Heart of America 200 DFS Picks & NASCAR Playbook - Kansas, 5/4

The Craftsman Truck Series is back after a couple weeks off and we’re back at another 1.5-mile intermediate, Kansas Speedway! Kansas typically produces some of the best racing across all three series. It has multiple lanes, varying banking at both ends of the track, and passing is entirely possible. It’s a shame we can’t get all three series in action this weekend, but we’ll make do with the trucks under the lights Saturday night. It seems crazy, but this race arguably marks the halfway point for the season. We only have nine races left in the regular season for the trucks before the playoffs begin in August. And we’re sure to have a great race on Saturday mixed in with NBA and NHL playoffs and UFC 301. And if you haven’t yet, be sure to check out our Fantasy Football Best Ball content with drafts rolling out now that the 2024 NFL Draft is in the books. But we’re here to discuss Saturday’s race. Here are the top drivers and strategies for the Heart of America 200!

Heart of America 200 NASCAR DFS Lineup Picks

Kansas Speedway is your prototypical 1.5-mile tri-oval that compares pretty well to Vegas. Tire wear is a bit moderate but the varying degrees of banking make the track a little more technical, whereas Vegas is a little more consistent in all four turns. The beauty of this track is you can run multiple grooves. Historically speaking it produces some great racing across every series. We’ll probably see the dominator points dispersed among two drivers. You’ll be able to pass and move up as well. So as is the case with most intermediate tracks, we’re looking at two dominators for this race as there are 134 laps for this race. So, we have probably 85-90 dominator points to target.

Last fall in the playoffs, we saw two drivers largely split the dominator points. But the general notion with Kansas is that one driver serves as the primary dominator with a secondary dominator finishing well and adding 10-20 additional dominator points. We don’t generally see a ton of big movers coming from deep in the field unless they’re in elite equipment. So your best PD options may come from drivers starting between P12-P22 that can steal a top 10, but I anticipate we’ll have some interesting punts in the lower tier. Mind you, there will only be 33 trucks in this race. That means, the driver starting dead last cannot lose you any points and they will finish with at least eight fantasy points. Is this a game changer? Not really, but something to be mindful of when picking and choosing your value options and punts.

Heart of America 200 Practice Notes

Top Price Core Plays

Corey Heim ($11,000)

Truthfully it feels like this is a mild discount, doesn’t it? Just given what we know, and him being arguably the best driver in the field in terms of talent and equipment. He’s finished third or better in five of the seven races this year. My main concern is that he’s only led 49 laps this year and they all came at Vegas (finished third) and COTA (winner). So the dominator upside isn’t where it was last year. Still, the win equity is tremendous and it’s easily the track he’s most familiar with on the schedule as he’s raced here four times in his career. He was the runner-up here last year with 13 laps led and then he finished fourth in the playoffs with 40 laps led. And if we’re considering that Vegas is the “sister” track to Kansas, he looked pretty good there too a couple months ago. We’ll go right back to the well as we’ve done so many times before. The qualifying effort wasn’t great, but the Toyotas might just be set up for cooler track conditions as they weren’t the fastest in qualifying trim.

Christian Eckes ($10,700)

A lot of these drivers are being written up ahead of practice and qualifying. Eckes is one of them, but I did give consideration to Nicholas Sanchez ($10,300). At the end of the day, I trust the consistency and dominator upside of Eckes. He’s thrived more on the shorter tracks, but Eckes did get the win here in the playoffs. But keep in mind, he only led two laps. But he was competitively running up front most of the race. He finished fourth a couple weeks ago at Texas with 31 laps led and 17 fastest laps and he was sixth at Vegas a couple months back.

Nicholas Sanchez ($10,300)

So I initially wasn’t going to include Sanchez, but he failed tech three times and wasn’t able to post a qualifying lap. So remember what I said up top about last place? Well Sanchez can give you negative points, but at the same time we expect him to move up in a big way. So I will likely play him in all my lineups. Is that stupid? Probably. But he offers a safe floor and a nice ceiling as well.

Ty Majeski ($9,700)

I like the discount we have with Majeski this week, but I do think it’s warranted. He hasn’t really been worth a $10,000+ price tag aside from Martinsville, Vegas, and maybe Atlanta but he wasn’t even $10K for those last two races. It’s been a bit of an underwhelming year for Majeski especially after the run he had last year prior to getting caught cheating. But he did grab a top 10 at Vegas earlier this year with 40 laps led and he even led 66 laps at Martinsville. So we at least know he still has that upside to run up front and dominate the race. A win will come in time. I don’t know if it’ll be Kansas because the track history has been sketchy at times. However, I do like the price tag especially with other drivers in the $9K range really priced up. Following practice, he seemed pretty pleased with the truck and was mostly focusing on seeing how the truck felt and could maneuver in traffic. He was happy so I’m going to play him with confidence especially after he qualified on the front row.

Mid-Price Core Plays

Brett Moffit ($8,700)

This is a great mid-range price tag on Moffitt. He’s a former Truck Series champion (2018) and a previous winner at Kansas (2020). On top of all that he’ll be in the 1-truck for TRICON Garage on Saturday. The equipment is comparable to Corey Heim’s and we’ve seen good speed from this ride, even if other drivers couldn’t deliver on the finish. But Christopher Bell grab a top five in this truck at Vegas earlier in the year. I’m mostly hoping that Moffitt doesn’t need to shake off any rust. He’s a good enough driver to get a top five from this truck. Toni Breidinger and Jesse Love each drove this truck to top 15 finishes last season at Kansas. I think Moffitt can deliver a top 10 at the worst, but the ceiling should be higher.

