And just like that, when one season ends another begins just three months later! NASCAR may have crowned their 2022 champions back in November at Phoenix, but we find ourselves just a couple weeks away from Daytona Speedweeks including the biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500 for the NASCAR Cup Series. But here at Fantasy Alarm we still have you covered with a recap of the offseason for the Craftsman Truck Series. Yes, Camping World is out of the NASCAR picture for now and we get the return of Craftsman as the main sponsor for the Truck Series. Here is an offseason recap ahead of Friday’s race.

 

Craftsman Truck Series Schedule Changes

There aren’t many significant changes for the Truck Series schedule but there are a couple. One of the biggest narratives is that NASCAR is bringing the All-Star race back to North Wilkesboro, North Carolina and the Truck Series will be running there Saturday afternoon on May 20th. This marks the first time in 27 years the Trucks will be run at North Wilkesboro. The Truck Series will also return to the Milwaukee Mile for a playoff race at the end of August. It will be the first time the Truck Series raced at Milwaukee since 2009. To add these two races to the schedule the races at Sonomo (road course) and Knoxville (dirt track) were removed for 2023.

Manufacturer, Team, And Driver Changes

Kyle Busch Motorsports

The big manufacturer change heading into the 2023 season is obviously Kyle Busch Motorsports switching from Toyota to Chevrolet following the news that Kyle Busch (the team’s owner) would be switching from Joe Gibbs Racing (a Toyota team) to Richard Childress Racing (a Chevy team). Because of this, his Truck Series team had to change as well. This obviously left some things up-in-the-air regarding previous Kyle Busch drivers that were on Toyota deals. John Hunter Nemechek moved back up to the Xfinity Series to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. Chandler Smith also got himself a promotion to the Xfinity Series as he makes the switch from Toyota to Chevy and he’ll be driving for Kaulig Racing. Corey Heim, on a part-time schedule last year, did manage two wins and a handful of top fives. He showed a lot of promise and unfortunately couldn’t stick with KBM because of the manufacturer change, but he did manage to find a new ride, which we’ll get to shortly. Chase Purdy gets a significant equipment upgrade and joins KBM after spending last season with Hattori Racing Enterprises. That’s not the greatest equipment but he had some good runs and scored plenty of top 15 finishes last year, and he’ll take over the 4-truck on a full-time schedule, replacing John Hunter Nemechek. And somehow Jack Wood landed a KBM truck as well, but he’ll be part-time in the 51-truck. Wood, as you’ll know if you follow the series regularly, hasn’t been very good in his two years in the Truck Series. He managed only one top ten finish with GMS and wrecked in seven races last year. When he did finish, he was usually way off the pace. 

Rev Racing

We’ll touch on Rev Racing next as they have an alliance and partnership with Kyle Busch Motorsports so they go hand-in-hand as Chevrolet teams. Rev Racing has primarily run out of the ARCA Series and it’s a team that fields drivers in association with Driver for Diversity, a program designed to give minorities and women an opportunity to become more involved with the sport. For the 2023 season, Nick Sanchez will be the team’s driver of the 2-truck. Sanchez is coming off delivering Rev’s first championship in the ARCA Series from a year ago. Danny Stockman Jr., who was the previous crew chief for Chandler Smith in the Truck Series will join Rev Racing for the 2-truck.

TRICON Garage

TRICON (f/k/a David Gilliland Racing) is not a new team, simply a re-branded one. After three years of being a Ford team, the organization will switch back to Toyota. Taylor Gray will be the primary driver of the 17-truck, but he won’t take over that Truck until Circuit of the Americas since he isn’t yet old enough to run a full-time schedule so he will miss the first three races. Tanner Gray returns to the 15-truck for 2023, and perhaps the big acquisition for this team was acquiring Corey Heim, who was in need of a team after KBM’s move from Toyota to Chevy. Heim will pilot the 11-truck in 2023 for TRICON and won two races last year on a part-time schedule. Dean Thompson comes over from Niece Motorsports and will drive the 5-truck full-time in 2023. The team will also run the 1-truck part-time as it was formerly driven by Hailie Deegan. William Sawalich will get time in that ride for a few races in 2023.

