worth a look in your lineup.
Driver Fs | The Junk Drawer
Austin Dillon ($6,000 DraftKings/$12.01 Fantrax), Carson Hocevar ($6,400 DraftKings/$15.16 Fantrax) and Justin Haley ($6,200 DraftKings/$13.05 Fantrax) are some cheap place-differential plays that could finish within the top 20. This year, we have seen the speed of Hocevar and Haley on multiple tracks, while Dillon has a surprisingly good track history with the 19th-fastest car for the two Next-Gen races at Pocono.
Legacy Motor Club could have the slowest cars alongside Kaulig Racing. However, given their price tags range from $7,000 to $5,400, they could be worth looking at as drivers who might not qualify well but race better. They ‘re the cheapest place-differential plays on the slate, so you can afford the tier A or B drivers. Erik Jones ($7,000 DraftKings/$12.77 Fantrax) seems like the best one of the four cars here with the 14th-fastest car in the Next-Gen era, but that was with Chevrolet, and in 2024, he is with Toyota. While they expected to be fast at the start of the season, Legacy is slowly working back to the speed they showed while they were with Chevrolet. For Kaulig, A.J. Allmendinger ($6,300 DraftKings/$7.17 Fantrax) and Daniel Hemric ($5,400 DraftKings/$13.59 Fantrax) could be worth a play if they can survive the race and move up with attrition.
Check out all of our content for the 2024 The Great American Getaway 400:
- NASCAR DFS Picks, Tiers & Rankings: 2024 The Great American Getaway 400
- Between Bets: 2024 The Great American Getaway 400 Outrights
- PropKings: 2024 The Great American Getaway 400
Thanks for reading our NASCAR DFS picks and tiers for The Great American Getaway 400. Check out more of our racing content and other written work here at In-Between Media, or head over to ourย YouTube channel to get your fix via video.
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*Photo Credit: Stan Szeto โ USA TODAY Sports*
