The Camping World Truck Series gets to roll through Darlington Friday night kicking off a great weekend of racing. We’ll get to see the usual Darlington throwback paint schemes for all three series including the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series. Additionally, it was also announced earlier in the week that Matt Kenseth and Kirk Shelmerdine will be inducted into the 2023 NASCAR Hall of Fame following Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s induction earlier this year, so congratulations to them! Darlington is considered a Crown Jewel race for NASCAR and rightfully so. Darlington Raceway is rich with NASCAR history and phenomenal finishes. Darlington is often considered the track too tough to tame, or the lady in black. You’ll see plenty of drivers scrape the wall and collect their Darlington stripe. Matt and I will have you covered all weekend with NASCAR DFS coverage and be on the lookout for the NASCAR DFS Projections and NASCAR DFS Rankings for Sunday’s Goodyear 400. Additionally, we have the 2022 F1 World Championship in Southern Florida for the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix and Matt will have you covered with the F1 DFS Top Plays. 

 


Darlington makes for some great racing. You’ll likely see plenty of replays on Twitter and TV of the 2003 finish between Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven…

Or the emotional win for Chase Briscoe over Kyle Busch during the 2020 Xfinity Series race…

Darlington is not an easy track. The turns at both ends of the track are not identical. One is tight than the other which gives Darlington it’s egg shape and allows for plenty of driver to run along the wall to generate speed and momentum coming out of the corners. It’s also an older surface that eats up tires so managing rubber is important this weekend.

Friday’s race is tough. We don’t know the starting order yet for the Truck Series and won’t have it until Friday afternoon giving us just a short period of time to get lineups set. Also, the weather isn’t looking great. Personally, I’m hoping it can get delayed to Saturday. I’m likely just going to play the Happy Hour contest on DraftKings. I’ve noted plenty of times how I just don’t trust this field and unless I have a lineup I absolutely love, I don’t like playing Cash Games for the trucks but we’ll see how the starting order shakes out. 

This race also launches the Truck Series into gear in my opinion. We’re almost three months into the season and we’ve only had six races. Two were (arguably) superspeedway races and one was Bristol Dirt. So when building your own driver pool/lineups, be considerate of some drivers you may think lowly of based on this year’s results. This race kicks off nine straight weeks of Truck Series action with their playoffs starting at the end of July. That’s right. Even when the Cup and Xfinity Series are off for Father’s Day weekend in June, the Trucks will still be racing in Knoxville. So dig in because we’re getting plenty of Truck races over the next two-to-three months.

Typically Darlington races can be a little heavy on the cautions. The trucks have only run Darlington three times in recent years. A year ago this race saw a dozen cautions for 66 laps. The last two Fall races at Darlington have seen eight and seven cautions respectively for 35 laps each. We’ll get 147 laps for Friday’s race broken into 45-45-57 segments for the stages. We have roughly 100 dominator points to work with so don’t hesitate to try and get more than one dominator in your builds.

PRACTICE RESULTS

Dead On Tools 200 Driver Pool

John Hunter Nemechek ($11,200) It was a rough start to the season for JHN, but he has turned it around with three straight finishes in the top-five. But at this price tag you either need significant PD out of him (in which case he becomes a very chalky option) or you need dominator points. He hasn’t really been provided much of the latter, but he’s still one of the more elite drivers in the field in some of the best equipment. He grabbed a pair of top-ten finishes in both Darlington races last year leading a combined 104 laps with 47 fastest laps. Update: Nemecheck is on the pole for tonight's race. If you refer to the notes I made at the bottom regarding the pole sitter you can feel pretty good about this play and he will most certainly be popular. 

Ross Chastain ($10,900) I’m not quite sure why Chastain is cheaper than JHN. Perhaps it’s because of the equipment? Chastain has two Cup Series wins this year and a handful of other top-five finishes at a higher level, so it must be the ride. Chastain will step back into Niece Motorsports equipment this weekend, but that’s not a huge deal. He should make the most of it. Chastain fares pretty well at high tire wear tracks. He finished third at Darlington last year in the Cup Series with CGR and he grabbed a top-15 in the Spring race as well. Although they’re shorter tracks, he had solid showings at both Richmond and Dover which are relatively high tire wear tracks. He may be using this race as practice for Sunday’s Cup Series race but that doesn’t mean he won’t put any effort towards trying to win. Update: P10 for Chastain so he's still a good play. He's fine for all formats.

