The Camping World Truck Series continues its march to the playoffs with the final road course race on the 2022 schedule. This is the second-to-last race before this series’ playoffs start at the end of the month. Only ten drivers make the playoffs so there are only two races left for drivers to lock in their spot for a chance to win the championship in November. Mid-Ohio presents a new challenge for these drivers. Plenty of the field has never raced on this course and Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions were impacted due to qualifying timing out in the rain. Don’t miss out on this week’s NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series DFS action in Atlanta, and Matt Selz is back from vacation with all the coverage you need for Sunday’s F1 World Championship Grand Prix from Austria. With that said, let’s take a look at the NASCAR DFS picks today for Mid-Ohio!
After last week’s Cup and Xfinity Series action at Road America, our brains should be programmed for road course racing. The name of the game is still targeting PD and strong finishers. With only 67 laps for Saturday afternoon’s race (20-20-27 lap segments) we have roughly 40-45 dominator points available. That’s not a lot and I won’t be making them a priority, but if they become available to me then I won’t complain.
The first two road course races on the schedule have also been a bit tainted. We had a lot of Cup Series drivers run both races with Kyle Busch even getting the win at Sonoma last month in the truck series. That changes today. There are no Cup drivers in Saturday’s race, but there are some road course ringers brought in by a few teams.
Practice results are posted below, but keep in mind the qualifying results are a bit tainted because of the rain. Multiple drivers were spinning out on their qualifying laps and the drivers had to be more cautious and running about 30-40 seconds slower per lap. So we do have some chalk on the table today but don’t hesitate to take a gamble on one or two drivers not listed below if you like the read on them.
Driver Pool
John Hunter Nemechek ($10,900) He’s not my favorite driver in the upper tier, but I still think JHN is worth plugging into our lineups this week. He got off to a disastrous season, but he has nine top ten finishes in his last ten races including a runner-up at COTA and an eighth-place finish at Sonoma. JHN also ran this course during his time in the Xfinity Series, but he did wreck out. He had the seventh-fastest lap in practice and he ran Friday’s ARCA race to get extra time on the track.
Zane Smith ($10,700) Track type doesn’t seem to matter too much. Zane Smith is fast no matter what track the Truck Series is racing on. In 14 races this year he has 12 top ten finishes, eight top five’s, and three wins. He’s finished second, third, and second in his last three races. So far on road courses this year he’s finished first (COTA) and second (Sonoma). And keep in mind, those races had Cup drivers running since some drivers like getting a little extra practice. This is a more diluted field and its part of the Triple Truck Challenge so there is some additional monetary compensation for everyone in the field and of course, I’m interested in a driver who has done well on this style of track despite the lack of experience. He will be chalky though since he has win equity and he offers PD.
Ty Majeski ($10,000) I wrote up about eight drivers before qualifying and Majeski was not one of them. I just didn’t think he was worth the price tag. However, similar to the next driver in the Playbook, he didn’t have a good qualifying run and starts outside the top 20. We know Majeski will have speed as we’ve seen him finish in the top five on seven occasions this year, but he’s yet to score a win. He finished third a few weeks ago at Sonoma and with dryer conditions in the forecast tomorrow you can feel good about his chances to move up through the field.
Chandler Smith ($9,800) Smith couldn’t piece together a good qualifying session. He got off the track within the first 20 seconds and wound up in the dirt on two other occasions. Because of that he couldn’t get a good qualifying effort in and we now have him starting in a very friendly spot for Cash games. He’s an easy lock in that format assuming tomorrow’s conditions are far better than Friday’s. He finished top five at both COTA and Sonoma earlier this year.
Parker Kligerman ($9,400) Kligerman will likely carry some ownership on Saturday and for good reason. He definitely gets the most out of his equipment and typically finishes well if he stays clean. He finished seventh at Sonoma last month and don’t forget he had an average running position inside the top five at COTA earlier this year but he had some contact on the final lap that dropped him back to 19th. It’s hard to tell exactly what happened because Fox didn’t show it. Kligerman also recorded the third-fastest lap in practice and is starting on the front row. He’s strictly a GPP play.
Stewart Friesen ($9,200) / Christian Eckes ($9,000) Pick your poison between these two. Seriously they’re so close in pricing and they’re starting on the tenth row with PD. Both had poor showings at Sonoma, but both were top ten at COTA. It’s pretty eerie how identical they are as plays this week and both have top five upside and there’s some win equity with both drivers.
Tyler Ankrum ($8,800) I never feel great about writing Ankrum up, but he is having a pretty solid year with HRE. He has three straight top ten finishes including a top ten at Sonoma baked in there and he finished seventh at COTA back in March. Surprisingly, he was also fifth-fastest in practice. I still have my concerns and hope he qualifies outside the top 12 because he’s been a pretty solid play lately and the lack of experience clearly didn’t matter too much at Sonoma. Tread carefully as he could still bust your lineup. I’d limit exposure just to GPP’s.
Justin Marks ($8,600) Marks didn’t have the greatest practice session Friday morning. But who knows, maybe he was just trying to get a feel for the truck and the course. From 2014-2018 Marks did run the Xfinity Series at Mid-Ohio with three top ten finishes including a win back in 2016. The experience has to account for something and he’ll be running the 41-struck for Niece Motorsports, but you have to assume he’ll have had his own team’s influence on setting up the truck. I don’t think there’s a lot of win equity here but I’ll likely plug him into some builds given that he might be a bit underpriced and he carries a little PD.
