Atop The Pit Box

Chicagoland Recap : The hosts celebrate getting off the road courses and back onto an oval track, praising the compelling storylines and drama of the Chicagoland race. Fantasy Winners & Losers : Winners : Chase Briscoe takes the fantasy victory with a dominant $-6$ points performance, while Christopher Bell secures a solid 2 points despite nursing a broken wrist. Losers : Season-long dominator...

🏁 Sonoma Recap: The SVG Show & Reddick’s Disaster The Routine Restored: Commissioner Justin Norton returns to the booth after his bullpen replacement last week. The King of Road Courses: Shane van Gisbergen dominates Sonoma, storming from the back to score a massive -6 fantasy points for 69 managers. The Points Lead Flips: Regular-season leader Tyler Reddick suffers a brutal steering pump fai...

With Justin taking the week off, host Josh Rolfes brings Julian Austin ( Deez Lug Nutz ) out of the bullpen to break down the historic, tire-shredding chaos at Naval Base Coronado. The Track Action: Corey Heim claims a historic first win, while a brutal restart wreck derails SVG’s playoff bubble hopes and snaps Denny Hamlin's hot streak. Fantasy Market Report: Bubba Wallace and Zane Smith salv...

Standings & Driver Trends: The top four fantasy drivers remained perfectly locked (Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick), while Ty Gibbs bounced back into the top 5. Daniel Suarez was highlighted as the league's biggest overperformer. On the team side, Ms. Diddler and Rick Pedraza were called out as massive fallers, dragged down by poor performances from Brad Keselow...

Race Recap & Standings Denny Hamlin dominated the Michigan race and emerged as the undeniable fantasy winner, while drivers like Brad Keselowski and Ryan Preece acted as massive anchors for their teams with poor performances. For the season overall, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin continue to completely distance themselves from the rest of the league, leading a top five that also features Ryan Blaney...

Race Recap: Both Josh and Justin agreed that Nashville was the best and most exciting race of the season so far. Despite some complaints from other podcasts, they loved the late-race drama, cautions, and mechanical failures. Fantasy Winners: Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG) silenced the doubters about his oval track skills, delivering a 5-point finish and moving up to the 12th-best fantasy driver overall...

In this week's episode of Atop the Pit Box , Josh and Justin open with a heavy heart, reflecting on the tragic loss of Kyle Busch and detailing how the league rules will handle fantasy points and remaining swaps for the 21 teams still carrying him on their rosters. Transitioning to the track, the guys recap the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, discussing Daniel Suarez's huge win...

SVG came from 29 seconds back to win Watkins Glen and single-handedly saved what was otherwise a forgettable road course. Justin's brother-in-law witnessed his first NASCAR race, declared road courses exciting, and has no idea that was not normal. Fantasy winners: Ty Gibbs bounces back with a P3, silencing the swap talk and moving up to 6th. Michael McDowell delivers a P2 and climbs back to 22...

Josh and Justin are back after a race that felt a lot like the season itself: fine, but not quite fireworks. Chase Elliott took the win at Texas and Denny Hamlin finished second — which, as Josh cheerfully points out, is exactly how he wants every race to go. Justin is... less thrilled, but mostly because he was busy moving into a new house. On the fantasy side, Justin's winner is Daniel Suare...

Josh and Norton recap Talladega, where Carson Hocevar wins his first career race and delivers one of the most talked-about celebrations in recent memory — Josh missed it live and regrets every second. Hocevar is the Fantasy Winner at P1/-6 points, owned by just 42 teams (10.4% / 42 teams). Fantasy Loser is Kyle Larson, dead last at P40 with 229 teams (56.8% / 229 teams) feeling the pain. Norton ra...

We're a little late getting this one out — apologies for the delay — but Josh and Norton are back to recap what turned out to be a two-part Kansas recording after some brutal connection issues forced them to restart mid-episode. Tyler Reddick wins for the fifth time this season, and his average fantasy points per race somehow dropped again to 1.1 — the guys marvel at what his final number look...

