Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop breakdown for the Truck Series from Kansas! Matt Crafton ($8,400) has the distinction of being the only driver to have previously won at Kansas in the field for Saturday night’s race. Crafton is also the only driver to compete in all 23 previous Truck Series races at this track. Clearly, Crafton holds an experience advantage over the other drivers in the field, but that does not make him the automatic favorite. DraftKings did well to price up the top three drivers in the series this week making it nearly impossible to roster all three for this race. For more on this race, check out my weekend preview.
Stewart Friesen ($8,800) was stuck in Laguardia airport overnight as his flight was canceled to get into Kansas. Because of this, he missed practice and qualifying but hopes to be there for the race. As of this writing, Friesen had landed in Chicago and was waiting to get a flight to Kansas. Bubba Wallace did practice and qualify Friesen’s truck for him. I am only mentioning this because this truck was fast in practice and if for some reason Friesen cannot get to Kansas and Wallace does race this truck, he could be a great play (If DK adds him).
This is a pretty simple formula this week:
2 of the top 3 (JHN, Zane, Rhodes)
Then one of a group of 4-5 drivers right below them
1 mid-tier driver
2 value
As you read above, there is a group of three drivers that are dominating the series in 2022. This season, the combo of Ben Rhodes ($10.4), Zane Smith ($10.6), and John Hunter Nemechek ($11.3) have combined to win four of seven races this season. They have also finished with 12 top 5’s, and 15 top 10’s, and have led a combined 415 laps in 2022. I want to start any build today with two of these three drivers. Even though they are priced up they are worth the money. With Rhodes starting from P15 and being the cheapest of this group he will be the chalk. Rhodes was a top 5 truck in practice so there is no need to worry about him getting upfront. After Rhodes, Nemechek will probably be the next highest owned followed by Zane. Smith had the best truck in practice and will be hard to pass once he gets into clean air upfront. In cash, I would go Rhodes/JHN but in tournaments, I would switch Nemechek to Smith.
There is a group of four, or five, drivers that are just a little behind the top group mentioned above but are great compliments to those drivers.
Chandler Smith ($10,200 – P6) – Smith is just below that top echelon group and with a second win today could push himself into that group. In his two previous races at Kansas, Smith finished 5th and 11th. In practice on Saturday, the #18 Toyota Tundra showed speed and was 9th best in 10-lap average.
Carson Hocevar ($9,700 – P16) – Mr. 2nd Place, Carson Hocevar is coming off back-to-back 2nd place finishes at Bristol (dirt) and Darlington. Hocevar also has finished runner up for the championship in 2020 and 2021. In Saturday’s practice session, Hocevar was top 10 in single lap and 4th in 10-lap speed. I think Hocevar finally exercises his 2nd place demons and earns his first career victory.
Christian Eckes ($9,400 – P17) – Kansas is one of Eckes’s best tracks throughout the past two seasons. In four races here, Eckes has never finished lower than 13th, has three straight finishes of 6th or better, and has led at least 3 laps in every race here.
Other Options: Corey Heim (9,200 – P2): Has a really fast truck but is also super risky. Heim has won a race this season, but in his other two finishes, he has a 23rd and 32nd. Grant Enfinger ($9,900 – P21): Enfinger is always a solid play, but he will be high-owned. I would be higher on him, but because of the ownership, I’d rather look elsewhere for tournament plays. Enfinger is still a great cash play. Riley Herbst ($9,000 – P7)
Starting Position: 10th
As I mentioned in the open, Crafton is the most experienced driver at this track in the field. Crafton’s truck was one of the top trucks in practice placing 4th in single-lap speed and second in the 10-lap average. Crafton may not win this race, but he has a top 5 truck and should be near the front when the checkers wave.
Starting Position: 20th
Ankrum is another driver in this tier who has a fast truck, not as fast as Crafton, but the upside is definitely here with the 16. Coming into this race, Ankrum has three straight top-ten finishes on pavement (finished 31st on the dirt at Bristol) and he has finished lower than 17th since Daytona (on pavement) this season.
Other Options: Ty Majeski ($8,600 – P3), Tanner Gray ($7,400 – P9)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
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/).
