The 2023 Fantasy NASCAR season will begin Friday night with one of the best races of the season. The Truck Series always puts on a great show at Daytona, and I expect the same tonight. There are a lot of young drivers in the field this year, so it will likely get pretty wild Friday night. The Fresh From Florida 250 can be seen Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
The 2024 Truck Series will have options for you to participate in some fantasy games. DraftKings will once again have DFS contests for the Truck Series and the Driver Group Game will have their contests for the truckers. My picks for the Driver Group Game Truck Series game finished seventh overall in 2022 and ninth overall last year. I will once again provide picks for the DFS and Driver Group Game contests for the Truck Series.
DFS STRATEGY FOR DAYTONA
The race this week is scheduled for 100 laps (250 miles). That means there are 25 points available for leading laps and 45 points available for fastest laps. That is not a lot of dominator points for the race, but the driver who leads the most laps has won three of the last five Truck Series races at Daytona and scored the most DK points.
The trend at Daytona is for one driver to lead roughly 35 laps, another to lead 15 laps and a third to lead 10 laps. The rest of the laps led are spread throughout the field. That means the top dominator will score 10 bonus points for leading laps and fastest laps. That is not a lot of dominator points to chase.
We need to focus our picks on drivers who can score place differential points. We can do this by selecting drivers who start outside the top-10 who have a history of finishing in the top-10 at Daytona.
Here are the winning lineups from last three years:
It was the third consecutive season that Ben Rhodes was in the winning lineup. He is one of the best Superspeedways drivers in the Truck Series. Tanner Gray has been in the winning lineup for the last two seasons. The average salary in these races is $48,000, so do not be afraid to leave some salary on the table this week.
DRAFTKINGS CORE DRIVERS
DRAFTKINGS CONTEST PICKS
COREY HEIM ($10,000): Heim will be a great pick tonight. He starts 26th and has a truck fast enough to win the race. Heim started 13th and finished eight at Daytona last year. He will score very well if he finishes in the top-10 tonight.
CHRISTAIN ECKES ($9,800): Eckes enters the race tonight as the odds on favorite to win. He finished the last two races at Daytona in the third position. Now he starts 25th with a good chance to finish in the top-five. He is one of the best picks in the field tonight.
GRANT ENFINGER ($9,200): Enfinger won at Daytona in 2020, finished second in 2019, and fifth last year. He has a new team (He moved from GMS Racing to CR7 Motorsports). I do not think the move to the new team will hurt his chances to win tonight. Enfinger should be a safe pick for our lineups.
TY DILLON ($8,700): Dillon takes over for Matt DiBenedetto in the No. 25 truck for Rackley W.A.R. He will be driving the same truck that DiBenedetto took to Victory Lane at Talladega. Dillon is just too good to fade from the 28th starting position tonight.
TIMMY HILL ($6,200): Timmy Hill shared the No. 56 truck with his brother in the previous seasons, but Timmy said he plans to drive the truck full-time this year. He has raced at Daytona three times in the Truck Series. He finished 16th, 14th and 14th in those races. He also scored at least 44 DK Points in all of those races. I just need Hill to do what he has done in the past at Daytona in the race tonight.
COREY ROPER ($6,100): I will take a chance with Roper tonight. He started 31st and finished third in his last race at Daytona. It will be great if he could do that again. I do not need him to though. I will take a top-20 finish from Roper from the 30th starting position tonight.
* These picks are good for Cash and Tournament Contest lineups.
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS
The Driver Group Game will once again have a contest for the Truck Series. It is easy to play. You simply select one driver from Group A, two drivers from Group B and one driver from Group C for your lineup. You can only use the drivers in Groups A & B six times throughout the season. You can only use the drivers in Group C five times throughout the season, so you have to use your allocations wisely. Here is the link to join: DGG Truck Series Game
Here are the drivers I will use for the Fresh From Florida 250 Friday night…
GROUP A
(START) CHRISTAIN ECKES (6): Eckes has never won a Truck Series race at Daytona, but he has been knocking on the door. Eckes finished third at Daytona in 2022 and third again last year. It was impressive because it happened with two different teams for two different manufactures. His third place finish in 2022 was with ThorSport (Toyota). Last year it was in his McAnally-Hilgermann Racing Chevy. He should have a good chance to win in his Chevy tonight.
GROUP B
(START) TANNER GRAY (6): Gray is a driver who often gets overlooked at the Superspeedways. He finished fourth at Daytona in 2022 and then finished second last year. Both of these finishes were from outside the top-15. I will take a chance with Gray so I can save my top drivers for more predictable tracks.
(START) TYLER ANKRUM (6): Ankrum had a good race at Daytona last year. He started 27th and finished 7th. That was in his Hattori Racing Toyota. Now he will get to see what he can do in his McAnally-Hilgermann Racing Chevy. I expect Ankrum to be drafting with his teammate Christian Eckes tonight. That is not a bad place to be on the track.
GROUP C
(START) COREY LAJOIE (5): LaJoie will be behind the wheel of the No. 7 truck for Spire Motorsports. These trucks are the old Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks. LaJoie has a lot of experience on the Superspeedways and it should pay off tonight. He led 19 laps in the Truck Series race at Daytona last year, before being caught up in a wreck. I expect the same speed from the No. 7 truck tonight.
Good Luck Tonight!
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