Friday night will see the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series return to Nashville Superspeedway for the Rackley Roofing 200. You can build NASCAR DFS lineups on DraftKings for tonight's race. Ryan Preece won this race a year ago in the 17-truck for DGR and this team is also coming off a win last week at Knoxville with Todd Gilliland behind the wheel. This race is also significant because it’s really a final push to the playoffs so no full-time Cup drivers will be in the remaining Truck Series races up until the playoffs. Nearly half the races this year have been won by non-playoff-eligible drivers so this is an opportunity for some drivers to lock in their spot in the playoffs. So no Kyle Busch, no Alex Bowman, no Austin Dillon, etc. We’re due for some quality racing in the Truck Series over the next few weeks so let’s dive into some strategies to consider with today’s NASCAR DFS top picks on DraftKings.

 

 

NASCAR DFS Playbook

We get 150 laps for tonight’s race broken in 45-50-55 lap segments. I don’t know why they didn’t just do 50 laps for each stage, but the trucks will get an extra set of tires compared to the Xfinity and Cup Series. The idea is that there isn’t enough rubber laid down in time for Friday night’s race so NASCAR is affording the Truck Series an extra set. The track will also be cooling off throughout the evening since they’re set to go green around 8:19pm ET.

We will have roughly 100 dominator points to target in tonight’s race. Keep in mind, it’s pretty tough to pass here. As Matt and I discussed on the latest NASCAR DFS Podcast we only saw about 8.8 green flag passes per lap in last year’s Cup race. For the trucks we only saw 8.2, but we also saw plenty of cautions which can shake up pit strategy. It’s okay to target PD drivers starting outside the top 25, but do understand it may take a while for them to move up to the front. Be patient as the race unfolds. 

In last year’s race there were five drivers that gained over ten spots of PD and three of them included Todd Gilliland (Started P35, Finished 2nd), John Hunter Nemechek (Started P34, Finished 10th), and Tanner Gray (Started P36, Finished 18th). When you get those three starting at the rear they’re going to be obvious chalk and they should move up from those spots given what we know about the equipment. We also saw three different drivers lead over 35 laps: Grant Enfinger (Started P4, Finished 3rd), Chandler Smith (Started P5, Finished 13th), and Derek Kraus (Started P1, Finished 35th after cutting a tire and getting in the wall) so it’s viable to deploy a multiple-dominator approach tonight.

Practice and Qualifying will start around 4:00pm ET so we won’t know the official starting lineup until roughly 5:00-5:15pm ET. So tonight I won’t be doing Example Lineups in the Discord, I’ll post Core Plays. For a more elaborate explanation on that, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Driver Pool

Zane Smith ($11,100) – Zane posted the third-best driver rating at this race a year ago with a 114.1 score when he started P9 and finished 4th with seven fastest laps. We’ve seen Zane win on actual superspeedways, road courses, and intermediates this year. We get win equity here and he’s safe for a top five. Zane finished fourth here a year ago while Todd Gilliland managed a runner-up finished in this exact same ride. Depending on who you talk to, some will say Nashville runs more like an intermediate, which I can see why. Zane has performed as one of the better drivers on intermediates this year and should roll off fast this evening. 

Chandler Smith ($10,800) – It might surprise people that I’m not featuring JHN as the top KBM driver tonight. Look, I’m going to have JHN in a couple builds. If he’s fast in practice and qualifies well then I’ll obviously plug him in. He has a good floor, but we’ve only really seen him dominate one race. I’m going to pivot to Smith who has shown great speed in the last few races. He finished third at Gateway while collecting 20 dominator points. He also won Vegas earlier in the year so that only helps the argument for his prowess on intermediates. UPDATE: Smith qualified P6 while JHN qualified P11.

Ben Rhodes ($10,500) - Didn't want to include everybody in the top tier, but Rhodes qualified P15 so from a PD range he's a decent play but it wouldn't hurt if he also grabbed some dominator points as well.

Ryan Preece ($10,200) – Preece managed to win this race a year ago after starting P6 but he didn’t win it in dominating fashion. However, he was running toward the front for most of that race and we know this truck is good enough to win races, it just depends on the driver. Todd Gilliland won last week’s race in Iowa in this race and we saw Preece get to victory lane in this ride one year ago. The floor is pretty safe with Preece but don’t view him as a PD target. You should deploy him as a dominator with win equity. In five races this year he hasn’t finished worse than 11th and he had a 121.4 driver rating in this race last summer. UPDATE: Preece is on the pole. Love him for GPP's since he could collect dominators and win the race as well. Think he's okay for Cash games as well.

Christian Eckes ($9,600) – It was a toss-up between Stewart Friesen who is just $200 more, and Christian Eckes. This is the best version we’ve seen of Friesen but I think ownership lands on him more so I do like Eckes as more of a pivot. Eckes busted at Sonoma as I was looking great and winning the Happy Hour with him in my build and then he went out and had a so-so day at Knoxville. But we’re off road courses and dirt and back on a tri-oval. Eckes had a ton of momentum heading into Sonoma with top five finishes in five of six races leading into the quick West coast swing. He was 2nd at Gateway, 4th at Charlotte, 2nd at Texas, and 5th at Kansas. 