There were a lot of changes in the cars and what driver is in what car/truck in 2022, check out my What’s new in 2022 article (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-whats-new-in-2022/)
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop for the Xfinity Series race from Darlington! This track typically eats up the youth and inexperienced but there are some extremely talented young drivers that have little to no experience here and will do well. If you want more info about this race and the track, check out my weekend preview.
Because qualifying was rained out on Friday, Chase Elliott will not be racing on Saturday. Now, there is a chance that JRM pays one of the other teams to withdraw from the race so they can race or use their # and paint scheme so he can run.
Similar to the truck race on Friday, I think we need to use the experienced and/or talented drivers up top for finishing position and dominator points while filling out the remaining spots with cheap mid tier or value plays. There will be two cars that are the chalk in the top tier, but I think they need to be in your lineups. You can be different with your four remaining drivers to balance out those plays.
Starting Position: 34th
Tyler Reddick represents the first of those two chalky plays. Reddick will come off 34th thanks to the formula and the fact the car he is in, the #48 BMV Chevy, has not been good in races. That will change on Saturday as I assume RCR will give some help to this team to make sure Reddick runs well. In the Xfinity Series, Reddick has never finished lower than 16th in four races at Darlington and has two top 3 finishes as well. Reddick has some dominator potential, but this will be a safe CHALKY place differential play that I think should be the first button you hit on Saturday when building.
Starting Position: 2nd
Berry is great at shorter tracks and he is coming off his first victory in 2022 last week at Dover. In his second career Darlington race last season, Berry started P20 but finished 2nd in this same #8 JRM Chevy. Berry has four top 5s in ten races this season and six finishes of 11th or better.
Starting Position: 3rd
If Berry or Gibbs slip up early and give Allgaier some room he could push to the lead. Allgaier is no stranger to winning races at Darlington as he won this race last season while only leading 10 laps. Since 2017, Allgaier has six top 10’s in seven races at Darlington including his aforementioned win. After starting out hot in the first four races, Allgaier spuddered with no top 10’s in the next five but last week he returned to form with a second place finish after leading 67 laps and having 41 fastest laps.
Starting Position: 23rd
There are two drivers who will be chalky on Saturday, I already mentioned Reddick, and Nemechel would be the second on those two. Reddick will probably be higher owned, but I trust the car that JHN will be in more. So far this season Nemechek has raced four times in the Xfinity Series, twice in this #26 Toyota where he finished 12th and 5th. Three weeks ago in Richmond, Nemechek was in the JGR 18 and led 135 laps while finishing second. On Friday, Nemechek was dominant in the Truck Series race earning his first victory of 2022 so that experience will only help him on Saturday.
Other Options: Noah Gragson ($10,800 – P4), Ryan Truex ($9,000 – P28), Ty Gibbs ($10,500 – P1)
Starting Position: 9th
Ryan Sieg is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Xfinity Series, he gets no respect. Sieg is having one of the best seasons of any driver in this series in 2022 and he still is priced well under his value. The one good thing is that no one will play him at this price either because of where he starts. In 2022, Sieg has finished lower than 11th one in ten races and has an average finish of 11.9. In four races at Darlington since 2020, Sieg has finished between 3rd and 11th in all four and I view Sieg as a top 10 car again on Saturday.
Starting Position: 6th
Jones has been a solid performer at Darlington in the past and will be a contender for a top 5 on Saturday. In five races since 2019, Jones has finished 7th or better three times, including a win in the fall race here and a 3rd in this race last season. Jones is risky because he can wreck out as he is an aggressive driver starting up front. The upside in this play is we know Darlington does not scare Jones and he has an outside chance at the win here.
Other Options: Brandon Brown ($7,000 – P17), Sam Mayer ($8,600 – P7), Austin Hill ($8,200 – P12), Anthony Alfredo ($7,200 – P14), Jeb Burton ($7,700 – P15)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
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/).
There were a lot of changes in the cars and what driver is in what car/truck in 2022, check out my What’s new in 2022 article (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-whats-new-in-2022/)
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop breakdown for the Truck Series from Darlington! This should be a great weekend of racing with NASCAR celebrating the past for Throwback Weekend from the Lady in Black. You can read more about the track in my weekend preview article.
