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. The field is stacked, and it even has a very popular driver in the field (Chase Elliott). The NextEra 250 can be seen Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1.
The 2023 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 last year. I will once again provide picks for the DFS and Driver Group Game contests for the Truck Series.
DFS STRATEGY FOR DAYTONA
“To Chase or not to Chase, that is the question.” Chase Elliott is in the field for the race Friday night and his No. 35 truck from McAnally-Hilgermann Racing was prepared by Hendrick Motorsports. Not only is Elliott the most popular driver in the Cup Series, but he will also be the highest owned driver in DraftKings contests. I am surprised DK did not make his price at least $12K. Elliott is no doubt the class of the field, but he is not a lock to win. He will have a lot of young drivers racing beside him and their mistakes could easily take out Elliott. I will have Elliott in half of my lineups.
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 (no pun intended).
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 two years:
It was the second consecutive season that Ben Rhodes was in the winning lineup. He is one of the best Superspeedways drivers in the Truck Series. I will be pivoting from Chase Elliott and using Zane Smith and Ben Rhodes (Although I think Smith will be highly owned too).
Also, do not be afraid to leave a lot of salary on the table this week. The trend at Daytona is for the winning lineup to have over $1K left over from the $50K salary cap.
DRAFTKINGS CORE DRIVERS
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: Zane Smith ($10,300), Ben Rhodes ($9,900), Matt DiBenedetto ($9,700), Parker Kligerman ($9,500), Grant Enfinger ($9,300), Corey LaJoie ($9,000)
VALUE-TIER DRIVERS: Stewart Friessen ($8,900), Carson Hocevar ($8,700), Christian Eckes ($8,600), Tyler Ankrum ($8,400), Tanner Gray ($8,000), Hailie Deegan ($7,400), Rajah Caruth ($7,200), Jason White (USA) ($7,000), Nick Sanchez ($6,600), Colby Howard ($6,400)
PUNT PLAYS: Codie Rorhbaugh ($5,900), Kris Wright ($5,700), Timmy Hill ($5,200)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
CHASE ELLIOTT ($10,600) is a lock for Cash Contests from the 14th starting spot. I was supprised Elliott did not qualify better, but his truck should quickly go to the front.
BEN RHODES ($9,900) is another lock for Cash Contests. Rhodes won at Daytona in 2021 and he finished second last year. He started 27th and 23rd in those races. He starts 22nd tonight.
PARKER KLIGERMAN ($9,500) has a history of running well at Daytona in the Truck Series. Kligerman started 31st and finished 5th last year. He starts 24th tonight and he should have a good chance to finish in the top-10 again.
TANNER GRAY ($8,000) is not the first name that comes to mind when people think of Superspeedway racing, but he has been good. He started 24th and finished 4th in this race last year. He starts 19th tonight and should have a fast TriCon Garage Truck.
CODIE RORHBAUGH ($5,900) has raced twice at Daytona. He started 21st and finished 3rd in 2020 and he started 26th and finished 8th in 2021. He starts 28th tonight and Rorhbaugh should have a good chance to move up 15+ positions.
KRIS WRIGHT ($5,700) should be a good punt play for all lineups tonight. He has competed in two races at Daytona. Wright finished 12th in his first race and 19th in his second. I will gladly take a top-20 finish from Wright from the 30th starting position.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS
ZANE SMITH ($10,300) is the best driver in this field not named Chase Elliott. Smith won this race last year and he will have a good chance to do it again tonight.
BEN RHODES ($9,900) will be a popular pick but I will eat the chalk with him. Rhodes is just too good at Daytona to fade tonight. I will let everyone else try and be cute by fading Rhodes.
PARKER KLIGERMAN ($9,500) is the driver I like the most starting outside the top-20 besides Ben Rhodes. Having Zane Smith, Ben Rhodes, Parker Kligerman and Carson Hocevar in my lineup give me a good chance to have four of the top-five drivers.
CARSON HOCEVAR ($8,700) is really good on the Superspeedways. He finished 5th and 9th in his two races. Usually I do not like using drivers who start in the top-10, but Hocevar has proven he can stay there.
COLBY HOWARD ($6,400) will be teammates with Chase Elliott tonight. He said yesterday that he looks forward to drafting with Elliott. That is a good place to be on the track. I will take a chance with Howard.
TIMMY HILL ($5,200) starts 32nd tonight. His truck does not have any speed, but it doesn’t matter. Hill drove a crappy truck at Daytona last year. He started 35th and finished 14th. He has enough talent to move up 15-20 spots tonight.
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 NextEra 250 Friday night…
GROUP A
(START) CHASE ELLIOTT (6): Elliott will be back in the Truck Series. He will be driving a truck that was prepared by Hendrick Motorsports, so he should have everything he needs to win the race. I know he will be popular, but we need to use Elliott and save our allocations with Zane Smith and Ben Rhodes for the other tracks.
(BENCH) BEN RHODES (6): One way to pass a lot of the people playing the Driver Group Game contest for the Truck Series is to fade Chase Elliott, hope he crashes, and pick another driver who can win the race. That driver is Rhodes. He won this race in 2020 and Rhodes finished second last year. It will not surprise me if Rhodes wins Friday night.
GROUP B
(START) MATT DIBENEDETTO (6): There is no doubt that DiBenedetto is one of the most talented drivers in the Truck Series. The problem is that his No. 25 Rackley W.A.R. truck does not have the speed that the well-funded teams have on the intermediate tracks. DiBenedetto did have a truck that could compete on the Superspeedways. DiBenedetto won the last race at Talladega, and he finished 10th at Daytona in his first race in the Truck Series. This is a good race to take a chance with DiBenedetto.
(START) COLBY HOWARD (6): I am going to take a chance with Howard tonight. You likely will not use him at any of the smaller tracks, so why not use Howard at a Superspeedway? Howard finished 30th last year, but he was running 12th at the end of the race when Howard was caught up in a crash. He will have Chase Elliott to work with Friday night (they are teammates), so he should be up front. I doubt many people will use Howard in the Driver Group Game.
(BENCH) TANNER GRAY (6): You would not think that a former drag racing champion would be good on a Superspeedway, but Gray is. He started 24th and finished 4th at Daytona last year. He drove for David Gilliland Racing last year and now the team is Tricon Garage. It will be interesting to see how the switch from Ford to Toyota affects the team.
GROUP C
(START) COREY LAJOIE (5): Lajoie will be behind the wheel of the No. 7 truck for Spire Motorsports. Austin Hill drove this truck at Daytona to a 13th-place finish last year. LaJoie has had a lot of success in the Cup Series at the Superspeedways, so I see no reason why he will not perform well Friday night. He already said that he plans to work with Chase Elliott in the race. These two Cup Series drivers could hook up to dominate the field at Daytona.
(BENCH) PARKER KLIGERMAN (5): Kligerman is racing full-time in the Xfinity Series, so his starts in the Truck Series may be limited. He will be behind the wheel of the No. 75 truck for Henderson Motorsports. This is the same truck he drove to a fifth-place finish last year at Daytona. LaJoie is going to be the popular pick, so pivoting to Kligerman could be a good strategy.
Good Luck This Week!
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