ThorSport Racing

ThorSport announced in December that they will be switching from Toyota back to Ford. Hailie Deegan, because she’s a Ford driver and needed a ride after TRICON’s manufacturer change, comes over to drive the 13-truck full-time. Rich Lushes, who was the crew chief for Ben Rhodes’ championship season, will crew chief the 13 for Deegan. Ty Majeski returns for another season, but this time in the 98-truck after qualifying for the Truck Series championship race in 2022. Matt Crafton will be back in the 88-truck and Ben Rhodes, the 2021 Truck Series champion, will be back in the 99-truck and Jeriod Prince will be his crew chief, moving over from the 98-truck. 

GMS Racing

Grant Enfinger will return in 2023 to drive the 23-truck full-time. Rajah Caruth takes over the 24-truck left vacant by Jack Wood. Caruth ran a couple races at times in both the Truck Series and Xfinity Series in 2022. The full-time ride will be in good equipment, but he did have his growing pains as a young driver last season in the few races we saw. Chad Walter comes over from the Xfinity Series to crew chief for Caruth. Daniel Dye is also being promoted from ARCA after grabbing plenty of top five finishes a year ago, but no wins. GMS will expand from two trucks to three this season and Dye will pilot the 43-truck. Travis Sharpe will be his crew chief and the two have worked together previously when Dye used to run late models. Dye will get to kick off his Truck Series career on his home track at Daytona, so remember that narrative when we get to building lineups in two weeks.

McAnally-Hilgemann Racing

MHR will look at a bit different in 2023. Christian Eckes comes over from GMS Racing and this is a big signing for MHR. Eckes may only have one career win, but given the turnover in this series, and some of the talent that moved up to the Xfinity Series, it’s possible that Eckes can elevate MHR to a winning team in this series. Eckes will take over the 19-truck vacated by Derek Kraus. Jake Garcia gets an opportunity to drive the 35-truck in 2023. He won’t run the season opener at Daytona because of his age. Chase Elliott will step behind the wheel for that race, but Garcia has been granted a waiver by NASCAR that still makes him eligible for the playoffs if he were to qualify.

Other Craftsman Truck Series News

  • Hattori Racing Enterprises will be moving from two trucks to one. With Chase Purdy leaving the team for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Tyler Ankrum is left as the lone driver for the team and he’ll return to the 16-truck.
  • Colby Howard indicated in the offseason that he had a full-time ride with a new team for 2023, but nothing ever came of that news and it doesn’t look like he’ll be running a full-time schedule, but that could change.
  • Mason Massey joins Reaume Brothers Racing and will drive their 33-truck.
  • AM Racing will be getting back into the mix for some Truck Series races. Christian Rose, who will be competing full-time for the team in ARCA, will run a part-time schedule and get a few races in. Austin Wayne Self will also compete on a part-time schedule, but he’ll also be getting some races in at the Xfinity level.
  • Layne Riggs is set to run a part-time schedule with Halmar Friesen Racing for the 2023 season. Stewart Friesen, who pilots the 52-truck full-time, said Riggs could get a full-time ride depending on sponsorship, but it doesn’t sound like that’s come to fruition yet.
  • Hill Motorsports is moving from a two-truck team, to just one truck this year as both Tyler Hill and Timmy Hill will split time behind the wheel.

Now for Friday night’s race we won’t have the starting lineup until a few hours before the actual race. So for now, I’ll preview the drivers in the field that just jump out to me as potential early targets, but we will always make adjustments for you all following qualifying, so check back for updates once we know the starting order. We only have 100 laps for Friday’s race so there are only 70 dominator points available, which is comparable to some road course races. It’s nice to accumulate those points, but don’t try to force them into your builds.