Grant Enfinger ($8,500)

This is probably a more appropriate price for Enfinger. We have enough of a sample size to know that the equipment probably wasn’t worth pricing him up over $9,500. He only has two top 10 finishes on the year, but one of those did come at Vegas earlier this year. Enfinger did win this race a year ago but that was with GMS Racing. They closed up shop. Enfinger took the ride with CR7 Motorsports and we’re seeing limitations with the equipment. Perhaps he doesn’t have the win equity he once did. He wrecked at Texas but did have an average running position inside the top 10. So unfortunately, we likely need some PD out of him to justify the play because I don’t think there’s much dominator potential. He starts P16 so there is a path to 40+ points tonight.

Matt Crafton ($8,000)

I hate to sound like a broken record here, but Crafton likely presents himself as a mid-range play that can potentially provide 40+ fantasy points. But we also need him to qualify poorly. That shouldn’t be too hard because he hasn’t qualified well in the last handful of races. So that likely gives us some PD to target in this range. Moreover, Crafton started P15 and finished seventh two months ago at Vegas, which is the most comparable track to Kansas. But in his last five races at this track, Crafton only has one top 10 finish. That’s a little startling especially when you consider that he's won here three times in his career. Do I think he returns to the form where he can lead double-digit laps and potentially win? Absolutely not. But we can probably trust him to move up and provide some production in this spot if they qualify poorly. They should have similar top 10 upside to what we saw at Vegas. Update: He doesn’t offer as much PD upside as I was hoping for but I think he can match that top eight finish he had at Vegas earlier in the year.

Stewart Friesen ($7,800)

We’re getting Friesen under $8,000 this week and similar to Majeski, it’s probably necessary. Friesen doesn’t have a single top 10 this year, but he’s generally run much better than where he’s finished. He had an average running position of 13^th at Vegas but finished 18^th. At Texas he had an average running position inside the top 10 but finished 13^th. The DFS scores have been poor because he’s qualified better than where he’s finished. But he did finish fourth and seventh last year at Kansas so at the very worst, I want to keep an eye on how he looks in practice and qualifying. Update: He qualified inside the top 10 which would probably turn me off if he was more expensive. But he’s still affordable and I think he’s live for a top five finish. I don’t love the play in cash games (obviously), but I think he’s worth throwing into 20% of tournament lineups.

Value Price Core Plays

Chase Purdy ($7,200)

Well it wasn’t that long ago that Rajah Caruth won the pole at Vegas as a cheap value play and then went on to score his first career win. Could the same be in store for teammate, Chase Purdy? Possibly, but you have to at least like him to collect some early laps led. The challenge will be holding off Ty Majeski, who qualified P2 and was fast in practice and felt great navigating the truck in traffic. Purdy’s only finished top 10 once in seven races at Kansas so tread carefully.

Jake Garcia ($7,000)

Garcia is kind of in the same boat as Friesen as he’s without a top 10 finish this year and the finishes have been rather mediocre. And yet, I’m curious to see how he looks. He made the move over to Thorsport Racing which should mean an equipment upgrade from where he was at a year ago. But that hasn’t yielded strong results. But he finished eighth and 11^th in the two Kansas races last year and, in general, he was just better on the 1.5-mile intermediates as well. 

Bayley Currey ($6,400)

Previewing the value tier for this rough is kind of rough. I don’t have a ton of confidence in anybody under $7,000 on DraftKings but I do like Currey at $6,400. He’s finished between 11^th and 17^th in the last four races coming into Kansas, returning 23+ fantasy points in each race. That’s good, but obviously not great. I guess what I like is that he’s qualified well for a cheap driver and hasn’t lost too much track position. That tells me if there’s an opportunity for him to move up if he qualifies poorly, then he might have a top 15 ride. He was 14^th a few weeks ago at Texas but he also had a poor showing at Vegas a couple months ago. But Niece Motorsports is probably a mid-tier team and Currey is a good enough driver to grab a top 15 in this ride. 

Bret Holmes ($5,800)

It was a little bit heartbreaking not to include Timmy Hill ($5,700), but at the end of the day I do like Holmes a bit more prior to practice and qualifying. Hill has provided 30+ fantasy points as a value play in five races this year. He’s a safe option that keeps the car clean. But I think Holmes has a higher ceiling for this race. Holmes started P27 and finished 22^nd at Texas, but the big one that stands out to me was the top 12 finish he grabbed at Vegas earlier this year. Holmes has already raced here four times and moved up at least four spots in each race. In this race a year ago he started P28 and finished 14^th. Is Hill probably safer for Cash games? He might be and we’ll find out after qualifying to be certain. But regardless, I prefer the ceiling of Holmes more for tournaments. Update: Based on qualifying, this logic holds up. Holmes will be better for tournaments but don’t go wild with exposure. Hill didn’t run a qualifying lap and starts deep in the field.

Heart of America 200 Driver Pool