NASCAR By the Numbers - Jack Link’s 500

by Stephen Young (stevietpfl) Last Updated 2025-04-27 13:25:59 Premium Content Part of the product Stevie's NASCAR Package

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This weekend, we head to Talladega Superspeedway for the Jack Link’s 500. The race is on Sunday at 3pm ET on FOX. Talladega and Daytona are the most unpredictable tracks in NASCAR. I don’t try to predict who’s going to win; I use data to build the best lineups with the focus of roster construction. I’ve had a lot of success on this type of track over the years. The race winner has started outside the top 10 in 7 of the last 10 races here, and only once has the race been won from the pole in those 10 races. The sweet spot for winning this race seems to be in the 9 to 19 range. That range has been the winning range in 8 of the last 10 races here. There were only 4 cautions in both races here last season, but there have been at least 6 cautions in 6 of the last 10 races here. In the spring race last season, 30 of the 38 cars finished on the lead lap, and no driver that started inside the top 10 was in the optimal. In the fall, 22 cars finished on the lead lap, and no drivers that started inside the top 10 were in the optimal. I’ll be using recent Talladega data, Daytona/Talladega data, recent speed data, and a few other things when building lineups.

NASCAR DFS Picks: Jack Link’s 500

The stages are 60, 60, and 68, which is a total of 188 laps. With 188 laps, we’re looking at 18.8 laps led and 18.8 laps completed points on FanDuel. On DraftKings, we’re looking at 84.6 potential fastest lap points and 47 laps led points. The fuel window is 39 to 45 laps, which means we will have green flag stops in the stages unless there are some cautions. We’ve had fuel savings the last few superspeedways, which has changed how drivers approach these races.