Matt Crafton ($7,800) I’ll keep plugging Crafton in if DK keeps dropping his price tag. He only has one top five on the year, but at this price tag we don’t even need that for him to be optimal if he’s offering PD. He’s a veteran in great equipment that probably shouldn’t be this cheap, but at the same time it seems like his ceiling is maybe a ninth-place finish. He was 13th at Cota back in March but a transmission issue cut his day short at Sonoma last month. The Truck Series has never run a ton of road courses, but Crafton did have some good runs at Motorsports Park up in Canada a few years back. He’s a relatively safe option assuming he finishes the race. Perhaps a change in crew chief can shake up his season considering he was 12th-fastest in speed during Friday morning’s practice. If you want more PD in this range you can consider Kaz Grala for $200 more who has an easier path to being optimal. My concern with Grala is the equipment, but he can pilot that truck into the top ten with ease as long as it fires up.
Connor Mosack ($7,500) Mosack will be driving Bret Holmes’ 32-truck on Saturday and if he gets a clean race out of this truck, we could be due for a good day. Purely from a driver perspective he should be priced up a bit. Last month he ran the Xfinity Series race at Portland and had an average running position of 11th with Joe Gibbs Racing. A late penalty, and just the sheer fact that race was run in a monsoon, led to the poor finish but he flashed his road course prowess regardless. Holmes was able to pilot this ride to a top 15 at Texas and a top ten at Vegas. I’m pretty excited to see what Mosack can do on Saturday since he flashed top ten speed in practice. If you want more PD in this range then the obvious target will be Derek Kraus for $200 more since he offers much more PD. However, Mosack will be the leverage play for GPP’s. Kraus is better suited for Cash games.
Chase Purdy ($6,900) Purdy presents himself as the “nice” play of the day on Saturday. I already wrote up Tyler Ankrum and here we get his teammate at a bigger discount and he’s offering more PD. Purdy finished 15th at Sonoma and 16th at COTA, but he also benefitted from chaos on that last lap at COTA so take that with a grain of salt. He’s also coming in with good form having finished in the top 15 in four of his last five races.
Colby Howard ($6,500) For what it’s worth, this section was written before qualifying when Howard had a poor run. Colby Howard has a few things going for him, but I will preface his section by saying he’s hasn’t been lights out at road courses this year. Yet, it’s been a small sample size. He started P22 at Sonoma and finished 19th. Not bad, but only 27 points on DraftKings. For COTA he started P26 and finished 24th. Again, nothing groundbreaking in that performance. But here are three things we can hang our hat on: 1. He ran the ARCA race on Friday. I don’t care how good or bad the equipment in that race was, extra laps on a course the field doesn’t have experience on are still valuable laps. 2. He did run the Xfinity Series race here a year ago. He started P30 and finished 22nd. And finally, numero three. He’s $6,500 which is too cheap for his equipment. This is Derek Kraus’ teammate and while we have more faith in Kraus, this is still a very friendly price tag for Howard and I can talk myself into possibly being overweight for Saturday’s race. I’m not opposed to Jack Wood for just $100 more. He’s not very good overall, but he’s still in fantastic equipment and he’s offering PD per usual. He’s not a driver I want to be overweight, but he’s popped a few times this season.
Timmy Hill ($6,100) Timmy Hill is always reliable in this range for the Truck Series. He’s not a great road course driver, but he’s starting far enough back where you have to imagine he finishes in the top 28. That would equate to 20 points on DraftKings. If he cracks the top 25 he’ll return 26 points. There’s a pretty good floor here for Hill and he should stay on the lead lap. Given how far back he’s starting I imagine he’ll be a very popular value option for many people. His ceiling might be a borderline top 20 finish, but if he finishes clean he should move up six-to-ten spots.
Blaine Perkins ($5,400) I haven’t written up Perkins too much this year, if at all. But like a handful of other drivers in Saturday’s race, he ran the ARCA race on Friday to get some extra laps in. Additionally, he had a top 25 lap in practice, which may not sound like much but in this price range you’ll certainly take that given the funding of his team. He’s returned 20 points on DraftKings in four straight races and that includes a 24-point day at Sonoma last month. There is risk for sure, and he’s not a guy you want to be too heavy on. If you’re spreading your exposure around in this area, he is someone I think is a borderline Cash game punt.
A couple other options to punt to are the cheap Niece Motorsports drivers, Dean Thompson and Kris Wright. Hell, even Lawless Alan has some appeal. You’ll want your exposure spread evenly in this “value” tier but all three are starting outside the top 25 and one of them could very well finish top 15. Alan finished 11th at COTA and has seven top 20 finishes on the year. Thompson and Wright don’t have as many top 20’s but they do possess that upside but at more risk. I wanted to write up Stephen Mallozzi as a “feel good” story for the week and he’s only $5,000 starting dead last but he did take on some heavy damage on Friday so I am worried in that regard.
Example Lineups
Example lineups for Saturday afternoon’s race will be posted in the NASCAR DFS Discord Channel no later than Noon ET.
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