The Truck Series will return after a week off with a race under the lights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This race typically puts on a good show. I know because this used to be my home track and I never missed the truckers in Sin City. Zane Smith won the first race of the season, but he will have some competition tonight. Kyle Busch is racing for his team tonight. It will be fun to see if anyone can beat Rowdy tonight. The Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 can be seen Friday at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.
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 many of the teams did not make long runs. This is an impound race, so the speed the truckers had in practice is the speed they will start the race with tonight.
Here are the lap times from the practice Friday at Las Vegas…
WHAT TO DO WITH KYLE BUSCH
Kyle Busch has an extremely high price ($14,500) and he will have the highest ownership in the field Friday? So is he a lock for all lineups? I do not think Busch is a lock because he has had problems in the Truck Series races over the last two seasons. Busch competed in five Truck Series races last year. He won one (Sonoma), but he did have a third-place average finishing position and he did lead the most laps two of the three races. Busch has finished second in his last two Truck Series races at his home track.
We will likely need a win and the most laps led from Kyle Busch in order for him to return value tonight. Ross Chastain, John H. Nemechek and Ty Majweski are going to give Rowdy a lot of competition in this race. I would not fade Busch, but he does not need to be in every lineup. I plan to play Busch in 60% of my lineups tonight.
DFS STRATEGY FOR LAS VEGAS
The race tonight is scheduled for 134 laps (200 miles). That means there are 33.5 points available for leading laps and 60.3 points available for fastest laps (93.8 dominator points). This race tends to be a two-dominator race. One driver leads 32 laps and scores 18 fastest laps (16.1 dominator points). The other dominator leads 31 laps and scores 15 fastest laps (14.5 dominator points). We are going to need these two drivers in our lineup. One of them will likely be Kyle Busch. It will be tough to pay up for two dominators with Busch in our lineups, so we will likely have to take Busch and five value picks.
The drivers with the best chance to score dominator points tonight are: Kyle Busch, John H. Nemechek, Ross Chastain and Ty Majewski
The drivers with the best chance to score place differential points include Ross Chastain, John H. Nemechek, Stewart Freisen, Grant Enfinger, Matt DiBenetto, Dean Thompson and Colby Howard
DRAFTKINGS CORE DRIVERS
TOP-TIER DRIVERS: KYLE BUSCH ($14,500), ROSS CHASTAIN ($12,000), ZANE SMITH ($11,500), JOHN H. NEMECHECK ($10,700), TY MAJEWSKI ($10,200), GRANT ENFINGER ($9,200), STEWART FRIESEN ($9,000)
VALUE-TIER DRIVERS: TYLER ANKRUM ($8,700), CHRISTAIN ECKES ($8,600), CARSON HOCEVAR ($8,400), MATT DIBENEDETTO ($8,200), MATT CRAFTON ($8,000), TANNER GRAY ($7,800), KAZ GRALA ($7,500), RAJAH CARUTH ($7,200), NICK SANCHEZ ($7,000), COLBY HOWARD ($6,600)
PUNT PLAYS: DEAN THOMPSON ($5,900), KADEN HONNEYCUTT ($5,600), KRIS WRIGHT ($5,300)
DRAFTKINGS CASH CONTEST PICKS
* You almost have to have Kyle Busch in the Cash Contest lineup.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS (KYLE BUSCH LINEUP)
* I will post a Kyle Busch lineup and a non-Kyle Busch lineup to show you how I would construct the lineups.
DRAFTKINGS TOURNAMENT CONTEST PICKS (NON-KYLE BUSCH LINEUP)
*I really like Ross Chastain and John H. Nemechek but I could not fit them into this lineup. I will be playing both drivers though.
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 Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 Friday night…
GROUP A: Ty Majewski was fastest in practice, and he was on fire at the end of the season last year. I will roll with the No. 98 truck.
GROUP B: I will take a chance with Nick Sanchez. He is driving the truck that won this race last year and he has Kyle Busch to lean on after practice.
GROUP B: Matt Crafton has been awesome at Las Vegas for years. He starts 11th and should finish in the top-10 tonight.
GROUP C: Kyle Busch is a lock in Group C.
Good Luck This Week!
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