With there being a fair amount of laps in this race, we will want to get 2 dominators into your builds. We saw that this strategy worked in previous Darlington races and should hold true here. I want to pay UP and get 2-3 MINIMUM top salary guys and take the cheap guys with PD upside in this race.
Starting Position: 1st
With three straight poor starts where JHN finished in the mid-20s to start the season he has rebounded nicely since. In his last three races, Nemechek has finished 2nd, 4th, and 3rd consecutively. It appears that whatever issues were ailing the 4 team have been fixed and he is back in championship form. In two races at Darlington in 2021, Nemechek finished top 10 in both races including a 2nd place finish in the fall. Nemechek also led 104 laps combined in those two races. I expect Nemechek to be up front in this race if he can avoid the eventual carnage, and be in contention for the win.
Starting Position: 3rd
Enfinger is once again underpriced, as he is most weeks. Similar to Nemechek, Enfinger did not start strong but has since finished between 8th and 12th in four consecutive races. Darlington is a track that has been so difficult for so many, but not Grant Enfinger. In his three career races here, Enfinger has never finished lower than 6th and has two top 5’s in his other two finishes. The only downside I can see with Enfinger is he has never led a lap here, but if he can manage another top 5 on Friday he can be your third top tier play and do just fine as that.
Starting Position: 15th
If you are looking for another driver with dominator potential, then let me introduce you to Ben Rhodes. No driver in this series has been as consistent as Rhodes has in 2022. The 2021 series champion has started his road to repeating with five top 5’s and 166 laps led in six races this season. The last time we saw Rhodes all he did was lead 95 laps, have 39 fastest laps, and win the Bristol Dirt Race two weeks ago. Rhodes already has a victory at Darlington (2020) and is another driver I can see pushing for the win on Friday night.
Starting Position: 4th
If Ben Rhodes isn’t the hottest driver in the series, then Zane Smith is. Smith is the only driver in the series to have a top 10 in all six races this season and has two victories already solidifying him as the favorite for the championship early on. Smith has finished 2nd two years in a row for the title and is determined to win this season and it’s showing early on. Experience matters at Darlington, and while Smith hasn’t been outstanding here, he does have three races under his belt and finished 9th in the fall race here in 2021. I don’t think Smith comes out on top in this race, but I see no reason he can’t lead laps, he’s led at least 3 laps in 4 of 6 races in 2022, and get his seventh straight top 10 to start the season.
Other Options: Ross Chastain ($10,900 – P10), Chandler Smith ($9,800 – P28) – Smith is going to be the chalkiest play on the slate. I love this play but he projects near 60%. , Stewart Friesen ($9,300 – P23) – Friesen projects are near 35% LESS ownership than Smith is $500 cheaper, seems like the obvious tournament pivot. Friesen also has two top 10’s in three Darlington races.
Starting Position: 6th
Hocevar has raced at Darlington twice in his career (both in 2021) and held his own here. At this race last season, Hocevar started 14th and came home with a 3rd place finish. In the fall, Hocevar wasn’t as good, but he did manage to finish 11th. In 2022, it has been a roller-coaster type season, but Hocevar does have three top 10s including his 2nd last race on the dirt at Bristol.
Starting Position: 22nd
Purdy is having a pretty solid season thus far and had a good race here at Darlington last fall. Since we want to potentially stack two $10K drivers, we need some savings somewhere and Purdy fits that role perfectly. Last season at this race, Purdy crashed about halfway through the race and finished 36th. When the series came back in the fall though, Purdy finished 15th and looked strong throughout. So far in 2022, Purdy has finished between 13 and 16th in four of his five races. Purdy looks to be a mid-teen driver on Friday with low teens to top 10 upside.
Starting Position: 12th
Ankrum, Purdy’s teammate, is probably the most consistent driver at Darlington in this tier. In three career races here, Ankrum has finished between 11th and 18th but similar to Enfinger he has never led a lap here. Also similar to Enfinger, he is not someone we need to lead laps to make value. Depending on you build your lineups, you could come up from Purdy to Ankrum as I believe he has a greater upside.
Other Options: Tanner Gray ($7,500 – P17), Christian Eckes ($8,300 – P11), Parker Kligerman ($8,500 – P9)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
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/).
