Well we are back once again for another NASCAR DFS season and we kick off the season OFFICIALLY on Friday night with the Truck Series and the NextEra Energy 250. If you’re a polished NASCAR DFS player you can probably skip this next section and move right along to the strategies and driver pool. But there were some moves that were made in the offseason that should be touched on because I know some of you were asking for this in the Discord.

2022 Silly Season Moves

  • Matt DiBenedetto is the biggest name moving to the Truck series. He got kicked out of the 21-car in the Cup Series in favor of Harrison Burton and will try to rejuvenate his career in the 25-truck for Rackley W.A.R.
  • Jesse Little and Kaz Grala will split time in the 02-truck for Young’s Motorsports. Little will run Friday night’s race at Daytona. Grala will make his debut in Las Vegas. Spencer Boyd moves from the 20-truck to the 12 for Young’s Motorsports as well.
  • The 9-truck for CR7 Motorsports was mostly occupied by Codie Rohhrbaugh and Grant Enfinger last season. For 2022, Blaine Perkins will occupy this truck full-time.
  • Tyler Ankrum, a notable fan favorite in the Truck series, takes over the 16-truck in place of Austin Hill for Hattori Racing Enterprises. Hill got promoted to the Xfinity series. Ankrum has had potential for years, but even in good equipment with GMS the past couple series he couldn’t do too much. Still, this is a decent team and I’m sure he’ll be a nice value play every so often.
  • Taylor Gray is going to run eight or nine races for David Gilliland Racing in the 17-truck. Riley Herbst will be behind the wheel of this ride for Daytona and Ryan Preece will run some races this year as well.
  • Grant Enfinger bounced around between Thorsport and CR7 Motorsports last season. But he successfully locked himself into a full-time ride in the 23-truck for GMS Racing. He’s one of the better drivers in the field and he’s in great equipment full-time this season. He’ll be one to watch in 2022.
  • Tate Fogleman moves over from the 12-truck of Young’s Motorsports to the 30-truck for On Point Motorsports. I wouldn’t expect much from Fogleman this year, but there is slight intrigue for Daytona considering he grabbed a win at Talladega last year.
  • It’s a little surprising that Zane Smith, who was in contention for the Championship race in Phoenix, didn’t return to GMS Racing in 2022. But he does move over to Front Row Motorsports as he replaces Todd Gilliland who was promoted to the Cup Series straight from the Truck Series. Smith has shown he’s a good driver and Gilliland was able to win at COTA last year and log a ton of top five’s in this ride. Smith will once again be a driver we roster this season.
  • Kris Wright (40-truck), Dean Thompson (44-truck), and Lawless Alan (45-truck) join Niece Motorsports in 2022. This is an upgrade for Wright and we could see these three prove to be okay value plays at certain points. We saw Niece really make some strides the last two seasons especially if you consider the kind of season Carson Hocevar had last year.
  • Matt Jaskol will run the full season in the 46-truck for G2G Racing. Johnny Sauter will run 13 races with G2G as well in a different ride and Tim Viens will run a part-time schedule in the same truck.
  • Corey Heim will run 15 races in the 51-truck for Kyle Busch Motorsports. That’s one hell of a ride and will definitely be on our radar as he’s a very strong talent as we’ve seen from the ARCA Series.
  • Chase Purdy joins Hattori Racing Enterprises full-time in the 61-truck. We saw Purdy suck wind in good equipment last year. Is he still young? Sure. Can he improve? Sure. But unless he’s offering PD he won’t be on my radar to start the year.
  • Ty Majeski gets a full-time offer with the 66-truck and Thorsport Racing in 2022. He ran four races in this truck last year and grabbed a pair of top tens. I’m excited to see what he can do this year.
  • Colby Howard will shift to the Truck Series from the Xfinity Series. He’ll step into the 91-truck for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing.

Here’s just a quick rundown of the big-name teams that I didn’t touch on above. These teams will have arguably the best equipment and here’s a look at their rosters.

  • Kyle Busch Motorsports: John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Corey Heim (part-time), and Kyle Busch (we can assume he’ll run a couple races). For whatever reason, KBM’s website lists Brexton Busch as a driver… He’s six years old.
  • GMS Racing: Grant Enfinger, Jack Wood (GMS goes from a four-truck team to two trucks now as they try to carve out a larger role for themselves in the Cup Series).
  • Thorsport Racing: Johnny Sauter (website still lists him as a driver even though he will run some races with G2G, including Daytona, but Sauter will run a handful of races with ThorSport), Ty Majeski, Matt Crafton, Ben Rhodes, and Christian Eckes.
  • David Gilliland Racing isn’t necessarily noteworthy, but we will find ourselves using them quite often in DFS. Hailie Deegan is back in the 1-truck, Tanner Gray in the 15, and as mentioned above the 17 will be run by a few different drivers.
  • Niece Motorsports isn’t necessarily noteworthy but they are a four-truck team now and have some potential with the names discussed up above.

