Fantasy NASCAR DFS Picks on DraftKings for the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway

4th of July weekend brings NASCAR to a venue that is both brand-new and incredibly familiar.

Starting in 2001, the Cup Series held an annual race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, but a 2020 cancellation due to COVID-19 marked the unceremonious ending for the track. They opted to move to a race on a street course in downtown Chicago starting in 2023.

As the Next-Gen car has improved 1.5-mile racing, the venue is back. We've got 400 miles (and 267 laps) on deck from the slick, multi-groove race track that will transition from day to night as the race progresses.

The green flag for Sunday's race is expected to drop at 6:19 p.m. EST on TNT.

Every week, DraftKings Daily Fantasy has NASCAR contests for all three of the top touring series. Here are my favorite picks for Sunday's eero 400 at Chicagoland.

Chicagoland DraftKings NASCAR DFS Studs to Target

Denny Hamlin ($11,000)

There is literally nothing Denny Hamlin could have done at the race track this weekend to take himself out of consideration in all formats.

Hamlin has whooped the field on median speed, ranking first at three of the four 1.5-mile circuits this year. Charlotte (3rd) was the only exception. The owner of 23XII Racing has enjoyed the speed of Toyota at this track type all year.

The point leader was 4th in single-lap speeds and 7th over a 10-lap average in practice. That's bad news for the field when the #11 has been unbeatable deep into fuel runs -- well past the 20-lap mark:

Denny Hamlin has one of the best cars on the long run.

Steadily moved from eighth to third, running faster laps than Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. #NASCAR
— Dustin Albino (@DustinAlbino) April 12, 2026

He's easily first in my weighted speed rankings (2.2), and he'll start on pole, making it likely he'll add to his 361 laps led on 1.5-mile tracks this year.

Christopher Bell ($10,000)

Toyota will be immensely popular after occupying 6 of the top-10 single-lap speeds in practice. Christopher Bell might be one slightly under the radar.

Bell's nightmare season of luck -- including a broken wrist at Michigan -- has totally masked his speed at these circuits. He tied Hamlin for the fastest median speed ranking at Las Vegas, ranked 5th at Kansas, and slotted 7th at Charlotte, where he led 44 laps.

Given the injury, I'm not sure how hard the Oklahoman has run in practice at the new venue, ranking just 17th in single-lap speed. I just think a talented driver in the manufacteur du jour is a razor-sharp pivot in tournaments -- especially starting 6th.

Chicagoland DraftKings NASCAR DFS Mid Tier Picks

Chase Elliott ($9,500)

"Every Toyota" wouldn't make for a particularly interesting DFS helper, so I do want to shout out a Chevy.

Chase Elliott got a breakthrough win at a 1.5-mile track in Texas, but the high speeds there don't correlate well to Chicagoland. The other three 1.5-milers were solid, too, though. Elliott was 4th in median speed at Vegas and 4th at Kansas. His 19th-place ranking at Charlotte was a bit skewed by an accident:

Elliott has hit a bit of a summer slump, finishing outside of the top 10 in each race since a 7th-place effort at Nashville in May. A 1.5-mile track is a great spot to turn it around.

NASCAR's most popular driver was 14th in practice and will start 9th, which could yield a few place-differential points.

Bubba Wallace ($8,500)

In practice, you could make an argument that Bubba Wallace looked like the car to beat.

Wallace was 2nd in single-lap speeds and 5th over a 10-lap average. That's not entirely unprecedented for a guy who had a top-10 car at Las Vegas (7th) and Kansas (5th), according to median speed rankings.

For Bubba, it's really been feast or famine with fast cars but plenty of mistakes. Since that Kansas result, he's got three other top-10 finishes but also finished outside the top 20 at all other venues, including three on-track incidents.

Starting 8th, he'll have clean air to potentially avoid trouble. I wouldn't write him off as far as contending to win.

Chicagoland DraftKings NASCAR DFS Budget Plays

Corey Heim ($7,500)

Hamlin, Bell, and Wallace will be Toyota contenders. None are particularly indistinguishable from Corey Heim, though -- and his salary is significantly lower.

Heim won on a street course in San Diego two weeks ago, but that doesn't inspire as much hope for Chicagoland as his raw speed. He was 6th in single-lap speeds and 3rd over a 10-lap average in practice.

Even moreso than Wallace, the 23-year-old is an incident risk, though. His win at Coronado was his first top-10 of the season, crashing at both Charlotte and Nashville as recent intermediate tracks.

As you can tell, my process is largely based on speed. Heim has it. From 28th on the grid, he's absolutely a cash-game staple with upside to win the race.

Ryan Preece ($6,700)

We're counting down the weeks toward the playoffs, and Ryan Preece, 15th in the standings, is certainly counting every point. Luckily, the pursuit of stage points won't compromise his final finish at Chicagoland. We can play things straight up.

That's good news for a driver who has excelled at this track type this season. Preece's median speed rankings at Las Vegas (9th), Darlington (8th), Kansas (16th), and Charlotte (9th) are strong across the board. All of the tracks he's struggled at in this grouping, like Texas and Nashville, have much lower tire wear.

I don't need stellar practice times for a driver starting 20th, but it definitely wasn't a bad session. He was 19th in single-lap speeds and 13th over a 10-lap average.

With drivers like Erik Jones and Riley Herbst, in Toyotas, likely to be immensely popular in single-entry formats, a pivot to Preece's Ford could be sneaky.

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