RADIO
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heads to Las Vegas on Friday night to kick off a triple-header weekend of NASCAR action, with Xfinity on Saturday and Cup on Sunday. This is the second race of the season for the Truck Series, following Zane Smith's win two weeks ago at Daytona.
We've got us a Kyle Busch race here, by which I mean this is one of those weeks where Busch dips down to the Truck Series, which often means we'll get a dominant showing from the former Cup Series champion. But with KBM switching manufacturers this season, will Busch be able to go out and destroy the field?
Here at RotoBaller, we want to help you make informed decisions about your DFS lineups, which is why I'll be breaking down the slates for the Craftsman Truck Series. Let's look at some NASCAR Truck Series DFS lineup picks for the Victoria's Voice Foundation 200 on DraftKings. Be sure to also check out our NASCAR Premium Tools for Truck Series including our DFS Lineup Optimizer and powerful Research Station. This slate locks on 3/3/2023 at 9:00 p.m. ET.
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Post-Qualifying Updates
Check back later for updates after qualifying, which will usually be in the form of a linked Twitter thread.
EDIT: Here it is.
What Happened Last Time
Since we won't have the starting lineup until really close to the start of Friday night's race, let's start by talking about what to expect at this particular track based on recent races here.
The Truck Series visits here once per year now, a change that came about last season. Chandler Smith won this race last March, leading 32 laps and beating teammate—and truck owner—Kyle Busch by .289 seconds. Busch led 31 of the 134 laps.
It was a dominant day for Toyota, which swept the top three spots and also placed two other cars in the top 10 of the race. And two Toyotas that got caught up in incidents also led for extended periods—John Hunter Nemechek led 23 laps but finished 25th, and Ben Rhodes led nine laps and finished 31st.
Zane Smith, the 2022 Truck Series champion, led 15 laps and led with just a few laps to go, but was disqualified and finished 36th. He was the only non-Toyota that really had a shot to win.
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Pre-Qualifying Favorites
There's one obvious favorite here and that's Kyle Busch ($14,500), but his DFS price is pretty exorbitant, so I'm not sure how much I'll roster him, especially when we don't know if the KBM Chevys will be as good as the KBM Toyotas were. Sure, Busch has three Truck Series wins and six top 10s in his six career Truck Series starts here, but he also costs $2,500 more than everyone else in the field does, so I'm definitely worried.
Zane Smith ($11,500) and John Hunter Nemechek ($10,700) are probably going to be nice pivots off of Busch. Remember, Smith was DQed here last year, but DraftKings doesn't factor DQs in, so DFS players were likely happy with his overall scoring total last time the Truck Series was here. Smith's the championship favorite, and I think it's safe to think he can win every week.
Nemechek ran well here last season as well. He's in the 17 for Tricon Garage this weekend, which is essentially the 2022 KBM team. (The manufacturer stuff in the Truck Series is confusing this year—TRICON went from Ford to Toyota, KBM from Toyota to Chevy and Thorsport from Toyota to Ford.)
Pre-Qualifying Sleepers
I'm extremely high on Hailee Deegan ($6,800) this weekend—I don't think she's a threat to win or anything, but she ran well at Daytona before getting caught up in a crash, but her salary ended up being $600 less this week at a track where there won't be the kind of chaos there was at Daytona.
And speaking of drivers who had issues at Daytona, Nick Sanchez ($7,000) won the pole for the NextEra Energy 250, but ultimately finished 26th. Sanchez is driving for a team that's basically another KBM truck. Keep an eye on him.
And while we're talking about drivers priced pretty low who are in good equipment, we have Rajah Caruth ($7,200) in a GMS truck. All three of these drivers have a lot to prove this season and have good trucks under them. I expect you won't be getting them this cheap most weeks.
Want me to go deeper in potential value plays? Well, Bret Holmes ($6,300) finished eighth here last season, so that's definitely a name to watch, especially if he qualifies in the back and has place differential upside.
I'll also keep an eye on where Max Gutierrez ($6,500) qualifies. The 22 team was ninth here last year with Austin Wayne Self driving. I'd need Gutierrez starting 25th or worse for me to feel confident about playing him, but he looked good in his four starts last season, including finishing eighth at Nashville.
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