NASCAR DFS Pit Stop: Truck Series Phoenix – Championship Race 11/5

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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.

Thank you!

As this is the last race for all three NASCAR series’ this weekend I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for reading my article throughout the season. I also want to thank everyone for interacting with me in discord each and every weekend and for making this our best season ever. I will miss the races each weekend, but luckily NASCAR has an incredibly short offseason and we will be back on Sunday, February 6th for the NASCAR Clash from the Los Angeles Coliseum! Hopefully, GravMatt52 and IDrago15 are able to get tickets and get to enjoy the show!

On with the show!

Phoenix is a short flat track that runs similar to Richmond and New Hampshire so those are two places where we can look at results to see how drivers ran in conjunction with Phoenix. Outside of those two tracks and since the Truck Series hasn’t run at Phoenix or New Hampshire in 2021, we can also use Nashville as a similar track type. Looking back at this race last season, Sheldon Creed won the race and the championship. Coming in second was Zane Smith which definitely bumps up his chances for the championship on Friday night. Obviously, John Hunter Nemechek is the favorite in this race because he has run well at practically every track this season and he also won the Richmond race in 2021.

This weekend all three races will have traditional practice and qualifying so the articles will be a little different since I don’t have starting position at the time of writing. I will update either the article, in discord or both after Truck Series qualifying later this afternoon (5:05 pm EDT). I have added a separate section to break down the Championship 4 for this weekend as well. I believe that the winner of this race will be one of those four drivers so I plan on rostering 1-2 in each lineup. Depending on how they qualify, I could see trying to cram three of them into some lineups as well.

As with every week, each tier of drivers is listed in order of preference

NASCAR DFS: Championship 4

(Ranked in salary order)

John Hunter Nemechek ($10,800) – Practice speed ranking: 9th

Zane Smith ($10,400) – Practice speed ranking: 12th

Ben Rhodes ($10,200) – Practice speed ranking: 5th

Matt Crafton ($10,000) – Practice speed ranking: 18th

Like I mentioned in the open, Nemechek is the favorite in this race followed by Smith for me. Last week, Zane Smith won his way into the championship race but it was not a fluke. Smith is a solid young driver in great equipment and should not be taken lightly on Friday night. Earlier this season at Nashville, Smith finished 4th and as I mentioned in the open he finished 2nd here in his only race at Phoenix last season. At Richmond, Zane has finishes of 11th and 14th, but despite not being as good as his Nashville and Phoenix finishes they are good finishes. Rhodes is probably the worst of the championship when it comes to Phoenix, and by that I mean he’s the only one without a top 3 finish. Rhodes may not have a top 3 finish, but he does have two top 5’s and three top 10’s. Last season Rhodes finished 7th in this race and in 2019 he came home 4th.

In 2019, Matt Crafton won the Truck Series title without winning a single race, and in 2021 he will be looking to repeat that performance (unless he wins on Friday). Crafton is the longest-tenured and most experienced driver in the Championship 4 and is the only one with a previous championship (Three to be exact). Points don’t matter in this race so Crafton will probably bide his time and just try to avoid any possible damage and make a push to be the highest finisher of the four drivers in the hunt for the title. Make sure to check back after qualifying though because these four are NOT guaranteed to start in the top 4 spots so we could end up with some value here.

My prediction: Zane Smith wins this race and his first NASCAR championship

NASCAR DFS: Top Tier

Todd Gilliland ($9,800)

Practice speed ranking: 1st

Gilliland ran the fastest single lap in practice and has the second-best 5 lap average. In his career in the Truck Series, Gilliand has two top 10’s at Phoenix and hasn’t finished lower than 17th. Gilliland will probably qualify towards the front, which will lower his ownership. Between his speed in practice and his ability to run well at Phoenix and his 6th place finish at Richmond this season I think Gilliland is a top 5 driver this week.

Stewart Friesen ($9,500)

Practice speed ranking: 10th

Phoenix is one of Friesen’s best tracks and he should perform well here again on Friday night. Friesen has not finished lower than 6th in any of the previous four races here. Included in that string of great runs is his win in 2019 where he led 44 laps. Last season in this race, Friesen finished 6th.

Sheldon Creed ($10,600)

Practice speed ranking: 2nd

I know Creed is not happy not being able to defend his title in this race, but as he moves up to the Xfinity Series full time in 2022 nothing would make him happier than to end this season with a victory. If one of the Championship 4 does not win this race, it will be Creed who does. Creed won here in 2020 and led 27 laps in the process. Prior to that, he had finishes of 10th and 12th but the 24-year-old is now a more experienced and better driver than he was in those seasons. Creed is expensive, but he has a fast truck that will be towards the front most of the night and could easily come across first at the end of lap 150.

Other Options: Chandler Smith ($9,600), Grant Enfinger ($9,100)

NASCAR DFS: Mid Tier

Tanner Gray ($7,500)

Practice speed ranking: 6th

Gray has run two races here the past two seasons and he has finishes of 17th and 15th. Last week at Martinsville, Gray finished 3rd, his first top 5 on the season. Gray has a fast truck this week and if he qualifies in the teens he is a must-play because he has top 10 upside. I do think Gray will be semi-popular because of his low price and how well he fits with three dominator builds. I am willing to look past him potentially being chalky because of the upside Gray has combined with the fact we have other ways to get different.

Christian Eckes ($8,900)

Practice speed ranking: 7th

Eckes is back in the #98 for ThorSport on Friday and should be considered a top 10 threat in this race. This is Eckes’s third career race at Phoenix and he fared exceptionally well in his last two. In this race last season, Eckes finished 4th and in 2018 he finished 9th here. In practice on Friday, Eckes ran the 7th fastest single lap and had the 10th fastest 5 lap average.

Taylor Gray ($7,300)

Practice speed ranking: 11th

No, you’re not seeing things, both Tanner and Taylor make the list for Friday’s race. Taylor was also fast in practice like Tanner was on Friday. Gray had the 11th fastest single lap and was 9th best in 5 lap average speed. Taylor ran his fourth career Truck Series last week and finished 8th, his career-best. This #17 truck went to victory lane at Nashville earlier this season with Ryan Preece behind the wheel. I do not see that happening on Friday, but this truck is fast and if they run a similar setup to Nashville they should have a good finish.

Other Options: Ty Dillon ($8,100 – Practice rank: 17th), Jack Wood ($7,200 – Practice rank: 8th)

NASCAR DFS: Value Tier

1. Austin Wayne Self ($6,000)
2. Spencer Boyd ($4,600)
3. Tyler Hill ($5,600)
4. Jordan Anderson ($6,800)
5. Lawless Alan ($6,500)
6. Cory Roper ($5,900)
7. Dean Thompson ($5,000)
8. Willie Allen ($5,600)

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