Remember, if this is your first time playing NASCAR DFS do not use a lot of your bankroll this weekend. Even for tonight’s race I’m going to just do one lineup and play it mostly in single-entry Cash game contests in addition to a couple Tournaments. You can go from winning it all to losing it all very quickly at these tracks and the last three Truck Series races have averaged about seven cautions over 100 laps so don’t be surprised if about 20-30% of the field doesn’t finish tonight’s race with how much youth is in this field. 

As always, this week's NASCAR DFS Podcast is live as Matt Selz and I preview the Daytona 500 from the DFS and betting perspective, so definitely give it a little ahead of Sunday's race!

 

NextEra Energy 250 Driver Pool

Chase Elliott ($10,600)

I’ve seen some folks concerned about the equipment, but I don’t have too many worries given the nature of draft racing. Chase Elliott had a driver rating of 104.6 in 2022 on drafting tracks (Daytona, Talladega, and Atlanta) and that was the best score in the Cup Series. Down in the Truck Series I think it’s okay to eat this chalk if looking for a 50+ point performance. Now I will say this, during the practice session on Thursday there were some drivers hesitant to practice drafting with newcomers and there are quite a few young drivers in this field without much drafting experience. But Chase knows how to drive in the draft and if you anticipate heavy ownership here, then maybe you lay off and it might be wise to be underweight. But he opened as a +650 favorite and a lot of predictive analytics out there are giving Elliott a legitimate 20-23% chance to win. But this is Daytona and no one is exempt from the Big One. Update: Elliott will start P14 and offers plenty of win equity with PD from this spot.

Zane Smith ($10,300)

I don’t want to overload the pre-qualifying preview with so many top end drivers, but we’ll kick it off with Smith, who is the defending Truck Series Champion. Zane won this race a year ago, kicking off his outstanding 2022 campaign and he’s one of the better drivers in the field that knows how to survive. Similarly, we can also consider Ben Rhodes who won this race two years ago (kicking off his 2021 championship run) and he was second last year. Perhaps the winner of this race will be crowned the 2023 champion? Who knows, but both are eligible this week with a slight edge. Update: Rhodes will be popular in both Cash and Tournaments given that he'll start P26 as a driver that's finished first and second here in the last two years. Zane Smith doesn't offer as much PD as Rhodes but he'll start P15. He's a fringe Cash game play, but a great Tournament play with win equity.

Parker Kligerman ($9,500)

Looks like Kligerman will start outside the top 20, which makes him a great Tournament play and a decent Cash game play as well. He finished fifth here last year and in six career races he's finished top 15 in four of them while wrecking in the other two. He also has a pair of wins on his superspeedway racing at Talladega.

Grant Enfinger ($9,300)

Enfinger is surprisingly now the elder statesman at GMS with Rajah Caruth and Daniel Dye now joining the team. Enfinger did wreck in last year’s race, but prior to the he posted four straight finishes in the top 11 at Daytona including a win in 2020 and he also has a win at Talladega. Plenty of experience here and the equipment is still solid. He’ll have plenty of other Chevrolet drivers to work with Friday night.

Corey Heim ($9,100)

KBM’s loss is TRICON’s gain. Heim, sticking with TRD, moves over to join TRICON with Hailie Deegan vacating a spot on this team with the move to ThorSport. I’m partial to Heim because he’s from right up the road from me in Marietta, Georgia and he was the 2022 Truck Series Rookie of the Year while running a part-time schedule. I love his upside considering he won twice last year in just 16 races, including a win at Atlanta-1. Now he did wreck at Daytona and Talladega. That’ll happen to even the best drivers. But he’s a tremendous asset for the newly rebranded TRICON team and a driver worth looking at on Friday. Update: He makes for a good GPP play starting outside the top ten. He should draft well and move up. A win isn't out of the question as long as he runs a clean race.