Corey Heim ($9,400) – Heim is definitely one of the more difficult drivers to gauge, but at this point you should probably get some exposure in GPP’s. Heim is a part-time driver for KBM and he has the luxury of being in Kyle Busch’s 51-truck. Heim won Atlanta and Gateway, but in the four other races he has three finishes outside the top 20. There’s win equity and dominator potential here, but he could also negate all that by finishing outside the top 20. This is strictly a GPP play but if we consider Gateway a comparable track then we can take some comfort in knowing he won that race three weeks ago. UPDATE: Qualified P4. Only playing him in GPP's tonight.

Ty Majeski ($9,200) – It’s becoming increasingly difficult to fade Majeski. He has the upside to finish top five, but I also think there’s win equity despite the fact he hasn’t won this year. Hell, half the Truck races have been won by drivers that aren’t eligible for the Camping World Truck Series Playoffs. With that said, Majeski is currently leading drivers who haven’t qualified for the playoffs in points. He’s just a disciplined driver that can get this ride to victory lane, but he just needs to be on the right pit strategy in stage three. He didn’t have a great finish a few weeks ago at Gateway, but he’s grabbed top fives on dirt, intermediates, road courses, and all other kinds of tracks this year. I’m going to assume he shows up with speed and the right setup and will likely aim to be overweight on him for Friday’s race. 

Carson Hocevar ($8,900) – The kid is talented. He goes out with speed each week and collects dominator points. We just haven’t seen consistent finishes. He’s second to Zane Smith in laps led on intermediates this year and how fitting would it be if he somehow edged out Ryan Preece to get his first win? DraftKings is slowly dropping his price tag because of the late-race wrecks. He should be more than $9,000 but you can build a fairly balanced lineup featuring him as a dominator. You just need a good finish out of him. UPDATE: Hocevar qualified P3. Good starting spot. Likely just a GPP play if we are trying to account for late-stage bad luck.

Grant Enfinger ($8,700) – Are you all sick of hearing about Enfinger yet? If so, just let me know. I can’t promise that I’ll stop writing about him but let’s be honest, there is win equity here and in this equipment he should be priced a little more. He was a bit of a bust at Sonoma, but I still believe he provides a good floor so I like him enough for Cash games while also getting exposure in GPP’s because he does have win equity here. In this race a year ago he started P4 and finished third with 39 laps led and 16 fastest laps. I don’t care where he starts, but I won’t hate it if he qualifies outside the top ten.

Matt Crafton ($8,500) – If you’ve paid attention to my commentary on Crafton the last few weeks, I begin to think he’s becoming more of a Michael Annett-type driver at this point in his career. He’s a good driver in great equipment. There’s no arguing the equipment, but he has just one win since 2018. It’s clear the talent has caught up with him in this series. He started P11 and finished 12th at Gateway a few weeks ago, but he has performed well on tri-ovals this year. The mid-range price tag makes him an easy play if you’re looking for a guy with a 35-40 point floor. UPDATE: Qualified P19 so he's perfectly fine in Cash and GPP Tournaments. Like I said, he's good for a top ten finish, but I'm not investing in him as a winner anymore.

Parker Kligerman ($8,300) – Pretty fair price tag for a driver that can lock in roughly 40 points for our lineups. Kligerman should probably be a couple hundred bucks more, but we won’t complain about the discount. We’ll take advantage of it instead. My lone concern with Kligerman for tonight’s race is that we haven’t seen him drive on a comparable track this year, but he’s a veteran who shouldn’t have issues on a track like Nashville’s. If you need a pivot off Kligerman I think Derek Kraus ($8,100) is in play. Kraus is flirting with the playoff bubble and he’s teased us with some very impressive runs lately. He scored the pole for this race a year ago, but as mentioned earlier he cut a tire and his night ended early. I’m curious as to where he qualifies, but I might get a few shares in GPP’s. UPDATE: Qualified P24 so very much in play. As for Kraus, he qualified P5 and had the fifth-fastest speed in practice. I am very interested in playing him in GPP's. He's been much more consistent and running up front lately.

Matt DiBenedetto ($7,800) – It’s once again too cheap of a price tag for Matty D. The equipment isn’t great, but he doesn’t seem to mind. This more of a traditional intermediate style track. It’s just a little bit shorter with less banking. But this does strike me as the kind of track he can perform well on. He started P16 at Gateway and finished 6th for 43 points on DraftKings just three weeks ago. I’m hoping he qualifies around P15, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him in the top ten with no Cup Series drivers this week. At other tri-ovals like Kansas and Vegas, he managed to grab top ten finishes. As an added bonus, his team is sponsoring the race so you know he wants to show up and run well. UPDATE: He qualified inside the top ten. I still like him at this price tag to basically finish in that range, but he carries some risk if he goes backward. GPP play. You can pivot to Tanner Gray who is $200 cheaper and starting outside the top 20.