There were a lot of changes in the cars and what driver is in what car/truck in 2022, check out my What’s new in 2022 article (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-whats-new-in-2022/)
This was a mixed bag of a weekend. It was a sprint race weekend, meaning the starting grid for Sunday was set by the winning positions of the sprint race held on Saturday, not by qualifying like it usually is.
It’s an attempt to shake things up, but I don’t know…I’ll keep my opinions out of it. One thing it does do is limit the teams’ ability to properly tune the race car. So typically, what we see is what we get.
It rained during the Friday sessions of Practice 1 and sprint qualifying so that added another layer of complexity to this weekend. We were gifted a demonstration of each constructor’s capabilities and each driver’s talents. This should make breaking down this race weekend a little more straightforward. For this reason, I changed the format for this race week article with an emphasis on each team more so than price point plays.
Ferrari $11,600 and Red Bull Racing $11,00. This is where the battle is. This race should come down to which one of these 4 drivers puts it all together. The Red Bull of Max Verstappen $10,400 and Sergio Perez $9000 are the team to beat this weekend.
The Ferrari’s of Charles LeClerc at $11,000 and Carlos Sainz at $10,000 will be right in the mix, I would do my best to have a share of drivers and constructors in every DraftKings lineup I make.
If you’re playing multi-lines and want to get different, the Mercs looked off in the speed traps. Mercedes finds itself in no firm position going into race Week 4: Imola, Italy, and can try different strategies that the Red Bull and Ferrari probably would not make.
Mercedes $9000 seems to be set up for long runs. George Russell starts P11, 3 spots in front of his teammate he is also less expensive at $8600. Compared to Lewis Hamilton at $9600, I would err on the side of George.
We have no idea how the McLarens $8000 is going to perform on the medium tire. Due to issues overall we have not seen the Mclaren in race pace, and during the final laps of the sprint race, they were falling back on the timesheets. If McLaren has the race pace combined with their overall speed, Lando Norris $8000 and Daniel Ricciardo $7600 make for roster-worthy drivers.
Alpine $6400 performs better on the soft tire. A trend we had seen in Australia. Esteban Ocon, $6400, starting in P16, Imola being an older circuit and has fewer overtake spots, Esteban might find it hard to move up.
Fernando Alonso, $5800 has been experiencing reliability issues and that’s concerning so I wouldn’t go crazy, but he should be strong in the speed runs.
With a good strategy, Alonso could stay in the positions he should gain on Sunday while beating his teammate for maximum points.
Valtteri Bottas, $6800, is in the same boat as the Mclaren’s; we just don’t know how well his long-run race pace is. Too bad Zhou Guanyu is starting in P20, the Alfa Romeo $5200 would make for an intriguing constructor play.
The Hass’ of Kevin Magnussen, $5400 has shown pace on the soft tires. However the Haas is slow in long-run form, so it feels like the Haas was set up more for the sprint race on Saturday.
He and teammate, Mick Schumacher $4400 started on the medium tires during the sprint race and after being beaten in the first half, the medium tire held up and helped the Haas gain starting positions in the top 10, P10, and P8.
The Haas $4600 should be a good low-owned value constructor play.
Yuki Tsunoda $4800 might be the sleeper play of the weekend.
Yuki and his newfound long-run pace in the Alpha Tauri, and Yuki’s teammate Pierre Gasly’s $7200 getting into an accident in the sprint race making him start in P17 are all positives in Yuki’s favor.
Yuki’s team in Alpha Tauri, $3800 will be a team I take a few shots with if I need a cheap constructor to fit the top drivers in my DraftKings lineups.
Alex Albon $3600 will be a driver I’ll be heavy on until his price is in the $5000s. He is just better than Nicholas Latifi and should earn the 5 bonus points every week
Aston Martin is a team full of “last guy in” options. The Aston has not shown much this racing season, but with a capable veteran driver like Sebastian Vettel, $3400, and to a lesser degree, Lance Stroll $3200, the Aston can take advantage of strategies and limited overtaking and could find its way into good fantasy scoring positions.
A team I won’t be featuring, but if I need salary savings, the Aston makes for potentially low-owned punt plays
Should be an interesting weekend, let’s see what kind of impact the sprint race weekend has for the real race this coming Sunday morning. As always thanks for reading, catch me in the discord chat @tcuz86. Best of luck.
