So I’m throwing together a quick write-up for tonight’s Truck race from Bristol. If you know me, I personally don’t love Bristol for DFS. Earlier this year the Bristol races for Cup and Xfinity were incredibly tough reads and they had several cautions. It’s a high-banked short track with no practice so I like to think of this track as a mini-Talladega. The wrecks aren’t massive like they are at Dega or Daytona, but they’re enough to end the night for a few drivers. Normally I have general fears of drivers falling behind and getting lapped easily. This is a half-mile track, but for the Trucks we’ll only see 200 laps tonight (150 dominator points). And these will be 200 quick laps for what it’s worth. Green flag will be at 7:49pm ET and the stages will be broken up into 55-55-90 laps. I’m not sure why they couldn’t have a longer race, but there is an ARCA race scheduled after the Trucks. That doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, but hey I don’t make the schedule.

A couple final notes before diving into the Driver Pool, I’m probably not going to be in the Chat for the Truck and Xfinity races. Sadly I’ll be at work until about 7:00pm ET each night and I have a 45-minute commute home so I’ll be getting home right about the time they wave the green flag. Second, all playoff drivers are in play this week. This will be a smaller driver pool (only 13 or 14 drivers), but I think I’m only entering five or six lineups because, again, the DFS contests suck. But the playoff drivers include Sheldon Creed, Zane Smith, Austin Hill, Grant Enfinger, Brett Moffitt, Ben Rhodes, Matt Crafton, Christian Eckes, Todd Gilliland, and Tyler Ankrum. Ray Ciccarelli and Tim Viens had to withdraw from Bristol after their short track truck sustained too much damage and their teams couldn’t have their truck(s) ready in time. We weren’t playing them either way. And lastly, keep an eye on the weather. Bristol may be getting some high winds and rain tonight so it could be sloppy and it may be postponed.

 

Driver Pool

Ross Chastain ($12,000; Starting P34) Chastain’s a very good Truck driver. He’s also had a lot of success at Bristol in the Truck and Xfinity series. He’s not a driver of the caliber of Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, or Denny Hamlin. However, he’s a very talented driver starting at the rear so even at this price tag he’s in play in both formats and you can make plenty of lineups with him. He’ll likely be over 85% owned in Cash games, but you can make it work. He’s raced at Bristol in the Truck series twice in the last two years finishing 3rd and 12th. He needs to finish 9th for 5X value, but if he accumulates fastest laps along the way he can hit value much easier.

Parker Kligerman ($10,900; Starting P35) A good argument could be made of “Why start Chastain when you can go with Kligerman for $1,100 less?” and that’s a fair point as Kligerman has a ton of PD on his side as well. But Ross is still a better wheel man. Kligerman has been an interesting play when he’s entered the Truck races this year. He’s always had PD on his side and he tends to deliver on that as well. He only had two top ten’s in five races this year. But in the last three Truck races at Bristol he has an average finish of 8.3 but remember that was with practice and qualifying.

Brett Moffitt ($9,800; Starting P2) Moffitt is on the front row for Thursday’s race and he has momentum with four Top 4 finishes in the last five entering Bristol. He started on the pole here a year ago and won the race leading over 65 laps as well. His Truck has been fast and he’s been collecting dominator points every race he’s been in. He seems like a good bet to get more on Thursday.

Zane Smith ($9,500; Starting P6) Admittedly I haven’t had the greatest read on Zane Smith lately. He always seems to find his way to the front to collect some dominator points and he had a couple wins back in August. I am a little worried about the lack of experience here, but his Truck with GMS Racing has been incredible the last few weeks save for the race at Darlington, another track with no experience (but a majority of the field lacked experience there). I’m keeping exposure to just GPP’s but he’s peaking at the right time.

Grant Enfinger ($9,200; Starting P1) Enfinger has raced at Bristol three times and never finished worse than tenth. He grabbed a Top 5 finish here a year ago with 57 laps led and 11 fastest laps and he did that after starting 14th. Last year’s pole sitter (Brett Moffitt) led 65 laps with 30 fastest laps and while Moffitt will be starting next to Enfinger, both are worth getting exposure to. He doesn’t have the consistent “dominator” resume that Moffitt does so that might make him a more contrarian play, but he’s coming off a win and he’s starting out front so there’s a little security there.

Sam Mayer ($8,800; Starting P17) I’ll get exposure to this kid anytime he’s in a Truck. He could’ve won the Gateway race a few weeks back if it weren’t for a late caution that reset the field where he fell back and finished fourth. But he’s an incredibly talented, young driver and he’s starting 17th so there’s some PD there. I won’t go too crazy with exposure because he’s only run one race at Bristol (last year) and he got caught up in a wreck. But he’s on a bit of a high right now as he signed a deal with JR Motorsports and he’ll be racing for their Xfinity team starting next June. He’ll need a Top 10 finish for 5X value but he can get there.

