NASCAR DFS Playbook: Rackley Roofing 200 Preview

NASCAR makes its return to Nashville Superspeedway this weekend and we’re kicking it off with Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 for the Truck series. We have 150 laps Friday night which means there are 115 dominator points on tap. That’s a fair amount for the Truck series so dominators are certainly in play. Additionally, we get practice and qualifying on the same day as the race. Practice is scheduled for 11:05am ET then qualifying is at 5:05pm and the race starts a little after 8:00pm ET. So I’m going to just offer up a few drivers to monitor going into practice. I’ll really base my lineups and decisions on how qualifying shapes up in comparison to practice so make sure you’re in the Discord and checking it throughout the day. I’ll mostly be in there all day but from 6:00-7:00pm ET tomorrow I will be driving home from work (I hope) but as soon as I get home I’ll jump back into the Discord to finalize my lineups and help you with yours. But I will add drivers to the pool following qualifying Friday morning.

Because we have practice and qualifying, I’m treating this as a normal week. I’m playing the Happy Hour, and a few single-entry contests. As of Thursday night I’m laying off Cash games, but depending on how qualifying shakes out I could change my mind. As far as track comparisons you can look at this a few different ways. It’s a 1.333-mile tri-oval with banking similar to Kansas and Las Vegas while the surface is similar to Dover and the track conditions could parallel Darlington. Ultimately, this track is just a shorter tri0-oval (by about 880 feet) so I’m mostly looking at those tracks but also Dover (for Xfinity since the Trucks don’t run Dover). The track has a similar length to Gateway, but the shape and surface are different, but the banking is slightly similar. Most of the field has never run here, but I’m not overly concerned about that since they’ll get some practice in. Matt Crafton and Johnny Sauter are the notable names that have experience here, as does Jennifer Jo Cobb and Clay Greenfield but we won’t be playing them very much, if at all.

Early Driver Pool

John Hunter Nemechek ($10,800) – He’s finished top five in every 1.5-mile tri-oval race this year and he won Texas, Charlotte, and Vegas while finishing third at Kansas. He’s an easy candidate to collect dominator points and he’s shown the upside to hit 6-7X value at this price tag. He’s a no-brainer this week.

Ross Chastain ($10,200) – Ross has been great this year when he has raced in the Truck series. He finished seventh at Atlanta, second at Kansas, and third at Texas before he was disqualified following post-race tech inspections. What’s made Chastain so appealing in the past was the PD without practice and qualifying. We may not have that luxury come Friday night so you may have to make some lineup calls if Chastain and JHN both qualify well.

Austin Hill ($10,000) - Hill has been pretty consistent on 1.5-mile tracks this year, he just doesn't have a win to show for it. He got the Bob Pockrass seal of approval earlier today as BP is taking Hill to win. Hill logged the sixth-fastest lap in practice and has four top five finishes at 1.5-mile tracks this year.

William Byron ($9,800) – I’m fascinated by the fact Byron in the Truck series is only $100 more than Byron in the Cup series this weekend. He’s in the 27-truck for Rackley W.A.R. or whatever the hell they’re called so you can imagine the equipment will be similar to what Josh Berry ran last week at Texas. Regardless of where he qualifies I’m buying into the driver over the equipment and won’t be shying away from Byron on Friday. 

Matt Crafton ($8,800) – Never hurts to get some exposure to a vet. He’s strung together some awful results lately, but I’ll value experience this weekend which is why… I’ll once again get some exposure to Johnny Sauter. Crafton has plenty of top ten finishes here and Sauter has a couple top five’s including a runner-up finish the last time they raced here a decade ago. Keep an eye on how they look in practice and qualifying.

Todd Gilliland ($8,600) – Todd has just been ripping off solid results lately. Given the Cup drivers that are in this field I’m thinking Todd goes under-owned and we get him at a fair price tag. I don’t want him to qualify outside the top 15 because that’ll be too chalky for people. But if he can qualify either just inside the top ten or 12 starting spots I’ll be happy to throw him into some builds given what he’s shown lately. He finished seventh last week at Texas and grabbed a top five at Charlotte, plus he led 17 laps at Darlington. He’s having a career year and I’m really liking him as a pre-practice driver to target.

Josh Berry ($8,300) – This seems a bit too cheap considering what he did last week at Texas. He started 33rd and finished 11th in this equipment so the upside is there. Even if he practices and qualifies well he can still pay off this price tag even in suspect equipment. 

Chandler Smith ($8,100) - Smith has been solid on intermedia tri-ovals this year as he's coming off back-to-back sixth-place finishes. He also looked pretty fast in practice as well so we're looking at a nice value plays for Smith. If he can manage the tirewear tonight it could be a strong performance for DFS.

Parker Kligerman ($7,900) – You can sometimes find Kligerman priced over $10K depending on where he’s starting, but this price tag is reasonable. It’ll still come down to where he qualifies, but he has top ten upside in the 75-truck. 

Ty Majeski ($7,100) – Majeski steps back into the 66-truck for ThorSport Racing and he falls into an interesting value range as he’s surrounded by drivers like Johnny Sauter, Carson Hocevar, Drew Dollar, Tyler Ankrum, Derek Kraus, and Tanner Gray. Majeski drove this truck to a seventh-place finish and will have the benefit of practice and qualifying this weekend. I’m also going to keep an eye on Tyler Ankrum. I really like the price tag and feel that he probably qualifies poorly to where he could be a nice value play as well. But for now, Majeski is that guy I’m targeting in this range.

Tanner Gray ($6,700) - We know Gray has the ability to safely procure a top 15 finish, but he has top ten upside as evidenced by speed in practice. I'm hoping he offers a little PD tonight, but not too much to where he turns into a chalk play. 

JJ Yeley ($6,600) – We’ve seen Yeley be a reliable source of PD in the Xfinity series and he steps into the 49-truck for CMI Motorsports. They don’t have a guaranteed spot so they will need to qualify for the race, but this is a nice price tag for a driver who should be able to navigate his way to a top 20, possibly top 15.

Jack Wood ($6,100) – I liked what I saw from Wood at Charlotte. He started 20th and finished 15th. He wasn’t amazing by any means, but it was a solid run. The thing you can take solace in here is you’re getting GMS equipment for cheap. So, you basically pick your poison between him and Chase Purdy. We finally got a good week out of Purdy at Texas and I’ll throw him into some builds this weekend. But I might be a little heavier on Wood.

Hailie Deegan ($5,800) – Deegan is currently as low as I want to go salary-wise and she’s looked far better than the price tag indicates. She was close to getting her first career top ten last week at Charlotte before an issue on pit road forced her to finish outside the top 20. She surprised me at COTA a few weeks back, a race where she also got practice and qualifying, and in general she’s looked solid and most comfortable on tri-ovals this year. 

Practice Results

Core Drivers

He isn’t in the core plays but Austin Hill is a phenomenal play as well given his performance on 1.5-mile tracks and he should get early dominator points. William Byron isn’t a “core play” for me tonight. But do not ignore the driver pedigree and the starting spot is still perfectly fine.