Welcome to the NASCAR DFS Pit Stop breakdown for Talladega! If you are in discord (if you aren’t you are missing out!) then you already saw my preview looking back at previous races here. For those who aren’t, here is a quick synopsis:
Stacking the back can work, but I view it more as a cash-type build in this race. Most of the drivers in the optimal Xfinity Series have come from the mid-teens and twenties. Looking at how qualifying shook out on Friday, I can see a similar path to those lineups being optimal again on Saturday.
With only 113 laps equaling 79.1 dominator points for this race we are not chasing those points. Of course, we want to get dominator points, but there aren’t enough laps here that those points will make that big of a difference. Like I said, stacking the back is a great cash strategy, but I believe that stacking the mid may be a better build type. Looking at pricing, 2-3 top-tier drivers might be the best path.
Starting Position: 19th
Just based on my knowledge of the sport I did not think Gragson would be my top driver, but when I looked at how he has fared at Superspeedways I couldn’t go anywhere else. Gragson has run well at this track type, especially Talladega. In six career races on this track, Gragson has five finishes of 11th or better including two top 5’s. With Gragson starting P19, he has the best place differential in this tier.
Starting Position: 13th
Dinger is the driver I expected to be my number one driver, but number two isn’t bad. In four career races here, Allmendinger has two finishes of 7th or better, but also has two finishes of 24th or worse. Allmendinger has been solid so far in 2022 and if he can navigate through the potential carnage like he has many times before he should be in contention for the win. We know Kaulig has been dominant at Superspeedways and if they can get together they will be touch to pass let alone beat.
Starting Position: 11th
Allgaier is the old(er), wily veteran in this race and should be one of the top considerations at low ownership on Saturday. Before he had a string of bad luck from 2019-21 where he wrecked three times in four races, Allgaier had six straight finishes of 8th or better. Last fall here Allgaier got back on track with a third-place finish after starting on the pole. Allgaier clearly knows how to make his way through these races and if he can do it again a top 5 could be in the cars.
Starting Position: 15th
Jones is coming off his first win in 2022 and is at a track he has enjoyed some minimal success at in his Xfinity Series career. In eight career races here at Talladega, Jones has only wrecked twice. If you remove those two 37th place finishes, Jones has an average finish of 10th in the remaining 6 races including three top 5’s. Jones got off to a slow start this season, but he has four top 10s in the last six races and has finished no worse than 18th in any of those races.
Other Options Josh Berry ($10,100 – P16), Ty Gibbs ($10,500 – P3), Sam Mayer ($9,200 – P14), Daniel Hemric ($9,900 – P5)
Starting Position: 22nd
Jeb Burton has one career victory and it came here at Talladega, yes it was rain-shortened, but a win is a win. In four career Talladega races, Burton has three top 10s so that win was not a fluke. Now, much of his success came in a Kaulig Chevy, but now Burton is in the #27 Our Motorsports Chevy. While that is somewhat of a downgrade in equipment, Burton has only two finishes outside the top 20 this season including three top 15s in his last five races.
Starting Position: 6th
Cassill has historically run well here with three finishes of 11th or better in much lesser equipment. In 2022, Cassill signed with Kaulig and he is in the car that Jeb Burton vacated. There is an outside chance that Cassill wins this race and I can all but guarantee that he will come in somewhere in the teens in ownership as well. Cassill is by no means safe and should only be used in GPP’s.
Starting Position: 21st
Labbe is in that sweet spot where he won’t be high owned, but also not super low owned. If you are in discord then you already saw that Labbe was in two of the previous four optimal lineups for this track. Labbe has been consistent at Talladega with four straight finishes of 21st or better including two top 10s.
Other Options: Riley Herbst ($8,500 P20), Myatt Snider ($7,900 – P31): Great cash play, Brandon Brown ($7,300 – P17)
Make sure you head to the Win Daily Sports Discord for up-to-date info and help directly from our pros! Head over to Twitter and give the @WinDailySports account and me (@MVecchio81) a follow for all things Fantasy Sports! You can find more FREE NASCAR content over at WinDailySports.com!
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/).
There were a lot of changes in the cars and what driver is in what car/truck in 2022, check out my What’s new in 2022 article (https://windailysports.com/nascar-dfs-whats-new-in-2022/)
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