Alright now that we’ve got that out of the way we can touch on Friday night’s race. I’m going to be brief with you all, I don’t know if I’ll be able to update the Playbook following qualifying. I’m trying to be optimistic that I’ll be out of work early tomorrow but I highly doubt it. But the luxury of Daytona is that we focus more on lineup theory than actual drivers. Matt and I touch on the chaos and unpredictability of superspeedways all the time and you can bet that I’ll be playing light Friday night. In general I just trust these drivers less on most tracks and when you mix in Daytona, this isn’t a series I want to invest heavily in. But PD and finishing position are key here. We can expect carnage and wrecks Friday night. Hell, there was a wreck in practice Thursday afternoon. The last two Daytona races for the truck series saw 15 cautions combined. I’ll still give you a driver pool and Example Lineups will come after qualifying. And you know I’ll be proactive in the NASCAR DFS Discord.

We get 100 laps on Friday night. It doesn’t sound like a lot and truthfully it isn’t, but it’ll keep us entertained for a couple hours as we kick off the long weekend. 100 laps means we get 70 dominator points and you know the fastest laps will be dispersed among the field. Laps led could go to a few different drivers. Grant Enfinger led 40+ in route to a win a couple years ago and we’ve seen plenty of drivers lead double-digit laps. But with a lack of dominator points available, especially in this series, there will be a heavier emphasis on position differential and overall finishing position. And yes, avoiding the wreckage is a big piece of the puzzle as well.

Driver Pool

Be sure to read each driver write-up in depth. I do touch on teammates in certain sections as well based on practice times of teams running together on Thursday.

John Hunter Nemechek ($10,500) For now, he’s in play obviously. He’s arguably the favorite to win the Truck Series Championship this year. He started P7 here last year and finished 7th while leading 14 laps. Then he went to Talladega in the Fall and finished 4th. We know the equipment is great and if he’s offering PD he’s a staple in our lineups. Update: JHN is on the pole for tonight's race. Strictly a GPP only play.

Matt DiBenedetto ($10,300) Matty D lost his Cup ride and will now run the 2022 season for Rackley. Honestly, I hope he gets a second chance either with in the Xfinity Series or a Cup team a few years down the line. Did he ever win? No. Did he shoot himself in the foot? Sure. But I believe in second chances and think he can repair his image to work his way back into the good graces of team owners. With all that said, he instantly becomes one of the best drivers in this series and good on Rackley for getting a talented driver on their team. This is a series where good drivers can get the most out of even the worst equipment. Josh Berry turned this truck into a top 15 ride last year when he occupied it. Update: Matty D qualified P23. I'm fine with him in all formats.

Riley Herbst ($9,900) This is somewhat of a blanket statement for DGR in general. All three DGR trucks were in the top six in speed on Thursday, which tells me they ran pretty well together in practice, although it was only for a few laps. Depending on where they start, I’d give consideration to Tanner Gray ($7,500) and Hailie Deegan ($6,900) as well. I don’t believe Gray has ever finished a race at a superspeedway and Deegan doesn’t have a top 20. But I’m willing to disregard the small sample sizes of both if they offer PD. Update: Qualified a little too high. GPP only.

Ben Rhodes ($9,300) Kind of a weird season for Rhodes in 2021, right? He won the first two races of the season (both at Daytona) and then didn’t win a single race the rest of the season, but he did win the Truck Series Championship without winning the final race. That’s still a fantastic accomplishment and he did have plenty of other solid runs throughout the year. In six races at Daytona he has five top 15 finishes including three in the top seven. Update: Qualified P27 for a race he won a year ago. Chalky play, but a good option tonight.

Grant Enfinger ($9,100) Enfinger has proven to be pretty reliable at Daytona. He finished 11th here a year ago, but won this race in 2020 and finished second the year before that. He also has a win at Talladega from back in 2016. I like that he’s with another good team and honestly, a GMS stack isn’t such a bad idea for this series. Update: Starting P7, GPP Only.

Austin Hill ($8,800) He won’t be in his usual equipment, in fact there are some concerns about the 7-truck he’ll run in since he only logged three laps on Friday. But he’ll be hard to ignore in general. He won here three years ago and finished sixth here in 2020. In this series he’s easily a top ten driver, arguably top five. The big question now is just the equipment he’s in. Salaries are largely irrelevant at superspeedways, but we know he’s more than an $8,800 driver. Update: I don't hate the starting spot for GPP's. We can work with P13 in that format.

