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Justin Carter's DraftKings DFS lineup picks for the NASCAR Gander Outdoor & RV Truck Series Vankor 250 at Texas Motor Speedway. Read his daily fantasy NASCAR advice and Truck sleepers.
Like the Xfinity Series race earlier in the day, Saturday's NASCAR Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway will feature the return of Kyle Busch to the series. That's not quite the earth-shattering thing it is in Xfinity, as our projections have Busch scoring 105 DFS points in Xfinity and just 84 in Trucks, it should be noted that 84 DFS points is still the most in this race by far.
Busch will still be the most owned driver on the circuit and I'm still going to write about him because you kind of have to talk about Kyle Busch, but you can be a little less afraid of pivoting away from him than you'll be in Xfinity.
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 Truck Series. Let's look at some NASCAR Truck Series DFS lineup picks for the Vankor 250 on DraftKings. (And if any other DFS providers want to start doing Trucks, we'll do those too!) Be sure to also check out our NASCAR Premium Tools for Truck Series including our DFS Lineup Optimizer and powerful Research Station.
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Truck Series DFS Lineup Picks - DraftKings
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Kyle Busch #51 ($16,000)
Starting 4th
What Kyle Busch doesn't have this week: place differential upside.
What Kyle Busch does have: his usual rocket ship. Busch has run four Truck Series races so far this year, with a pair of wins, a second, and a 21st. A lot went wrong at Atlanta, though, and even then he still posted 39 fastest laps in that race.
Busch's loop data numbers in four starts is some incredible stuff:
And again, while I do think there's room to build a very different kind of non-Busch lineup (maybe one anchored by Ross Chastain and Johnny Sauter in a "place differential upside" lineup), I still think the most likely path to DFS success is going to be what it always seems to be when Kyle Busch is running in a lower series: you play Kyle Busch.
Zane Smith #21 ($7,900)
Starting 6th
Like Busch, Smith doesn't really have the place differential you might usually want from someone who'll be taking on the role of your second-most expensive driver.
But Smith's run really well at these 1.5-mile tracks, with a sixth at Vegas, third at Charlotte, fifth at Atlanta, and seventh at Kentucky. He's run a few fastest laps and has led laps in four races this season.
What Smith offers on Saturday is a driver who's been very consistent on exactly the kind of track that Texas is, and who does so while being just the 15th-highest priced driver. You've got to find some value guys when Kyle Busch is in your lineup, and Smith's a value guy who could potentially compete for a win second place finish behind Busch.
Tanner Gray #15 ($7,300)
Starting 20th
Tanner Gray continues to be underrated.
Gray ranks 14th in the series in average running position and 16th in green flag speed. Remove his crash at Daytona, and he's finished top 20 in the other six races this year, including four finishes in a row of 12th or better. His two top 10s came at 1.5-mile tracks like Texas.
Basically, Gray's in a really good position to outperform his starting spot on Saturday. There's a reason our lineup optimizer is all over him: he shouldn't be priced as low as he is.
Brennan Poole #30 ($6,800)
Starting 29th
Here's the guy I'm counting on for place differential points.
I keep thinking Brennan Poole and this 30 truck are about to breakout, and it keeps not happening. But in the five races Poole has finished, he's finished between 15th and 19th, so there's a good shot for him to finish 10 to 15 spots higher than he's starting in this race, which would lead to a pretty strong DFS day for this On Point Motorsports team.
Poole does rank 20th in green flag speed, and while the list of drivers slower than him isn't a great list, I do think he's got more upside -- this race and just, like, in general -- than other similarly priced drivers.
Derek Kraus #19 ($6,300)
Starting 17th
Kraus ranks 15th in green flag speed and 13th in average running position. So far, that's led to four top 10s for the 19 truck.
Three of those top 10s have come in the past four races as Kraus has started to peak in this McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Toyota. This is the first full-time season for this team in the series, and it seems that things are really starting to come together.
That makes sense, as Bill McAnally's cars have been incredibly successful in the K&N Pro Series West, winning nine championships. It wasn't going to take long for his Truck Series team to gain speed and start finishing well.
Kraus also had a lot of success in K&N, winning 10 races in 42 starts between 2017 and 2019 in the West series, and adding three wins in the East series. Anyway, this is all a long way of saying that Kraus is continuing to improve and this truck might be a fixture in the top 10 soon. Grab him weekly while the price is this low.
Cory Roper #04 ($5,500)
Starting 30th
Look, if you're going to be playing Kyle Busch, you're going to have to play at least one driver who you'd normally never want to play. My pick this week for that role is Cory Roper.
Roper starts 30th. He has six finishes in the top 26 this season and has done a great job of keeping the truck clean, finishing every race he's run, including finishing three in a row on the lead lap.
With Roper, you're hoping he gains about 10 places during the race and doesn't get involved in anything that tanks his value. I think that's a fine bet to make.
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