Matt Crafton ($8,500; Starting P4) What an embarrassingly cheap tag on Crafton. I can’t remember the last time he was under $9,000 but we’ll take advantage of it. The starting spot gives him upside for laps led, but it’s not a guarantee. He’s got a little momentum and he’s a solid short track racer in the Truck series. He also has a little momentum coming off a runner-up finish last week at Richmond and he has five finishes in the Top Eight in the last six Bristol races. Ownership is never really incredibly high, but he is among the safer options this week.

Ben Rhodes ($8,300; Starting P3) If we’re strictly looking at prices for potential dominators, Rhodes is very much in play. He’s starting in the second row and he’s only $8,300. He stole a win at Darlington a couple weeks ago and finished third last week after getting 36 dominator points at Richmond. For a guy with momentum and a great starting spot, he could have one hell of a run if everyone else is paying for Moffitt. He hasn’t finished worse than eighth in his last three Bristol races.

Stewart Friesen ($7,600; Starting P12) There was a time this year where I wouldn’t have considered starting Friesen. He had a stretch of awful luck, but he turned it around as we got closer to the playoff stretch. Sadly, he didn’t qualify. But he’s still be churning out solid DFS performances and yet, the price continues to drop. Over the previous four races it’s dropped from $9,500, to $8,800, to $8,300, to $8,100 last week and now he’s $7,600 and he’s easily been driving better with five straight Top 10 finishes. His worst DFS performance was 36 points at Darlington, a track the Trucks normally don’t run and they did it without practice. I’m on board playing Friesen Thursday night.

Raphael Lessard ($7,200; Starting P19) This is another price that just doesn’t make much sense to me. Lessard only has one Bristol race under his belt (last year) and he managed to finish 12th. And typically we’ve seen him start much higher where he’s normally been priced up a little more. But this week he’s starting further back and we’re getting him at a slight discount. This basically goes against what DK has done the last couple months with determining salaries once they know the starting order. Alas, we shan’t complain too much. Lessard will make a couple of my lineups on Thursday though. Coming into this race he has four finishes in the Top 7 in the last six races.

Timmy Hill ($6,800; Starting P13) I would start Timmy Hill if he was on the pole and had no PD upside. Alright, well may not. But he’s GREAT at Bristol. It’s easily his favorite track. The starting spot is dangerously high, but the price tag won’t kill you. Last year he started 27th and finished 17th. At this year’s Xfinity race he started 25th and finished 14th, and even in the Cup race at the end of May he finished in the Top 20 after starting closer to the rear. The 56-truck for Hill Motorsports has also been performing very well lately. Timmy has nabbed Top 10 finishes at Darlington and Richmond while his brother Tyler hasn’t had a terrible year either. A third straight Top 10 finish for Timmy Hill would easily return 5X value.

Tate Fogleman ($5,300; Starting P20) Fogleman typically has a Top 20 car most weeks. I normally like to target him when he’s starting further back, but this price is still worth getting a little exposure to. He’s coming off back-to-back Top 15 finishes at Darlington and Richmond and he’s shown the ability to gain a little PD and move up a few spots. He’s never run at Bristol, but maybe he keeps the hot streak rolling.

Codie Rohrbaugh ($5,100; Starting P14) Rohrbaugh is as cheap as we should look this week. He’s starting 14th and provides salary relief so he doesn’t need to do much to return value. I’ll say this about him, he has some awful luck but he’s a guy you can rally around especially after his “Pray For Joshua” campaign. He’s also coming off finishing sixth last week at Richmond in a stunning effort. Bristol is tough with no practice, but a year ago he started 25th and finished 16th. I love the price tag in GPP’s.

Other Drivers To Consider in GPP’s: Sheldon Creed (I’m not playing him, because given the price tag he really needs to dominate the race), Carson Hocevar, Tyler Ankrum, Austin Wayne Self, Tanner Gray, Danny Bohn, and Clay Greenfield (late addition).

 

Example Lineups

The EXAMPLE lineups are meant to show different roster constructions that are made with drivers from the Playbook. These are not meant to be plugged and played.

DraftKings Cash Example

1. Ross Chastain

2. Brett Moffitt

     a. Stewart Friesen (Pivot)

3. Sam Mayer

     a. Parker Kligerman (Pivot)

4. Raphael Lessard

5. Timmy Hill

6. Tate Fogleman

I would model your GPP builds after the lineup structure without the pivots. The Pivot lineup builds around drivers with PD, but the only driver who has potential to get dominator points is Chastain, and he has to do it coming all the way up from 34th with just 200 quick laps in this race. You probably need a driver or two collecting dominator points in your Cash lineup since 150 are available tonight.

DraftKings GPP Example

1. Parker Kligerman

     a. Sam Mayer (Pivot)

2. Grant Enfinger

     a. Tyler Ankrum (Pivot)

3. Ben Rhodes

     a. Brett Moffitt (Pivot)

4. Stewart Friesen

5. Raphael Lessard

     a. Zane Smith (Pivot)

6. Timmy Hill