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NASCAR is back! The 2024 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series kicks off on Friday night at Daytona International Speedway. This year's Truck Series field looks a lot different than last year, with drivers like Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith in the Cup Series now. We also don't have one of the top teams in the sport anymore, as GMS Racing has left the Truck Series.
I'll be doing things a little differently this season than in the past -- for now, at least. Peeling back the covers here for a second, my wife and I recently had our first child and it's exhausting. With how close qualifying is to the start of the race usually in the Truck Series and Xfinity Series, it would be tough to do the traditional version of this that goes deep on six drivers. Instead, I'll spend some time looking at race trends and past data since that can be written up before qualifying, and then I'll add in some thoughts on individual drivers right before publishing.
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 Fresh From Florida 250 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 2/16/2024 at 7:30 p.m. EST.
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Truck Series DFS Preview - DraftKings
Be sure to also check out all of our other weekly NASCAR DFS articles and analysis to help you set your optimal DFS lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Daytona Race Trends
Let's say you're new to NASCAR DFS and you want to start playing at Daytona this year. Honestly, my advice might be to just wait until the next race, because Daytona's just going to frustrate you.
This is one of three tracks -- Atlanta and Talladega are the other two -- that we can call our "drafting tracks." What this means is that drivers are reliant on different things than usual. All the cars are mostly equal and run in large packs, so unexpected names have a better shot at getting a good finish than usual. There's also likely to be some big wrecks, which really shakes up the field. DFS players should never go too heavy on any particular driver at one of these drafting tracks because they could easily go from the lead to the garage in the blink of an eye.
Let's take last season's Truck Series race here as an example. Zane Smith won, but the race wasn't as wild as usual because it ended early due to rain, preventing any craziness on the final lap and into overtime. In the 2022 race, we got a crash right near the end that led to overtime and knocked out a handful of contenders, and then we got another crash in overtime.
No one is going to lead a ton of laps here and the expected chaos makes place differential more important than at most tracks. You'll want to build a lineup that reflects this, focusing on bigger names that qualify poorly as well as deep value guys who you might not usually play.
Drivers Who Could Dominate
Note: This was written before qualifying
This is Daytona, so "dominate" means different things than it usually does. No one is going to lead half the laps in the race or anything, because the pack racing makes that nearly impossible. Last year, the most laps led were by Christian Eckes, who led 19 of them.
If you do want to try to grab someone who could lead a lot of laps and win, Christian Eckes ($9,800) isn't a bad place to start, though. He has two third-place finishes in a row at this track and has led at least one lap in three of his four starts here.
Truck Series win sims for Daytona:
1. Corey Heim 8.8%
2. Christian Eckes 8.3%
3. Ben Rhodes 8.1%
4. Corey LaJoie 7.7%
5. Nick Sanchez 6.8%
6. Ty Majeski 6.2%
7. Tyler Ankrum 6.1%
8. Taylor Gray 5.4%
9. Tanner Gray 4.7%
10. Stewart Friesen 4.5%— Jim Sannes (@JimSannes) February 15, 2024
There's also Corey Heim ($10,000), the championship favorite this season, but he doesn't have quite the same track record here, with a top finish of eighth with no laps led in two Daytona starts.
Beyond that, you could look at Ben Rhodes ($9,600), a former winner here, or at Grant Enfinger ($9,200), another former winner here. Enfinger is with a new team this year, so he might not have the same speed as usual most weeks. At Daytona, that probably doesn't matter.
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Top Place Differential Plays
Check back after qualifying for some thoughts on place differential.
Normally I’d go in depth on a few drivers here but since Daytona is just so much about place differential, I’m just going to list a bunch of names here who I’ll have in lineups:
Corey Heim - 26th
Christian Eckes - 25th
Ben Rhodes - 24th
(Those are the three highest priced drivers too. Every lineup needs at least one of them IMO unless you run a chaos lineup.)
Grant Enfinger - 22nd
Ty Dillon - 28th
Stefan Parsons - 27th
Timmy Hill - 33rd
Cory Roper - 30th
Lawless Alan - 35th
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Deep Sleepers
Note: This was written before qualifying
Normally, I'd have a list of really cheap drivers that you can consider here, and it'd be a relatively short list because there isn't usually a ton of value in the backmarkers. However, at a track like this, everyone is in play.
And when I say everyone, I mean it.
Last year's race ended early due to rain, so it isn't a great example of the chaos that can happen here, but let's look at 2022. I normally wouldn't have considered someone like Danny Bohn in DFS, but he went from 28th to eighth. In 2021, Cory Roper in the No. 04 truck finished third. Roper's best finish that season at a non-superspeedway? 25th at Charlotte.
Drivers who did not record an incident in tonight's #NASCAR Truck Series race at Daytona:
Ben Rhodes, Cory Roper, Codie Rohrbaugh, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Chase Purdy and Tanner Gray
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) February 13, 2021
As long as the race runs the distance and we get the usual late-race big crash, anyone can get a surprise top 10. Mason Massey ($5,400) and Spencer Boyd ($5,300), for example, are guys I'd never really play at a normal track. Depending on where they qualify, they could certainly make my lineup on Friday night.
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