The Truck Series will join the Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway this weekend. The Truck Series race in Michigan last year was the first race at this track since 2020 for the truckers. The race was dominated by the home state kid (Carson Hocevar), but it was Stewart Friesen who was able to take home the checkered flag. The field is stacked, so this should be another good race for the Truck Series in the Irish Hills of Michigan. The DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 can be seen Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
DRIVER STATS FOR MICHIGAN
The two-mile oval tracks are an endangered species in NASCAR. We used to have the data from California Speedway to help us predict which drivers would run well in Michigan. That is no longer the case. We also used to have numerous 1.5-mile, intermediate tracks to help us handicap this race. The Truck Series only competed at Texas and Charlotte this year. I am using the stats from those two races, adding in the stats from Atlanta, since the draft comes into play at Michigan and then adding the stats from the race last year at this track. This should give us an idea of which drivers are good on these large, high-speed, intermediate tracks.
Here are the stats from the races on the intermediate tracks this year and the race at Michigan last year, sorted by DraftKings Points….
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Truck Series had a 50 minute practice session to dial in their trucks for today’s race and then the teams lined up for single-lap qualifying. Michigan is a two-mile, oval track. Most of the teams made some short runs and then came in for adjustments. I will be looking at the single lap speeds, the 5-lap average speeds and where the drivers qualified for the picks today.
Here are the practice speeds from the practice session at Michigan International Speedway….
* Layne Riggs had to serve a 30-minute penalty in practice for failing inspection. He went out by himself, his his speeds were not assisted by the draft.
** Tanner Gray got a flat tire in practice and had to get towed back to the pits. As a result, Gray was not allowed to post a qualifying lap. He will start in the back and he posted the 15-fastest speed in practice.
*** Ben Rhodes ran out of gas on his qualifying laps (I am not sure how that happens). So, Rhodes starts in the back and he was second-fastest on the long-runs un practice.
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR MICHIGAN
DFS STRATEGY FOR MICHIGAN
The race today is scheduled for 125 laps (250 miles). That means there are 31.25 points available for leading laps and 56.25 points available for fastest laps (87.5 dominator points available in tonight’s race). I looked at the races at Michigan from 2018-2020 and at the race last year in Michigan. Each race had two dominators. One driver led roughly 42 laps and scored 8 fastest laps (14.1 dominator points). The second driver led 30 laps and scored 6 fastest laps (10.2). That is not a lot of dominator points because the draft comes into play at Michigan. The drivers who run in the middle of the pack typically score most of the fastest laps. The best strategy today is to simply focus on finishing points. Select as many drivers as possible to can finish in the top-10 and you will likely run into some dominator points on the way.
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS
Good Luck today!
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