Enjoy Illinois 300 DFS Picks: Gateway DraftKings and FanDuel
A flat 1.25-mile egg where the pole sitter is heavy chalk. Here is how to attack Gateway on DraftKings and FanDuel.
The Chase heads to Madison, Illinois for round two at World Wide Technology Raceway, the flat 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval just outside St. Louis. With 11 degrees of banking in Turns 1 and 2 and nine in Turns 3 and 4, the track offers multiple grooves and rewards track position over a 240-lap run. This week the story starts on the pole, where Joey Logano turned a monster qualifying lap into the most popular play on the board.
The dominators
Over 240 laps on a flat mile-and-a-quarter, laps led and fastest laps are worth a fortune, and the fastest cars all start up front.
MEGA CHALK
Logano rolls off the pole with a field-high 47.6 projected laps led and 28.8 fastest laps, a 55.5-point ceiling, and he won the inaugural Gateway race in 2022 with four top-fives in four starts here. The catch is enormous ownership: at 72 percent he is the heaviest chalk we have seen all year. A near-lock for cash, but he wins you nothing in tournaments unless the rest of your lineup is right.
BEST NON-CHALK
The fastest car in practice, both on a single lap and on the ten-lap average. Blaney starts third with 18.9 projected laps led at 27 percent owned, the best combination of speed and manageable ownership on the board. The dominator to build around if you are fading Logano.
LEVERAGE DOMINATOR
The leverage play in the elite tier. Larson qualified second with the field-second laps-led projection, yet sits at just 19 percent owned. Front-running speed at a fraction of Logano’s ownership. If he leads laps, he is a tournament separator.
UNDEROWNED SPEED
Bell starts fourth with 16.9 projected laps led at 23 percent owned. Elite speed and a secondary dominator path, a strong pivot off the chalk if he can run up front early.
The deep place-differential plays
TOP PD VALUE
The best passing points on the board. SVG starts 35th, nearly last, with a +11.5 place-differential projection and a strong value. The road-course ace has quietly improved on ovals, and from that deep the finish math is excellent. A core value that funds the dominators.
CHASE DRIVER DEEP
One of only two Chase drivers starting outside the top 20, so the passing points are real. Byron starts 24th with a +8.3 place-differential and a 39.3 projection. Chalky at 37 percent, but the combination of speed and a deep start is the reliable way to score.
BALANCED
The lone Toyota in the top ten of practice, so the speed is there. Reddick starts 18th with a small positive place-differential and a balanced profile, a solid mid-tier climber at 26 percent.
Where the leverage is
LOWEST-OWNED FRONT
The lowest-owned front-runner on the board. Briscoe won the pole here in 2022, so he has the pedigree to run up front, and he starts fifth projecting 9.9 laps led at just 9 percent owned. A pure laps-led leverage dart that almost nobody will have.
PEDIGREE PIVOT
The defending race winner, who last year won the pole, led the most laps, set the fastest lap, and took the checkered flag. He starts tenth this year off the pole, an unusual spot for a driver who owns this track, and at 27 percent he is a strong pedigree pivot if he climbs back to the front.
CHEAP LEVERAGE
A leverage play from ninth at just 13 percent owned. Front-running speed with a modest projection, an underowned pivot that differentiates a lineup if he holds track position.
How to build it
Cash game core
Tournament build
Contrarian angle
The bottom line
Gateway comes down to one question: what do you do with Joey Logano? At 72 percent owned he is the heaviest chalk of the year, with the ceiling to justify it and the ownership to sink your leverage. In cash, play him. In tournaments, the edge is in the pivots, Blaney and Larson for laps led, SVG and Byron climbing from deep, and the 9-percent Briscoe as the dart nobody else has. Then remember it is a flat egg where track position is everything, so a well-timed caution can reshuffle the whole board.