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Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Truck series for the 2021 season! If you’ve been with us before then, you know the drill, but welcome if you are new to WinDaily Sports or my NASCAR content! I break down the field each week and give you my favorite plays for each race in three different price categories.
Make sure to check out my NASCAR DFS Tutorial to make sure you are ready and understand how I break down the races and build lineups (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-pit-stop-2021-introduction-to-nascar-dfs/). You will notice that all pricing is for DraftKings in these articles since they are the only site with contests for all three series (Trucks, Xfinity, Cup) and the site I mainly play on. All plays in the Cup Series article will translate to FanDuel if that is where you play.
Trucks Series finally returns to the track!
After nearly a month off, the Truck Series is finally back on the track in Martinsville for the final race before the Championship Finale in Phoenix next week. Looking at this week though, we have a race with 200 laps which is rare for the Truck Series. Because we have a short track with a lot of laps we will want to focus on getting dominators into our builds first this week and then search for value and mid-tier to fill in. There are the usual suspects at the top of the starting grid, but there is one driver that will probably get overlooked that could lead a lot of laps and potentially win this race.
Another thing about the field for this race is we have a few young drivers in great trucks that I will also want to have exposure to. Unfortunately, the value tier is not great this week, again, but I think some decent plays won’t hurt us too badly and will help us fit the high-priced drivers we need on Saturday.
As with every week, each tier of drivers is listed in order of preference
NASCAR DFS: Top Tier
I am going to just get this part out of the way now, both John Hunter Nemechek ($10,600 – P1) and Sheldon Creed ($10,300 – P4) are tops on my list of drivers. Both of these two were the class of the series in 2021 and should both lead their fair share of laps on Saturday. I want to have exposure to both in my builds and If you are playing one lineup then you need to decide which one you want. Both have a great shot at the win and it comes down to what salary fits your build. My preferred driver would be JHN because I think he takes the lead from the start and holds it for the first 50 laps.
Grant Enfinger ($9,700)
Starting Position: 15th
Enfinger is back in the #98 for ThorSport Racing this week, a truck he has been excellent in this season. Enfinger has been in this truck eleven times this season and if you remove his 21st place finish at Talladega (wrecked) he has an average finish of 5.8 in the other ten races and hasn’t finished lower than 11th in any race. There is a downside to Enfinger this week, he is too cheap. Enfinger will most likely be one of, If not, the highest owned drivers this week, but like I say every week, there is good chalk in NASCAR and Enfinger fits the bill this week. Enfinger won this race last season in the 98 truck and has four top 10’s and three top 5’s in the last five races.
Josh Berry ($11,300)
Starting Position: 25th
Saturday’s race will be Berry’s 9th race in the #25 truck (10th overall) and he has done extremely well in this truck. Berry has not finished outside the top 20 if you remove his one race (Knoxville) where he wrecked. This race was also the dirt track so it’s really hard to count that anyway. In those 7 races, Berry has an average finish of 13.4 and has five top 15 finishes. Berry will not be a threat to win this race and won’t lead laps but he should give some great place differential and should be low owned because of his price.
Zane Smith ($9,500)
Starting Position: 9th
Zane Smith has only run one race here at Martinsville in the Truck Series and in that one race, he finished 3rd. Smith is a nice complimentary piece to any Creed or Nemechek lineups because of his cheap salary. Besides his low salary for the potential top 5 upside, I also believe Smith will not carry much ownership. With drivers like Berry and Kligerman having such huge upside, people will flock to them and will not be able to roster Smith. Over his last two races, Smith has not fared well. But before that, Smith had a run of eight top 10’s in ten races.
Other Options: Johnny Sauter ($10,900 – P22), Parker Kligerman ($11,500 – P30), Chandler Smith ($9,200 – P6)
NASCAR DFS: Mid Tier
Taylor Gray ($8,800)
Starting Position: 39th
The younger Gray brother will also most likely be chalky on Saturday but he is also good chalk. Now, there is a chance he doesn’t carry too much ownership because people will likely flock to the PD of Kligermand and/or Berry because of the name-value there. Gray has run three races in this truck with his best finish being a 12th place finish at Gateway. Overall, this #17 truck has been a solid ride all season with four top 12 finishes, including a win by Ryan Preece at Nashville. I see Gray as a low 20’s to high teens driver on Saturday.
Corey Heim ($8,600)
Starting Position: 28th
Heim is an all-star driver in the ARCA Series and the 19-year-old will be getting only his third run in a Truck Series race on Saturday. This will also be Heim’s third run in the Kyle Busch Motorsports #51 truck where he hasn’t been great yet. In his first race at Darlington, Heim wrecked late and finished 23rd, and then at Watkins Glen, he had a better finish, 18th. I expect Heim to keep learning and just trying to gain experience, but a top 20 is likely as long as he can keep the truck on the track Saturday.
Ben Rhodes ($8,000)
Starting Position: 3rd
Rhodes usually runs well at Martinsville, especially recently. In the last four races here, Rhodes has finished 2nd twice and fourth once with his only blemish being a 16th place finish at this race in 2019. Rhodes starts from 3rd which will most likely scare off plenty of people, but as I said, this is one of Rhodes’ best tracks and he should push both Nemechek and Creed for the lead early and will most likely be competing for the win on Saturday afternoon.
Other Options: Jack Wood ($7,500 – P34): Wood might be semi-popular, but he is cheap for his upside in this race. I will have some exposure to him to help get three top-tier drivers in. Stewart Friesen ($8,200 – P7), Austin Hill ($7,800), Matt Crafton ($8,400 – P5)
NASCAR DFS: Value Tier
- Colby Howard ($6,400) – P29: Big upside for low price. I really like this play today.
- Derek Kraus ($6,800) – P17: Consistent mid to high teens driver. Kraus does have a top 10 here
- Dawson Cram ($5,500) P33: Cram has run four Martinsville races in his career and has a low finish of 24th. All three of his other races were top 20. I really like this truck on Saturday and he should be low owned.
- Austin Wayne Self ($5,700) – P21: Self has run 6 races here and outside of his wrecks he has never finished lower than 23rd. I see top 20 upside for Self on Saturday with top 15 potential with attrition.
- Timmy Hill ($6,00) – P24: Hill is best in the Truck Series and he may get overlooked because of how poorly he runs in Xfinity and Cup. This is a top 20 truck weekly and Hill could drive it to a low teens finish.
- Chris Hacker ($6,300) – P37: Similar to Howard, Hacker has some good upside this week at a low salary.
- Bret Holmes ($6,100) – P20: His value is capped because of his starting position, but in GPP’s he could be a 5-10% play that gets someone a takedown if he avoids the potential carnage.
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