Watkins Glen Go Bowling At The Glen Fantasy NASCAR Confidence Rankings / Post Practice Predictions

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

On Sunday, NASCAR will be returning to Watkins Glen for the “Go Bowling At The Glen!” Watkins Glen is a high-speed road course where drivers have to get up on the wheel and race aggressively. Watkins Glen has been described as the “Superspeedway Of Road Courses.”

On Saturday, NASCAR practice was held. Teams had 25 minutes and keep in mind teams have different agendas. Make sure you check out our Watkins Glen Practice Notes, Watkins Glen Practice 5,10 and 15 Lap Averages and Watkins Glen Practice Speeds and 10-Lap Averages.

Here’s the Watkins Glen Qualifying Results/ Starting Lineup.

Watkins Glen Go Bowling At The Glen Full Field Fantasy Rankings

1) Shane van Gisbergen
Start 1st / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – High
Watkins Glen Outlook – Defending Watkins Glen champ, Shane van Gisbergen will be the driver to beat in the Go Bowling At The Glen. Since 2025 at road courses, SVG has the best Track Type Total Speed Ranking, 5-wins, a 1.9 average finish, a 3.2 average running position and the best Driver Rating by a wide margin. Also over that stretch, SVG’s won at every track not named COTA, so don’t hit the panic button about that race this spring where he finished 2nd. Last year, SVG finished 6th at COTA and then proceeded to win all the rest of the 2025 road course races. At Watkins Glen, SVG’s performed at a super-elite level and in the Next Gen, he ranks #1 for Speed Rankings, Driver Rating and Average Finish (1.5). Last year, SVG dominated and raced his way to victory lane with an 11.1 second margin of victory. In the race, SVG led 38 laps, earned the best Driver Rating, had the best average running position (4.0), had the best Total Speed Ranking and ranked as the fastest driver late in a run. In 2024, SVG was impressive and nearly raced his way to victory lane. In the race, SVG finished 2nd, had the 2nd best average running position (5.6) and earned the 2nd best Driver Rating. During an overtime restart, SVG shot to the lead (only led 1 lap) but then on the final lap, he slightly messed up in a turn and then Chris Buescher got around him for the win. In terms of speed analytics, SVG ranked #1 for Total Speed Rankings and Speed Late In A Run. In practice, SVG was a stopwatch standout, ranking #1 for 5,10 and 15-lap averages.
DraftKings $13,500/ FanDuel $14,500

Further Recommended Reading = Watkins Glen Finish Projections, DraftKings Watkins Glen Scoring Projections, FanDuel Watkins Glen Scoring Projections, Watkins Glen Next Gen Average Finishes, Watkins Glen Next Gen Speed Rankings, Watkins Glen Next Gen RPM

2) Christopher Bell
Start 8th / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – Medium
Watkins Glen Outlook – Christopher Bell, last year’s Watkins Glen runner-up finisher will be tough to beat in the Go Bowling At The Glen. Bell’s been elite here and he ranks among the premiere road course racers in NASCAR. Since 2025 at road courses, Bell has the 2nd best Track type Total Speed Ranking and over the combined races his average finish is 5.7. To begin the 2026 season on this track type, Bell finished 3rd at COTA. At Watkins Glen, Bell’s 4 for 5 at finishing in the top ten and minus 2024 his average finish is 5th. In the Next Gen, Bell has the 3rd best average finish (6.8), the 4th best Driver Rating and ranks 5th for Speed Rankings. Last year, Bell was stout and finished runner-up, passing Buescher for 2nd on the last lap. In the race, Bell started 9th, had the 5th best average running position (8.9), earned the 3rd best Driver Rating and had the 2nd best Total Speed Ranking. In 2024, Bell’s race was far from incident free and it’s actually a little surprising he finished 14th. In the race, Bell was involved in a lap #1 accident, had driven up to 13th on lap 58 but then just after that on lap 62, Austin Dillon spun him out while he was coming to pit road which dropped him back to the high 20’s in the running order. With multiple problems, don’t get carried away with takeaways for his afternoon. In addition to finishing 14th, Bell had the 19th best Driver Rating and the 20th best Total Speed Ranking. In 2023, Bell had a 5.4 average running position and then finished 4th overall. In terms of speed stats, Bell ranked as the fastest driver late in a run and had the 4th best Total Speed Ranking. In 2022, Bell started in the back but raced his way up to an 8th place finish. In terms of Total Speed Rankings, Bell ranked 8th. In 2021, Bell finished 7th but that’s actually an asterisk mark result. In the race, Bell started in the rear of the field, finished 2nd in Stage #2 and then in the final Stage while running in 2nd on lap 55 (90 lap race), Bell was spun which dropped him back to 10th. In the race, Bell had the 6th best Total Speed Ranking. In practice, Bell ranked 3rd for 5-lap averages.
DraftKings $10,000/ FanDuel $12,000

3) Connor Zilisch
Start 5th / Projected Finish Range 1-6 / Dominator Potential – Medium 
Watkins Glen Outlook – Rookie, Connor Zilisch is a road course racing phenom and at Watkins Glen, I wouldn’t be shocked if he wins. Zilisch has back-to-back O’Reilly series Watkins Glen wins and he’s already shown elite speed on the Cup level at road courses, but then something bad always happens, leading to a misleading result. Last year at Watkins Glen, Zilisch was going to compete on the Cup level but injured himself in victory lane the day before. What we do know is that Zilisch was fast in practice, ranking 3rd for both 10 and 15-lap averages. In practice, Zilisch ranked 8th for both 5 and 10-lap averages.
DraftKings $11,500/ FanDuel $13,000