The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will join the Xfinity Series in a double-header Saturday with the truckers being the first drivers to put the new surface and new configuration at Atlanta Motor Speedway to the test. It should be a wild race. The FR8 208 can be seen Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
TRUCK SERIES PRACTICE SPEEDS
Practice for the Truck Series was rained out Friday. NASCAR felt it was more important for the teams to get some time to practice than it was to have single-car qualifying. They replaced the qualifying session today with a 40-minute practice and the field was set “per the rule book.”
The draft will likely come into play on the straight-a-ways so the drivers who were receiving a pull in the back of the pack posted some of the fastest lap times in practice. This does not mean we have to ignore the practice speeds this week. We can still learn a bit from the practice speeds but this race will come down to which truck handles the best. The word from the garage is that it will be tough to pass at Atlanta, so the truckers who can move around in the field should have the best chance to make their way to the front.
Here are the practice speeds from Friday’s practice at Atlanta Motor Speedway…
DRAFTKINGS STRATEGY
The race this week is scheduled for 135 laps (208 miles). That means there are 33.75 points available for leading laps and 60.75 points available for fastest laps (94.5 total dominator points). Usually I post the trend for how many laps the main dominator will lead and how many fastest laps he/she will score. There is no data to work with this week so it is impossible to predict how many points the main dominator will score. It should be less than what we have seen at Atlanta in the past. If Atlanta is going to race like a Superspeedway, we should have more drivers leading laps. The fastest laps will get spread throughout the field if the draft is going to come into play Saturday. We should still have one main dominator since it will be tough to pass. My strategy today will be to simply pick the truckers I think can finish in the top-10 and hope to run into some dominator points on the way.
TRUCK SERIES DRIVER RANKINGS
The compressed schedule does not allow me to have time to create the Truck Series Model, write up my thoughts on each driver in the Core Drivers for the race and watch the Xfinity Series and Cup Series practice sessions too. I did have time to post my rankings for the race and I did list my core drivers below. You should have a good chance to win your DraftKings contest if you use the drivers at the top of the rankings and build your lineups around the drivers list in the core.
CORE DRIVERS FOR ATLANTA
CASH CONTEST: John H. Nemechek ($11,100), Ross Chastain ($10,700), Ben Rhodes ($10,000), Zane Smith ($9,600), Christian Eckes ($9,800), Corey Heim ($8,500), Derek Kraus ($7,500), Haliie Deegan ($7,100), Jack Wood ($6,900), Timmy Hill ($6,100), Jesse Little ($5,300), Matt Jaskol ($5,000)
TOURNAMENT CONTEST: John H. Nemechek ($11,100), Ross Chastain ($10,700), Chandler Smith ($10,300), Ryan Preece ($10,200), Ben Rhodes ($10,000), Christian Eckes ($9,800), Zane Smith ($9,600), Grant Enfinger ($9,400), Matt DiBenedetto ($9,000), Tanner Gray ($8,000), Jordan Anderson ($7,600), Derek Kraus ($7,500), Spencer Boyd ($6,600), Tate Fogleman ($6,200), Timmy Hill ($6,100), Matt Mills ($5,900), Kris Wright ($5,400), Jesse Little ($5,300), Matt Jaskol ($5,000)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
* This lineup should be good for Tournaments contest too.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMNT CONTEST PICKS
Good luck!
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