Ben Rhodes ($10,600) Rhodes is rearing into championship form. He’s coming off a win at Bristol Dirt a few weeks ago and he’s now finished in the top-five in every race this year except Vegas where he was in a wreck. He’s also been collecting dominator points and if he starts on the front row he’ll be exceptionally popular in Cash and GPP contests. In last Fall’s race at Darlington he finished seven laps down after he was sandwiched between two other trucks during a wreck in stage two. He still technically finished, but wasn’t competitive by any means. In his other two races here he has a win and a runner-up finish so he should do well as long as h stays clean. Update: Not a great qualifying lap from Rhodes as he'll roll off P15.

Ryan Preece ($10,000) This is an expensive price tag for Preece. And because of that I might only prefer rostering him in Cash games. Can he win this race? Sure, he won Nashville last year with DGR and in two races this year he finished 7th (new Atlanta) and 4th (Vegas). If he qualifies well he’ll need to get you dominator points at this price tag. If he becomes a PD play then you’ll need to pay up for another dominator, which does cuff your salary management a bit. For what it’s worth, he’s Pockrass’s pick to win tonight. Update: Preece is rolling off P13 so he is offering up a little PD. A top five seems reasonable and he should log a few fastest laps as well. Good Cash game play tonight.

Chandler Smith ($9,800) - Smith is a late addition to the Playbook. He's starting P28 (missed his qualifying lap unfortunately) but he had top five speed in practice. He's a Cash game lock and he'll carry a lot of ownership in GPP's because of the PD.

Stewart Friesen ($9,300) - Friesen's fine in all formats. I do like him in GPP's as a pivot off Smith who will likely have more ownership. But he's good in Cash games as well. He finished third at Darlington last Fall.

Grant Enfinger ($9,100) Enfinger’s posted just solid results at Darlington. In three career races here he’s finished 6th, 5th, and 4th. At old Atlanta, he never finished worse than 11th with five top-ten finishes including a win back in 2020. He’s also run pretty well at Homestead with three top-ten finishes including a runner-up finish in 2018. He’s very strong at high tire wear tracks and he usually has one or two races each season where he pops up and gets to the front in stage three and scores the win. Update: Enfinger was second-fastest in practice and he's starting P3. He's a contrarian dominator candidate for tonight's action.

Parker Kligerman ($8,500) He’s not going to win the race, but I sure do love getting exposure to him when he does run. He’s run four races this year and posted 40+ DraftKings points twice. He ran both races at Darlington last year for Henderson Motorsports and finished 5th and 26th (due to a wreck). He has top-ten upside and usually comes with PD but keep an eye on where he qualifies on Friday. Update: Kligerman went out and qualified a little too high for Cash games, but he's not a complete fade in that format. I just prefer him more in GPP's. He just doesn't have the PD upside we normally see from him but he's still capable of finishing well.

Christian Eckes ($8,300) This seems a bit too cheap for Eckes. He should probably be closer to $9,000 in my opinion. We don’t have a massive sample size with Eckes, but there are some noteworthy results. In the Fall of 2020, he grabbed a top-five at Darlington with Kyle Busch Motorsports. At Miami, another high tire wear track, he finished 8th and 3rd with KBM while collecting some dominator points in both races. He also finished third at old Atlanta in 2020. The results this year have fluctuated a little bit, but this weekend’s race might play to Eckes’s strengths and he’s never a driver garnering a ton of ownership. Update: I'm only playing five lineups tonight and I'm tempted to play Eckes in all five. He does well on high tire wear tracks and he's starting P11. 

Matt DiBenedetto ($7,900) I’m aware of the struggles Matty D has had this year. His price opened at over $10,300 on DraftKings to start the year at Daytona and now he’s under $8,000. The equipment isn’t great, but if he is offering some PD he has appeal. He has experience at Darlington and there’s still top-10 to 15 upside with him. Can the car outlast the war of attrition? Sure, but there’s obviously less confidence compared to other teams. If the price tag keeps dropping I’ll take advantage of the discount, but won’t go crazy with how many lineups I throw him in. Update: He's starting too high for Cash games but he qualified P8. This is an opportunity for Matty D to move forward with a clean slate. The equipment is still risky, but he's an option in GPP's if he can finish in the top ten. If you can afford him, you can go up to Carson Hocevar who is a similar price and in a similar starting spot and at this point we likely have more faith in him finishing well.

