The Truck Series will once again be part of a double-header day of racing at Circuit of Americas (COTA). The Truck Series will race at 1:30 pm ET on FS1, followed by the Xfinity Series race at 5 pm ET on FS1. The double-header last week at Atlanta was tough to watch. I expect two exciting races Saturday and two great races for your DraftKings Contests.
PRACTICE / QUALIFYING
The Truck Series had a 20-minute practice session Friday and then they lined up the trucks for qualifying. We probably will not be able to learn too much from practice because the track is 3.41-miles in length and the drivers did not have enough time to make any long runs. We simply need to base our picks Saturday on the drivers who have a history of running up front at the road course races.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at COTA…
WHAT TO DO WITH KYLE BUSCH
The field is stacked for the race Saturday. Kyle Busch will drive the No. 51 truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Ross Chastain will drive the No. 41 truck for Niece Motorsports, Kaz Grala will drive the No. 1 truck for Tricon Garage and Parker Kligerman will be in the No. 75 truck for Henderson Motorsports.. Add these drivers to the list of Truck Series regulars who are pretty good on the road courses (Zane Smith, Ben Rhodes, Matt DiBenedetto and Carson Harcevar) and we have a lot of choices for our DraftKings lineup Sunday.
* Alex Bowman was schedule to drive the No. 7 truck for Spire Motorsports, but he got a flat tire right before qualifying, so he was not able to qualify for the race.
Kyle Busch is priced at $13K this week. Is he worth the money? Busch competed in the Truck Series race at COTA last year. Rowdy started fifth, led 31 of the 46 laps, scored seven fastest laps and finished third. That was good enough for 53.9 Draftkings Points. Zane Smith won the race and scored 51.45 DraftKings points. Busch was priced $2,800 more than Smith, so it was not worth it to pay nearly $3K for 2 DraftKings Points. It is also tough to fade Busch because he is almost a lock to be one of the top-three drivers in your DraftKings contests. I plan to play Rowdy in 60% of my lineups this week.
* Alex Bowman, Kaz Grala and Parker Klingerman were also in the race last year. Bowman scored -4.25 DraftKings Points, Grala scored 33 DraftKings Points and Kligerman scored 9.25 DraftKings points.
DFS STRATEGY FOR COTA
The race Saturday is scheduled for 42 laps (143.22 miles). That means there are 10.5 points available for leading laps and 18.9 points available for fastest laps (29.4 dominator points). That is not a lot of dominator points to chase this week. Kyle Busch scored 68% of the dominator points last year at COTA. There is a good chance he could do it again. The dominator points will likely get spread out a bit more “if” anything happens to Rowdy during the race.
The drivers with the best chance to score dominator points tonight are: Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Ben Rhodes and Zane Smith
The drivers with the best chance to score place differential points include Matt Crafton, Matt Dibenedetto, Stewart Friesen, Parker Kligerman, Ben Rhodes, Colby Howard, Kris Wright
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR COTA
DRAFTKINGS CORE DRIVERS
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: KYLE BUSCH ($13,000), ZANE SMITH ($10,600), ROSS CHASTAIN ($10,200), PARKER KLIGERMAN ($9,500), STEWART FRIESEN ($9,300), BEN RHODES ($9,100)
VALUE-TIER DRIVERS: TY MAJESKI ($8,900), CHRISTAIN ECKES ($8,700), TYLER ANKRUM ($8,500), KAZ GRALA ($8,300), GRANT ENFINGER ($8,200), NICK SANCHEZ ($8,000), MATT DIBENEDETTO ($7,800), MATT CRAFTON ($7,500), TANNER GRAY ($7,300), RAJAH CURUTH ($7,200), TAYLOR GRAY ($6,900), DEAN THOMPSON ($6,100), KADEN HONNEYCUTT ($6,000)
PUNT PLAYS: TIMMY HILL ($5,800), KRIS WRIGHT ($5,600), ED JONES ($5,300), LAWLESS ALLEN ($4,900)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
* You almost have to have Kyle Busch in the Cash Contest lineup.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS
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 XPEL 225 Saturday afternoon…
Good luck with your lineups!
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