Corey Lajoie ($9,000)

Lajoie will likely be a popular click for most lineups. Even if you’re a casual NASCAR DFS player, by now you’ve heard Lajoie’s name mentioned as a driver to target for the Daytona 500. Lajoie is a good superspeedway racer and he had top ten speed in the draft in practice on Thursday. He’s always a dark horse on this style of track and he almost won Atlanta-2 at the Cup Series last year, which has turned into a bit of a drafting track. Let it be known that his qualifying spot will dictate how much exposure we land on. Similar to Elliott, name recognition alone will make him a popular play, so be mindful of that when building lineups and setting your exposures. Update: Tournament only play tonight. Qualified inside the top five.

Stewart Friesen ($8,900)

Friesen will likely be a popular target tonight, but I might relegate him just to Tournaments/GPP's. He'll start outside the top 20 which gives him the appeal of PD. But he's wrecked in four of six races at Daytona and only has two top tens in six races at Talladega. The PD is there and he has experience, but he tends to get caught up in the carnage.

Carson Hocevar ($8,700)

This is a misprice on Hocevar, but it’s not a huge deal since pricing doesn’t really matter for tonight’s race. Hocevar doesn’t have a ton of superspeedway experience, but in the two races he’s run at Daytona he’s finished ninth and fifth and Truck Series fans are eagerly waiting for his first career win. He flirted with that that opportunity a couple times last year but to no avail, but anything can happen at Daytona. Update: Qualified P9. Tournament only play.

Tyler Ankrum ($8,400)

Ankrum is likely the Cash game pivot in this mid-$8K range with a lot of the drivers in this area qualifying very well. Ankrum will start outside the top 25. But he's also wrecked in all three of his races at Daytona. But in those three races he started much higher and wasn't on our DFS radar anyway. This is by far the best starting position he's had in terms of PD for DFS.

Matt Crafton ($8,200)

We don’t necessarily think of Crafton as a great superspeedway racer. In 22 races at Daytona he only has eight top ten finishes. At Dega? Six top tens in 17 races. However, the crew chief change toward the end of last year did yield some better results down the stretch and he seems genuinely excited about the upcoming season. And honestly, it might be a year where he can make some noise and get back to victory lane since Chandler Smith and John Hunter Nemechek moved up to the Xfinity Series. He posted a top ten speed in the draft in practice on Thursday and he has plenty of experience. We just need to hope an inexperienced driver doesn’t ruin his night. Update: Tournament only play tonight. Qualified P6.

Travis Pastrana ($6,800)

Not a play I'm in love with but he offers PD and is easy to plug in for Cash games. I'm weary because of the lack of experience and I think most of his focus is on the Daytona 500. This isn't a guy I'm personally playing, but figured he was worth mentioning.

Nicholas Sanchez ($6,600)

The reigning ARCA Series Champion looked good in the draft on Thursday and this REV team has an affiliation with Kyle Busch Motorsports. Now in his ARCA career he finished 20th and 31st at Daytona in two races. However, he finished third and first in two races at Talladega and similar to some other Chevrolet trucks in the field, he drafted very well on Thursday. There isn’t too much to look at with Sanchez right now, and he is one of those young drivers I’m worried about wrecking the field, but there is a good pedigree here for the rookie. Update: Sanchez went out in qualifying and posted a time that would've been the third-fastest lap if he was qualifying for the Daytona 500. So he's going to start up front and likely takes him out of the conversation for Cash games. But it'll lower his ownership in Tournaments, which is really the only format you can utilize him in.

Jack Wood ($6,100)

Jack Wood wrecks a lot… A LOT. In 35 career races with GMS Racing, Wood didn’t finish ten of them. So here we are. Wood getting a surprisingly good ride with Kyle Busch Motorsports. I can’t explain how this happened, but with KBM switching from Toyota to Chevrolet, that meant the organization had to lose Corey Heim and take on a couple Chevy drivers to field a team. And that’s where Wood comes in. He has funding so he’s an obvious choice. To his credit, he ran okay in the draft on Thursday. However, practice on Thursday and the actual race on Friday are two different animals. Proceed with caution. Update: Wood and his teammate, Chase Purdy, will both be starting in the top ten so they're very risky plays. Do not use either in Cash games. Only get exposure in deep field GPP's.

