NASCAR DFS: SpeedyCash.com 200 Playbook

Pardon the brevity in this article, but I’ve been awake way too long and had a two-hour drive back to my apartment from work. SO! We are back to the show up and race format for Texas. This is your standard “cookie cutter” track; a 1.5-mile intermediate track that lends itself to some boring racing for the Cup series. And if I’m being honest, I’ll take boring racing. The biggest critique across the DFS industry has been the lack of quality drivers in the Truck and Xfinity series that have caused some chaos late in races. In the Truck series the last couple years we’ve seen anywhere from 5-to-13 cautions for 25-65 yellow flag laps, so be aware. If we can get some clean racing I’ll gladly take it and run.

But we have an exciting double-header so definitely join me in the NASCAR DFS Discord channel on Saturday. The Truck race is scheduled for green flag at 1:11pm ET and the stages are broken into 35-35-77 segments. Each team with have four sets of tires with a fuel range of about 50 laps. We have just over 100 dominator points on the table and a slate that shapes up to go a variety of ways. Check out the player pool for this week’s action!

Driver Pool

Chase Elliott ($11,800; Starting P22) Elliott races in the Truck series a couple times each year and he’s gracing us with his presence to get some practice in before Sunday’s All-Star race for a cool million bucks. In last year’s race at Charlotte (a race Kyle Busch competed in), Elliott started 26th and won the race leading 47 laps. DraftKings WHIFFED on this price tag. He should be at least $1,500 more in my opinion. He can hit 5X value by finishing third without any dominator points. As he moves his way through the field he’ll likely collect fastest laps and the fact there’s a competition will help him get closer to the front by the end of the stage. If doing three lineups, Elliott has to be in two. If making 10-20 lineups he should probably be in 60-70%. The price tag is high, but still too cheap. This is good chalk to eat and he’s a lock in both formats. He did make some comments about how he’s grateful to GMS Racing for letting him get some laps and practice in at a track he doesn’t historically run well at. But I’m putting my faith and heavy exposure in the fact he’s a Cup series champion racing against inferior competition.

John Hunter Nemechek ($10,900; Starting P1) Can’t discuss a 1.5-mile track without touching on JHN. He won at Vegas and Charlotte while grabbing top five finishes at Kansas and Atlanta. He’s the clear favorite to win the Truck series championship this season as he’s looked phenomenal and dominated on intermediate tracks. Even if he goes backward a bit he can still hit value by registering some dominator points, which he should do from the pole in stage one. He’s comfortably in play in GPP’s and honestly, I think he’s fine for Cash games too as long as you pair him with Elliott and/or Chastain.

Sheldon Creed ($10,500; Starting P16) I love the narrative surrounding Creed this week. He wrecked at Charlotte a couple weeks ago after dominating the first stage. He’s the kind of driver that likes to remind other drivers who is the defending champion in this series. He won last Fall’s race at Texas and led 131 laps along the way. We get him with PD this week and while there’s a strong chance JHN and Elliott collect the dominator points, Creed’s still viable as a lower-owned GPP play compared to the other two.

Ross Chastain ($10,200; Starting P24) Hilariously cheap price tag on Watermelon Man for Saturday’s race. He’s another driver eligible in Cash and GPP contests. He’s run two intermediate races this year in the Truck series and the results have been strong. He started P40 at Atlanta and finished seventh. But the wear and tear of the tires at Atlanta doesn’t compare to Texas all that well. However, at Kansas Chastain started P34 and finished second. He’s done very well in Niece Motorsports equipment and should have no issues moving through the field on Saturday. Realistically he only needs to finish eighth to hit 5X value and that’s probably his floor for Saturday’s race, but as always, no one is exempt from wrecking.

Grant Enfinger ($9,600; Starting P18) If you take away his engine issues in last Fall’s race at Texas, Enfinger has an average finish of 6.0 in seven races with six finishes in the top eight in total. He basically just needs to gain ten spots of PD to return value and given his track history here, he can certainly do that.

Matt Crafton ($9,400; Starting P15) I’m leaning slightly more in favor of Enfinger, but if the field is trying to pair together two or three drivers in the $10,000+ range then they’ll be overlooking these Thorsport rides. This is one of Crafton’s best tracks. On top of that he’s raced here 40 times in his career. That is no typo. And in his last 19 (clears throat) NINETEEN races he’s registered a top ten. You can simply click here to view his driver profile at Texas and marvel at the results at how many finishes he has in the single digits. Given the competition in the field I’m not sold on him getting a top five, but Crafton is solid and should definitely get in the top ten with some dominator points along the way.