Tanner Gray ($7,500) This is a great spot for Gray. He starts P17 and has top ten upside. It is worth mentioning this is not his best track as he hasn't finished in the top 20 in any of his three races here, but I do like the starting spot and chance to move up.

Chase Purdy ($7,100) I’m typically not someone who targets Purdy a lot in DFS. However, he’s done relatively well this year. He’s run five races and has four finishes in the top-16 and in each of those races he’s posted 32+ points on DraftKings. The HRE equipment is fine as we saw Austin Hill make the most of it last season. I’ll like this play even more if he starts outside the top-20. He ran both Darlington races last year wrecking in the first and finishing 15th in the Fall race. Update: Love Purdy starting P22. He's good for all formats and has top 15 upside.

Tate Fogleman ($6,700) Tate has the ability to move up ten spots from his starting position (P34) which wouldn't quite be 5X value, but it would get him close. Not a “lock & load” kind of guy but the floor is good enough for Cash games if he finishes the race.

Austin Wayne Self ($6,600) I am more than ready to have my heart broken and see my lineups bust due to AWS. Let’s start with the good, shall we? In three races at Darlington he’s finished 14th, 9th, and 17th gaining a little PD each time. At Homestead he’s logged a few top-20 finishes. We know he has top-15 upside if he runs clean. But he’s not coming in with great momentum with three straight finishes outside the top-25 after he started the year with three finishes in the top-13. It’s night and day. He’s as likely to help you into the green as he is to cost you money. But I do like the price tag for a driver with a decent resume here and if he offers PD then that helps his case even more. Update: I stepped away from my computer and missed his qualifying run. I was surprised he qualified P31 but it just opens AWS to more exposure. He's a good pay-down option in Cash games. Be mindful of your exposure in GPP's.

Timmy Hill ($6,400) I’m going to be brief with Hill because I’m not in love with the price tag. However, he does have a pair of top-ten finishes at Darlington in this 56-truck. Can he make it three in a row? I doubt it. Truthfully, I don’t think I’ll land on a lot of shares of Hill because if he is a chalky value play I’d rather spread my exposure elsewhere in this range based on qualifying. This is probably a top-25 ride, but I’m hesitant to call it top-20. For whatever reason, DK is raising the price on Hill and I don’t agree. But if we’re looking at his resume, he’s had solid runs here the last two years. Update: My feelings mostly remain unchanged on Hill. He's starting P24. He's fine for Cash games, but use your best judgment for GPP's. I just think too many folks will plug him in.

Danny Bohn ($5,600) Not sure how I missed this but Danny Bohn has finished top 20 in all three Truck Series races at Darlington and he's starting P29. The equipment is always a concern with Young's Motorsports so tread carefully.

Spencer Boyd ($4,900) Obviously no driver is safe in this range. I hate diving this low in the Truck Series because these drivers are so damn unreliable. But by Boyd’s standards, he’s only had one bad race this year and that came at Martinsville. In the other five races he’s posted at least 20 points on DraftKings and if you can get that kind of return in this range, take it and don’t complain. Update: He's starting P32 so he's a fine punt. I'd happily take 4X value if he finished 27th, but a top 25 almost gets him to 5X value.

Notes On The Driver Pool

So the driver pool is relatively shallow simply because we don’t know where everyone is starting. I love Friday night truck races to kick off the weekend, but this is a bit annoying. But you’re all smart, you know the drivers and strategies that catch our eye if they offer some PD. Derek Kraus is someone that could finish top-ten, but his price tag is now over $8,000 which I’m not crazy about. Targeting the driver on the pole has some weight as well. It’s a small sample size but in the last three races at Darlington the pole sitter has led a combined 232 laps with 87 fastest laps while finishing in the top-ten. Take that with a grain of salt because there was a lengthy period when the Truck Series didn’t race at Darlington. Tanner Gray is another driver to keep an eye on. He’s been relatively solid this season with the exception of Martinsville. I’ll also have updates on the more expensive drivers and potential dominators. I’m curious as to where Zane Smith qualifies. He’s been great this year and Todd Gilliland was solid at Darlington in this truck. But all in all, keep an ear to the ground and I’ll let you know in the Discord channel if/when updates have been made.

Dead On Tools 200 DraftKings Example Lineups

The Example Lineups will be posted separately around 6:00pm ET.

 

 

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