Hailie Deegan ($7,200) – If we’re looking purely at small sample sizes then this track shapes up to favor Deegan. She’s coming off a top 15 finishes at Knoxville last week and she was top 15 at Gateway a few weeks ago. She also finished 7th at Gateway in 2021 and she was top 20 last year at Richmond and Phoenix in 2021, and she’s had solid runs at Kansas and other intermediates. Not a ton to work off of, but I’m not writing her off ahead of P&Q just yet. UPDATE: Likely fading Deegan since she's starting in the top 15. I may play her in one or two GPP lineups, but I'm not optimistic about her finishing in the top 15.

Todd Bodine ($7,000) – Bodine does not have much win equity but I like the price tag for Cash games assuming he can stay clean. Strangely enough, Bodine might have the most experience in the field at this track given that the Truck Series ran Nashville in the early 2000’s when Bodine was at the ripe age of… Maybe 47? Either way, he did win here in 2010 and in nine races at Nashville he has seven finishes of 8th or better. Nobody expects him to win this race, but I like him as a relatively safe play to gain some PD no matter where he starts. He’s really only had one “bad” race this race in terms of DFS, but he has a pair of top 15’s in four races this year as well. UPDATE: Qualified outside the top 30 so in play for all formats. Should be hitting value with a top 18 finish which we've seen him do.

Jack Wood ($6,600) – Mark my word, THIS will be the week Jack Wood returns to being Jack Wood. As a $6K play, Wood has been hitting value the last three races. He finished 21st last week, 16th at Sonoma, and 19th at Gateway and these came after poor qualifying sessions. Wood is in great equipment and at this price tag, the equipment is certainly worth it. He finished 11th in this race a year ago with 13 fastest laps. I don’t think we see that kind of performance, but he could once again exceed 6X value if he qualifies poorly. I know if I go too heavy on him he’ll be a bust so once again, keep expectations in check. But with the way he’s trending and the momentum he has, I just feel like he could kill our lineups tonight if he’s too obvious of a play. UPDATE: Wood showed speed in practice and qualifying as he'll roll off P10. He's mostly a GPP play at this starting spot.

Tate Fogleman ($6,400) – Fogleman is always risky, but he does have a shot at cracking the top 20. The problem with Fogleman is that when he’s obvious chalk, he tends to bust. He grabbed a top 15 at Vegas earlier in the year, and he was 20th at Kansas, then 22nd at Texas. Three weeks ago at Gateway he started outside the top 30 and then finished 21st. Exposure will depend on where he qualifies but this shapes up to be a good race for him if he doesn’t screw the pooch. I also think that Timmy Hill ($6,300) and Lawless Alan ($6,200) are viable in this range too. Hill is a fringe top 20 driver who can move up about five or six spots depending on where he starts so he’s usually safe for about 25-30 points. He’s not breaking the slate at that price, but he’s not killing your build either. Alan comes with a little more variance since he’s younger but he finished 18th at Gateway and he’s been an okay option on intermediates this year. UPDATE: Fogleman did not qualify for tonight's race. Normally I would delete the write-up entirely but I'm keeping it in since I still think they're in play.

Jesse Little ($5,300) – At this price tag, we’ve seen Little pay off but keep in mind his larger returns were at Daytona and Atlanta’s reconfiguration. But if we’re discussing shorter, flat traffics he was top 20 at Gateway a few weeks ago. This isn’t a great play by any means and if he qualifies too high then we have to lighten exposure. UPDATE: Qualified just inside the top 20. My opinion hasn't really changed. He's always been a GPP target.

Max Gutierrez ($5,200) – I don’t think we should be falling over ourselves rushing to roster Gutierrez on Friday night. He’s only run one race in 2022 and it was for the same team at Charlotte where he finished 26th. But this is back-marker territory so if you can get 4X in this range, then take it. He’ll be in Austin Wayne Self’s truck while he’s still away celebrating being a new dad. I’m going to assume Gutierrez starts outside the top 25 and if that’s the case, I’m fine getting some exposure here. Gutierrez has been pulling off some solid performances in the ARCA Series so if he can get a clean run and get some PD, I think he’s viable but let’s see where he qualifies. UPDATE: He qualified P17 which is very impressive, but he might be worth fading since his qualifying time was disallowed for the truck being too low.

There are some new names in the value tier so once I get my eyes on them in practice and qualifying I’ll add any updates in red per usual.

Example Lineups/Core Plays

If you listened to this week’s podcast, you’ll know my distaste with this weekend’s schedule. Practice & Qualifying for both the Truck Series and Xfinity Series provide us with a very tight window for the accompanying races. For the Truck Series we get P&Q at 4:00pm and 4:30pm ET. That gives us about three hours to finalize lineups before the race goes green shortly after 8:00pm ET. So instead of doing Example Lineups, I will post Core Plays in the NASCAR DFS Discord channel. Between qualifying and Friday’s race, I have about three hours to update the Playbook and finalize my own builds while also performing the duties of my full-time job because I do anticipate working late on Friday. If I had a bigger window, I would provide Example Lineups and going forward, on days where I have plenty of time to think on EL’s then I will most certainly provide them. But for the Truck and Xfinity Series, the shorter window isn’t doing me any favors so I’ll only provide Core Plays ahead of Friday and Saturday’s races.

 

 

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