Josh Berry ($8,400; Starting P33) Berry’s going to be a popular play based on the name recognition from the Xfinity series. He’s never run Texas before so he’s treating this as practice for the Xfinity race. With that said, I’m hoping he just doesn’t go out there and record some laps. He only needs to finish 17th to return 5X value and that’s very well within reach for a driver of his caliber. He’s definitely made a name for himself this year. 

Johnny Sauter ($8,300; Starting P17) Hear me out… Remember how for the last two DFS pieces I preached how Sauter would benefit from practice and qualifying at COTA and Charlotte… And then he didn’t? In four of the five races heading into COTA, Sauter registered four top tens including three finishes in the top six without P&Q. Sooooooo… Maybe he’s figured out the show up and race format? In case you couldn’t tell, I love the Thorsport trucks in the mid-range for Saturday’s race. They’ll go overlooked with 50+% of the field jamming in Elliott and Chastain as the PD plays. Don’t hesitate to have some builds that go a little contrarian with Thorsport. The good news is that Sauter has won Texas FIVE times in his career. The downside is that he looked awful in the show up and race format last year. But I’m willing to throw him into 15-20% of my GPP builds on Saturday.

Tanner Gray ($7,200; Starting P20) Gray has cooled off a little bit since his hot start to the season. But the starting spot and price tag lend him to some potential value. If he can sneak into the top 15 he’ll return decent value and he’s strictly a finishing position play. He is prone to getting caught up in the chaos. He’s looked okay on intermediate tracks this season and hopefully he can do enough to crack the top 15. Given the roster construction for DFS this weekend, he will likely be a popular paydown option in Cash and GPP formats although I prefer him more for GPP’s.

Brennan Poole ($7,000; Starting P27) Selz summed it up perfectly on the podcast. This is a guy that’s mostly sitting on the couch waiting for the opportunity to drive and he’s getting a shot this weekend. He’ll be in the 30-truck for On Point Motorsports and we can at least take solace in the fact that Poole carries experience. He piloted this truck to a pair of top tens at Texas in 2019 and he finished second at Charlotte that same year. I don’t necessarily hate him for Cash construction and he’s currently in my cash build for Saturday’s race, but he’ll be in plenty of my GPP builds. 

Ryan Truex ($6,900; Starting P14) Truex isn’t just making the Playbook as the “nice” play of the week because given the starting spot he’s a risky play. However, he’s shown up and run pretty well on intermediate tracks this year. He didn’t finish Vegas due to the damaged vehicle policy, but he did finish 12th at Charlotte a couple weeks ago and he makes for a nice low-owned GPP play Saturday afternoon.

Chase Purdy ($6,600; Starting P28) BigDay4Me contextualized the general consensus on Chase Purdy perfectly, “Maybe at a boring track like this he has less chance to screw it up and just might pay off…” And I agree completely. This is a simple 1.5-mile track and he’s in great equipment. He just hasn’t done a damn thing with it this year. But to understand how bad he’s been this year he has just one top 20 finish… And it came at Bristol Dirt. He needs to avoid cautions and run clean which has been a tall task. But if he somehow pulls it together, he has a path to value if he can move up and finish 19th.  He did finish 12th here last Fall and logged a pair of top 15’s in 2020 at Kansas. Just understand you’re playing with fire here.

Hailie Deegan ($6,400; Starting P12) Deegan has looked more and more comfortable in the Truck series and she’s passed the eyeball test at intermediate tracks. Earlier in the year she was running well but wasn’t getting the finishing results. Now she’s running well and getting the strong results. In terms of 1.5-mile tracks she finished 13th at Kansas and Charlotte and she managed to get a top 15 on a brand new road course like COTA. The downside is that there are drivers in the field starting behind her than will pass her (Elliott, Chastain, Enfinger, Crafton, and maybe Sauter) but there are drivers starting in front of her that could also go backward. I am playing her in some GPP builds if she can simply hold her position and finish top 15. Austin Wayne Self is another guy in this range I like for the same reasons I like Deegan but I do think he’ll have higher ownership. I’ve written up AWS enough to where you should know he comes with variance but he’s had decent results on 1.5-mile tracks as well.

Tyler Hill ($5,900; Starting P25) This is about as low as I want to go for Saturday’s race, but I understand given the top-tier drivers on the slate we may have to go lower and I do have Tate Fogleman (lol) in some lineups. But Hill steps into the 56-truck on Saturday and he did fairly well on intermediate tracks last season. He started by finishing 30th at Kentucky but then turned in finishes of 16th (Kansas), 17th (Las Vegas), 14th (Kansas again), and 11th (Texas) so he offers PD at this style of track. I’m trying to avoid him in Cash games but I do imagine he’ll be popular for Double Up builds.

Core Drivers