Codie Rohrbaugh ($5,900)

Rohrbaugh’s sample size is very small. He’s run five career races between Daytona and Talladega. When he’s finishes he’s been in the top ten. When he’s wrecked he’s finished 16th and 24th. But even those results signal to me that he’s alive in the final laps. He’s one of those guys to monitor in practice and qualifying because he won’t be in his typical CR7 truck. Update: Nice paydown option for PD tonight as he'll start P28.

Spencer Boyd ($5,500)

I can never get this guy right, but here we go. I’d prefer it if he started pretty far back relegating him to just a Cash game play, but we’ll see if that happens on Friday. Boyd does have four straight top 20 finishes with three of those results being 13th or better. At Talladega he has similar results as well with three of his four results being 13th or better including a surprising win back in 2019. He’s mostly a fade at any other track, but he can survive the war of attrition and pay off. Update: Do not play. He did not qualify.

Clay Greenfield ($5,400)

I think Greenfield is a good pivot off Boyd and Benning since they didn't qualify. Greenfield has caught up in some wrecks in his career at Daytona, but he also has a couple top 12 finishes on his resume here. He just doesn't seem to run each year. He also has some top 15's on his resume at Talladega. I do think he's a phenomenal Tournament play that won't have the ownership of cheap plays like Hill and White. And he's also a decent Cash game play for those same reasons.

Norm Benning ($5,300) 

You all can laugh at this, but 71-year-old Norm Benning knows how to wheel a truck in the draft. He hasn’t run Daytona in the Truck Series in 2018 and he didn’t race at all last year. However, in the first practice session he posted a top ten speed in the draft as one of a handful of drivers in the field to actually get in the dirt and run in the draft. As he runs a solo lap for qualifying, he likely qualifies poorly if he makes the race. So with that said, keep an eye on Friday’s practice and monitor qualifying. In his last three Talladega races he started outside the top 30 in all three but finished 17th, 22nd, and 18th. He also logged back-to-back top 15 finishes at Daytona but remember, those were quite a few years ago. Update: Do not play. He did not qualify.

Timmy Hill ($5,200)

I’ll be brief with Timmy. This team is reducing their trucks to just one this year and Hill grabbed top 15 finishes at Daytona and Talladega in 2022. Not bad for a driver who is dirt cheap and likely starting pretty far back. I also saw he was getting 200-1 odds to win Friday’s race on DraftKings Sportsbook, which is very tempting even for a couple bucks. Even Hill’s brother, Tyler, flirted with winning Talladega a couple years ago because he was beat at the line by Tate Fogleman. Pretty decent results for the Hill Brothers on this style of track and Timmy can be a bit of a DFS darling on the right day. Update: Likely starting outside the top 30. Good Cash game play.

Jason White ($4,700)

So there are two Jason White’s in this race. I’m writing up the Canadian (or Canadien depending on much of a Canuck you are). Canadian Jason is $4,700 while the American Jason is $7,000. Canadian Jason has run each of the last three Spring February Daytona races and he’s finished top 20 in all three and started outside the top 30. And that result last year came despite wrecking late in the race. I don’t know if I love him for Tournaments because he needs a lot of carnage to go his way, but as a “stack the back” kind of play, he works for Cash games. Update: I believe he qualified dead last, but I'm looking to get confirmation that he is 100% qualified for the race. He's a very cheap PD play that cannot get you negative points in Cash games. He was incredibly slow in his qualifying lap, but if there is carnage he may be far enough behind it where he can safely avoid it and move up through the field as others destroy their rides.

NASCAR DFS Core Plays

The Core Plays will be published in the NASCAR DFS Discord roughly 45 minutes before tonight’s race.

 

Be sure to check out this week's NASCAR DFS Podcast as Matt Selz and I break down the Daytona 500 with some lineup building, and betting advice for Sunday's kickoff to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Season.