The Truck Series will join the Xfinity and Cup Series at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend. While the Cup and Xfinity Series will travel to Martinsville next week before they make their way to Phoenix for their championship race; the race Saturday is the last chance for the truckers to earn a spot in the Championship Four. Ty Majewski earned his spot with his win at Bristol. Matt DiBenedetto won at Talladega, but he is no longer racing for the championship. This leaves three spots in the championship race up for grabs Saturday. It should be fun to see how it all plays out. The Baptist Health 200 can be seen Saturday at 1 pm ET on FS1.
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
If NASCAR schedules practice and no one can see it or hear it, did it really happen? I guess it did. The Truck Series had a 20 minute practice session Friday followed by qualifying. It was not on TV and I am not at the track. The picks this week will be off the lap times on the speed chart and from what I have heard from people at the track. It wasn’t long ago when every practice and qualifying session for all three series were on TV. I guess those days are over.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at Homestead…
STRATEGY FOR HOMESTEAD
Homestead-Miami Speedway is a unique track. It really is not an oval. It is more of a rectangle track that wears out tires quickly. The most similar track to Homestead is Darlington because of the way the drivers must search the track for grip and have the ability to run close to the wall. We can also use some of the data from the races at Las Vegas and Kansas since those are two high-banked intermediate tracks with surfaces that can wear out tires. I will be looking at the drivers who ran well at those tracks and the drivers who posted fast laps in practice for the picks this week. The drivers who check both boxes will be in my lineups…
The race Saturday is scheduled for 134 laps. That means there are 33.5 points available for leading laps and 60.3 points available for fastest laps in the race (93.8 dominator points). The Trucks Series has not competed at Homestead since June of 2020. The trend at Homestead when the truckers did compete at the track was for one driver to lead 80 laps and score 20 fastest laps (29 dominator points). A second driver leads 30 laps and scores 18 fastest laps (14.7 dominator points). It will be important to pay up for the driver we think can lead the most laps and score the most dominator points Saturday.
The drivers who have the best chance to score the most dominator points Saturday include: Ryan Preece, Christian Eckes, John H. Nemechek and Zane Smith
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR HOMESTEAD
CORE DRIVERS FOR HOMESTEAD
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: John H. Nemechek ($11,300), Zane Smith ($11,000), Chandler Smith ($10,700), Ryan Preece ($10,500), Ty Majewski ($10,200), Corey Hiem ($10,000), Christian Eckes ($9,700), Grant Enfinger ($9,000)
VALUE-TIER DRIVERS: Carson Hocevar ($8,800), Matt Crafton ($8,600), Parker Kligerman ($8,400), Matt DiBenedetto ($7,900), Tanner Gray ($7,700), Colby Howard ($7,200), Timmy Hill ($6,500), Jack Wood ($6,300)
PUNT PLAYS: Dean Thompson ($5,900), Tyler Hill ($5,700), Blaine Perkins ($5,000), Brennan Poole ($4,500)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS
Good Luck This Week!
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