Following Denny Hamlin‘s victory in the Coca-Cola 600, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to World Wide Technology Raceway for its first-ever race there. Let’s dive into the track information NASCAR DFS drivers need to know, what to expect for this weekend’s running of the Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway and some early NASCAR fantasy picks.
NASCAR DFS Preview: 2022 Enjoy Illinois 300
World Wide Technology Raceway Information
- Track: World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway)
- Location: Madison, Illinois
- Length: 1.25-mile oval (asphalt)
- Banking: 11 degrees in turns one and two, nine degrees in turns three and four
- Dominator Points:
- DraftKings: 60 – laps led, 108 – fastest laps
- FanDuel: 24 – laps led
- Past winners: none, this is the inaugural Cup Series race at Gateway
- Betting favorite: Kyle Larson (+750)
- Enjoy Illinois 300 Entry List: 36 drivers, including J.J. Yeley (15), A.J. Allmendinger (16) and Josh Bilicki (77).
- Weather: High of 80, partly cloudy
- Watch: FOX
- Listen: MRN (MRN, NASCAR.com, NASCAR Sirius/XM Channel 90)
On Track Schedule (All Times Eastern)
- Friday, June 3
- 4 p.m.: practice (traditional 50 minutes in length)
- Saturday, June 4
- 10 a.m.: qualifying
- Sunday, June 5
- 3:30 p.m.: green flag (240 laps)
2022 Enjoy Illinois 300 DFS Picks
After one of the craziest, if not the craziest ever, Coca-Cola 600 races in recent memory, NASCAR heads to Illinois. However, this weekend’s events won’t be returning to Chicagoland, destined to be bulldozed and turned into industrial mix-use, but to World Wide Technology Raceway for the Enjoy Illinois 300.
After years of racing at this 1.25-mile, oblong-shaped oval in the Trucks Series, the Cup Series swaps out one of its former Pocono races for a weekend at WWTR — formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park. With this being an initial event at WWTR, this weekend’s schedule will resemble a pre-COVID weekend with 50 minutes of practice on Friday, qualifying on Saturday and racing on Sunday, as documented above. Thus, with 50 minutes of practice time at a relatively smaller track, there should be plenty of long-run data to gauge this weekend’s drivers against, which is very helpful when there is no Cup data to use and only a handful of drivers have any experience here in their former Trucks Series stints.
Shape-wise, this track looks oddly reminiscent of Darlington with its “egg-shaped” profile and near match in length, only off by 0.08 of a mile. However, that is where the comparisons end as Gateway’s banking is more similar to Richmond or Phoenix than Darlington. In fact, the highest the banking gets at WWTR is 11 degrees, in the first and second corners. Not to mention, these flat straightaways on the front and back stretches are good reminders of Martinsville. The better corollary for WWTR is a Martinsville-Phoenix hybrid or Martinsville-Richmond amalgamation.
Without any prior track history (unless one wants to take Truck history at WWTR into account or Xfinity races from more than a decade ago), the three races at Phoenix, Richmond and Martinsville should be gauged as per driver expectations for this weekend. However, what may end up being more important is how Friday’s practice plays out combined with where drivers qualify on Saturday. Passing has been incredibly tough at these shorter venues this season in the Generation 7 vehicle, and while Gateway provides more length for drivers to pass, don’t be shocked if the minimal banking and tight cornering in turns 3 through 4 don’t provide ample opportunity for drivers to maneuver past one another. Furthermore, while this is technically a shorter track, this will be a shorter race with just 240 laps on tap for Sunday. The laps could really start ticking off quickly and drivers might have to get desperate towards the end to make up any ground.
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