Josh and Justin return from the bye week — one day late, because Norton delayed them — and immediately dive into a Bristol recap that had them competing with the Masters for screen time. The big story is Ty Gibbs winning for the first time in his career, ending his streak as the all-time laps-led-without-a-win leader at Bristol. Josh makes him the Fantasy Winner, noting that Gibbs went from dead l...

Josh and Justin open with a season-retrospective question — knowing what they know now, what would they have done differently? The answers: Reddick on everything, ditch Zilisch, and maybe think twice about Briscoe. From there, they recap a snooze-fest at Martinsville where Chase Elliott wins via pit strategy, Denny Hamlin dominates and finishes second (after walling Blaney), and Tyler Reddick post...

Josh and Justin recap a solid-but-not-spectacular Darlington race — they compare it to a "6 or 7 out of 10" and debate whether consistent good racing is better than the boom-bust cycle of duds and classics. On the fantasy side, Brad Keselowski steals the show as the clear Fantasy Winner, with two stage wins and a P2 finish pushing him to 4th in the driver standings — all with a broken femu...

Denny Hamlin put on a masterclass at Las Vegas, and fantasy teams with him are finally feeling it. Josh and Norton are back to break down a race that rewarded the patient and punished the impatient — five weeks in, the cream is officially rising to the top. The guys dig into a top 10 that got completely reshuffled, with four new teams crashing the party — including Tool Hangers and K-Stud making t...

Josh and Justin break down a genuinely great race at Phoenix — tire wear drama, strategic gambles, comers and goers — and all of it hit the fantasy standings like a wrecking ball. Ryan Blaney's -9 fantasy score is the best of the 2026 season so far, and the teams that had him shot up the charts while the teams that didn't tumbled. The guys dig into exactly who rose, who fell, and who is qu...

Josh and Norton break down the first road course of the NASCAR season at COTA, where Tyler Reddick scores his third straight win , holding off SVG and Christopher Bell in a surprisingly dominant performance from Reddick. They discuss the state of road courses in NASCAR, driver fatigue issues, and several cooling suit failures that impacted the field. On the fantasy side, Ty Gibbs , Michael McDowel...

Josh and Norton break down a massive leaderboard shift following the high-speed action at Echo Park Speedway, where the gap between the top contenders and the rest of the field is beginning to widen. They analyze how standout performances from drivers like Tyler Reddick are reshaping the standings, while high-priced favorites like Kyle Larson continue to struggle, leaving many managers searching f...

Josh and Norton break down the massive growth of the Atop the Pit Box Fantasy NASCAR League, including a record 403 entries and 63 rookies joining for 2026. They dive into roster trends-like Kyle Larson's league-leading ownership and Ryan Preece's surge as the most popular mid-tier pick-before recapping Daytona, highlighting fantasy winners and losers, and previewing next week's race a...

Julian and Jody from the Deez Lug Nutz podcast invited us on for our annual crossover episode to help get everyone geared up for another season of Atop The Pit Box Fantasy NASCAR. We break down the locks, spoilers, surprise picks, and the drivers you might want to avoid when setting your lineups. We also share our projected top four in points, reveal our early championship favorite, spotlight a su...

Now that NASCAR has announced its championship format, Josh and Nort break down what this means for our fantasy league.

This episode of the Atop the Pit Box Podcast breaks down the full 2026 Fantasy NASCAR driver values, from the elite 20‑point tier all the way through the mid‑pack contenders. Josh and Norton analyze last season’s stats, surprises, breakout candidates, and risky picks—highlighting who offers the best value and where the biggest debates will land. It’s the annual episode that stirs emotions, sets ex...

Josh and Norton launch season 9 with rule tweaks, strategy talk, playoff unknowns and the debut of a brand new live standings app that takes the league to the next level. Check us out at: https://atopthepitbox.com

Josh and Norton break down the Martinsville race and its impact on the Atop the Pit Bo Fantasy NASCAR League, highlighting standout performances and fantasy winners and losers. With the Final Four set and 24 teams heading to Phoenix, the championship showdown is on !

Josh and Norton break down the thrilling Kansas race, debate whether Denny Hamlin's controversial finish with Bubba Wallace was hard racing or just another excuse. They also crown the fantasy winners and losers of the week, review the movement in the league's top 10 standings, and preview the upcoming race at the Roval.