Johnny Sauter ($8,500) Some things never change. I’m sorry. I know he’s burned us numerous times the last two years and even though he isn’t running in Thorsport equipment on Friday, I still want exposure. He has experience and runs well historically at Daytona. Sauter has won here three times. But he’s also wrecked out of this race plenty of times, including two of the last three at Daytona. He will have plenty of Toyotas in the field to work with. If he offers PD, I’ll be going here. He had an average running position in last year’s race inside the top ten, but unfortunately didn’t finish the race. I’m willing to go down with this ship once again. Update: Horifically slow, but starting dead last. If he can stay with the draft or just avoid wrecking out he can move up through the field by default.

Corey Heim ($8,100) I’m very curious to see where ownership comes in. $8,100 is a little bold Heim, but he has talent and he’s in a great ride. But we’re dealing with a level playing field at Daytona. He wasn’t fast in practice, but I’m guessing he was trying to get used to the ride. He won both Daytona and Talladega in last year’s ARCA series even though those fields are about half the size of what he’ll run in on Friday. I think we could get some PD with Heim if he doesn’t display speed during single-car qualifying. Update: Qualified P6 so I don't think I'm playing him tonight. Ownership will be very low, however.

Derek Kraus ($7,600) 2021 definitely saw regression for Kraus. In 2021 he had an average finish of 12.96 on the season including a 4th place finish at Daytona and a top ten at Talladega. Last year was different with an average finish of 19.73 with a DNF at Daytona and a 20th place finish at Talladega. We know there is risk. He’s not the kind of guy we can roster wherever he starts, we’ll definitely want to get PD out of him. Update: Starting P30 and is fine for all formats.

Austin Wayne Self ($6,500) We know what we’re getting with AWS. He’s an absolute wild card, but he has finished second here (albeit five years ago) with another top ten in 2019. We need to get some PD out of him though. I’d be hesitant to start him if he rolls off top 15. Update: Starting P16, so likely only deploying him in larger GPP's.

Lawless Alan ($5,300) I wasn’t a big Lawless Alan fan last season. Loved the name, but not the DFS outlook. However, he’s a notorious GPP punt for position differential and I’m under the assumption he’ll qualify poorly and if that’s the case then he’s a tremendous value at $5,300. All four Niece Motorsports drivers (Carson Hocevar, Dean Thompson, and Kris Wright) were all top 20 in speed and they ran a decent amount of laps. A full Niece stack or maybe even 75% Niece stack are in play Friday. I anticipate Hocevar can probably qualify well on his own and the other three could offer PD. I’m interested for DFS if that’s the case. Update: Starting P10 which is very high. I'd limit exposure to just Niece Motorsports stacks in GPP's.

Jason White ($4,700) White is a superspeedway specialist and the Reaume Brothers have brought him on the last two Daytona races and he hasn’t disappointed. Last year he finished 20th and the year before that he finished tenth. The appeal is that he likely starts outside the top 30 so we love the value we’re getting from him if he runs clean. Update: Starting outside top 30? Love him for Cash games.

Spencer Boyd ($4,600) Casual DFS players may not look to Boyd, but truthfully if we’re going to roster him it might as well be at Daytona or Talladega. In three races at Daytona he’s finished 4th, 13th, and 19th while gaining ten spots of PD in each race. To add on to his superspeedway prowess he’s logged a win at Talladega to go with finishes of 7th and 13th while gaining over TWENTY spots of PD in each of those races. In seven superspeedway races in the Truck series, he’s wrecked just once. He holds the rabbit’s foot at these tracks. He could be a chalky play as I’m sure most DFS touts will write him up as a great value play, but casual players could overlook him. Update: I'd prefer to either bet him or just play him in GPP's. Starting P15 kinda kills the love for Cash Games.

Example Lineups

As always remember, the Example Lineups are not meant to be plugged and played, but to give you an idea regarding how to construct a lineup for tonight's race. We have to account for randomness and chaos at Daytona so it's fine to leave salary on the table.

DraftKings Cash Game Example

  1. Ben Rhodes
  2. Matt Crafton
  3. Parker Kligerman
  4. Derek Kraus
  5. Hailie Deegan
    1. Tate Fogleman (Pivot)
  6. Danny Bohn
    1. Jason White (Pivot)

DraftKings GPP Example

  1. Zane Smith
  2. Matt Crafton
    1. John Hunter Nemechek (Pivot)
  3. Grant Enfinger
    1. Carson Hocevar (Pivot)
  4. Austin Hill
  5. Tanner Gray
    1. Lawless Alan (Pivot)
  6. Jason White
    1. Dean Thompson (Pivot)