NASCAR By the Numbers - Cook Out 400

by Stephen Young (stevietpfl) Last Updated 2025-03-30 13:04:13 Premium Content Part of the product Stevie's NASCAR Package

Race into the NASCAR DFS streets with the most trusted NASCAR analyst in the industry! Stevie has been providing NASCAR content since the very first NASCAR DFS contest and has taken down 10+ large-field tournaments in NASCAR alone. Multiple subscribers of his NASCAR package have been $1,000,000 winners thanks to the premium content he provides. This article previews the type of racetrack, roster construction, past optimal lineups, core plays, tournament plays, value plays, and potential dominators.

This weekend, we head to Martinsville Speedway for the Cook Out 400. The race is Sunday at 3pm ET on FS1. Martinsville Speedway is a unique .526-mile short-flat track. We can look at short-flat track data from Phoenix, but Martinsville history is usually the most useful data to look at. Group A had better track conditions at the start of practice. They have a little better short run speed because of it. When building lineups this weekend, I’ll be looking at 2025 speed, recent Martinsville data, 2025 pit road data, practice, and a few other things. As I always say at Martinsville, roster construction is so important, and don’t discount the dominator plays with this many potential dominator points. In the 6 races with the Next-Gen car, we’ve averaged 6 cautions at Martinsville, which is way down for the overall average over the last 10 races. From 2018 to 2022 there were 8 races here, and 7 of them had at least 7 cautions, with 4 of them having 11+ cautions. The race last fall had 9 cautions, which was the most we’ve had here with the Next-Gen car. The 3 spring races have had 4, 5, and 5 cautions.

NASCAR DFS Picks: Cook Out 400

The stages are 80, 100, and 220, which is a total of 400 laps. With 400 laps, we’re looking at 40 laps completed points and 40 laps led points. On DraftKings, we’re looking at 180 fastest laps points and 100 laps led points. Even if we run close to 100 caution laps, we’re looking at close to 250 dominator points. It’s very rare to see a 1-dominator race here, and we typically see anywhere from 2 to 4 dominators. The race winner has started outside the top 10 in 5 of the 6 Next-Gen races here.